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'Amazing Spider-Man' Web-Slinging Stunts Explained

While we're pretty intrigued about the storyline being introduced in "The Amazing Spider-Man," we also can't help but get excited about the movie's special effects. We've seen teases of the first-person flying perspective that director Marc Webb was adamant about getting in the movie, but it turns out that all the aerial work in this flick is going to be steps above the previous "Spider-Man" films.

ComicBookMovie recently got a chance to talk to Vic Armstrong, the second unit director on "The Amazing Spider-Man." Armstrong has risen to fame as one of the best stuntmen and stunt coordinators in the business, and he spoke at length about the process he and the crew on "The Amazing Spider-Man" went through to make Spider-Man look as fluid as possible while he was using his web shooters.

"The producers and director wanted to have a much more realistic approach to it. They felt that the first three were starting to become very, very computer looking and a little bit unreal," Armstrong explained.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" will include a mix of live action and CGI footage for those scenes, just like the three Sam Raimi movies before it. But while it was very clear in those films which sections were computer generated and which were being acted by a real person, Armstrong said they made a point of trying to make this movie's effects seamless.

"It was great to work and rehearse and make Spider-Man move because Spider-Man is different from Superman or Iron Man -- he actually flies on webs. So, we went back to basics and actually related it to Tarzan," Armstrong said. "His momentum in the jungle is changing from a diagonal direction from vine to vine, which gets the momentum going and that’s how he progresses through. That’s basically when you think about it what Spider-Man is doing. He’s doing it off webs off his wrists, but you still have to have the motivation to propel him along, you know? So we went back to basics and built some stunning rigs, some really unusual rigs, and got him flying like that."

He continued of the flying style, "They’re big swooping swings diagonally, and then he goes to the top of the arc, he changes his direction onto the other wrist, then he swings down and up again. When he’s going through the bottom of that arc going down, he’s pulling three and a half G’s, so when he gets to the top of it and flicks the other arm out to change to the next web he’s weightless and that is what we all decided was what was missing in the other movies. The forces on the body and the way it stretches out under three and a half G's. Now he gets weightless and then it comes back up again, and you see those flexes and all the things you subconsciously look for but are not getting in the computer generated version."

Though forced to use a stuntman for some scenes, we know Andrew Garfield filmed many of his own stunts on set. Armstrong had nothing but kind words to say about the Brit, and gushed about his dedication to making the action scenes in the movie look their best.

"He wanted to get his hands dirty, didn’t want to be treated any differently to anyone else and he became one of the stuntmen," Armstrong said. "We taught him what they know and what they could do. Some of them can perform things better than him so they would do those particular shots in the movie – the parkour and a bit of the skateboarding and different bits and pieces – but Andrew worked absolutely flat out as a stuntman and trained from the basics so he did an awful lot on his own. He was great."

"The Amazing Spider-Man" comes out July 3.

Are you glad that such care was taken with the aerial scenes? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!

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