The Amazing Spider-Man The Lizard - How does he compare with Spidey's other onscreen adversaries?

[Origin]

He was good. The perfect middle ground in between Doc Ock and Green Goblin 1 for me.

 

[DACrowe]

After Connors injects himself, he's the Lizard. It's the Lizard who planned the murder of Peter parker, not Connors. Same with the "turning everyone into lizards" plan.

So, he's not Connors when he turns human again? If so, the movie does not explain that.

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

So, he's not Connors when he turns human again? If so, the movie does not explain that.

He's still Connors, just not the Lizard. I agree though, it isn't explained well at all.

 

[terry78]

Norman and the Goblin are one and the same. After Osborn was exposed to the Goblin serum, he went insane. He did not develop a split personality. The Goblin serum removed all of Osborn’s inhibitions of his civilian identity, so his villainy is a conscious choice. His bits of amnesia are what lead readers to think he has two different personalities.

Yeah, right now in the comics he is just basically a nutball, period. Any inner monologues with himself are basically discussions on how to be more evil.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Norman and the Goblin are one and the same. After Osborn was exposed to the Goblin serum, he went insane. He did not develop a split personality. The Goblin serum removed all of Osborn’s inhibitions of his civilian identity, so his villainy is a conscious choice. His bits of amnesia are what lead readers to think he has two different personalities.

Thank you! Exactly.

 

[YJ1]

I guess people see what they want to see.

Me, I saw a one dimensional set piece and not a complex villain at all.

(I also saw both Uncle Ben and Aunt May as props and as one dimensional shallow characters as well.)

The Lizard ranks right at the bottom. Even Sandman was more fleshed out in SM3.

 

[Jordacar]

The Lizard had echoes of both Goblin and Doc Ock in the previous films. He experiments on himself when he's convinced he'll lose everything otherwise (Goblin), he concocts a mad science plot that could wreck the city (Ock), and he seems to have a personality split that eggs him on towards evil (both).

Hey, sometimes it's good to stick with what works.

 

[<(o_o)>]

Such a shame we never got to see Raimi's Lizard interpretation, if only Sony would have let Raimi continue then maybe he would have eventually used him. The new movie probably had the better actor for Doc Connors over Dylan Baker anyways.

 

[Moony_Girl13]

Unconfirmed, but there was an audition tape for a little boy for a Billy in a Columbia movie, so people ran with that as proof of the Lizard before Rhys' character had been announced. Huge opportunity missed as I reflect on that father/son reunion on the bridge.

I remember there was an official confirmation that Miles Elliot had been cast as Billy at some point on SHH!, and upon doing some more Googling, I actually found this interview with the kid from June where he talks about his experience working on the film. And this part stuck out to me --

What was it like on set of Amazing Spiderman?

It was awesome. I shot at a few different locations, a house in LA, on the New York streets at the Fox Lot and at a sound stage at Sony. There was a lizard wrangler on set one day and she brought a bunch of really cool, exotic reptiles.

Do you have any funny stories from working on the set?

There was a scene at a mental hospital where my mom and I go to visit Dr. Connors and Rhys kept cracking jokes making it tough for us to look sad. It was also fun riding around in the golf carts at Sony.

I don't remember there ever being any casting announcements for Martha, though I've seen the one for Dr Ratha's wife get conflated with it a few times, but it sounds like they DID film some scenes with Billy at least, and maybe Martha as well? If so, it kind of sucks they were edited out completely.

 

[terry78]

Well, you can't knock Baker. He's a very excellent actor given the material to work with.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Yeah, I liked Ifans as Connors, starting out good natured with good intentions and not beginning as antagonistic with some secret agenda that he was hiding from Peter.

Though his intentions weren't very well explained when he became the Lizard. It threw me off. And the Lizard stuff just didn't feel substantial. He just felt like this CGI villain. Not all that unique. Being that the Lizard is my favorite Spider-Man villain, that was my only disappointment. Osborn and Octavious were much better handled.

And I'm very glad he didn't die. You can kill Goblin and Ock, but you don't kill the Lizard.

 

[elsewhere]

I hated the Lizard to be honest. Worst part of the film. The Lizard's arc felt rushed with an over-reliance on CGI.

But I thought they did a pretty damn good job with Dr. Connors.

 

[TheScarecrow]

I went in expecting to be "meh" about Connors and The Lizard. I honestly felt he was awesome. Second only to Ock by my standards.

 

[Drummerdude7]

I just WISH we got a full onscreen transformation. Most disappointing part about Lizard for me.

 

[The Lizard]

Heading out to see the movie soon, but just posting here out of a sense of tradition.

I'm expecting to like the film overall, but my expectations for the Lizard are a bit low, I'm sorry to say. After waiting more than a decade to see my favorite comic character onscreen, it will be fun, but not what I had hoped for all this time.

 

[FrostBite]

I guess people see what they want to see.

Me, I saw a one dimensional set piece and not a complex villain at all.

(I also saw both Uncle Ben and Aunt May as props and as one dimensional shallow characters as well.)

The Lizard ranks right at the bottom. Even Sandman was more fleshed out in SM3.

This is what I saw. The Lizard's motivations where as complex as a man with a goofy mustache tying a woman to railroad tracks. Curt started off as an intriguing character but (heh) devolved into a primitive cardboard cutout example of a villain. He was simply there.

 

[GoldGoblin]

He was a cool villain,I would put him one notch higher than Doc Ock.

 

[Reikowolf]

Its somewhat unfair to compare this version of the lizard with the Raimi villains as Spider-Man seems to have gone through a power shift in this series (More Agile, Less Strength/ not that I mind)

but

I would rank him on par with Venom but not as strong as Sandman.

Physically a formidable enemy, highly intelligent and pretty much bullet proof given his ability to regenerate.

 

[Abudefduf]

I'm expecting to like the film overall, but my expectations for the Lizard are a bit low, I'm sorry to say. After waiting more than a decade to see my favorite comic character onscreen, it will be fun, but not what I had hoped for all this time.

Sorry to say this but that's your fault dammit. You should've left the movie if you felt the script was not going to do you justice.

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

I thought it was an alright portrayal of the lizard. Different but it seemed off in certain parts. I wasn't really intimidated by him all that much.

 

[TheFuture]

Good, but not a patch on Raimi's Doc Ock and GG.

Having said this though, I get the feeling that this franchise is going in the opposite direction to Raimi's in regards to villains. Raimi's films depended on compelling villains being perfectly woven into the plot, and this is a big reason why SM3 fell short IMO (as for the first time Raimi failed).

In this franchise however, I get the feeling that the cornerstone really is Peter (and Gwen), and it really is a brilliant foundation as Stone and Garfield make this film what it is. So yeah, perhaps a tad unfair to compare the villains from both franchises.

 

[chaseter]

He was ok...not very engaging and not really a screen grabber. Rhys was good but Lizard was meh. I also didn't like how Connors literally in the span of hours decides to turn NYC into lizards. The SWAT lizards were completely pointless. Lizard also didn't have very many lines...I would say 5 or 6 sentences total. I would put him on par with Sandman...a lot of potential that didn't get seen through. Better than Venom and Goblin Jr. but not as good as GG and Ock in terms of screen pressence and writing.

 

[DigificWriter]

Although TASM itself is on par, qualitatively, with Spider-Man 2 (to the point that I really can't decide which is the better film out of the two), Rhys Ifans' Connors/Lizard doesn't, IMO, come close to the perfection of casting, writing, and acting that is/was Alfred Molina's Octavius/Doc Ock, so I'd rank the villains (restricting this strictly to the movies for the sake of simplicity) as follows:
Doc Ock
The Lizard
Green Goblin
The Sandman
Venom

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

I like to see a proper Venom adaptation... FAR different from what we saw in SM3, which btw, wasn't a good SM film.

 

[GoldGoblin]

If they put all villains in a ring to the death,The Lizard would win.