THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Rhys Ifans Speaks)

• THE AMAZING LIZARD

Rhys Ifans is finally talking about playing the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man reboot, which is nice considering how little he had to say on the matter during the Hall H panel at Comic-Con. Of course, that might've been because Ifans had just been citizen-arrested or something right before the panel started.

Whatever the case, The Wrap is now reporting that the actor won't be charged in that incident. Which is perfect timing for damage control, with Ifans talking to Hero Complex today about the film. As always, watch out for spoilers.

Rhys Ifans plays The Lizard

"Curt Connors [a.k.a. the Lizard] is by no stretch an evil villain," says Ifans. "He's not like the Batman villains, like the Joker, who are the embodiment of evil. Curtis Connors is a great man who makes a bad decision. That's the whole magic of the Spider-Man idea. These people are the embodiment of our flaws and our desires that lead to tragedy. Curt Connors is a man with one arm and he wants to grow his arm back. He has access to a science that can enable that. But he has to make a moral decision, an ethical decision, to achieve that. In [the] story both he and Peter Parker are presented with these amazing abilities, and it's about this gift that life gives us. More than any other super-hero, Spider-Man presents us with something very local in its ethics. It's not messianic. It's far more tangible. He is ... a working-class hero."

He also says that director Marc Webb has brought back the "delicate, human domesticity" of Spider-Man with this film. A comparison to Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll is also made regarding the Lizard and Spidey.

"It's the human condition in flux -- in physical flux but in moral and emotional flux as well," he continues. "The teenage state, interestingly, is a state of flux too, it's riddled with hormones and change, and Spider-Man more than any other hero is a metaphor for puberty. I feel bad for him. I'd never want to get my first [erection] in that costume. But you have a hero and a villain in flux and not all of it is science fiction."