Amazing Spider-Man 2: The Untold Finale Edition, The

The editor has done the impossible, or so I thought until now, and made at best a B movie into for me, is now S tier.
Gone now is the Batman forever vibes and the Parker parents subplot which added nothing to the movie and instead it’s streamlined into a wonderful romance movie between Peter and Gwen whilst we can also feel how alone Max is as he’s pushed toward villainy, and makes me think of the excellent spectacular Spider-Man series.
Green Goblin is also improved as much as possible and isn’t as cringe as the theatrical made him.
If this were the theatrical version we got at release date then I guarantee that we would have got an amazing spider-man 3.

So, i was honestly surprised by how a middling to poor movie has been molded into a solid, good Spider-Man movie, complete with all the necessary elements; you have bravery, conflict, pathos, heroism, pace and a much needed clarity. Won't waste time; pairing it with masirimso's TASM untold extended edition, this follow up is definitely a hot recommend, Good watch, man, masirimso has done it again.

Cast yourself back to the summer of 2014. The Marvel cinematic universe is in full swing, DC has just announced that they'll be doing their own universe. X-men: Days of Future Past had just hit theaters to astounding success... so what about our favourite web-head? When's he getting in on all the action? Well, this is where our review starts. It's a warm summer evening, and you and your friends are standing in line for tickets. You've just graduated high-school, been accepted to university, you feel just like Peter P, our favorite quick-talking webslinger, as like him, you're transitioning from a naive youth to your new woeful-ridden and always-late-on-your-rent adult life. It also happens to be your birthday.... you've been planning this movie trip with your friends for ages. You've spent the whole day having fun, managed to find that Marvel Legends ASM2 Spidey figure that is now insanely over-priced on ebay due to NWH's deserved success. You've seen the trailers, tried to ignore the rumours so that you can go in fresh (aside from the 'big' news that Shailene Woodley was cast as hot-headed fan-favourite red-head MJ, and the possibility of a Sinister 6 spin-off... among others) and walk into the theater with high expectations. Sure, the first film wasn't exactly "The Dark Knight" levels of quality drama, but hey, it was a decent flick that was meant to set-up a universe, and besides, by 2012 there were already so many origin stories (a la MCU milking it for Avengers set-up) that the public was already getting sick of them, so it was understandable that the quality for ASM1 wasn't top notch as even the crew probably didn't have their hearts in it. You walk into the theater, preparing for what you hope will be the equivalent of a worthy Shakespearean tale to add to the pantheon of 'Spectacular' Spider-man stories....

...only to walk out again with nothing but shattered expectations, a heavy heart, and an attitude as mournful as our hero at the end of Amazing Spider-man issue #121 (just like the end of this movie). It would be easy to try and speculate about the myriad of reasons of why this film was such a "Fisk'-cally financial flop. Does Kingpin run SONY and simply wanted to leave our arachnid icon to bleed dry on the ground? We'll never know. What I do know, however, is that rarely have I ever been disappointed by a film like I was with ASM2.

I love 'The Amazing Spider-man 2'. Don't get me wrong. However, the reason I love it is because it is literally one of the worst films I have ever seen, and I love it because it is such a cheesy, corny, stupid romp. It's the kind of B-grade film you put on after after you've had a lousy day and watch it so you can say to yourself "at least I'm not that blue guy who writes weird slash fiction about my Spider-man obsession"! The biggest shame is that this film had so much potential, and so much good going for it that I speculate it took intentional sabotage to mess it up as bad as it stands. Then again, without this flop, we would have never got 'No Way Home', so I guess there's a 'Silver-sabled'-lining?

For years, I've always wondered what this film would have looked like if it were put in the hands of someone who actually knows a bit about proper editing (and without dastardly studio meddling/interference). So I was pleasantly surprised when I came across Masirimso's ASM2: Untold Finale Edition. To say that his re-webbed version of the film is an improvement is an absolute CRIMINAL understatement that would be deserved to be foiled by the web-head himself. Masirimo has done what Spidey in Amazing Spider-man issue #33 has done and achieved the impossible: namely, has turned an unworkable mess into something truly enjoyable... a genuine Spidey experience.

Now, of course, nothing is perfect. I have removed a star on narrative because no matter how you polish a turd.... it's still a turd. And that is no fault of Masirimo's. As Screenjunky's so eloquently put it, to paraphrase, "Wait, so he gets electrocuted, bit by electric eels, electrocuted again, and blown up? How does this just not kill him?" If that's the level of script you have to work with, then you were probably doomed from the start. What Masirimo has done however, is given the character motivation, a solid backstory and even puts a cherry on the impossible by including the excellent deleted scene of Max and his mother. Electro was absolutely one of the worst aspects of the film (to no fault of Jamie Foxx's) and no matter what bs powers the screenwriters thought up for him, they still can't save him from such a fate. But Masirimo has added a human element so far removed from the original film that it's as if the two become night and day. The fact Masirimo was even able to elicit a shred of sympathy for the character is not just evident of their skills as an editor, but is worthy of a freaking Oscar.

On the more technical side, there are two things Masirimo has done that are particularly praiseworthy. The first is getting the "tonal consistency" of the film right. Something that had always bothered me about the ASM films is the random change in tone from the first to the second film. The first film presents everything in this dark and shadowy New-York where the colours are always darkened and the sun is rarely seen. Then we jump into the second film where your eyes are visually assaulted by the rainbow-blared over-super-saturated colours of this new film from Spidey's costume to Electro's, well... "blue-ness'. Persoanlly, I love the vibrant colours of the second film, they're very reminiscent of the "Romita' issues of ASM. Masirimo manages to seamlessly blend these two almost "orthogonal" tones in the two films they did and it really, really helps. Of all the Spidey films, as much as I love the Raimi films, and as popular as the MCU ones are, I've never found any of the films as visually appealing as the colours and tone of ASM2. Maybe it's just me, but we're talking about films where the main characters run around in underwear and spandex. Visually toned down colours always feel like they're trying to apologize for being what they are (ie a comic-book movie) but the fact is, you're a comic book movie, shame went out the window as soon as you decided to make this film and base it on a comic-book, so I say embrace your silliness and own it! Something that ASM2, for all its faults (and there are many), I concede did very well and which Masirimo carried over perfectly,

The second bit of praise to be directed at Masirimo's version is that it is a master-class in the phrase "less is sometimes more". This version of the film is something that should be shown to every up-and-coming movie editor. I understand that studios have the final say and may force directors/producers to add footage because "tEh tOyZ!!!!" but even so, Masirimo's version is clear proof that you can still have a villain smorgasbord film and yet create a decent story. The cuts also brought to my attention just how sloppy the original editing was and how drawn-out some of the scenes in the original were. For example, in the beginning after Peter and Gwen break-up again, there's a short interlude where it shows Spidey doing every-day Spidey things. After seeing Masirimo's editing, you realize just how looooong, drawn-out and boring those scenes are. Masirimo manages to capture and HOLD your attention by cutting these into quick, snappy glances of our Super-hero at work and it is so much better because it leaves more to the imagination and it just provides such better pacing for the film. Bravo. Removing the stupid "brief case" plot was excellent, and took some weight off the story that was severely holding it back in order to focus better on its characters and pacing. The re-ordering of the scenes was well-chosen, and I like the opening of Harry and his father WAY better, it sets up a mystery that will be explored later in the film in a much more positive light, The cutting of the MANY raspberry-worthy cringe-scenes with Electro/Max is also very well done, and as already mentioned, does so much for the film and the character as a whole.

All-in-all I give Masirimo's version of the film three big, hairy, radioactive spider-bitten thumbs up, not just as a great film but a master-class in editing and how to turn a horrible "Rhino-dung" of a film into a decent, watchable and still "fun" sort of flick. Watching it was like being cast back into my childhood of the 90s watching "Spiderman TAS" on Fox-kids on those nostalgic weekend mornings oh-so-long ago. Thanks Masirimo, and well done. Excelsior!

I've watched this edit three times in the last week and I'm most likely going to rewatch it more. I was already a fan of the TASM franchise since it began, and I still had appreciation for the second entree despite not being unaware of many of its flaws. However, Masirimso's version managed to give me a newfound love for this film. I was already going into my first watch with high expectations, and I was still blown away by how much smoother the narrative and plot progression was. The quick voice over line for Norman Osborn did give me a chuckle, but despite that, the significance of that line made the rest of Harry's storyline much more understandable. Other than that, the organization and transitions were very high quality and it felt like I was watching an original intentional cut of the movie. Such a great edit, I will definitely keep this as the definitive version for me.

I enjoyed this edit. The editing was pretty much flawless. The pace was much improved upon. The theatrical version was overstuffed and this streamlines it very well.