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

Masirimso17 made the impossible, turning a messy, inconclusive pair of movies (one decent, the other bad) into a coherent and enjoyable duology with a satisfactory conclusion. Every diegetic and restructuring choice (let alone the editing) is perfect and everything works toward the construction of a story which gives justice to the characters, their arcs, and its own narrative.
This is the only way possible to watch The Amazing Spider-Man movies.

Note: I haven't watched this user's edit of TASM1.

The idea of starting the movie with the unused Harry theme from the soundtrack is perfect, as it immediately centers the narrative around him, while Electro becomes more secondary (which I'm not going to complain about). Now, the movie begins and ends with Harry, aside from the epilogue (that the editor thankfully kept in). Of course, the score also sets the tone and accompanies the best change of this edit. The watch shot is repurposed and works well enough (it deserved a few contextual frames of Harry looking at his watch, but you know, we can't really make complete new scenes), The first line (said by Richard in his recording) is a clean way of opening the movie and setting the main theme even more directly than in the official release. It seems random when watched without having seen the edit of the first movie, but I knew that this whole plot had been relegated to it, so it works perfectly as a call-back. Norman's new lines are very well-made and while you definitely notice it's an edit, they still serve their purpose and don't detract from the scene, quite the contrary. It's a very minor story adjustment, but it does make it more believable that Harry'd go to such extremes.

The months inserts are mostly intrusive, but the first one (transitioning from the opening Harry scene to Spidey swinging in the air) is at least excusable, though unnecessary in my eyes (and the font feels a bit too on the nose, but I don't know what I would have picked). The one usage of the title card I find tasteful is "July", just after Gwen's breakup, as it's on the left of the screen and thus feels almost intentional by the filmmakers--it fits nicely! But the rest is unneeded (and just having "July" as a single title card would be awkward, naturally) and the passage of time is adequately shown by how the characters dress and Peter's cold. I think a better way to integrate those title cards would have been to integrate them better in the environment--for example, having a title card disappear as Spidey swings in front of it, or in the background. As it is, the idea detracts from the fast-paced montage.

The added Flash scene is nice!

The Max Apartment scene is nicely done. I think Max's imaginary outburst at his mother is a bit too far, but the scene is still good and definitely adds depth to Max. I think the editor also cut some tidbits of the scene and it works wonderfully.

The mortician deleted scene is great, but I think the music choice is just wrong. I recall it already being included in the scene, though, isn't it? I feel like the mortician would listen to an actual song instead of something that obviously sounds like it came from the score. I do appreciate the fact that the scene itself gives more of a connective tissue to The Man In a Black Suit. Likewise, I appreciate that you included Felicia welcoming Peter to Oscorp, it's a smart decision.

Keeping the Youtube video is also very much appreciated, the complaints about it make no sense. I do wish the editor had also kept the apparently much-disliked No Chimney scene. Lighthearted scenes in a movie packed (and intense!) liked this one are welcome.

The scene where Peter and Gwen yearn after each other in their room is a great addition and helps the sometimes breakneck pacing of this edit.

However, I do have trouble with the inclusion of the Gwen Acceptance scene. It's a nice addition, but it's redundant, and it doesn't work well in the current edit, as it's just after she goes to see the chairman, making it seem as though no time has passed. I think starting with shots of Peter on the roof and then showing Gwen and the chairman would have worked better, or put a scene in between (but it's a very busy movie and the scene is good already).

One problem of removing the Roosevelt subplot, I find, is that it also served to slow down the pacing as well as complementing the scene where Harry frees Electro from Ravencroft--it was a big moment in the official movie, both emotionally and scenaristically climactic. Here, it's great that Harry goes there just after having been fired, it makes narrative sense, but I find it is lacking in emotion.

The inclusion of Oscorp's massacre and Felicia's last scene with Harry is a great idea (helping make this storyline a core of the movie) but it's an awkward transition, especially as it ends and goes to the second part of the Electro fight. It feels out of place, and I think it could have been placed just before the Green Goblin actually appears. Another possibility would have been just after the preceding Harry scenes, but then you'd spend a big chunk of the climax just waiting to see if Harry's going to do something.
...Well, as it is, that's essentially what happens in the OG movie. Maybe that would have been the best compromise. But my issue mostly resides with the audio cues really not fitting well. I'm talking about the Goblin's theme progressing throughout the scene, then the movie cutting back to Electro not being defeated yet. It's abrupt and needed more finesse.

I appreciate the editor cutting most of the Sinister Six set-up.

Overall, this is all mostly nitpicking. I thoroughly enjoyed this edit. It's not perfect, but with the available material (+ the excellent addition of new Norman lines!), I'd say it's amazing. Once again, I particularly enjoy the opening minutes. Didn't expect the opening to change so much of the movie's feel.

This is highly superior to the theatrical release! As of right now, this Untold fan edit series to me is the definitive way to watch these movies. Obviously neither of them are perfect, but the source material isn't perfect either. I had a few thoughts about improvements, but I think that's ultimately preference and the editor did an amazing job. He totally redeemed The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for me!

I absolutely loved the TASM1 version of the untold edits and it is now my definitive version of the movie so I was really excited to see this. And it mostly delivered. it's honestly really good.

Moving the parent stuff to the first movie gives this a lot of time to breathe and just streamlines it quite a bit. I like how Electro's anger is more directed towards the city and I like quite a lot of stuff here, especially the little motivation tweaks. I love thay they went to the effort of adding in custom dialogue. That was really cool and it mostly sounded pretty decent.

Which is why I wonder why they left in that line towards the end where Goblin says "when you said Spider-Man said no" because like, that didn't happen, I just wondered why they didn't cut it or just like dub it with another line, it would only be cutting the words "you said" from the dialogue because "when Spider-Man said no, you mean you said no" still makes sense. But otherwise, it's all great until the end although I would've liked to see the demonstration of the suit from the deleted scenes, it would have barely added 30 seconds and I think it makes us understand the suit better at the end although it's fine if they think it's unnecessary because the suit says stuff like "healing protocol activated" which is enough to get a clue what it does. That's personal preference.

But I think that one of the unintended consequences of cutting the setup after the fall towards the end is that everything feels *super rushed* like the fall happens at 1:47 and the movie is over by 1:55 so you barely even get time to properly process anything before the movie has moved on and is already over. This is a better movie than the theatrical cut by a long shot, I just think the ending needed something more to slow it down a little because it just moves too fast. I honestly don't know what they could possibly put in there but it was just a little rushed. Despite that, this is still by far the best version of this movie and I'm glad it exists.

There were also a few odd cuts like when Peter meets Gwen at Oxford there's a weird jump cut that threw me off. There's a few others too but definitely nothing too major. I do like that the "Peter's DNA made him Spider-Man" stuff was cut out but that also sort of makes Peter's reluctance to give Harry his blood a little weird like he's obviously just being cautious and this edit does play it off like that but that's just a me thing, probably. It works well for the most part and aside from a (mostly forced to be because of a lack of content) rushed ending, this is easily the best version of this movie.

The way this structures the third act is also really enjoyable and it's just a fun time and much more cohesive than the theatrical cut.

Originally posted 2 months ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/fanedits/comments/rlw7vd/tasm_the_untold_extended_edition_and_tasm2_the/

Ho. Ly. Shit. I already thought the original was decent but Masirimso's edit elevates it to a whole new level. Cleaner, faster, and more focused, it lets the film's pros shine through. And has Jamie Foxx's Electro less of an uninteresting "Hate Spider-Man" guy to a sympathetic villain who feels angry at the world for making him feel unimportant. I'd say he's now worthy of the Raimi films in this edit.

Only had three problems with the edit. May's phone call while doing the laundry felt too oddly cut to me, perhaps have everything before she agrees to a double shift cut and just have it start there? Another thing was the odd cut of Harry's prison scene. It just felt it didn't result to anything and would have rather have had the Sinister Six setup retained to have the film a "Gamera: Revenge Of Iris"-type ending. Finally, I wish Masirimso keep the subplot of Richard using his blood for the experiments and having only the Parkers be able to use it. That was the main reason that Peter said no to Harry using his blood since it would not have worked and just have resulted in a mutation.

As a whole though, bravo Masirimso. Bravo. You've turned a OK film into one of the best.