Amazing Spider-Man: Extended Edition, The

Originally posted on r/Fanedits three months ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/fanedits/comments/rf3kic/the_amazing_spiderman_extended_edition_by/

With Spider-Man: No Way Home coming just around the bend, I'd thought I would jazz up my rewatching of the other Spider-Man films with fanedits.

Now first off, I want to say that I hated the original TASM. I thought it was a terrible film.

Now after hearing about all the deleted scenes, I thought maybe Masirimso's extended edition would improve it.

It did, though it's still not perfect.

There are still some issues not resolved in this edit, like Peter going after his Uncle's killer and then dropping it halfway through the movie. Not to mention promising Gwen's dad that he'll stay away from her on his deathbed and then immediately breaking it.

But there are some things it does improve greatly. Curt Connors is more interesting now, with his motive fully shown and not just said in one or two throwaway lines. And, most importantly, Ben's death is improved greatly. While in the original, Ben dies stupidly over a stolen chocolate milk, here he goes after the guy mistaking him to be Peter, who he went out to find.

Overall, the film was definitely improved and the editing was good though there was a weird glitch in the 8 GB copy where the basketball scene was out of sync*. But if you thought that TASM was bad, I do recommend you watch this version and give it a second chance. You might find it better than you did before.

*I have contacted Masirimso about this and he has fixed it. That part of the review is a little OOD.

I was disappointed with this movie when it came out in 2012. So I wondered, does Masirimso’s extended edition make THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN any less disappointing?

Sure it does. It’s nice to see the full shot from Spider-Man’s POV as he runs across rooftops. Uncle Ben’s death makes more sense. And Peter Parker is no longer an opportunistic jerk who tries to win a cash prize for taking photos of the villain The Lizard.

The extended edition’s biggest difference is the inclusion of many scenes concerning Curt Connors aka The Lizard. The best versions of this character are a man who accidentally turns himself into a monster - a mute animal who terrorizes people, or a lizard man with the misguided goal of turning the world into lizard people. The story is usually about Spider-Man restoring Connors’ humanity and reuniting him with his family.  
 
The bar was set pretty high for the character, and the movie version of Curt Connors fully misses it. He seems a little sinister even before his transformation. He has no family. And he has too much going on: he wants to regrow his arm, he wants to build a world without weakness, he wants to strike back at his Oscorp boss Dr. Ratha, he wants to be powerful, he wants to end all loneliness. Oh and did I mention he turns into a giant talking lizard sometimes?

The real problem lies in a lack of clear delineation between Connors and his monstrous alter ego. When he’s in human form he prefers being the Lizard, except for when he doesn’t. When he’s in human form he has the same goals as the Lizard, except for when he doesn’t. This double identity descent-into-madness turns what should be the quintessential sympathetic Spider-Man villain into a bargain bin version of the Green Goblin. 
 
There’s nothing an extended edition can really do about this. All of the newly added scenes featuring Connors certainly don’t lessen the doing-too-muchness of the character, but they do allow his motivations to be better threaded throughout the movie. His madness is developed more slowly, so it’s easier to believe.

I like the scene where he consoles Peter over Uncle Ben’s death, as it helps establish the grandness of Connors’ ambitions, and it humanizes him as well. The scene with Connors’ son works similarly, but his son is never referenced anywhere else in the movie, so I can see why it was cut. 
 
One particular addition stood out to me. In the original movie, there is a weird scene of Connors in the sewer that is obviously a mishmash of shots from deleted scenes and random lines of dialogue repurposed as inner monologue. It’s an embarrassing bit of studio-mandated editing, the kind of editing that fan editing is made to fix. It’s now replaced by a new sequence that shows Connors asking Peter for help, taking Peter down to the sewer and explaining his plan, and then getting ambushed by Dr. Ratha.

This sequence clearly took some effort to assemble and finish, so kudos to the editor on that. It adds a lot to the story: Connors’ motivations are communicated in a more natural way, and we get closure on the Ratha character. We also get a much needed breather and some character moments before the movie ramps up into the action climax. 
 
But the new sequence also raises a few questions. Why is Connors telling his plan to Peter? Does he regret his actions as the Lizard? Does he still want to kill Peter or not? It’s very unclear what Connors wants versus what the Lizard wants, and it feels weird. Still, the new sequence is no weirder than the scene featured in the theatrical. I’d say it’s a net improvement. 

Some deleted scenes have unfinished special effects, but that’s just the nature of adding deleted material. It’s not super distracting, and Masirimso skillfully masks as much of it as he can.

Do I recommend the extended edition? Yes, I do. It’s still not an amazing movie, but the characters make more sense. And we don't have to sit through Connors summarizing his motives in an inner monologue. I would recommend it for that change alone!

My thanks to Masirimso for all the work put into this edit.

This is a solid extended edition. Many of the reincorporated deleted scenes worked in the movies favor, giving more pathos to the character of Dr. Curt Conners. It's a shame that placeholder vfx and sfx in some scenes still stood out, despite Masirimso putting in a good effort to patch up any obvious green screen. In particular, the crude on-screen graphics in the scene where Rajit is looking at Conners's video logs stand out next to the slick graphics in the rest of the film. Ultimately I'd recommend watching this version of the film.

This was truly a delight to watch. I am a big fan of the Amazing Spider-Man movie but I can say that this edit feels much closer to "full" story that Amazing Spider-Man was supposed to be. The added deleted scenes make for a much more cohesive story and adds so much to the characters. This is a must watch for any TASM fans out there. My only (constructive) criticism are some of the color correction differences between most of the deleted scenes and the rest of the movie (the first person scene being the prime example) and the green screen arm (which is barely present but still there). Also the CG lizard part lol. Other than that this is still very enjoyable to watch and increased my appreciation for the film. Well done.

This gave me a new appreciation for the film. The use of extra (in some cases, alternative) scenes really helped the movie, as did the cuts and moving things around. For example, Dr Ratha's fate, Connor's appeal for help, the clock tower scene, Ben's death (alternative version) all add real depth, not just more images. The variation in the visual quality of the added material was a bit distracting, and it is a pity that the greenscreen hand in the scene where Parker shadows Connor to the alley was not fixed, unlike the greenscreen arm in the appeal for help scene (the plastic-looking lizard scurrying around Connors' lair was also a bit jarring). I completely appreciate though that this is a labour of love, and provided for free, and that not everything is possible, and I stress that these few quibbles do not detract from the overall wonderful job done here. Thank you, editor!