Spider-Man 3.1: The Hybrid Cut

An extended edition of Spider-man 3, integrating in deleted scenes and utilizing the officially released Editor’s cut as it’s base.I know what you’re thinking, why would anyone want to watch a longer version of this movie, mostly it’s because a lot of the cuts that I saw only added to the film.

Spider-man 3 is almost legendary in how much it was panned. Coming off the zeitgeist of the second film, it was considered a disappointment.

Yet, it still retains some of it’s Raimi goofy melodramatic charm. Raimi’s love of horror takes front stage with the Sandman character a few times here but just like with Doc Ock it’s intertwined with a melancholy sadness.The scenes with the Sandman reflecting his inability to connect with his daughter because of his continuous bad choice. There’s a particular scene here with a sandcastle that is quite poignant.

Thematically it’s also a rather interesting film, leaning on the idea of forgiveness, with Harry forgiving Peter and vice versa along with Peter forgiving Flint, and MJ forgiving Peter. It leans heavily on a tenuous emotional factor of the three core friends (Peter, MJ, and Harry) that essentially is the thoroughline of the trilogy. Unfortunately, a lot of the compelling Harry Osborne moments get lost in the background of the film as we give time to Eddie Brock and the Stacys.

Also it continues to get emotional mileage out of Uncle Ben’s death. When it’s all said and done, Peter’s responsibility here is to “keep saving” people, and it’s done threefold, either physically (with Eddie Brock) or emotionally (with Flint Marko and Harry). And even if it’s the least enjoyable part of the film, I do appreciate how the Venom subplot weaves in with a story of forgiveness, unresolved grief, anger, and revenge.

As for the fanedit: It’s seamless in its ability to weave in new scenes. Not all of the deleted scenes are winners, particularly more shots of the folded Venom suit in the case. Yet from what I saw of the cutlist, everything in here makes sense.

Spider-Man 3 was always a film that was gonna be difficult to save. This edit does its best to keep the original film by adding deleted scenes from the Editor's cut of the film and reinserting Theatrical scenes that work better that in the EC.

Overall, the film is much more enjoyable, to a degree. The movie gets a bit more breathing room for the villams and characters, though, its still a film with flaws. Bobson does his best with it and makes it slightly more appealing.

This is an almost perfect version of Spider-Man 3. It has all the best alterations of the Editor's Cut and corrects a few minor editing hiccups I had with that one. The only thing I didn't like was the butler scene being reinstated, as I thought getting completely rid of it was one of the best choices in the Editor's Cut. But aside from that, this is absolutely phenomenal.

Thank you for this extended cut! I always dislkied Spider-Man 3 because they compressed too much in a short amount of time. I still feel that, but putting the extra scenes in made it better.

Outstanding work! I always resented Spider-Man 3 for ending the saga on a frustrating note. The film was a bloated mess and tonally inconsistent.

Bobson Dugnutt does the impossible with his restructure and makes the film not only less frustrating, but enjoyable. I still have some issues with how packed the film is, but the emotional journeys of the characters learning to forgive now make for a satisfying and earnest end to the trilogy.

This edit develops Flint/Sandman into a stronger character. In particular, the sandcastle scene with him works so well here. It seems to highlight a key point of the film and those of all the characters -- being a superhero is like being a king at times, but that exhilaration often is short-lived much like the sandcastle vanishing so suddenly. People like Peter must learn to relish but not take for granted their abilities.

My biggest complaint with Spider-Man 3 and this edit rests with Eddie/Venom. He is the only character who does not align with the forgiveness/redemption overarching theme and he seems like an afterthought. When the film pauses to give him a chance to admit to his addiction to power and let go of that pursuit, he just quips that he likes being bad. This part rings false and dulls the impact of the rest of the action finale. I wonder if there is a way to omit that line, so it is less about him being evil and more about him being a lost cause/too far gone as Peter's line could be met by Venom just swallowing Eddie's face (a reminder that Peter was lucky to escape the creature's influence before it consumed him).

The audio and video work in this edit is superb. I watched with a 2.6gb copy and wonder if there is a version with a higher bitrate. If not, that would be my only request for a future update. Also fingers crossed for a 4K release of the trilogy!

I will continue to check out Bobson's edits, as this was impressive.