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.

I'm legitimately shocked. After watching this, I think I have a much bigger appreciation for Spider-Man 3 now than I ever did before, and anyone who knows me personally and on social media knows that I have a rather intense dislike towards that film. There are still quite a few things that bug me, but its themes of learning the value of forgiveness, that the world isn't always black and white, and how caving into toxic masculinity and ego can change you into something ugly, but at the end of the day, you evolve and learn to grow from it and learn from all those mistakes and terrible things, really shined through this time around. There's some really clever editing here too. For example, the James Brown strut montage now comes after Peter tries killing Harry with the pumpkin grenade, which makes a lot more sense and really shows you how progressively awful the symbiote's influence is on Peter. I used to complain about the dance scenes, but what I failed to realize is that this is Peter caving into toxic masculinity as a result of his inflated ego thanks to New York praising him everywhere he goes as Spider-Man. I also never took into account that the symbiote wouldn't now real humans would interact in those situations, since it is alien in origin and nature after all. I also took more notice of how it's like a drug to Peter. No matter how many times he puts it away, he can't get enough of that power and craves more of it. Same with Eddie Brock. While I would've preferred if they just created an original character perhaps partly inspired by Brock, I did enjoy his characterization here this time around. Mary Jane was much more likable and justified in her emotions and actions here than I first thought. Gwen Stacy not being the science genius she was in the comics also bothered me much less here, surprisingly. There's also a scene I really loved in this cut that wasn't in the theatrical version, where Flint Marko's daughter Penny is at a park and he turns into a giant sand castle for her without her knowing he's even there, just wanting to feel her embrace him again. I really liked this edit.

A noticeable improvement over the Editor's Cut, but still needs trimming and reordering.
I did not like the Theatrical Cut. Really, really didn't. Only after hearing good things about the Editor's cut two years ago did I give the movie a second chance, and it was much, much better. The addition of the deleted scenes and the reordering of several scenes made the movie much more comprehensible, and Peter's addiction made a lot more sense. However, there were a few scenes missing from it that I remembered vaguely from the TC. And this is where Bobson's Hybrid Cut comes along.
The HC does what it aims to do well - allowing the audience to see the full story by creating the longest possible version of Spider-Man 3. Bobson's editing, as usual, is technically superb. However, the edit doesn't fix the film's major narrative flaws, which is why I deducted a few points. For example, three unrelated villains are introduced in the first 20 minutes by seemingly randomly cutting between them (especially between 8:10 and 17:07). I think the narrative can be much stronger by further reordering several scenes throughout the movie, and hopefully trimming others (e.g., emo Parker).

This worked really well. I liked the original, but I loved this one. The small changes, the extra bits -- these all add up to a much more satisfying film, closer in quality and feel to the first two Raimi pictures. Great job. Definitely my preferred version.

I loved that the Editor's cut added the sandcastle scene and re-ordered the emo section, but I hated that it cut precious Ditkovich and Aunt May scenes, this fixes that entirely.
Best of both worlds, nuff said!