Spider-Man 3: Redemption by Badscooter

The copy I downloaded didnt have the greatest video quality but as I watched it that soon became insignificant.
The removal of Sandmans "Uncle ben plot" worked brilliantly and a lack of personal stake in Sandman made Peters venom transformation all the more dark.

All the characters were improved as much as they could be while keeping the plot and cast (I'm looking at you Topher Grace) intact.

Spiderman 3 was never an AWFUL movie but its lost potential made it unenjoyable this earns it the qualification of a movie I can ENJOY.

I can't give much input on the audio/video quality as I only watched the avi on a laptop screen and laptop speakers. That said, it sounded great and I didn't notice any problems.

The visual editing was great. I couldn't notice any hard cuts. In fact, the only time where I really noticed a cut was during the ending dialogue between Sandman and Peter. This was probably one of the harder spots to cut since a lot probably had to do with uncle Ben.

The audio editing was also great. The one recommendation I would make is to remove Peter referencing the Sandman by name when they are fighting in the subway/sewers. This is an artifact of being told about the true ID of ben's killer, and it seems out of place. Peter could of learned his name on TV, but it is strange as an audience who doesn't really even know his name.

As for the narrative, it is improved, but this edit also reveals to me just how weak the original narrative is and how much it relies on both venom and the Sandman's identity. The source just had too much going on, and it's hard to work with.
Even though this was an improvement, this edit had me seriously wondering about the Sandman. Why does Peter care about him and why is he so merciless toward him? Why does the Sandman want to kill Peter and why does he join up with Venom? Is he a killer or not? Some of these questions are problems with the original, but they are emphasized in this edit. One possible suggestion would be to move Spiderman's hatred of Sandman and attempted murder of Sandman to later in the movie around when he does the same to Harry. It's then that we see the influence Venom has on Peter and his anger toward Sandman in that subway fight would make more sense at that point. As is, we are confused on why Spiderman is ruthless. Later on we realize the influence the suit has on him.

Of course the strength of this edit is how it highlights MJ, Harry, and Peter. Sandman's plot is worthless imo, and Venom's was half-assed. If only the source had kept Venom and Sandman out of it.. Nonetheless, the weak dialogue and character motivations of the source still haunt this edit.

Overall, good job with the source material. I recommend this edit. And for any doubters, three things make this my go-to version:
1. Opening sequence: No narrating Spidey!!!
2. Sandman: not Ben's killer!
3. Harry: helps without Bernard's dumb advice!

Sam Raimi is a filmmaker who has my deepest empathy, as his great films show true passion and potential. This makes it all the worse when his bad films have constantly been ruined by studio interference, when being given creative control would have made them great.

Thanks to Badscooter, we have a version of this film that is actually the version Sam Raimi intended to make.

What he has done is focus the thematic arc of the film, removing any elements that distracted the viewer from focussing on the elements Sam Raimi wanted us to pay attention to. Little things stick out here and there as subtly profound visual arcs that I completely missed the first time because the other unrelated arcs distracted me from being able to see it; for instance, Harry and Peter's first dialogue scene in the film mirrors their last, with Peter standing over Harry to cut between a low and high angle shot. By having both their first and last conversations as friends visualized the same way, the viewer reflects on everything that has transpired in the evolution of their friendship between those two scenes. They are able to serve as bookends; the visual similarity signals the beginning scene and end scene to the arc of their friendship.

PROFOUND THINGS LIKE THIS ARE SO MUCH MORE CLEAR IN THIS VERSION OF THE FILM!!!
It is truly a well guided thematic arc, refocussing the viewer on what the film is truly about: the horrible things people are willing to do for love, and how those actions evolve into destruction. Every relationship based in love causes the character in question to do horrible things in the name of that love. It evolves into the consequencial flames of the final act of the film, which now has a clearer purpose than when all the subplots that weren't building to it were there.

The only real problem is there's still too much cutting back and forth between the other villains. I'm not sure Badscooter could have altogether cut Sandman and Venom, although I'm not even sure if that was the solution if he could have. Not his fault, but cutting together 3 unrelated narratives of 3 unrelated conflicts from 3 unrelated villains still bogs down the film... only it's less of a problem now due to his brilliant editing choices. It's certainly FAR better than the official editing together of said narratives in the film.

Bravo, Badscooter.
~Silver Screen Samurai~

LOVED the Spidey movies when they first came out, but very disappointed by #3. Upon recent re-watching I'd say:
Spider-Man: 8/10
Spider-Man 2: 9/10
Spider-Man 3: 4/10

For me, the big reason for Sam Raimi to make a 3rd film is to wrap up the Peter/MJ/Harry plots. Pete needs to be shepherded into some kind of professional success, a measure of relationship/domestic stability, and come to terms with his former best friend. He does NOT need a new love interest or new villains. So what I don't need in SM3 is anything that distracts from those issues.

This edit is technically quite good, though some of the CG does look slightly dated now. Cuts were smooth and not distracting. It fixed the issue of Sandman retconning the previous films' story, but now it seems especially tenous for him to even be in the film. What is even the point of him? Venom has a far more grounded reason to be tied up with Peter/SM and be a villain, and yet he's so obviously squeezed in. I really want a SM3 with NO Venom. The focus should've been purely on Harry, but the studio screwed it up and didn't really make him into a proper villain, like The Hobgoblin. Franco kind of seems like he's phoning it in, too.

I don't know if any fanedit can fix these issues and still leave a movie with watching, but this film sadly doesn't do it for me. Halfway through, I realized there was just no redeeming the movie, title besides. A nice technical effort, but sadly it just didn't work for me.

Review by bionicbob — October 9, 2010 @ 1:56 am

Anyone willing to attempt to edit SPIDER-MAN 3 gets big points from me right from the get go!
Spider-Man 1 was an average super-hero movie that suffered many of common ailments of an origin movie.
While Spider-Man 2 raised the bar of super-hero movie excellence to new, blinding heights!!!
And then there is Spider-Man 3…..

Oy Vey! What a mess!!!

Moments of greatest drowing in a CGI pool of conflicting villians and storylines.

Won’t repeat what most of the other reviewers have already mentioned.
Badscooter has made many excellent editing decisions, re-crafting the narration back to Peter and Harry where it belongs
and removing some of the offensive elements from the original storyline (removing Sandman as Uncle Ben’s killer—THANK YOU!!!).
Unfortunately MJ still comes across as weak and whiney, a complete departure from her character in the previous two films. I miss the old MJ…. “sniff”…
But Sandman and Venom are handled very well by Badscooter, though I wished they could have been trimmed back even more but I know that would have been close to impossible when one considered how closely intertwined their arcs become by the final act.

The audio sounded very good. A few dips during scene transitions but nothing significant or distracting.

The vast majority of cuts are clean and flow very smoothly. The only exception for me was the whole Jazz Club/Fever scene. It clearly felt edited and choppy to me.

Overall, this version of Spider-Man 3 is very entertaining, and the new narration is far superior to the original.
Definitely deserving of it’s FAN EDIT OF MONTH award! BRAVO!

Final Overall score, I would give it a very solid 8/10 and would recommend to any Spidey fan!
Excelsior!