Spider-Man 3: Redemption by Badscooter

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~

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!

Review by jelio — September 13, 2010 @ 12:00 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

I really wish I could say I enjoyed this. Don't get me wrong, this is probably the best version of this movie we'll see given the material available - but therein lies the problem. Spider-Man 3 is a mess. And on top of being a mess, it's a dour film that ends this trilogy on a sour note.

Which has nothing to do with the edit of course. I loved it when I first saw it some time ago. But upon rewatch, after working my way through the first two films (SM2 is one of my favorite movies), it leaves a lot to be desired. Which makes badscooter's accomplishment all the more amazing, really. badscooter has been able to deftly cut so much of the cringeworthy nonsense that dragged this movie down - Sandman as Ben's killer, Harry's butler reveal, jazz club, etc. And badscooter does wonders at refocussing the film on Harry/MJ/Peter.

Unfortunately, this film's problems are too deeply rooted for even a talented film editor to fix.

Review by STANKPAC — September 11, 2010 @ 9:18 am

I went in with very low expectations and after watching this fan-edit, I’m still left with that same blank expression on my face after watching this turd in the theatres…”What the crap did I just watch!” Now did Badscooter do a pretty good job with the source material he had available….I would say it is a little bit more bearable to watch than the original. Does this fan-edit turn this movie into a good movie…uhhh no! The problem is the story just isn’t good, way too many antagonists in the film, and the overuse of CGI is just autrocious (e.g. Sandman at the end. Nice job getting your inspiration from Mummy Returns.Yikes!). You basically go from 2 very strong movies to this studio cash cow, with a director that got a little lazy sitting back on his laurels and filming this very poor entry in the Spiderman franchise. Shame on you Raimi for not fighting even harder to not put Venom in this movie. Venom’s story should have been saved for 2 back to back sequels, and let the Sandman story room to breath. Just really bad storytelling overall.

Video: Overall it was good, but quite a bit of digital compression. Some scenes lacked certain detail and suffered from that.
8 out of 10 stars

Audio: This faired a bit better and not that many “hard” cuts that could be heard. Except for one scene at the beginning after the title credits. A bit of harsh audio fade/transition there.
9 out of 10 stars

Editing: With all the stuff taken out to move the story along, it just goes to show how shallow this movie’s story and plot are. The cuts were good for the most part (e.g. Gwen Stacey not being a model, disco Pete, Harry’s butler telling him about his father’s death, Spiderman with the U.S. flag waving behind him, Mary Jane singing, Sandman not being Uncle Ben’s killer, etc.), except for the beginning scene going straight from day to nightime with them on the web looking up at the stars. That is a very weird jump cut and looked out of place. I really wish Sandman would have died in the sewer, and then you could have taken out the whole sand monster at the end.
8 out of 10 stars

Entertainment: You came in with very good intentions to polish this turd to your liking, but I along with many others came away still disappointed. I just can’t stand to watch this movie anymore. It’s almost like I had a sense of deja’vu and was still perplexed at what I just watched. Creepy!
6 out of 10 stars

———————————————
Final Score: 7 out of 10 stars
———————————————

No matter what is done to this film, I won’t be giving this film any more repeat viewings. The studio went for the quick return on their investment, ala X-men:The Last Stand, and didn’t care if they turned out a good product. Why do you think that Sony won’t sell the Spiderman films individually on Blu-ray? That’s because they know the third entry in their precious franchise was a turd and they are forcing the consumer to buy them all together. Coincidence….I think not!