Spider-Man: Hero Within

G1's fanedit of Spiderman Hero Within has all of the promisings of a great endeavor, and all of the faults that come with lackluster source material.

Speaking first to technical side, G1's Hero Within is exceptionally well done. With rare exception, all cuts, fades and transitions are done seemlessly with the original. Unless one is already familiar with the Spiderman movies, I doubt more than two or three cuts would be discovered. Considering the dozens and dozens of edits and splicing between the three movies, this is quite an accomplishment.

Unfortunately, as a stand alone movie, Hero Within carries with it some heavy problems. The primary being that, throughout the three movies made for Spidey, none have a really compelling villian. G1 chooses to focus the story's second act against Doc Oct. While he is the most interesting of the lot, it isn't saying much. Doc Oct is a character that stretches credulity beyond reproach. This is easier to swallow in the original as Doc Oct is featured in a movie outside of the already near-proposterous origins narrative.

Specifically what G1 has done here is taken the Spidey origins story from the first movie and used the second and third act of the second film to finish it up. However, while the story takes off at a pretty good pace leading up to the donning of the costume, when the film then starts heavily using footage from the second movie, a lot of jarring predicaments occur. For example, Spiderman goes from being a typical highschool student to a peerless collegiate-level physicist after a short span of fighting crime.

Although I could be misrembering, I thought that the primary reason Parker doesn't act on MJ's advances is that he's worried that, as Spiderman, those closest to him could be endangered. However, since that isn't established here, his denying of her flirtatious behavior makes him look weak and pathetic, not noble.

Also, G1 makes the decision here to follow Spiderman's arc in which he gives up being Spiderman. This is much more effective in the second movie as there's more time to establish for Parker that living a normal life and being Spiderman are incompatible. Here, though, after a long succesful string of fighting crime, Peter gives up the costume almost inexplicably. It's not very convincing.

There was one moment of this edit that really got my attention. After the first act is complete, G1 then has a series of "Spiderman helps NYC" scenes. He first cuts to the amazing sequence in the third Spiderman movie where an uncontrollable crane demolishes a section of a skyscraper. This is the first time G1 uses footage from the third and I was anxiously excited in the hopes that he would introduce Gwen Stacy into the mix. There was a moment in which I thought this edit would really develop the relationship foils between MJ/Spidey/Parker/Gwen/Harry. However, this is never idealized as Gwen is only used here as a set peice.

I'm not sure what would make this approach to retooling Spiderman better. Adding more scenes could make the film more "epic" specifically in following Spiderman's character arc. However, more scenes means needing more conflict, which means adding Goblin, Venom and/or Sandman which is sure to hurt more than it would help.

I think G1 did a marvelous job towards his main objective. However, I'm left feeling that this edit doesn't necessarily improve upon the lackluster source material from which it derives.

STUFF I LIKED:
- The way the first two movies were spliced together was quite extraordinary; very seamless indeed.
- The romance between Peter and MJ had a lot of focus and it was done very well.
- Pacing was very good; you definitely succeeded with the goal to make a properly structured movie with a normal runtime out of the trilogy.
- I loved that cliffhanger ending with the venom substance!
- Crystal clear video quality.

STUFF I DISLIKED:
- This is just a personal thing, but I do miss the goofiness of the trilogy. The jokey light-hearted tone was, for me, just part of why I like the series so much. Still, I understand removing the jokes for pacing reasons.
- I didn't like the Spider-Man 3 scene with Gwen that was added in. It felt like a weird way to introduce the properly-suited Spider-Man. The edit would have been fine without that scene.
- (Nitpick) Some of the cross-dissolve transitions were a bit distracting and didn't look very cinematic.

OVERALL:
This was a very ambitious edit; despite the fact that I like the series for its goofiness I could at least see what you were trying to do with it, and so for the most part Spider-Man: Hero Within was a very enjoyable watch.

This was a pretty good edit. It's not perfect, but it's enjoyable.

Quality - A/V Quality is excellent. 10/10

Visual Editing - There were some awkward edits (a few dissolves that felt out of place and a couple cuts that stood out a little bit), but they weren't "deal breakers" for me. There was some really spectacular things done with the editing as well, such as the footage used from Spider-Man 3 and all the extraneous characters that are cut out perfectly. 7/10

Audio editing - There were 2 transitions that stuck out to me, but it's not like you raped my family or anything. 9/10

Narrative - This is the real interesting part to me here. When I first watched the workprint I was irked by the flow of the story, as we spend so much time setting up Spider-Man's origins without introducing the villain until half way in. But it's kind of how Amazing Spider-Man is structured, in that the villain's story seems like an afterthought. And in a way it's almost like how Batman Begins in structured (spending majority of time on pure origin and then halfway through get to the bad guys). Watching it a second time, this didn't bother me and I was able to get more into the story at hand. 8/10

Enjoyment - I love Spider-Man 1 & 2, so it was easy for me to really enjoy this edit. 9/10

Recommend? If you're a fan of the Spider-Man movies I think you'll like this take on the story. But if you're a stickler for perfection the flaws may stick out more for you.

A/V: Mostly no problems here. Spider-Man 1 is cropped so that it matches footage from 2 & 3. There were one or two video fades, and several times where the audio faded out too quickly. Otherwise, most of the cuts were unnoticeable.

Narrative: This is essentially an expansion of Spider-Man 2 which supplements the story with footage from 1 & 3, whilst eliminating the love triangle stuff and Green Goblin. Although I feel even more could have been cut, this edit works quite well as a standalone film, containing Peter Parker's origin and a single main villain. It also fixes the Mary Jane plotline significantly, and even teases Venom at the end. There's also a pretty hilarious extra in the DVD.

I encourage fans of Spider-Man 2 to check this one out.

Why did I not watch this one sooner?

G1's Spidey was Spectacularly and Amazingly Entertaining!
I can easily see why this edit won FEOTM. While there are some minor technical things here and there (as other have mentioned in other reviews), I found them easily foregivable as the story moves at such a great pace and is restructured enough that it feels fresh and new.

And I did not realize it until the edit the was over -- NO NORMAN OSBORN!?!?!
It hit me like a ton bricks at the end! I was having such a good time, I did not even realize he had been cut. This is an incredible piece of editing in my opinion since this character haunts and shapes the entire original Spidey trilogy. Great work G1!

If I were to nitpick, I would have liked a better sense of a passage of time. I think a montage or two may have assisted with this, particularly in moving Peter from High School to University to his life in the city. Also, I am not certain Peter losing his powers fit with the over all arc in this version. It felt too soon for that drama, though I would have definitely keep the courtship scenes. And as others have pointed out, I would have to agree the final Venom tease would have worked better as a post credit teaser.

But as I said above, G1 has crafted such a wonderfully fun and engaging story, expertly choosing the best parts from the trilogy, that any shortcomings are, for the most part, very easy to over look.

It is a fun popcorn ride! Thumbs Up!