There’s been rumours for a while that the much-maligned Spider-Man 3 would soon get a new cut as part of a re-release of the original movie trilogy. It was weird enough that the movie was getting a tweaked edition all these years later, but even weirder is that the whole thing showed up on Amazon this weekend… only to disappear a day later.
Image: Sony Pictures/Marvel via Amazon
Over the weekend Amazon made an “Editor’s Cut” of Spider-Man 3 available to purchase or rent digitally, ending months of speculation that an upcoming Blu-ray trilogy collection of Sam Raimi’s Spidey films would include an extended edition of the final film in the trilogy. But, presumably because the new collection that will feature the Editor’s Cut isn’t due out for another few weeks, Amazon rapidly pulled the movie from its service… but not quick enough before fans could purchase it and see just what was changed in the new cut. And don’t worry, the dance sequence is still in tact.
So what actually changed? According to reports from fans on Blu-Ray.com’s forums, not as much as you might expect. You can read more details at the link, but as the name implies, it isn’t actually an “extended cut” — the movie runs slightly shorter, and several scenes and lines of dialogue are cut or swapped around.
The scene of Aunt May in Peter’s apartment giving back his engagement ring has been cut entirely, as has the entirely bizarre scene where Peter apologises to his landlord while trying to call MJ. Tragically, the moment Willem Dafoe yells “FIRST, WE ATTACK HIS HEART!” from beyond the grave at James Franco’s Harry Osborn is also left on the cutting floor. Added in the new version of the film includes shots from early trailers of Peter wearing the symbiote suit in the broad daylight as he flew through the streets of New York, as well as a full restoration of Christopher Young’s score as the soundtrack for the film, meaning several scenes now have new music attached.
These tweaks probably won’t change much about how the world feels about Spider-Man 3 these days — but still, it’s interesting to see that 10 years later, there’s going to be a new version of this infamous movie out there for people to see. The editors cut, as well as the three theatrical versions of the Raimi Spider-Man movies, will be available as part of new Blu-Ray re-release available in the US June 13.
[Blu-Ray.com via NeoGaf]