Now, a pretty common complaint about
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is that it feels like too much is going on in the film. However, I noticed a few ties for the film that would've added a little more of a cohesive feel to it given a different edit. For this, I decided to give the film a little more patient pacing with it, giving some characters time to grow differently. Because I can never release my edit to the public, I decided to just let you guys know what I did with it. Hopefully, if you have an editing software, it can make a better experience for you as well.
The first eight minutes I leave relatively intact, but I give the plane sequence the extended scene where Richard is actually responsible for making the pilot's hands go downward and, with it, the plane. We all see Richard come to terms with Mary's death before being attacked again. It is one of those scenes that adds a better, more patient pacing with the film that I felt like it was sorely missing. However, as soon as the plane goes down, I figured that a better transition was needed from the parents' scene and Spider-Man's first, more lighthearted scene. So, I added a title sequence, featuring the first part of
The Amazing Spider-Man's "
Columbia Pictures presents..." and then put
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 logo from the end credits of the film onto it before diving into Spider-Man falling from the sky.
This sequence goes by completely untouched. It leads into the graduation part, but, again, I add a deleted scene into the film in order to make it flow at more relaxed pace once again. Flash's scene adds another familar face and also demonstrates Peter and Flash's current realtionship. The scene flows in and out really well, allowing a semi-satisfying conclusion to Flash and Peter's story that was started in the first film. Of course, Peter and Gwen's break-up works on its own and so does the Spider-Man montage following it. When I finally manage to cut to Max, I add the mother scene, as a way to add more character depth to Max, giving him the "underappreciated" idea that the filmmakers were clearly going for. From there, the film resumes at its normal pace until the surveillance scene with Menken and the secruity head. The next scene, instead of Max being in a morgue by himself with the crematorium running, starts with showing how sneaky and underhanded OsCorp is by introducing the M.E. working with Max. And, it also provides a clearer way in how Max wakes up. This scene, then, leads into Peter meeting with Gwen just outside of Times Square, just like in the film. Now, following the Times Square sequence is when things begin to get really tricky.
Instead of showing Peter going home and starting the wall of craziness about his parents, I opted to move right to Harry discovering the files on his father's cube. Now, I did this in order to tie Harry Osborn and Peter Parker's story together. You see, I realized that Peter and Harry connect on the level of their parents. Three major storylines, I feel, aren't too much for the audience to juggle, as we've done it in the previous films. In
Spider-Man, we saw Peter dealing with power and responsibility, the relationship between Peter and MJ, and the Green Goblin storyline. In
Spider-Man 2, we saw Peter dealing with what it means to be Spider-Man, which ties perfectly into the relationship with MJ and the villain plotline with Doc Ock as well as the separate vengeance plotline for Harry Osborn.
Spider-Man 3 is a really poor example, as it has five or six different plot lines.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 could've had three if it had only been handled a little better. Electro could've been a separate story, Gwen and Peter's relationship would've worked on its own but there was no reason to have Peter's parents and Harry's disease storyline remain separate. Peter does work on his webshooters and gets called up by Harry, but, again, I opt to put the deleted scene in the film. The fact that Peter is under surveillance because of his father and the fact his father worked closely with Norman Osborn allows Peter's return to the investigation of what happened to his father make more sense. So, upon the closing of the scene with Harry and Gwen, I placed the scene where Peter starts the wall of craziness, beginning with the "Missing Each Other" deleted scene starting at the point where Peter looks at his phone. Following Peter's construction of the wall, I was able to, then, cut to Ravencroft where we see Electro again.
Following the Ravencroft scene, we move into Aunt May finally figuring out about the wall that morning. Peter and May have the same really great conversation between the two of them. However, at the end of the scene, I don't cut to Peter turning down Harry's plea for help, instead I cut to the scene where Peter and Gwen argue. The scene works well in this place because Peter never
once mentions turning Harry down, just that he is conflicted on whether or not he should give him his blood. The scene works out pretty much the same way, with Peter going home and discovering the coins that lead him to his father's secret labratory. In order to show that Gwen gets accepted, I put in the Oxford interview scene minus Peter's rooftop mourning. It allows for a solid jump back into Peter chasing his parents' story where he finds the interview. Interspliced within the scene here I put Harry's scene of finding out about Special Projects as Harry never mentions that Spider-Man didn't get the blood, only that he wants the spider venom now (as he's run out of hope without Spider-Man, who hasn't showed up yet). Harry finds Max Dillon's file and I cut from him finding Max Dillon's file back to Richard Parker's revelation in order to allow Peter to learn that the power of the spiders to help Peter won't work on anyone else. This also allows for the viewer to infer that Harry learns a lot more about Max (like the stuff about the grid for example) before he gets kicked out. The next scene I use is the deleted scene between Gwen and May, where they talk for a brief bit before she leaves. From there, I
finally cut to Spider-Man telling Harry that he can't give him his blood (because Peter knows that there will be serious consequences). And, with Harry being kicked out of his company he doesn't have the resources to pursue research on Peter's blood nor does he have another option: Spider-Man just condemned him to die. The next scene is Gwen just sitting in the middle of the road, contemplating her leave before I cut to Harry driving up to Ravencroft. After Harry tazes the guys, I cut to the deleted scene companion to Gwen and May's talk.
Following Peter and Aunt May's talk, I cut back to Ravencroft, where we see Harry pulling down the doctor's mask before turning his back to the audience. Following this, I cut back to Gwen contemplating things before the taxi driver makes his exclamation about it being Spider-Man. Spider-Man swoops Gwen up before I cut, once again, back to Ravencroft where we see Max and Harry's interaction. Following Max saying that he wants to go catch a spider, I cut directly to OsCorp where Max shows up after a few seconds which works alright in the context of the film's pacing really picking up. We see Green Goblin's extended transformation scene and see him start the fight with the guards. I, then, get back to the relationship resolution with Peter and Gwen which leads Peter to following Electro. Following Spider-Man pulling on the hydro tank to attack Electro I opted to bring in the deleted scene of Felicia seeing Green Goblin, which provides a clearer picture of what Green Goblin was doing during the fight between Peter and Electro. I cut out before the unfinished CGI (and thus Green Goblin actually leaving the scene) so I can give the impression Green Goblin stays a little longer before showing up after Peter defeats Electro. Green Goblin's motivations are now clearer, as are Spider-Man's for not giving him his blood and this whole storyline comes to a head due to their parents. The fight plays out the way it does (because I didn't have a substitute and I really would've loved to have placed the alternate death scene in there but oh well). However, I actually end the film at the last part where we see Peter looking at Gwen's grave in the winter as I felt like it is a better place to end the film in a "#121" way where we wonder "where does Peter go next?". I put the
Sinister Six set-up as an after credits scene in the place of the
X-Men: Days of Future Past clip and that's all for what I did.
So, what do you guys think? Would this have made
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 a better film? Or was it just beyond hopeless? Do you prefer it the way it was? As always, let me know in the comments section below (with all the usual rules applied of course). Thanks!