Sandman simply didn’t belong in this movie, and the editor realizes it. Without him, this is the far more introverted and personal film that Spider-Man 3 should have been. Peter finally has to face dealing with his own life (not just Spider-Man’s); this deals with the consequences of his actions and the emotions he feels. In a way, the symbiote just represents his darker personas that he needs to conquer in order to live full life. With no focus on the Sandman, the audience can realize that.

This edit has a number of pluses too. The character relationships do seem stronger. We get to focus on Peter’s love/hate relationships with Mary and Harry. Also, the toned down action of this edit really emphasizes the character driven nature of this movie. Even Topher Grace and “Emo Peter” don’t seem as annoying here, they’re typical “comic book” aspects coming to the silver screen. That rubbish plot about Uncle Ben is also gone; I never understood why Raimi, as a fan of the comics, would violate them like that. As a side note, thank you for keeping Bruce Campbell; the man’s just flat out awesome.

This edit is flawless technically in terms of removing Sandman. There are no awkward references to him at all. Audio is crisp and video is immaculate. If ever I want to see Spider-Man 3, without a doubt, I will go to this edit.

Video: 10/10
Audio: 10/10
Editing: 10/10

The problem I found was that Venom just wasn’t a strong enough character (compared to previous villains) to warrant Peter to ask for Harry’s help but we can only work with what we have. they were many other scenes included which brought disaprovel from fans the first time the most annoying of them being Peter emo faze but with a running length at just over 90mins any more cuts would result in a film barley touching the 80min mark

So my final summary would be that Spiderman 3 no sandman edition is definitely worth seeing and I’m sure will influence some faneditors to rework the film, though for me it’s not a edit that I would re-watch

overall 7/10

Having said that, I download this fanedit and was quite happy. I disagree with a lot of the reviews here in that a lot of the action was edited out. For me, number 3 was overkill in action and i got bored with it quick. This edit, for me, makes a much more focused movie (plot and character wise) and focuses in on Peter Parker’s decline and confusion. I liked the Sandman character in the theatrical release, but with that storyline, the Venom storyline, the Goblin storyline and then the whole MJ-Peter thing – there is just too much going on and no one area is really fleshed out.

I like this edit because it excises a lot of needless sub-lplot and action and makes for a much more tighter, well-paced movie.

The only improvement I can suggest is to just cut the whole amnesia thing so as to pick up the pace a bit.
MJ would still have to betray Peter though, because that’s why Peter’s turned to the dark side in this version.
But I wouldn’t show the part with MJ’s dinner and dance with Harry. Because that makes us not feel bad for MJ anymore. Best to just show her calling Harry and then MJ breaking up with Peter and Harry telling Peter that the other guy is indeed Harry himself. I really like the pie remark so that has to stay.
So with those modifications, it could get cut down to about an hour runtime with a much quicker pace without losing anything too important.

The editing, video and audio quality – all impeccible, as I watched the DVD version. Those are all 10/10
The story… 7/10, only because of the long lapse in action – I didn’t mind the disco/nightclub Peter scenes too much this time around, maybe because I knew to expect it and was able to just appreciate the impact of Peter becoming a prick.

Overall 8/10

Like many people i can’t stand Spider-Man 3 and i was really curious about this no sandman edit.
There are a lot of good editing choices but sadly also a lot of misses – the removal of the sandman plot more or less caused the beginning Spider-Man 3 to become real soap opera drama. Since the sandman was used as a plotdevice to get peter angry/blacksuited and this is now missing the effect of the black suit is really reduced, the turn to the “dark side” happens really abruptly.
Sadly also a lot of bad things from the original remained in this edit: spidey narrating the beginning, mj singing, amnesia harry, unmasked peter in spidey costume on spiderman day, saturday night peter, american flag spiderman – now i understand that removing those elements too would basically turn the no sandman edit in a 10 minute clip

on the other hand, the final battle was really damn impressive. In the original version the sandman parts lacked tension because he was more less invincible and there was no way to know if spiderman had the slightest bit of a chance against this thing

maybe an edit could work where spiderman kills sandman blacksuited and he doesn’t reappear, only venom at the end

but there are no plotholes, technical glitches or anything and it was a pretty good watch (apart from the soap elements)

7/10

Spider-Man 3: No Sandman Edition.

Plot: Peter Parker is on top of the world. He’s got the love of his life and the love of the city he protects. In fact, things are a little too good for Spider-Man. While girlfriend Mary Jane’s career falters, Peter becomes more and more confident, to the point where it starts hurting the ones he loves. On top of this, hotshot Edward Brock Jr. is vying for a position on the Bugle and old friend Harry Osborn is out for the head of Spider-Man. Just how the heck is Peter supposed to balance all this?

Image Quality: Viewing the mp4, the quality is very spotty. Sometimes, mainly during the quiet moments, the image is just fine, whereas in action scenes the picture become very blocky. 5/10

Audio Quality: On laptop speakers, sounds great. 9/10

Difference to the Original: What an accomplishment. Watching the film, I was thinking of how the editor was going to pull off the climax, what with the original having a giant sand monster. Typically, giant things are hard to cut around, or so I’ve been led to believe. These re-edited first 10 minutes [of the fight] work spectacularly as a set-up to a better film, yet we never get this. This is no fault of the editor, as he clearly worked with what he had. He just focused the film greatly and made me see that this film has no real theme, a difference between SM 3 versus 1 & 2.

While I can’t say it makes for interesting viewing by enduring an hour of poor filmmaking to get to an incredible last 30 minutes, I implore people to seek out this edit just to see how superfluous Sandman really is. While I’m not entirely sure I agree with cutting the fight between black suit Spidey and Sandman, this is the no Sandman edition, and it works for the most part. Also, I was sad to see black suit Spidey be in what seemed to amount to ten minutes, but, since nothing else served the story, it was gone.

And he pulled off the climax. I’ll ridicule things if they seem haphazard and cheap, and the re-cut climax of this film is neither of those things. By far, it’s the most brilliant thing I’ve seen in a fanedit in a long, long, long, long time. Almost everything works.

There are nitpicks, such as a bit too many visual cross-fades and an unnecessary fade to black within the first ten, but this has definitely replaced the official Spider-Man 3. There could probably be some tightening, but I can’t think of anything right now. Way to go. 7/10

Presentation: It was an mp4. Um…it was hard to unarchive, but I got it. 6/10

Entertainment Value: 7/10