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Hey, everyone!
After being a part of the community on Reddit for a little over two years, I've finally decided to tackle an edit of my own. This one's been an idea in my head since 2019. What started as a simple fanfix has now grown into something slightly more daunting and different.
I've always thought the first Amazing film is one of the most unique cape flicks out there. A huge chunk of the film isn't focused on your typical superhero things, but on a grounded story about Peter dealing with the trauma of his parents leaving him and I've always found this compelling. So, in order to make it even more grounded and unique, my original idea was for this to be a "No Lizard" edition, removing the supervillain angle entirely. However, I quickly realized there is no way I could cut Lizard from the bridge scene, which is the Peter's big cathartic moment. That inconvenience lead to the idea being reworked into what it is today.
"The Birth of a Hero: A Spider-Man Story" is a retelling that aims to further ground the narrative by removing the "entire city's about to be destroyed" subplot and radically reshaping the third act.
General changes:
- The entire film will be regraded to remove the gray mask and make it more visually similar to its successor and some of the early trailers
- Scenes will be reordered and intercut in order to draw clearer parallels between the protagonist (Peter) and the antagonist (Connors)
- The third act will be majorly restructured - no “turning the whole city into giant lizards” subplot, a much more emotionally grounded conclusion will be created
- Will use parts of the Roosevelt subplot from Amazing 2 in order to enhance the story (and in particular the ending)
- All licensed songs will be replaced with 2000s alt.-rock (primarily pop punk) bops because I think the style suits this version of Peter
What I've done so far:
- Used Amazing 2’s version of Richard telling Peter to “be good” before leaving and the following shot of Peter staring into his reflection; retained Amazing 1’s “Dad?”
- Rescored Peter at school with “The Calling - Unstoppable”; slightly trimmed the scene to match the new music
- Cut a quick flashback when Peter is shuffling through the briefcase
- Painstakingly edited the Oscorp internship add so that it just says “Internship Enrollment” (credit goes to lantern51 for inspiring this change)
- Cut Peter talking to the Oscorp desk lady, now he just grabs his badge and goes in
- Obviously cut Rodrigo being ridiculously dragged away by security
- Cut any mentions of Peter stealing the badge during his talk with Gwen
- Rescored Peter’s chaotic morning after he gets bitten with “MCR – I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” (it’s corny, I know but it works so well)
- Added Peter building the wall of clues from Amazing 2 after he visits Connors; rescored the scene with “There For Tomorrow - Pages”; added the photoshoot flashback (again from Amazing 2) to the ending of the scene, replacing “Do I have to lose you too?”; slightly trimmed it to remove any references to Roosevelt, the calculator and Gwen
- Rescored the skateboarding montage with “Finger Eleven – One Thing”
What I’m yet to do:
- Add custom subtitle “Birth of a Hero” to the title card
- Cut Connors showing Peter around Oscorp and dumping exposition on the Ganali device
- Move Ratha firing Connors to after Peter storms out; use a nighttime exterior shot of Oscorp tower from Amazing 2 to make the transition smoother
- Use the alternate version of Ben’s death; will rescore Peter sitting on the streetlamp before Ben gets shot with “Yellowcard – Empty Apartment” (it will sound like he’s listening to it through headphones)
- Add “Connors’ Condolences” deleted scene
- Intercut Peter deciding to go hunt Ben’s killer with Connors’ mirror hand moment and him injecting himself with the serum (“We have to be greater than what we suffer.”, yet neither of them follows that advice); add a sunset shot of Oscorp tower at the beginning (taken from later in the film) to help everything flow better
- Intercut Peter falling into the boxing ring with Connors waking up in the sewers; add a quick flash of the Lizard to the latter (taken from a scene later in the film)
- Rescore the “Becoming Spider-Man” montage (not sure with what yet); cut Peter testing his web shooters in broad daylight (“Kinda defeats the purpose of the whole anonymous superhero thing.”); some additional trims here and there, restore the full first-person pov shot; cut the ending, where Spidey stands on a rooftop, the ending of the fp shot will now transition to…
- May telling Peter the truth about his parents from Amazing 2 (will be rescored with Amazing 1 score); cut mentions of Norman Osborn and Peter being in college
- Add a nighttime NY shot for a better transition between the last scene and the car thief scene
- Cut Peter and May’s argument after the car thief scene; instead, a new scene will be created using shots from earlier in the film, where Peter quietly walks in, tucks May in and cries
- Add a daytime shot of NY for a better transition between the last scene and…
- Create a new scene using footage from Amazing 2 and Raimi 2 where Peter visits Ben’s grave
- Add Peter destroying the wall of clues after the new scene; intercut it with flashbacks to the opening; cut the calculator and Roosevelt
- Add “Going Away” deleted scene (my idea here is that Richard leaving Peter is paralleled with Connors leaving his son)
- Stitch up all bits of Connors documenting all the changes he’s going through from when Spider-Man goes into the sewers to find him as one continuous scene and add it after Gwen asks Peter over; will most likely rescore
- Maybe add the doorman scene
- Cut the shot of the ripped in half taxi at the start of the bridge scene for continuity reasons
- Add a portion of the newscast after the original final fight over Peter staring into his mask and the next new scene, which is…
- The police arresting Connors (will use shots from the original climax of the film and the “Help Me” deleted scene)
- The rest of the film will be entirely reworked so that it’s less bombastic and a more emotionally grounded ending is created; the scenes will proceed as follows:
1) Exterior shot of Midtown High (taken from the school fight)
2) Peter and Gwen on the football court talking about his powers; recut the dialogue to match the new continuity; cut Peter bending the goal post
3) The mid-credits scene; cut the Gentleman entirely, now it’s just Connors alone in his cell
4) The famous “Peter Meets his Dad” deleted scene from Amazing 2
5) Peter listens to Ben’s voice message; the final shot of the film is now Peter looking at the Spidey graffiti; will be rescored with a song that will also carry into the main on-ends (hesitating between “New Found Glory - Sonny” and “Hoobastank – The Reason”)
Yes, I know I haven't really gotten to the tough part of the edit yet but I thought I'd post this anyway, just to give myself some extra motivation.
I will try to post updates as frequently as possible whenever I get things done.
And before I go, here's a short sample that showcases the colour grading and rock rescoring.
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