I did a rough edit of S3 and removed everything to do with Sandman, just to see how it would go.
Running time: 96 minutes.
I'm doing a final encode now and am going to get together with some friends tonight to watch it and see if it works.
This isn't planned for a release - first of all, the footage is from a cam, so the quality is mediocre at best. Also, I did the edit in half a day (mostly as an experiment to see if it was possible to remove Sandman and still have a movie) so the right amount of care hasn't been put into it.
Here's what I did and learned:
- First half of the film was easy; it's like Sandman wasn't supposed to exist in the first place - his footage is easily excised with no impact on the story.
- Trimming down the first battle with Green Goblin was also easy - I felt the fight went on way too long, so I left in only the bare essentials - Goblin gets the drop on Peter and kicks his ass, Peter looses ring, Peter gets ring back, Goblin chases Peter down alley and Peter snags Goblin in a web-wire. Gone is dragging Peter across the side of a building (Peter may be strong but he's NOT Superman, something these movies often forget) and I ditched the silly flying Goblin bombs (as Peter said, "I really hate those things.") The fight is over fast and we get Harry to the hospital, where the character story continues.
- Losing Sandman in the second half proved a real challenge, because Peter's lust for revenge over finding out he killed his uncle is what triggers the black suit to take him over and drives the middle of the film. At first I thought I couldn't do it because it was too important to the film, but I rolled up my sleeves and was merciless - gone is the police station scene where they tell Peter and May that Ben's killer is still on the loose and gone is the scene where MJ tries to comfort Peter while he listens to police scanners. Now we cut from MJ leaving Peter in the french restaurant to a montage of Peter listening to police scanners. What this does is make it seem like MJ's rejection of Peter makes Peter decide to abandon his personal life and focus on just being Spiderman - and full of anger over having his hopes crushed. I think it works. Then the black suit takes over and I carefully removed all flashbacks to Uncle Ben, because that sublot is now gone.
- Now Peter dons the black suit, has some fun in it and I removied his "muder" of Sandman. Peter enjoys the feeling he gets in the suit and ventures out as the "new" Peter Parker, bascially out for revenge on MJ. The movie continues as normal until the end.
- Cut the awful scene where the Butler tells Harry his father died at his own hand. Of course this affect nothing - it just leaves Harry conflicted so when he comes back it is more of a surprise.
- Removing Sandman from the final battle I thought would be impossible, but it was REALLY easy. The news reports MJ has been kidnapped by an evil, black-suited creature, and Spidey swings in to help her. He fights with Venom and falls to the ground, then Harry comes back, MJ falls, Harry picks up Spidey and they both rescue MJ. Spidey and MJ land inside the high-rise construction site, they talk for a moment and then we hear Venom scream - Peter turns around and faces off with Venom. It's like the fight with Sandman never existed. The ONLY continuity error is after Peter talks to MJ and hears Venom scream, we cut to another angle and MJ is missing from the shot, when she should be right in front of Peter. If I do this edit as a final, I'd have to comp her into the shot). Then Peter and Harry kill Venom. MJ runs to the dying Harry.
- Of course I cut the final scene where Sandman and Peter "make nice." Now MJ runs to tend to Harry, and a moment later Peter joins her. It's as if the Sandman scene was never there.
So, we end up with 96 minutes of really focused story. Does it work? I'll find out tonight.
The most interesting thing was how easy it was to cut Sandman from most of the film. If his character was beter integrated into the story, it should have been much harder.