As loaded as the DVDs for some blockbusters tend to be, there's a truckload of deleted scenes that never see the light of day. Sometimes it's because filmmakers and the studio are holding out hope for another, fancier DVD release down the line. Sometimes it's because they hope to reuse the footage later in a different context. Whatever the case, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is pulling back the veil and showing off a whole bunch of excised material on the upcoming DVD.
Comic Book Movie altered us to the 23 minutes of deleted The Amazing Spider-Man 2, uploaded on a site called VK, that can be found on the DVD. Some deleted scenes are excised because they're anomalies, missteps in an otherwise coherent vision. But in this case, they seem indicative of a wildly out-of-focus emphasis on certain story elements that would make the last two films in the series the lowest grossing and least pleasurable to fans.
First, they have that scene we discussed a couple of days ago, where Peter's newly-bearded father emerges from absolutely NOWHERE to talk to him at his girlfriend's gravestone – catch it here in better resolution with better volume. There's also more footage on the plane at the beginning of the film, but it doesn't reveal how or why Richard Parker lived. Presumably he survived for months on a raft with a young Indian boy, but that's unconfirmed as of now.
Also, Flash Thompson goes to college! Electro has a mom! The effects and soundtracking seem pretty finished, which could mean this stuff was in the finished picture for a very long time before finally being cut. If so, this would have been one very long movie. There's also Harry Osborn's revelation that Norman Osborn was working on spider-human hybrids (?) with Richard Parker (!) and that he was using surveillance on Peter, Uncle Ben and Aunt May for years (!!). Where would THIS have gone? And finally, Gwen Stacy's Oxford announcement was given a bit of extra padding, though that material was simply cut for basic, boring pacing issues.
Oh, and Harry Osborn's super-gross transformation into the Green Goblin? Plenty more where that came from! There's a bit of Raimi in that deleted footage, and a bit of Lamberto Bava as well – Demons seems to be the influence here! Demons – now THERE'S a movie!
Nowhere to be found is the deleted footage involving the fate of Electro's mom, nor do we see any deleted material involving Mary Jane Watson. Amazing as it may seem, the film featured all these plot strands AND set up MJ (as played by Shailene Woodley) as something of a rebound for Spidey. We're probably never going to see that footage, so we'll have to make do with what we have here. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits shelves August 19th.
