Any time you have a highly successful franchise, especially these days when it involves a popular super hero, you know there are bound to be sequels. Horror icon Sam Raimi seemed like the least likely person to take on one certain friendly, neighborhood wall-crawler, but the first Spider-Man film proved to be box office gold, resulting in a second film and, just around the corner, a third. One other very popular trend, at least as far as DVD releases is concerned, is to release another version of the film just prior to the release of the latest installment. It’s worked with the X-Men films, New Line and Peter Jackson cashed in big time with the Lord of the Rings movies, and as you might have guessed, Spider-Man is in line as well with a new 2.1 edition.

A full review of the movie at this point really is fairly pointless, and with editions like this, it’s all about the fans. They already know the movie, they love the movie, and if they didn’t care about it, quite frankly they wouldn’t have any interest in finding out about a newer version. We all know the idea behind the film as we find Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), secretly living out the life of the heroic Spider-Man. Dear old Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) is having financial problems, Peter is having relationship problems with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and making a move onto the Broadway stage isn’t help matter much. If that wasn’t enough, a new super villain has emerged, Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) has emerged and full of self-doubt, Peter is ready to hang up the red and blue suit while New York City is being terrorized by yet another criminal.

The second Spider-Man film shows improvements over the first, not just with the characters, but the special effects, something that obviously the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took notice of when the film won an Oscar in the 2004 Academy Awards for  Best Visual Effects, though it lost out on Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. Still, any super hero movie managing to get noticed is quite an accomplishment.

Spider-Man 2 has of course already made one appearance on DVD, but the 2.1 version does feature some additional features that the original did not contain. Most notably for fans is the fact that this version features an additional 8-minutes of footage, and while it’s not quite to the same level as some extended cuts that have been released, it’s still more than what fans saw originally. Here though, I don’t want to give too much away, and you’ll just need to buy the DVD to find out exactly what has been added, but let’s say that any fan of the movie and the franchise is going to be quite pleased. The Spidey Sense pop-up trivia has been retained as well, though this is the 2.1 version. Here you will find a wealth of information, not just about the actors, special effects, and creation of the movie, but many tidbits of information about the comic books and the differences between the films and the comics, plus little bits of trivia that even some die-hard Spider-Man fans might have missed. 

The first disc also contains commentary, but it’s not the same one that was found originally. Instead of Raimi, Mguire, Avi Arad and Grant Curtis on one with a second track done by the technical crew of the film, there is new commentary featuring Laura Ziskin, one of the producers behind the series, and screenwriter Alvin Sargent. There are things missing however, which may or may not matter to some. The Web-i-sodes that were originally seen on the Internet and then included with the DVD are gone as well as the music video. I don’t find there to be a big loss, though for those that enjoyed them, they certainly are going to want to keep their original DVD in their collection.

The second disc also includes some new features, and what just about everyone is going to be looking at before the movie itself even gets a chance to be played is the sneak peak at Spider-Man 3. So, what does everyone know at this point about the movie? I think most fans are already aware that the original cast is back and there are two new villains; Green Goblin, though now as Harry Osbourn (James Franco) and the first appearance of Sandman (Thomas Haden Church.) What’s that? A third villain? I know nothing!!!! Okay, so maybe Topher Grace is taking on the role of Eddie Brock in the third movie, and it is true that Brock later became one of the coolest villains in the Marvel Universe, Venom. It could also be an absolute fact that we’ve seen a black, symbiotic costume in the trailers, even seen Peter in a bell tower trying to destroy it, but still, that doesn’t mean that Venom is going to show up in the film. Even Raimi said that he didn’t like the character, and I don’t think that Sam would lie or try and misdirect us, would he?

The Sneak Peak is just that; there are a few interviews with Raimi and other cast members, scenes that we have and haven’t seen before, and that’s about all, just enough to get your ready for the next movie. There is also a look at the upcoming video game that, once again, Activision will be handling, and the hype is around the latest platforms, though I’m certain we’ll be seeing it on just about every platform that is still making money.

When the hype and excitement around Spider-Man 3 settles just a little, there are still other features that you can take a look at. There are two featurettes, inside Spider-Man 2.1 that will give you more information about the film, the ideas and concepts that came into play while the film was in development and of course the production end of things, and With Great Effort Comes Great Recognition, taking a look of course at The Oscars and everyone’s thoughts on the film getting nominated, and taking home at least one precious statue. There is also a five-part breakdown on the visual effects from the movie, something that is quite impressive when you see exactly what went into the production of the movie and a multi-angle look at the recording of the music form the film. On the first angle, you will simply see the orchestra playing, but accessing the second one will give you a smaller screen with Danny Elfman discussing composing the music. A very interesting side note about the bonus DVD is that the disc doesn’t include English or French subtitles, but it does have Portugese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese (something I don’t think I’ve ever seen on a DVD released in North America) and Thai.

Will you buy the Spider-Man 2.1 edition of the film? If you’re a fan, absolutely, and if you’ve seen hoping for another release and just waiting, you may want to buy both of them as the extra material does differ. Maybe if there’s a Blu-Ray edition Columbia Tri-Star will take full advantage of the storage space and include EVERYTHING into one package (and I’m requesting right now that this should be the case) but even if they don’t, owning this edition is just the thing to get audiences ready for when Spidey swings back into theaters once again. But, on that Venom thing again, I swear I DO NOT know if he’s in the film, so don’t e-mail and ask. That seven minute footage that’s floating around the net right now didn’t really give many clues, but I do know that when Spider-Man 3 hits theaters, it’s going to have some rather nasty teeth sinking into the box office and it will be a black day for quite a few other movies. Let’s just leave it at that.

-mike-