Spider-Man: Deluxe Edition DVD Set Review

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Title: Spider-Man: Deluxe Edition

Region: One

Genre: Live Action Superhero Dramatization

Stars: Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris, Ted Raimi, Randy Savage, and Bruce Campbell

Writer: David Koepp

Based On The Marvel Comic Book By: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Director: Sam Raimi

Feature length: 121 minutes

Extras: Commentary With Director Sam Raimi, Co-Producer Grant Curtis, Producer Laura Ziskin, and Actress Kirsten Dunst, SFX Commentary With Special Effects Designer John Dykstra and Visual Effects Crewmembers, Weaving the Web: Subtitled Factoids, Branching Web-i-sodes, Music Videos, TV Spots, Theatrical Trailers, HBO Making Of Spider-Man, Spider-Mania: An E! Entertainment Special, Director Profile, Composer Profile, Screen Tests, Costume & Makeup Tests, Gag/Outtake Reel, Conceptual Art & Production Design Gallery, Historical Documentary – Spider-Man: The Mythology Of The 21^st Century, The Spider-Man Comic Archives, Rogues Gallery, The Loves Of Peter Parker, Comic Book Artists Gallery, Activision Game: Hints & Tips

DVD-ROM Extras: Comic/Feature Comparison, Record Your Own Commentary, Countdown To Spider-Man 2 Weblinks, Activision PC Game, 2 Playable Levels, 3 Exclusive Marvel Dot. Comics, Spider-Man Visualizer

Deluxe Edition Extras: Seven New Featurettes, Spider-Man 2 Sneak Peek Featurette, Spider-Man 2 Theatrical Teaser Trailer, Activision Spider-Man 2 Game Trailer and Preview

Languages: English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Captions and Closed Captions and French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese Language Subtitles

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Chapter Stops: 28

U.S. Distributing Studio: Columbia Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Sam Raimi’s feature film adaptation of “Spider-Man” is a treat for fans of the web slinging superhero and those relatively unfamiliar with his comic book adventures. What is amazing is how Raimi has managed to update the comic book hero for the new millennium while remaining surprisingly close to the superhero folklore that is a part of American pop culture.

Tobey Maguire is perfect as “Peter Parker.” He is able to communicate a sense of vulnerability and mortality while bringing a great sense of nobility and responsibility to his new role. Kirsten Dunst is both sexy and sweet as Parker’s girl next door and love interest, who is always just out of his reach one way or another. Willem Dafoe delivers a great sense of tragedy to his character, making him more three-dimensional than the cardboard villains one often sees on television. James Franco also adds a brooding subtext to the film that makes him as much as a doppelganger to Peter Parker as The Green Goblin is to Spider-Man.

The effects are pretty good and despite some scenes that reveal the technology enhancements a bit too much, it is no more stylized than other big screen comic book adaptations. In some ways the film calls to mind the wonder of Richard Donner’s “Superman: The Movie” and the bleakness of Tim Burton’s “Batman” while keeping an appropriate balance that gives the film a stamp all it’s own.

Sam Raimi is no stranger to telling comic book inspired stories. His third installment in the “Evil Dead” series “Army Of Darkness” presented Bruce Campbell as the unlikely and thickheaded hero, who manages to save the day in spite of himself while the “Dark Man” films presented a hero that was a combination of the lamenting “Phantom Of The Opera” and “Batman.” His brother Ted Raimi and long time collaborator Bruce Campbell both have cameos in the film along with professional wrestler Randy Savage.

“Spider-Man” is a great start to what may be another fantastic live action superhero theatrical film franchise. In fact when one considers that other Marvel icons such as “Blade” and “X-Men” have already made extremely successful transitions to the big screen with new installments in various stages of development and production, it looks like we are in the age of Marvel on the big screen much as D.C. Comics inspired films dominated the late 70s, 80s, and most of the 90s.

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has released a deluxe edition three-disc set containing the originally released two-disc “Widescreen Special Edition” of “Spider-Man” as well as a bonus third disc with exclusive content. The “Spider-Man: Widescreen Special Edition” comes housed in the original single sized two-disc Amaray keep case while the third disc is individually packaged in a keep case of its own. Both cases come within a glossy cardboard slipcase.

The “Widescreen Special Edition” presents “Spider-Man” in an anamorphic (1.85:1) aspect ratio preserving the way the image was presented theatrically. The picture quality is very good, especially when one considers the amount of extra value materials that are included in the first disc alone. I noticed a very fine grain, but after watching the film on DVD a few times, I am still inclined to stick with my first impressions, which are that the colors are solid, the detail to the sets and costuming have good texturing without any shimmering and no bleeding or video noise. There are English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks with English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language subtitles encoded on to the first disc as options. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is well mixed and clear though not as aggressive as one might have hoped. On the exclusive deluxe edition third disc there are Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese Language Subtitles encoded as options.

Director Sam Raimi delivers a rather subdued, but articulate feature length audio commentary on disc one. Co-Producer Grant Curtis accompanies him and their commentary is mixed in with another commentary with Producer Laura Ziskin and Actress Kirsten Dunst. Kirsten Dunst doesn’t say very much though she gradually begins to participate more in the commentary as the film progresses. The commentary is somewhat screen specific, but not as informative as I would have liked. There is a second audio commentary with Special Effects Designer John Dykstra as well as other effects crewmembers and is appropriately screen specific without getting too technical so one can learn and enjoy what is shared as a layperson without getting lost in mechanical jargon.

My favorite component to the viewing options on disc one is the “Weaving The Web” subtitled factoids that greatly enhance the viewing experience and at times are more informative, interesting, and entertaining than the audio commentary tracks on disc one. In addition there is the “Branching Web-I-sodes,” which allows the viewer to see short bonus featurettes when they see a “Spider-Man” icon onscreen while watching the movie and then press enter on their remote to access the behind-the-scenes snippet and then afterwards be returned to the moment where they left off in the film. Now these extra features on the first disc alone would seem like a lot, but there are more extra features on disc one that include eleven TV spots broken down into seven 33-second TV spots, three 18-second TV spots, and even a 36-second “Cingular Wireless” tie-in TV spot with Spider-Man. (1.85:1) widescreen theatrical trailers for “Spider-Man” (1:20), “Mr. Deeds” (1:51), “Men In Black II” (2:09), “xXx” (1:32), “Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters & Marvels” (3:14), and “Stuart Little 2” (1:13) are also included. All of the trailers feature full Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with the exception of “Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters & Marvels.”

Select cast film credits are included within the “Character Profiles” and there are music videos by Chad Kroeger featuring Josey Scott for “Hero” and Sum 41 for “What We’re All About.” PC Users with a DVD-ROM drive and Internet access can view a Comic/Feature Comparison, Countdown To Spider-Man 2 Weblinks, and one can even record their own commentary track for the film and get an idea of what it is like to record thoughts and recollections for a feature film. Disc two also features DVD-ROM extras that include three exclusive Marvel Dot. Comics, a Spider-Man Visualizer, and two playable levels of Activision’s PC “Spider-Man” video game and there are even some tips and hints for the game on disc two for DVD-Video users too.

The balance of the DVD-Video extra features for the “Widescreen Special Edition are on disc two. Under the heading “Web Of Spider-Man” one can view the “Evolution Of Spider-Man: Mythology Of The 21^st Century” documentary (25:28) with filmed interviews with Stan Lee as well as various writers and artists who have been involved with the production of the “Spider-Man” comic book over the years. There is a gallery of covers of the “Spider-Man” comics from throughout the past decades along with credits related to each issue and there is an artists gallery of concept art as well as a rogues gallery complete with three-dimensional images of the various villains in slow 360 degree revolving stances plus background information on the villains, including weapons and strength. Information on the loves of Peter Parker’s life is also included.

Under the “Goblin’s Lair” heading there are some more traditional featurettes and whatnot that include the HBO “Making Of Spider-Man” (24:41), The E! Entertainment Television Special “Spider-Mania” (40:29), a “Director Profile Of Sam Raimi” (7:04), a “Composer’s Profile Of Danny Elfman” (7:27), and screen tests with Toby Maguire (1:13), J.K. Simmons (: 49), CGI Spider-Man (: 21), and makeup and costume tests (2:53).

The menus are animated with full motion scene selection clips. The third disc that is exclusive to the deluxe edition contains several behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of “Spider-Man” that can be viewed individually or as a whole (32:04). The subjects as listed on the back of the packaging is exactly what is covered and these include a look at the costume design, which I found interesting because it showed a lot of thought truly went into the production of both the Spider-Man and Green Goblin suits. For instance the Spider-Man suit had to look as though it was truly something Peter Parker could make in his room and stay true to the comic and yet it needed something extra to punch it up so to speak for the movie. They used layered of silk screen to add a three dimensional quality to Spider-Man’s suit that accentuated the muscle tone appropriately for both Tobey Maguire and the stuntmen without looking as if the suit added fake muscle tone that was not there. The fact is that according to Maguire’s audio commentary that can found on the individually released “Spider-Man: Superbit” DVD, he went through six months of weight training, martial arts, and yoga with a personal trainer and nutritionist so when you see him in the costume, that is really him. The Green Goblin costume took a departure from the comic book to make the suit look as though it was designed for military applications that included striking fear in the adversary. There is a companion featurette that goes into detail on the arsenal of weapons the Green Goblin uses and how the glider he rides was designed. Additional behind-the-scenes featurettes explore the production design for the New York City of “Spider-Man” as well as a look at the wrestling match sequence, the World Unity Festival sequence, and OsCorp laboratory scene. A short on the actual Spider wrangling wraps up what is related to the first film.

Executive Producer Avi Arad and Producer Laura Ziskin introduce a short behind-the-scenes look at the production of “Spider-Man 2” (4:49) with quick interview clips with Director Sam Raimi and Stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Alfred Molina. This is supported by the theatrical teaser trailer (2:10) presented in an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with a full English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. There is also a trailer for Activision’s “Spider-Man 2” PlayStation 2 game (1:14) and Windows based DVD-ROM users can get a demo of the game, which is still a work-in-progress. If you are left handed like me, please note that the demo assumes everyone who plays it is right handed so adjust your mouse accordingly.

That’s pretty much it. I was somewhat disappointed by the third disc, but if you have never purchased the original release then I would say definitely buy the “Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment “Spider-Man: Deluxe Edition” DVD set, which is available now at retailers on and offline and be sure to visit your local Cineplex for “Spider-Man 2,” which opens in the States on Wednesday, June 30, 2004.

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