Spider-Man 2.1

For those seeking another dip into the mega-franchise, this additional two-disc offering short-changes fans; rather than a newly super edition that will shame the old it actually doesn’t live up to the already-super two-disc DVD issue that preceded it. The sell here is a longer cut of the film, adding eight minutes of additional footage that largely consists of a slightly longer opening (Peter’s birthday), a few seconds of a Doc Ock fight in a library (including some pretty cool attempted tentacle crushing of Spidey’s head), and a few more scenes in the already long, ambitious subway train sequence. But in a featurette on this 2.1 version, it acknowledges that this is no superior cut, that the theatrical version was largely perfect and that it will stand as the film of record. So why buy in to the upgrade? There’s an extended preview of Spider-Man 3 (in theatres in a month, you can’t wait?), plus a featurette on visual effects and Danny Elfman’s score. But given the last version’s 12-part featurette epic that covered all aspects of production, this really feels like table scraps. Especially when we get to "With Great Effort Comes Great Recognition,” a featurette that basically says, "we’re awesome and we won the awards to prove it.” Blech. What happened to a message of selflessness? Plus: producer and screenwriter commentary, pop-up trivia track, trailers.