While the Spider-Man Trilogy may have had some controversial changes, later films, alternate versions and video games were able to fix them.
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Spider-Man: The Movie
- Early releases of the game had included Mary Jane Watson as an alternate costume for Spider-Man, albeit with Peter Parker's voice. Given that the game ends in a Big Damn Kiss between Spidey and MJ, using the Mary Jane skin for the final battle results in a Screw Yourself scenario. Later editions removed the Mary Jane costume for this reason.
- The movie trilogy was criticized for toning down Spider-Man's sense of humor and portaying Peter Parker as more of a wallflower than the snarker he is in the original comics. All three game adaptations remedy this flaw by giving Spider-Man a boatload of quips for his fights, allowing Tobey Maguire to indulge in the humor that his otherwise-excellent movie performances lacked.
Spider-Man 2 (Video Game)
- A criticism of Spider-Man 2 is that the story places too much emphasis on Peter Parker the civilian over Spider-Man the superhero. The game inverts this dynamic by focusing on Spider-Man, adding some allies and villains that weren't in the original movie to expand the story.
- Jay Gordon was cast as the voice of J. Jonah Jameson in this game, and gave a performance that many fans felt was a pale imitation of J. K. Simmons. Given that the other main actors from the movie do an excellent job voicing their characters here, this was especially disappointing. The PlayStation Portable version brought Simmons back to the role, and he continued to reprise Jameson in the Spider-Man 3 game as well.
Spider-Man 3: Editor's Cut
- The Editor's Cut version of the movie outright cuts out the much-panned scene where Harry's butler convinces Harry to help Peter save MJ by only just NOW revealing to him that he had proof of Norman dying by his own hand, and instead has Harry make his choice all by himself, making his role in the film's climax much more powerful. This also might have happened anyway according to Word of God, as Harry was apparently hallucinating him being there as part of remembering the evidence and realizing the truth.
- There is a brief but frightening scene where Peter with the black suit looks into the mirror and sees Venom.
- Peter argues with Eddie before his mansion fight with Harry in this version, keeping his angry side consistent between scenes without any Mood Whiplash. Peter's dance montage coming right after he disfigured his best friend is made more disturbing, showing how he is Drunk on the Dark Side.
Spider-Man 3 (Video Game)
- Venom's design is more faithful to his comic counterpart, incorporating his large muscular build, trademark tongue, and his tendency to refer to himself in plurals. His voice is also filtered to sound deeper and more threatening, even if it's still Topher Grace under there. The result is a final boss that is still divisive, but less disappointing than what the movie provided.
- The much-maligned balloon missions from the second game are omitted from this one.
- The first game allowed the player to unlock the Green Goblin as a character, with Harry wearing the armor. Unfortunately, he could only replay the story missions of the game, and was voiced by Josh Keaton instead of James Franco. note Spider-Man 3 not only has James Franco back as Harry, but he gets to be a separate playable character as the New Goblin with his own playstyle and a separate set of missions to complete.
