Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s my final anniversary blog post to celebrate 10 years of ‘Bradley’s Basement’. I’d like to share with you my latest cinema experience of seeing the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy, starring Tobey Maguire. I’ve greatly enjoyed revisiting the three films at the cinema.

Back in 2024 from August to September, I saw re-releases of the eight live-action ‘Spider-Man’ movies, including the Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland eras. This was from the first ‘Spider-Man’ film to the extended cut of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.

I did video reactions via YouTube on all eight live-action ‘Spider-Man’ films at the time, sharing my thoughts on the films from seeing them at the cinema. It was an interesting experiment to see what I could do with sharing my thoughts on films in video form.

This year, I saw re-releases of the original film trilogy starring Tobey Maguire for the final weekend in September. I saw the first ‘Spider-Man’ film on Friday the 26th, ‘Spider-Man 2’ on Saturday the 27th, and ‘Spider-Man 3’ on Sunday the 28th. It’s been pretty amazing! 🙂

What’s been particularly exciting is that the version shown for ‘Spider-Man 2’ at the cinema recently was the extended version, better known as ‘Spider-Man 2.1’. This is something that pleased me greatly, as I do prefer seeing the extended versions of movies.

It was what I hoped to see in 2024 in the marathon of eight live-action ‘Spider-Man’ films, but, sadly, we didn’t get, as the theatrical version was shown instead. Not that’s a bad thing. It’s just I prefer it when all scenes in a film are shown rather than having some scenes edited out.

Mind you, with that said, I prefer the elevator scene between Spider-Man and Hal Sparks’ character in the theatrical version more than in the extended cut. The theatrical version of the scene is funnier, and I wish that version was kept in the extended cut of the film instead.

Despite that, I’m very pleased the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy got another re-release at cinemas following the marathon of the eight live-action ‘Spider-Man’ films at the cinema in 2024. I know I’ve said this many times before, but the original trilogy is my favourite.

And I do consider it the best above the Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland eras. Mainly because it was the era I grew up with and I felt more emotionally connected and invested in the character journeys of Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn in the films.

The enthusiasm from Sam Raimi as the director of the film trilogy, especially with him being a Spider-Man fan, is pretty evident in all three films. Some people might not regard them so highly compared to recent versions of Spidey, but Tobey Maguire’s era wins it over for me.

It’s the fact that the film trilogy is very down-to-earth, particularly with exploring Peter Parker’s struggles as a superhero when balancing it with his every day life. I could relate to that more compared to what goes on in later incarnations of Spider-Man in film and TV.

Even from seeing the third film – arguably the weakest of the film trilogy – I was emotionally connected and invested with what went on with the story and the characters. I found the villains engaging and the romance story between Peter and MJ very compelling.

It’s a pity that the film trilogy ended on a sombre note, particularly with the death of Harry Osborn and that there’s no closing Spider-Man swinging through the city shot like there was in the first two films. Peter and MJ getting back together at the end did seem open-ended.

I was hoping for there to be a ‘Spider-Man 4’ to continue the story of the Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi era and it saddened me that it didn’t happen. At the time of seeing ‘Spider-Man 3’ in 2007, I didn’t want that era to end, since I fell in love with the characters.

With that said, I’m glad the film trilogy ended on a decent note rather than on a very disappointing note. Kirsten Dunst as MJ could have been killed in ‘Spider-Man 3’, which I’m glad didn’t happen. One can speculate on what happened next between her and Peter.

I don’t know if Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man is going to continue beyond the original film trilogy as well as ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (which I’m glad he was in). I believe he’s going to be in ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ along with Andrew Garfield’s Spidey. We’ll have to wait and see.

All in all, it’s been great to revisit the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy, starring Tobey Maguire, at the cinema recently, including seeing the extended version of ‘Spider-Man 2’. It says something when the original trilogy gets a re-release compared to the later movies.

The original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy has won many people’s hearts. To see it re-released on the big screen, and to know it was re-released both in the USA and the UK recently, goes to show how these films are well-loved. I hope the original film trilogy will get another re-release at cinemas soon. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂