Spider-Man 2, the trilogy failed at closing strong as Spider-Man 3 is not only considered the weakest of the group, but it didn't do justice to any of its main characters.
In addition to that, Spider-Man 3 had too many villains (Eddie Brock/Venom, Sandman, and New Goblin) and not enough time to develop their stories and motivations, resulting in a messy movie that left a couple of questions and plot holes. Among them is one involving Harry, who becomes New Goblin with the help of his father’s technology as his quest for revenge against Spider-Man for supposedly killing continued. Harry learned the truth about his father, his actions, and fate in Spider-Man 3, but he could have known all about it way earlier, saving him a lot of pain and from a death reminiscent of his father’s.
Why Didn’t Bernard Tell Harry The Truth Before Spider-Man 3?
After a battle against Spider-Man, Harry is left with partial amnesia, and later, urged by a hallucination of his father, recovers and forces Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) to break up with Peter. Harry later meets with Peter to tell him that MJ loves him, and Peter, under the influence of the Venom symbiote, tells Harry that his father never loved him. This leads to a fight in which Harry throws a pumpkin bomb at Peter, who deflects it back and leaves Harry’s face disfigured. Later, Peter asks Harry for help when Brock kidnaps Mary Jane with the intention of killing her, but Harry refuses. However, Harry’s butler, Bernard, reveals to him that his father’s death wasn’t Spider-Man’s fault, as he cleaned his wound and it was clear it was made by his own glider. After that, Harry decides to help Peter and MJ, and dies when he jumps in front of Peter as Brock was about to impale him with Harry’s glider.
While this served for Harry to have a change of heart and mind and help his friends, it left the audience wondering why Bernard waited until Harry reached his breaking point to tell him what truly happened to Norman, when he could have told him after Norman’s death. However, then years after the release of Spider-Man 3, the editor’s cut was released, which is two minutes shorter but has some scenes either shifted around, added, or removed. One of those changes is the scene where Bernard tells Harry the truth, which was removed and replaced with Harry finding a photo of him, Peter, and MJ with the glass broken, making him contemplate his also broken friendships and deciding, on his own, to reconcile with Peter without ever learning the truth.
What’s Different In Spider-Man 3: Editor’s Cut?
Spider-Man 3: Editor’s Cut also includes three alternate climax sequences and one extended scene, and some of these actually add more to the story in a positive way. Some of those are a scene where Ursula Ditkovich tells Peter that MJ had been trying to reach him and he apologies for his behavior under the symbiote’s influence; Peter and Harry’s second confrontation happens differently, with Peter waiting for Harry in his penthouse; and an emotional scene between Sandman and his daughter, as he visits her in the form of a sandcastle. The removal of Bernard and Harry’s scene actually makes the editor’s cut of Spider-Man 3 better because it gets rid of the question of why he didn’t tell Harry before and instead lets Harry have his redemption moment all by himself.
