Although this is a decent commentary I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in it. As with these films, there are too many contributors. If it was up to me it would just be Raimi and Franco (or Raimi and Bruce Campbell maybe). There is a lot of interesting information: the fact that Topher is a big geek, the day Ron Howard came to set ("Oh hello sir"), the inspiration for Sandman was Der Golem, the day Ralph Fiennes came to set, "Maybe we should throw a dump truck at her?", discussion about finding the character within a scene and the multitude of script changes. In fact, there is enough evidence to suggest here that there was a much better film that was hammered down by studio interference with script and a rushed release date.

A rather mediocre commentary. The group setup isn't that beneficial to the commentary since the actors often praise one another (or other people). Unfortunately, Sam Raimi also doesn't offer that much interesting information about the movie to make up for that.
The group was recorded together with just Kisten Dunst not being in the same room as the rest of the group (but it sounds as if she was conferenced in to the group discussion at the same time).

The commentary is very informative. Raimi gaves me a lot of insight into what it took to make the film and the cast come off as very funny (especially Church and Grace). The only thing that really stands out is how Kirsten Dunst constantly puts the film down.

She states the most beautiful and poetic scene in the movie is the one without actors (which "isn't a good sign"); she comments that it's too over-dramatic after Mary Jane is shocked seeing Peter as Spider-Man kiss Gwen Stacy, then jealous and trying to find a private moment, then afraid of the sandstorm from the Sandman; complains about having to be a damsel-in-distress in all three films after Gwen was going to be saved in the end but it got changed. Dunst seems bitchy and ungrateful for landing a role in a such a big movie.

A pretty good commentary, overall. Sometimes you'll find commentaries that are pretty dry because of a lack of contributors, and then you've got the opposite problem with a commentary like this. Having ONE actor talk about a movie is a risky move because, relatively speaking, actors are (but not always) a small fraction of what goes into a movie. But this commentary has the director and SIX actors, meaning they're all fighting for time to speak. Sam and James do most of the speaking, and Tobey probably does the least. Kirsten Dunst was conferenced in from London, by the way. It's still fun to listen to them compliment each other and joke around (Thomas Haden Church in particular is surprisingly funny).

FUN FACTS:

-The original script involved The Vulture (to be played by Ben Kingsley) breaking Sandman out of jail. Marvel knew that fans would want Venom and the black Spidey suit in the movie, which meant that whole story element was shoved in late in prep.

This commentary was more informative than the one with Sam and the cast, as they actually get to discuss the nuts and bolts of the process. They joke about how Sam and Grant cast the most beautiful female extras in New York. I was kind of hoping that Avi might shed some light on his infamous action of shoehorning Venom into the movie (which is usually blamed for the lacklustre quality of the movie), but he doesn't touch on it.

FUN FACTS:

-The "birth of Sandman"-sequence took 30 visual effects artists working 7 days a week for 6 months to complete.

-The "crane accident"-sequence was filmed both day and night with twin cast members (save for Bryce Dallas Howard and Steve Valentine) because they simply didn't have enough days scheduled to complete the scene.