Review Detail
9.1 9 10
Enjoyment
9.0
In contrast to Neglify, I will confess that James Cameron does give me a slight Princess Leia style hard on. The movie Abyss on the other hand pretty much gives me a full on Kate Upton hard on. It has always been one of my favorite movies. It is cinematically and emotionally powerful. It also has a high degree of technical accuracy by Hollywood standards and features some of the best underwater scenes ever filmed in a cinematic movie.
Unfortunately the movie always did have a slight problem with the ending. Seciors wisely recognized that part of the challenge with pulling off the ending was in how it ties to all the global political background stuff present in the original theatrical version (and even more-so in the SE). It just reeks of cheese. I knew that Secior’s plan was to cut out this aspect of the story. To his credit I have to say that doing so does succeed in mildly improving the ending for me personally. It also succeeds on another level for me in that the movie feels much more atmospheric and more focused in on the underwater experience and the characters we find there, which for me was a major plus over the original.
That said, this plan was always of concern to me because I feared that it would damage the integrity of the main storyline and the character’s motives. Unfortunately this fear proved to be not entirely unfounded. The point where it shows the worst is at 0:59:30. Scene cuts to the middle of an argument with very little context for Coffey’s motives or for the reactions of the rest of the crew acting belligerent out of nowhere. From here-on out there was this nagging feeling of disbelief for me about how events play out more-so than the original version. This edit would have greatly benefited by either including a little bit more of the Russian stuff to provide Coffey more motive, or by finding a different creative way to transition his character more believably.
Video/audio quality was acceptable given the source material and mix of two different sources. There were times when the video quality and audio quality diminish slightly, but it is not overly distracting and I don’t blame the editor. The one exception to this that could probably have been better were a couple rough music audio cuts right in the final climax as the city is rising. Again, though, probably most people won’t notice.
The surround sound was very enjoyable in some scenes and much appreciated.
Menu is just a basic bare-bones menu.
Video/Audio editing is excellent with the exception of the couple rough music cuts at the end. Also I could have lived without the flashback shots when Bud first sees the Alien after cutting the wire. They were totally unnecessary and distracting. It is always a tough call of how much an editor needs to hold the hand of the audience vs letting them make the mental jumps and connections on their own. This was a case for me personally where I felt like the editor was insulting my intelligence with the flashbacks.
FANEDIT RATING (considering the technical and creative new work put forth by the faneditor) – 9/10
MOVIE RATING (considering overall enjoyment as a complete movie and as if I were watching it for the first time) – 9/10
Unfortunately the movie always did have a slight problem with the ending. Seciors wisely recognized that part of the challenge with pulling off the ending was in how it ties to all the global political background stuff present in the original theatrical version (and even more-so in the SE). It just reeks of cheese. I knew that Secior’s plan was to cut out this aspect of the story. To his credit I have to say that doing so does succeed in mildly improving the ending for me personally. It also succeeds on another level for me in that the movie feels much more atmospheric and more focused in on the underwater experience and the characters we find there, which for me was a major plus over the original.
That said, this plan was always of concern to me because I feared that it would damage the integrity of the main storyline and the character’s motives. Unfortunately this fear proved to be not entirely unfounded. The point where it shows the worst is at 0:59:30. Scene cuts to the middle of an argument with very little context for Coffey’s motives or for the reactions of the rest of the crew acting belligerent out of nowhere. From here-on out there was this nagging feeling of disbelief for me about how events play out more-so than the original version. This edit would have greatly benefited by either including a little bit more of the Russian stuff to provide Coffey more motive, or by finding a different creative way to transition his character more believably.
Video/audio quality was acceptable given the source material and mix of two different sources. There were times when the video quality and audio quality diminish slightly, but it is not overly distracting and I don’t blame the editor. The one exception to this that could probably have been better were a couple rough music audio cuts right in the final climax as the city is rising. Again, though, probably most people won’t notice.
The surround sound was very enjoyable in some scenes and much appreciated.
Menu is just a basic bare-bones menu.
Video/Audio editing is excellent with the exception of the couple rough music cuts at the end. Also I could have lived without the flashback shots when Bud first sees the Alien after cutting the wire. They were totally unnecessary and distracting. It is always a tough call of how much an editor needs to hold the hand of the audience vs letting them make the mental jumps and connections on their own. This was a case for me personally where I felt like the editor was insulting my intelligence with the flashbacks.
FANEDIT RATING (considering the technical and creative new work put forth by the faneditor) – 9/10
MOVIE RATING (considering overall enjoyment as a complete movie and as if I were watching it for the first time) – 9/10
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