Alexander: Warrior King

Alexander The Great has always been a fascinating historical figure to me so I was pretty disappointed by Oliver Stone's initial film and his subsequent attempts to stick the landing. However, the reason I kept coming back for Stone's various 'revisitings' of his film is that there is undeniably some great material in the ungangly mess he created. This edit is the most successful edit I've seen thus far, likely because it decides to focus on only one aspect of Alexander's short, but eventful life--his rise and fall as a military leader. Honestly, you could probably make an entirely different edit from just the psycho-sexual material Stone was also trying to work out in his film because it's also interesting in itself, but trimming all that allows this edit to have more forward momentum. I also think the long-debated Alexander/Hephestion relationship is handled very well. You can view them as either lovers, best friends, soul mates, or any of the above depending upon your own opinion.

My only complaint would be the choice of the final song during the end credits. Given the classical nature of both the film and the soundtrack up to that point, suddenly being thrust into a song that I'm guessing is from a Transformers movie felt very jarring. Otherwise, this is a solid edit of a deeply imperfect, but interesting, film. Absolutely recommended.

Really well done edit - technically great and narritatively better than the original. If you're looking for a movie about Alexander the Great, this is the cut you need, and not the theatrical cut.

What an absolute masterpiece of an edit by KMartKid! How in the world was this edit even in the same universe of the horrific theatrical edition? I cannot even fathom it. Easily one of the best narrative and enjoyment improvements done to a movie.

The edit from beginning to end was a great and enjoyable watch. I never cringed or wanted to give up like I did a long time ago when I watched the movie. I was highly engaged throughout the whole movie. This edit is easily one of the best transformations from a terrible movie to an engaging and entertaining one. From beginning until the end, we are given a strong and well-structured narrative. Everything cut was an absolute necessity, particularly all the distracting love stories that detract from the war narrative.

The 4K visual quality was stunning and even some of the visual corrections made enhanced the movie as was shown in the forum thread. For a movie that was chopped up into several pieces, you would be lucky to find any noticeable or awkward cuts anywhere in this movie. This was excellently put together - including new footage and CGI shots.

The new musical score incorporated fit in very nicely throughout this movie. I do think the song chosen for the closing credits was not the best fit for a movie that was set in the prior time period. I also noticed that in the opening childhood scenes the musical score often swallowed the dialogue of some of the characters. It gave me a hard time hearing what people were saying. These are my only critiques.

Overall, I want to thank the editor for sharing the edit with me. This is a definite must-watch for those who like history movies like I do. For those on the fence, you will not regret watching this. I will certainly hang on to this and rewatch in the future.

The amount of film removed here is insane; 123 min in total. That’s unusual and there was a high change the final version would become a much different film compared to the original.
And it did; I hated the original but I loved this edit. It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest improvements to a film I’ve seen on a fanedit.

The ridiculous love triangles are gone, and good riddance. I don’t think the original authors knew that ancient Greece and Macedon societies were actually more complex than just polyamorous/ polygamic relations.
Also, no more narration. That’s always a plus to me.

I fully agree with the removal of (almost) all of the Dutch angles; although they have a function in cinematography, their use should be sparce and parsimonious, or the intended effect easily becomes diluted and futile.

The heavily edited battle sections are one of the highlights here. So many things were improved, with a special mention to the 180-degree rule. Just that one made the chaotic fights much more comprehensible to the viewers.

The new time / location transitions were well executed. With one exception: the Babylon shots from Marvel's "Eternals"; those felt really out of place, in particular because the size of this Babylon is much different than the one we see in the rest of the film (much bigger and extravagant).

The 4K quality is a treat.

The replaced score sounded great to me, but of course, in this regard, it will depend on each one’s taste of music. I thought the score made the film much more epic and grandiose. In a curious way, the score works even better in this film than it does in the original “Conquest of Paradise”. The arrival to Babylon is epic because of the new score.

My only issue was that in a few sections with the new audio, the dialogue became a bit less perceptible. I could still hear the voices, but that change was noticeable.

Great-ly improved! (Pun intended)

I'm not sure what Oliver Stone was thinking with his (bi-)sexually charged, incest-laden take on Alexander the Great, but this cuts out all that bullsh*t and makes it about the enlightened ass-kicking that Asiatic kingdoms got from our Macedonian golden boy.

Battle scenes are greatly improved and there's no skin-crawling "romances" between Alex and his mommy, nor any of his childhood friends.

I think this is near the best anyone could do with this otherwise bizarre film.

Great work!