Review Detail

8.1 13 10
FanMix December 26, 2010 2733
Enjoyment
 
8.0
***This review contains spoilers ****

Twelve Monkeys is one of Terry Gilliam’s best movies IMO. It is also a really working example how his style of mixing genres and working on several stages at the same time (odd, funny, dramatic, thrilling) kind of works in perfection.
In the end I as the audience had seen a movie that was fascinating, amusing, emotional and tense at the same time. Not all popcorn cinema, but highly artistic.
Jorge’s Army Of The Twelve Monkeys is a more sorted version that only plays in 1990 and 1996 (with an ending int he future) and it is chronological. It also contains a lot less oddities, but left in quite a few, making these stick out even more than they did before (like the madness of Goines). While trying to focus on a more streamlined and less odd version, the flow of the original is not happening, but replaced by a very different, still odd mood. The struggle of Cole that really kept the movie going falls flat, the superb emotional finale falls flat, but Madeleine Stowe’s character suddenly becomes the leading role and the entire movie is more the experience of her adventures with Cole.
As that the fanedit works and presents the audience with a very different movie, which is wonderfully executed and pulled through.
I consider the original the much better movie, but for a different version this one was truly interesting and kept me entertained. It is a fabulous and consistent effort to truly change a movie experience.
The ending in the future, which is actually the beginning of the original did not work too well for me. The intention, when Cole finds the sign was clear, yet emotionally nothing happened and the credits running were confusing.

Technical notes:
The pinkish coloring and the blurry image quality were not working so well for me. The reformatting was most of all perfect, except for some very few scenes, which were too obvious and brought the reformatting to my attention (example: taxi driver and a few face close-ups).

Rating:
This was good. I recommend it. Very well done, Jorge.
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