Review Detail
9.4 4 10
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
9.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
8.0
What this edit needs is a review. Okay, so I’ll do it.
Technical-
Video: First let me be clear, I hate the official DVD. It contains plenty of compression artifacts that shouldn’t be there. It shows all the signs of them being in a hurry to dump a barebones edition on the market so they could get started on the double dip.
Even fully re-encoded to fit on a DVD5 and burn in the subs, this edit doesn’t look much worse than the source.
Unfortunately, in the process it has been converted from 24p to 29.97p by adding one duplicate frame every 4. As a result all the detailed liquid smooth CG work now looks jittery and awkward.
To be fair, I’ll bet that 9 out of 10 people will never see it.
Anyone wanting to add this to their collection should consider demuxing the disc, using Decimate() during re-encoding and adding pulldown flags.
At least it wasn’t hard interlaced or letterboxed… I consider THAT unforgivable.
3.5 out of 5.
Audio:
Besides sounding like the dialog normalization got thrown out of whack (I found myself raising and lowering the volume), everything sounds great in 5.1.
I don’t feel like comparing it to the original DVD so I’ll just give this
5 out of 5.
Editing (Technical)-
Seamless. Really there is nothing else to say. Even knowing where the cuts were, I found no tell-tale signs of the movie being altered.
5 out of 5.
Editing (Plot/Story)-
Hmm. This is a bit more difficult. James Cameron’s, and for that matter anyone’s, biggest film of all time, and if it had the budget of a SyFy channel Saturday night movie you probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
Several groaner lines, occasional poor line deliveries, and complete contempt for the audiences’ ability to understand the subtext without smashing their brains out with it.
Really, “Aliens” told us how he felt about “Evil Corporations and their Military Lapdogs”.
“Abyss” taught us how he felt about xenophobia and to respect the environment.
“Terminator 1 & 2″ told us that he can tell an intelligent and complicated story but still give the audience a roller coaster ride… but struggled with it in “Avatar”.
That said, this movie is the kind where more usually is more. It’s a shame Cameron didn’t realize that a few subplots and/or back stories would have served better than repetition.
So there are 3 factors to this category: does the movie still make sense and seem professionally constructed, does the edit do what it intended, and is it better than the original.
Is the movie clear, concise and feel professionally made? Yes. At no point did I experience a WTF moment. I never felt like things were disjointed, awkward or that someone who had never seen the film wouldn’t completely understand it. In fact except for cleaning up the existing movie, there is no change to the plot or story. It’s the same film, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Did the edit succeed with its intentions? Yes. I was much happier with the flow of the film, and it never drags. The toning down of the caricature portrayals of the military, corporations, and the planet worshiping natives was well done without gutting the film.
Is this edit superior to the original?
That’s difficult. I do like the original movie. There is no question of that. Do I like this edit more? Hmmm.
The original is shallowly plotted and light on story, something I hope will be fixed in the Director’s Cut, or Super Director’s Cut, or the 5 Hour Deluxe Extra Special Unrated Edition Cut.
What does happen is this edit seemed shallower.
The thing is, if the worst you can say about an edit is you wished there was more of it, I have to consider it superior to other edits.
Unfortunately there is one easy test to this last question… will it sit in my collection as a replacement to the original? Sadly, my answer is no. I really can’t say why. Maybe Kevinicus will revisit this when more footage becomes available to help flesh things out, but in the end, I just wish he had left a little more of the harmless flourishes untouched. Half the movie’s experience is in the immersiveness of it, and I was a little less immersed.
4.5 out of 5
Overall rating (not an average):
4 out of 5.
Landstander would stand on land and watch this.
I love following edits and reading about them, but 9 times out of 10 I dislike the final product.
This was a watchable and fun alternative to the ham-fisted storytelling of the original.
Strongly recommended to anyone who walked out of the original movie shaking their head that once again Cameron felt a ‘message’ was more important than a good film. (Yes Titanic, I’m looking at you. Don’t look away. I know you see me over here glaring at you.)
Technical-
Video: First let me be clear, I hate the official DVD. It contains plenty of compression artifacts that shouldn’t be there. It shows all the signs of them being in a hurry to dump a barebones edition on the market so they could get started on the double dip.
Even fully re-encoded to fit on a DVD5 and burn in the subs, this edit doesn’t look much worse than the source.
Unfortunately, in the process it has been converted from 24p to 29.97p by adding one duplicate frame every 4. As a result all the detailed liquid smooth CG work now looks jittery and awkward.
To be fair, I’ll bet that 9 out of 10 people will never see it.
Anyone wanting to add this to their collection should consider demuxing the disc, using Decimate() during re-encoding and adding pulldown flags.
At least it wasn’t hard interlaced or letterboxed… I consider THAT unforgivable.
3.5 out of 5.
Audio:
Besides sounding like the dialog normalization got thrown out of whack (I found myself raising and lowering the volume), everything sounds great in 5.1.
I don’t feel like comparing it to the original DVD so I’ll just give this
5 out of 5.
Editing (Technical)-
Seamless. Really there is nothing else to say. Even knowing where the cuts were, I found no tell-tale signs of the movie being altered.
5 out of 5.
Editing (Plot/Story)-
Hmm. This is a bit more difficult. James Cameron’s, and for that matter anyone’s, biggest film of all time, and if it had the budget of a SyFy channel Saturday night movie you probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
Several groaner lines, occasional poor line deliveries, and complete contempt for the audiences’ ability to understand the subtext without smashing their brains out with it.
Really, “Aliens” told us how he felt about “Evil Corporations and their Military Lapdogs”.
“Abyss” taught us how he felt about xenophobia and to respect the environment.
“Terminator 1 & 2″ told us that he can tell an intelligent and complicated story but still give the audience a roller coaster ride… but struggled with it in “Avatar”.
That said, this movie is the kind where more usually is more. It’s a shame Cameron didn’t realize that a few subplots and/or back stories would have served better than repetition.
So there are 3 factors to this category: does the movie still make sense and seem professionally constructed, does the edit do what it intended, and is it better than the original.
Is the movie clear, concise and feel professionally made? Yes. At no point did I experience a WTF moment. I never felt like things were disjointed, awkward or that someone who had never seen the film wouldn’t completely understand it. In fact except for cleaning up the existing movie, there is no change to the plot or story. It’s the same film, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Did the edit succeed with its intentions? Yes. I was much happier with the flow of the film, and it never drags. The toning down of the caricature portrayals of the military, corporations, and the planet worshiping natives was well done without gutting the film.
Is this edit superior to the original?
That’s difficult. I do like the original movie. There is no question of that. Do I like this edit more? Hmmm.
The original is shallowly plotted and light on story, something I hope will be fixed in the Director’s Cut, or Super Director’s Cut, or the 5 Hour Deluxe Extra Special Unrated Edition Cut.
What does happen is this edit seemed shallower.
The thing is, if the worst you can say about an edit is you wished there was more of it, I have to consider it superior to other edits.
Unfortunately there is one easy test to this last question… will it sit in my collection as a replacement to the original? Sadly, my answer is no. I really can’t say why. Maybe Kevinicus will revisit this when more footage becomes available to help flesh things out, but in the end, I just wish he had left a little more of the harmless flourishes untouched. Half the movie’s experience is in the immersiveness of it, and I was a little less immersed.
4.5 out of 5
Overall rating (not an average):
4 out of 5.
Landstander would stand on land and watch this.
I love following edits and reading about them, but 9 times out of 10 I dislike the final product.
This was a watchable and fun alternative to the ham-fisted storytelling of the original.
Strongly recommended to anyone who walked out of the original movie shaking their head that once again Cameron felt a ‘message’ was more important than a good film. (Yes Titanic, I’m looking at you. Don’t look away. I know you see me over here glaring at you.)
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
L