Batman Begins: Dark Cut

I’m sorry man, this didn’t really work for me.

The Good -
All the cuts you made to the story were great. It definitely felt more like Batman. Especially the Docks.

The Bad -
Holmes’ voice. Very distracting for me. I understand the reason behind it but it just didn’t work. She didn’t sound like a natural human being to me. It screamed of digital editing. Every time she would talk brought me out of the movie. It’s ironic because Katie’s natural voice brings you out of it, so I guess now I know how you felt.

Certain parts sounded perfectly fine but other lines sound way off. A great example is around the 1:20:18 mark. When she answers the phone, the first part (“Rachel Dawes… who authorized that?”) she sounds like a transvestite. Then the next part (“Get Crane down there right now…”) she sounds like a normal person.

Sad to say but the new manly sore throat voice was a deal breaker for me.

FANEDIT RATING – 8

Audio/Video Quality – 9
Visual Editing – 10
Audio Editing – 7
Degree of Editing – 9

(NOTE: “Degree of Editing” is a 100% arbitrary rating that I keep in mind when reviewing edits. This is not meant to insinuate that a faneditor is lazy or not. Some fanedits require a lot more work than others and I take this into account.)

MOVIE RATING – 7

Narrative – 8 (original is 8)
Enjoyment – 6 (original is 9)

OVERALL RATING – 7

I will start off with saying that I am not one of the people who was enamored with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. When I first saw it, I didn’t think it was all that captivating, thought the batmobile was atrocious, and missed the mystaire that Tim Burton’s Batman brought. But then, it’s a generational thing. A lot has come and gone in film since 1989, as well as in the audience’s preference.

I have come to appreciate it as a film, as I really enjoyed The Dark Knight. In retrospect, I think it undertook something that was very difficult, in bringing believability to a real life Batman. Especially after Batman Forever…

But I love this fanedit! It has definitely replaced the original as my preference for this story. The flow is tight, the action is strong, and the interest in the very convoluted story is fairly sustainable.
So, I give it 9/10 for effort.

The drawbacks I did not like are few, but kind of strong.

I really did not like the voice modulation for Katie Holmes. I could barely pay attention to what she was saying because it was so obvious. Not that I don’t think it was a good idea, but her voice is just so specific, it was hard to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

The biggest line for the description of this edit that stood out to me was “A more streamlined version of Batman Begins, with fewer cheesy jokes”. Then there was the ridiculous line Batman says about leaving a space for him to sign the check to pay for the damages to Gotham City. It was so corny! Right after he’s just left his mentor to die.

And has been brought up, there were a few scenes that seemed like the audio was not perfectly synced; though this was not as annoying as it sounds. (get it? sounds… never mind.)

Other than that, I was very impressed. I will definitely look forward to further work from JMB.
Great job, J!

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Finally got around to watching this,

When the thread was still going on about the edits I couldn’t wait for it, but for some reason I just downloaded and impatiently skipped to the newly edited things.

But after taking some time to watch it I must agree with everyone else here: this is a tremendous fanedit.
From a technical standpoint there are almost no problem (except at the end the new batmobile lines were a little low and the scene with Rachel at the end had noticeable louder music, but that’s just nitpicking) and the only things that detract from this edit are my personal opinions.

I love Batman Begins, I love extensive driving on the top of roofs, I love the fact that Gordon and Batman work together at the end since Gordon until then never had a shining role in Batman movies

But personal preferences aside: does this edit work?

Yes it does. Not having Gordon is my problem, the new take works as well as the original, it changes the mood of course, but it works nevertheless, same goes for the shortened chase sequence, I’m pretty sure that if you’ve never seen Begins you won’t notice the edits.

Katie Holmes’s voice works in 98% of the cases, only when the original voice tries to talk in a deep voice the new pitch sounds a bit awkward. A lot of cringy Rachel lines are thankfully gone as well and most of the things you don’t even miss.

Will this replace my DVD? No

But it is a very good alternate take on the source material: 8/10

Definitely my preferred version of Batman Begins.

Technical quality – 10/10 – Great!

Editing – 10/10 – Sometimes I forgot I was watching a FanEdit, which is, in this case a good thing. I just got into the story and didn’t notice any cuts that took me out of it.

Presentation – 10/10 – No problems here.

Entertainment – 9/10 – I loved the redone scene of Chill’s shooting, the added dialogue, the changes to Katie Holmes’ voice, the trimming of unnecessary humor, the little blond kid being gone, and the changes to the Tumbler chase. Basically, I liked all of your cuts except for one: Gordon not driving the Tumbler. One thing I loved about Batman Begins is the fact that Gordon’s isn’t utterly useless like in the 90′s series. I liked how he was involved in the climax. Now it’s just a GPS and isn’t explained terribly well. I was also hoping you’d keep the “I’ve got to get me one of those” line. So I’m taking one star off the entertainment factor.

Overall – 9/10