Batman: Descent Into Mystery

Dwight Fry's Batman: Descent into Mystery, more than two years in the making, is one of the best fanedits I've ever had the pleasure of viewing, and hands down my new favorite Batman film! The amount of effort put into this really shows, and at no point did this feel like a fanedit. Great work!

The audio and visual editing are top notch. Nothing was out of place and the audio work is very professional. The new color correction is remarkable and very film noirish.

The fact that you removed the romance element of the film while simultaneously improving the narrative proves just how pointless and unneeded it really was. Batman is now not only the main focus of the film (Which is one of the main problems with the original), but he is also more faithful to the comics. The intercutting between Batman's and Joker's origins works very well. The removal of Prince's music and out of character moments makes for a much improved movie!

The extra features were very intriguing, particularly Bluyoda's surreal The Killing Joke short. The color correction comparison and black and white reveal looked great, and overall the presentation is wonderful!

I can gladly say this is not only the best Batman movie ever, but also one of my new favorite movies, and will earn a place on my shelf. Thank you for a very enjoyable birthday evening Dwight! Now you definitely have do to Batman Returns!

Audio/Video Quality: 10/10
Visual Editing: 10/10
Audio Editing: 10/10
Narrative: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall Rating: 10/10

This was brilliant! I am a big lover of Batman 89, despite its flaws. I've been following Dwight's progress for the last year and the end result was well worth the wait.

No more "You made me, I made you." Less Vale. Less Prince. Batman is more Batman. Bruce Wayne is more mysterious. I loved it.

The bonuses were a nice touch. Blueyoda's short was very interesting and the other two featurettes (Color Correction and Alternate Joker Reveal) were awesome.

Thunderous applause for this edit.

BATMAN DESCENT INTO MYSTERY

I had the extreme honor of watching this fan edit yesterday, and after ages of anticipation,
I can honestly say, I was not disappointed.

This is a solid, entertaining edit.

Dwightfry set out with a list of specific goals for this edit, I believe has achieved each one very successfully.

The color correction work is very nice, the colors are deeper, cleaner and richer. The video quality is excellent.

The audio work is strong and professional. Considering Dwight had a couple of really tricky scene transitions with little or inappropriate audio cues to work with, the end result is surprising, clever and masterful.

The menu design is simple and functional. There are some nice bonus items, including a Joker (Heath Ledger) short by BluYoda.

As for the edit itself, it works wonderfully.

The two main objectives narrative wise were to remove the Vicky Vale/Bruce Wayne romance and to trim Batman's actions so they are more in line with the accepted traditional comic book version.

Dwight is highly successful in both objectives. The new narrative flows smoothly, I did not even realized certain scenes were missing until after the edit was over and I started thinking about what I saw or did not see. So that is a fantastic testament to Dwight's storytelling ability! Great work!

The story stays focused on the Joker and Batman, keeping the tension level high. Though the one downside of no romance story, is there is even less Bruce Wayne, making the movie feel even more about Jack and less about the Bat. But at the same time, it creates more of an air of mystery around Bruce and Batman. He feels almost more like a Force of Nature, than just a man.

Which leads nicely into Dwight's second objective, making Batman closer to his comic book origins and removing the gun wielding Batman element. As every Bat Fan knows, Batman abhors guns! He would never use one. He certainly would not mount them on his Batmobile or Batwing and fire them into a crowd of people. This is the one element of the Tim Burton films I hated the most, and Dwight has masterfully removed them. Thank You! There are many other little tweaks and trims throughout that bring this movie Batman closer to his graphic novel counterpart that I think Batfans will catch and enjoy.

As I said before, this is an excellent edit. It engages and entertains. The new story works and it is technically solid.

I recommend it to all Batman Fans.

THUMBS UP!

Thanks for the great show Dwight!

All the traditional film tropes they crammed in the original film for mass-appeal created a huge tonal contrast to the comic book hyper reality, which made the film a frustrating slog for me. This cut now feels like a serious attempt to make a film adaptation of the source material for adult fans that grew up watching the Adam West TV series -- a fun Batman/Joker story in big-budget film format. I only noticed about four edits, though I know there were many more. This version I find pretty much ideal.. In the past I got so lost in the jumble of weird scenes and Hollywood fluff that I never really registered the Batman/Joker story underneath it all. I honestly feel like I just watched the film for the first time.

This is a great edit of the film but with just a few issues.

Batman 1989 is not my favorite Batman film but I think the film had the best impact on the character. Most of my issues with the film are due to the accuracy of Batman himself, but with The Descent into Mystery edit fixes a lot of the issues with the original film. Changes include Bruce not sleeping with Vicki Vale, and Batman not killing "a whole lot". Another thing I liked about this edit is how much credit is given back to the real creator of Batman, Bill Finger.
Unfortunately some of the cuts that were made I think could of been worked on a little better. Like the whole tower scene was cut too short, and you could of kept Axis Chemicals exploding by just cutting out a few seconds.

Overall I loved this cut of the film and I would go as far as to use it during Batman movie marathons. Dwight Fry did a great job on this edit and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.