Batman: Descent Into Mystery

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!

Maybe it is because I grew up with the original version, I prefer that one over this, but with all that, I still did enjoy this!

For my first viewing of this edit, I have to say I enjoyed it, maybe after multiple viewings I'll fall in love with it.

UPDATE: Even though, I guess due to nostaglia, I will always love the original, but this deserves to be on my dvd shelf! Dwight Fry, you did a great job with this edit!

I really loved this edit of the movie. At first, I really missed the Prince song Party Man, but as the movie went forward I realized how out of place that scene would have been in this cut--and we got Prince's "Trust" a little later. (I'm a Prince fan. He wrote a song called 200 Balloons for that scene, and it's a on a CD Single. If I ever re-edit this, I've always wanted to use that track.).
In general, there isn't any one thing I can point to that is "wrong" with this edit. The problem is that there isn't much emotional investment with anyone. The things you cut, I agree with. And yet if the Joker didn't kill Batman's parents, that fight in the belltower doesn't have much power to it, IMO. I mean, Batman seems super-pissed and taking the whole Joker-trying-to-kill-everyone-in-Gotham-including-Vikki-Vale thing personally. It just felt a little emotionally hollow.

I still have to say it was a really fun ride, perfect editing. The Joker was great--I found myself speaking dialogue out loud with him. I was glad none of the lines I remembered so well were gone.
In many ways this is much more fun than the original. Much tighter and the Joker is menacing and charismatic. Also, I thought the picture and sound were very very good on my tv, much better than I remembered it. This seemed to fly by!

Mission Accomplished! This Fanfix did exactly what was promised. The forced romance was seamlessly removed and Joker is no longer the Wayne's killer. Much better than the original as far as story line goes. I felt like I was reading one of my old Batman comics; the story kept moving forward at a good pace. It had a good flow and tight story. I've read through the cutlist and agree with everything that was done, except the small nitpicks listed below. I forgot how many cringe-worthy moments were in this film until I reviewed the cutlist. they are definitely not missed.

Best cut was definitely the removal of the museum desecration scene with Prince theme music. Joker gets right down to business and comes off as more menacing.

My nitpicks:
- I wish the editor had removed the part where Jack/Joker's hand comes out of the chemical vat and claws the air. I always hate that when the hero or villian reaches out of the water or from underground and either claws the air or makes a fist. Its so cliche.
- I like when Bob tells the thugs to "check his wallet." That to me is a nice non-forced, genuinely humorous moment. Wish it was still there.

I watched this on a laptop, so I don't really have any comment on audio/video quality. Everything seemed fine to me. Editing seemed well executed and I saw nothing to complain about there.

Great job on this edit. This shows a perfect example of what a fanfix edit can accomplish.