Batman: Descent Into Mystery

So I watched the original Batman just to refresh my memory before I watched this. I avoided the cutlist before watching the edit. I have to say I like the majority of Dwight's choices here. Excellent job on the opening credits. No silly love story (why does every movie need to shoehorn in a love story?!). Drastically cut down Prince music! My only gripe was the cutting of "Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight" but i don't miss it, i just didn't mind that in the original.

I'll have to look over the cutlist to see what changes I didn't notice, the editing was seamless so I'm sure I missed some things.

Overall an excellent firstling. Audio and video quality was good and you clearly accomplished your goals with the edit. Nice work Dwight!

There's a phrase which DwightFry said once in a thread on the forum... something which has stuck with me ever since. It was something along the lines of ... "You never complete an edit; you abandon it". How true that is. Indeed, DwightFry worked on his first edit for more than 2 years and looking at the thread in the "In the Works COMPLETED archive" it appears that he started before I even began work on my first edit (and I've now released 5 edits)! So, the anticipation for this edit was pretty high.

Now, I hadn't seen the original 1989 version of Batman for a long time. Probably not for a good 10 years at least. So, when I settled down to watch the blu ray a week or so before DwightFry's fanedit, I was taken aback a little at how dated the movie looked. I suppose in my mind Burton's movie had all the edge and darkness of Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, but truth be told, the director's visions are a world apart. However, at the same time I still greatly enjoyed Burton's movie. It's fun, has tremendous production design and an iconic music score from Danny Elfman - but most of all, it has Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Undoubtedly his character and performance completely dominate the movie and It's not surprising that the impact of Keaton's Batman is so overlooked. Overall then, I would still rank the movie very highly; and yet the main aspect which is addressed by DwightFry's Descent Into Mystery fanedit, is certainly the one area which cries out for fixing - that rather paper thin and ineffective romance between Vicki Vale and Bruce Wayne.

It doesn't take long to be impressed by DF's first foray into fanediting. Even though I had watched the theatrical version only a week or so before, the cuts which are made here are totally invisible. Not only that, but I can whole heartedly say that I didn't miss one of the scenes which had DF's editing scissors applied to them.

Not surprisingly, the edit's biggest plus point is in scrubbing the aforementioned romance between Vicki and Bruce. It genuinely improves the movie's central character, in that suddenly there is more mystery and intrigue surrounding Bruce Wayne and the Batman. True, it still doesn't redress the balance properly, as Burton's Batman remains very much geared towards Nicholson's Joker, even in this edit. However, it certainly enhances the pace and feel of the movie and somehow brings more substance to the story.

The concept of not having the Joker be responsible for Bruce's parent's death is a wise move for me. I prefer keeping that as a mystery, even if it admittedly carried some dramatic effect in the original theatrical version. Personal preference I'm sure, as I can see from other reviews that it's split people's opinions quite a bit.
As for not having Prince's music playing when the Joker arrives to meet Vicki Vale and thereby denying us the twisted pleasure of seeing many valuable paintings being defaced? Well, DF certainly edits it very well, but it was a scene which I quite enjoyed in the original version as it fits Nicholson's interpretation of the character nicely, so I can go either way with that one. It's not really missed, but it was a fun scene.

Technically, DF has done a fine job, with a subtle colour correction applied which particularly improves the blacks, giving a deeper, less flat feel to the film. Sonically speaking, everything sounded spot-on to me. No harsh cuts or audio drop outs to speak of at all.

On top of this, there's a very cool short edit entitled The Killing Joke, expertly edited as always by blueyoda (even if seeing Bale's fantastic portrayal of Batman made Keaton's look very weak in comparison), plus a nice little colour correction comparison scene, not to mention an interesting About The Edit piece.

Overall then, this is quite excellent work from DwightFry. Whereas in the past I never really believed Burton's film needed fanediting, having seen Descent Into Mystery, I stand corrected. Burton 8/10... DF 9/10.

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!

As unfamiliar as I am with the character from the comics (having not read a single one), certain elements of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman never felt quite right to me, Dwight Fry's edit pretty much clears it up and makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

The removal of the flat "romance" and some sillier aspects (Batwing completely missing the Joker?) is seamless, as is the excision of Bruce and Jack's prior history. While some may say that this makes the flashback and associated scenes pointless, it doesn't seem out of character to me that this event is something that Bruce would dwell on, and besides is an important piece of backstory that the first "proper" film adaptation of the comics ought to include.

While still not a film I can claim to really like (unlike the sequel, for all its weirdness) this is definitely my go-to version, the theatrical cut may never leave its case again!

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!