Batman: Descent Into Mystery

Well, I just watched the best version of Batman '89 tonight. Guess which one it was? Oh, ok, this one! Not only was the romance removal a good decision, but Bruce (who is used quite sparingly!) is no longer a "reclusive, asocial, insecure-acting creep." Sounds good to me. He's supposed to be far removed from the Batman persona, not slightly less Batman-ish! ;)

Overall, the story is nice and tight and loses nothing from the cuts, which were all perfect. The movie looks and sounds great. Give it a whirl! :)

P.S. I was happy to contribute to this project, even if it wasn't with the edit itself, but with the supplements. Heh.

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.

Burton's Batman and its sequel were AMAZING back in the day. I remember seeing them both in theater and enjoying them a lot.
But, as for most of Burton's movies, they aged poorly, IMO. They are still watchable, they have nice settings, cool actors numbers
and all, but I don't know... I fall asleep each time I want to see them now. I'm afraid I find them... dated.

Dwight Fry's version of Batman (89) was a refreshing way to revisit this movie.
It's Still Batman (89) but the pace is better, it flows well. I did not fall asleep this time, lol.
Even if it looks like I'm the only man alive to still have a soft spot for Kim Basinger I did not mind some of her scenes being removed. She's still there, but enough to still be part of the story without slowing down the pace.

The Joker not being the killer of Bruce's dad an mom is well done, but I guess I so have the original movie version in mind that I found
something was missing... (maybe removing completely the scene could have also worked?)
But really, for someone who would never have seen the original I think Dwight Fry's version would work very well.

All the transitions, the music replacement at times, and all the cuts are impeccable.

My hat off to Fry for his work and patience during the long making of this fanedit. The result is very professional.

For me what makes a great fanedit is to offer the viewer an alternative to the original and not to replace it. The Batman film of 89 will always have a special place for me, I still have memories of the large cues which stretched around the cinema, and the news paper clippings I collected made it one of the most anticipated films for me. This was also one of the first films in the UK that carried a 12 certificate and being around 10 or 11 at the time I had to wait until the end of its run before my father took me to see it (the age restriction limit was a lot tougher back then)

So looking at Dwights cultist there wasn't a lot on there that I felt made it a bad film, I mean the relationship between Bruce and Vicki didn't bother me nor did Batman killing The Jokers goons. I've never been a big comic book reader so the idea of making this Batman closer to his origins again wasn't greatly appealing. However with that being said I go back to my opening sentence for me a great fanedit offers the viewer an alternative to the original and this is a great fanedit.

Having watched a work print version a while I recall switching off the edit and started to flick through the original and to my surprise I couldn't believe how much footage had been removed without me missing it. This is a film I’ve seen countless number of times during the years and to see a version that removes the love relationship between two main characters so well done and is the highlight of this edit.

Even some of the joker scenes most notably the museum section which I really liked I didn't particularly miss. This is because the edit doesn’t suffer from any obvious cuts and keeps the flow and the pace of the film at a fast pace.

The only negative for me was the use of the flashback scene in which Bruces parents are killed, it left me a little confused as to whether Bruce knows that Jack/Joker is the man responsible for their deaths. I put this down mainly to myself not being able to fully detach myself from the original film, but I do fell the scene wasn't necessary.

Overall I can only backup what over people have said about this edit not only is it one of the best edits of the year but will be remembered as one of the best edits of all time. I now look at my original batman copy as a extended version but it will be a hard decision to make when it comes to watching Batman again. The short edit The Killing Joke by Blueyoda is also a welcome highlight.