Review Detail

Initially looking at the cutlist for this, my thoughts were positive, but seeing alot of it in practice, I don't think it works.
One reviewer commented saying that the film still retains an epic feel, despite having more than an hour chopped off, but I would disagree. The film felt rushed to me. Where lines could have been trimmed to achieve a similar affect, whole characters or scenes were removed. And although I would concur that some of the Christ story is milked, and the prologue is certainly overlong, completely removing it strips the film of its context.
Rangerkris removed the subtitle "A Tale of Christ" - and rightly so, because this is really the tale of Ben Hur - however, Ben Hur's story only works in the context of the life of Christ. Without it the film loses a lot of emotional weight and the healing of Judahs family at the end seems like a massive deus ex machina.

Some personal gripes (no points deducted):

- Would have been nice to have a custom title for the edit (I.e. Ben Hur - Prince of Jerusalem)
- There's a jump cut that another reviewer mentioned. It's inherent in the source, so no points can be deducted. It really bothers me, but I'm not sure if anything can be done about. I might have a go at it myself.
- "I am already part of this tragedy" is a great line, and I was sorry to see it cut.

Video quality was excellent, although the picture seemed darker to me than my blu ray copy, which I watched on the same TV the previous evening. Could be that something went ary in the editing process, or maybe just a different transfer.

Audio quality was good, though once again, having seen the blu ray the day before, it sounded more compressed to me. This is me nitpicking though, and I doubt you'd notice a difference unless directly comparing. Overall quality is very good.

Editing was excellent for the most part, which comes as no surprise. In terms of slick editing, rangerkris is probably one of the most professional that I've come across. The only noticeable transitions were some rushed fades, of which others have noted. Audio-wise there was one scene where Judah us talking to the horses. His mouth moves, but no dialogue comes out. I assume this happened during trimming.

Nothing to mark points off of, but worth noting: The cutlist is not complete and a lot more was removed than I expected. The trailer also displays several scenes and lines of dialogue that are not in the edit.

Overall, worth watching, but definitely too streamlined for my taste. It might work for some, but personally I felt the narrative was hindered. I will probably be doing my own edit of this at somepoint.