Blue Skies on Mars: A Total Recall Fanedit

Blue Skies on Mars by Jorge

Review by Captain Khajiit

**Warning!**

**This review contains spoilers!**

I quite liked the original film, but always find alternate cuts fascinating. The faneditor’s way of reorganizing chronologies is not usually to my taste, but the subject matter of this film does lend itself to this approach and the faneditor constructed his new narrative skilfully, so I enjoyed the result.

Editing: The over-the-top action and humour of the original have never bothered me, but the new vision of the film worked better without them, so in removing them the faneditor exercised good judgment. The new narrative was well implemented and worked quite effectively. Overall, the editing is good. 9 out of 10

Entertainment: 8 out of 10 (theatrical – 8 out of 10)

Image and video quality: The video quality was disappointing and at times struggled to reach the average level of quality that I expect from a fanedit. 5 out of 10

Audio editing and audio quality: I listened on a 3.1 setup and was extremely impressed by the audio mix, which for a first attempt at 5.1 was superb. It went a long way towards making up for the video quality and greatly contributed to my enjoyment of this edit. 10 out of 10

Presentation: I prefer simpler menus and was more than happy with those provided. The cover art was superb. 9 out of 10

Overall: 8 out of 10

I recommend this alternative way to experience the films to everyone, whether they liked the original or not.

One word…….Fantastic! After I finished watching this movie, I was still left in shock and awe at what I saw after it was all over. It is true from the disclaimer that this edit will not be for everyone, but for me I thoroughly enjoyed every second.

As many others have commented already the video quality is a little iffy, but I don’t think it is no fault on what Jorge has accomplished here. Meaning I own the Special Edition of Total Recall in the tin can and quite frankly the video is pretty mediocre at best. Just because the video was a little bit of a bummer doesn’t mean the video editing wasn’t superb. Thats where Jorge’s skills come in and it’s clearly evident he is in a class all by himself. However, what I already PM’d Jorge about, was that his main concern was how did his 5.1 mix come out because I guess his other releases were in 2.0. The answer to that is obviously perfect. There was no blunders nor any bad audio transitions to think of. Very high marks there. What impressed me the most with the sound mix was the one part where Quaid gets off the tram on Mars and then you have a really cool video effect, sort of dream-like, and you innercut that with different people he’s encountered. Voices are panning to different speakers, some are clear while others are slowed down and garbley. Same thing with the beginning with Quato. Man that was brilliant. First class audio editing there.

I did have 2 small slight gripes though. Just a couple minor observations I picked up on. The first one being is that after Quaid has taken the chip out of his brain and Rickter and his henchmen think he is still there that whole scene is in color. Then they find out Quaid isn’t there and Rickter shoots the rat, but it just magically turns to black and white. Which of course shouldn’t of happened because that effect when the reverse chronological (B&W) and chronological (Color) meet is suppose to be saved for the end when the different elements merge together for the first time. No biggie though. The last one is that you have 2 sets of credits which I don’t think you need. The one’s at the beginning are perfect, I don’t think you need the ones from the original movies’ at the end. A little overkill in my opinion. Just overlay that music with the credits that scroll up. I don’t know how that would affect Jorge’s use of the “blue skies” music, but maybe it can be shortened somehow. Anyway just rambling. Overall, it still came up aces in my book and is a testament to Jorge’s skills!

Video: 6 out of 10. Like was said before just average video. I don’t have the Blu-Ray to compare this too. This is the only real thing wrong with this fan- edit.
Audio: 10 out of 10. Perfect. Nuff said.
Editing: 9 out of 10. Just the 2 small gripes I stated before knocks it down just a notch, Everything else is perfect.
Entertainment: 10 out of 10. It gets this high ranking because for me anyway it is just that damn good.

Overall: 9 out of 10.

I respectfully bow down and salute you my good man. Good job Jorge!

I agree that this fanedit is not for everybody. While I enjoyed “Blue Skies on Mars” I still prefer the original as silly as it is. I think the ultimate downfall of this version is that if you haven’t seen “Total Recall” you’ll most likely be scratching your head trying to understand what’s going on.

As described in the fanedit info, B&W is suppose to be the future and color the present. This is all fine and dandy until during one scene it goes from color to B&W. That left me scratching my head trying to figure out how you can go from present to future. And then it happens again at the very end when it goes from B&W to color. I couldn’t figure out exactly how it played with time as described by Jorge. Flyboy707 does mention in his review that it requires more than a casual viewing so it’s possible I wasn’t as involved in the viewing as I should have been.

I also agree with Flyboy707 that the “open your mind” sequence is amazing. My only comment here is that I felt it should have happened 30 seconds later. But the editing and new audio mix is outstanding.

Unfortunately the video isn’t very good. You’ll notice compression in many scenes. While not a deal breaker it would have been nice if the video was a bit crisper. This could be from whatever the source material is. I never saw the DVD version, and it’s been a couple of years since I watched my copy on BR. Perhaps a tweak of the video compression setting or a “BSOM v.2″ using a different source will help.

Overall, if you like “Total Recall” you should give this one a watch. Perhaps a second viewing will change my opinion on the overall story, but as of right now I think it is a little muddled if you’ve never seen “Total Recall”.

Entertainment: 7/10
Video: 6/10
Audio: 10/10

OVERALL: 8/10

I’m not an Arnold fan. He’s never offered me anything other than OTT violence and one-liners, which is just not my thing. But I am a big fan of the Terminator films, because they are sci-fi films with Arnold in them, rather than the other way around.

I’ve always had mixed feelings about Total Recall. To me this is a movie that is both a sci-fi and Arnold film at the same time. I watch it for the sci-fi, but cringe at the Arnold. And so I was curious to see what Jorge planned for this film. When I read his thoughts on the film, I realized this fanedit was made just for me. And after watching it, I was thrilled to see that the Arnold factor was indeed greatly reduced.

Beyond that, I also really enjoyed the mementomixing of the film. This is an ideal movie to give this treatment to, and it works really well. In fact, I found myself disappointed when I realized the two narratives had joined and we would only be moving forward from that point on. Not that I would suggest anything different, but it was just a “awwww, too bad” kind of moment.

The change to color near the end was put in the perfect place, and the last shot of the edit left me with a big smile on my face.

Audio and video cuts were invisible. The video quality is a little rough as others have mentioned, but it wasn’t terribly distracting. I would be interested to see how this would look using the Blu source, however. I used headphones while watching so I didn’t get a chance to check out the 5.1 mix, but since I will definitely watch this again in the future, I will listen to it at some point.

I didn’t expect this to become my go-to version of Total Recall, but by turning this film into a sci-fi film rather than an Arnold film, Jorge has put his version on my shelf.

9/10

I think that this might be hard to follow without knowing the original already. Fortunately, I cannot imagine that reality because I love Total Recall. This was a really cool and fresh take on the narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. I'll continue to watch this and the original both regularly.