Blue Skies on Mars: A Total Recall Fanedit

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

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.

Count me as a fan of the original. Saw it theatrically a couple times, defended it in arguments.
Bought the VHS, later the Laserdisc, finally the DVD in a round tin resembling Mars.
Total Recall, to me, was the last good Arnold film. Have not liked - or bought - a title after this.

To be honest, if someone is not familiar with Total Recall, they will got lost with Jorge's edit.
A lot was cut, and the linear narrative is a choppy mess. Plot points bounce back and forth, and I never got a feel for Kuato's group, the Agency motivations, or why Hauser-Quaid bothered going to Rekall or Mars for that matter.

Audio sounded fine. Video- black n white sequences (all on Mars?) were well rendered. The color palate (on Earth?) was harsh - perhaps by design. Very 70s looking.

I appreciated all the thought and work that went into Blue Skies On Mars. I'll watch Total Recall again, then return to this one.

This was a pretty kick ass fanedit. I wasn't really all that in love with the Mementomix but the parts that were excellent overshadowed the weaker parts easily.

*This rating was given before reviews were required*