Blue Skies on Mars: A Total Recall Fanedit

EXACTLY as Jorge states in his “Warning” above, this edit is NOT for everyone. Not all the action is gone from this edit, but it is toned down a great deal. In my opinion, there is a good balance of action and plot now.

Having said that, this edit IS for ME.

I always liked “Total Recall” and can watch the original in the context of it being 20 years old/filmed in 1990/and it is ultimately an “Arnie action movie”. I also have been a huge fan of the Philip K. Dick short story, “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”, that the movie is loosely based on.

I liked the re-arranged scenes and the flashbacks/dream sequences/the past. I warn you, the manner in which Jorge presents this edit does require more than casual viewing to follow the “new” story. Jorge wisely differentiates the past and present by B&W and color. Although, I can see that some viewers may take issue with the going back and forth between the past and present without any plot cues to require it.

As far as the technical aspects of the edit: great seamless edits, great audio and okay video quality.

The video quality isn’t the best. I am not sure if this is because the source (DVD?) is of poor quality. I took a look at my store-bought DVD and it wasn’t any better.

I found the “open your mind” transitions to be very effective and helps create that weird, eerie, mind trip this edit is.

I found it interesting how Jorge has the past and present meet up for the finale of the movie. The last scene of the movie is perfect. Arnie’s face says it all. (I am trying not to give away the ending).

My only “real” complaint of this edit: the “Johnny Cab” scene! I hated it in the original and hate it here! Jorge, Jorge, Jorge …really? UGH.

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

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 will contain some spoilers*

I have always been a big fan of the original. Philip K. Dick has also always been my favorite author, and even though the original film deviates a great deal from the source story, when you sat down and contemplated the film, it did contain Dick’s sense of never knowing what is reality. That sense is much more heightened in Blue Skies on Mars, and being a PKD fan I really appreciate that.

The opening, as has been stated, was pretty well amazing. A perfect tone for opening up the story. The various memento cuts all worked extremely well, and if fact, my only concern would be that if a viewer was not versed in Total Recall, they might be lost.

Some people have complained about Johnny Cab. I didn't mind that scene. I never did. Actually, PKD was extremely good at writing obnoxious robots (the short stories Sales Pitch and The Exit Door Leads In are great examples), so this scene always fit right in for me.

On the totally unimportant side, Melina refers to Benny as a mutant, even though the scene we find out Benny is a mutant was cut. That was just a little jarring. But, like I said, totally unimportant.

At first I didn't get the color/black and white transitions. I first thought, oh, the "dream" will be in black and white, while reality is in color; and I realized that wasn't the case. Because of the color transitions, I couldn't figure out what they meant. For example, why it turned to black and white when Richter kills the rat, and why back to color when Quiad starts the reactor. Then, I sat back and thought about it, and thought wow, color could represent the atmosphere on Earth (all scenes on Earth are in color) and black and white could represent the absence of an atmosphere on Mars (like color scenes on Earth, all Mars scenes are in black and white) and then Quaid starts the reactor bringing BLUE skies to Mars, while the color returns to the film. If that was the intention, it was VERY clever.

The jury is still out with me on the end. I always liked the ambiguity of the original. And the flair from the sun kinda had leaning towards this direction, to be honest. I kinda felt like this version was more ambiguous, and should be less literal. It’s also a reality smacks you in the face moment, which is also very traditionally PKD, so, you make up your own mind. Technically, though, using that previous shot from the film in reverse was brilliant!

The film quality didn’t bother me, I thought the grainy washed out feel actually kinda worked in the film’s favor.

Overall, this is an extremely well made edit, and should be checked out by anybody who has an interest in Total Recall or Philip K. Dick.

8 out of 10.