Blue Skies on Mars: A Total Recall Fanedit

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

*Spoilers ahead!*

When I started up the movie I was feeling duly impressed with the presentation, and the first part of the movie with it’s ‘open your mind’ was great. I thought that maybe it be some kind of mind power thinghy, that this way of playing with time back and forth was a result of the psychic powers of Quato (if that’s how you spell it). Anyway, I was interested in seeing how Jorge would make this play out.

After the second viewing of the alien site on Mars things starting going down hill for me. It was getting increasingly difficult to make sense of some stuff, but as I’ve watched the movie quite a few times before I still knew the plot. The turning off of the air is not shown, but we are faced with it’s consequenses later…as an example. Why is Benny the taxi driver even there with the rebels? But perhaps it isn’t so important, aren´t we just getting a glimpse of the memories of a heroic adventure on Mars, as percieved by Hauser/Quaid?

If you take in the ending, which I will now spoil, stop reading!, all of this is the mind of Arnolds character. But there are several scenes in which Arnold does not appear. This, to me, breaks the idea that it could work out that way. So I would have wanted only Arnold if this was the way it was planned to work. But then perhaps again they implant memories of other places so that it feels like a movie, kinda, for the mind traveler? Who knows?

*No more spoilers below*

Editing skills are obvious. I agree with most of what has been left out of the movie. But as the warning says, this is not for everyone. I didn’t keep that good feeling throughout the movie, and wasn’t really satisfied after watching. To use a Jorge rating: I give this a Yellow light. Go ahead if you think you’re in to this sort of thing.

The original is far from a favorite of mine, but knowing Jorge’s track record of quality edits, I wanted to see this one for sure. He has done a nice job of rearranging things and presenting an alternate storyline. The transitions were very smooth. I’ll give this an 8. :)

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

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