Dark Knight, The: Remixed by Jorge

April 19, 2009

Jorge had sent me a preview disc that was very close to a final version a short time back. This review (that I wrote at the time minus some other now expired information) is based on this preview version. I am aware however that not much of anything itself was changed in the final edit from the version that I saw:

I will be honest in that I had no idea what to expect. Right off the bat I knew I was in for something good.
when the film starts I did a double take but I knew it was setting things up for how this edit was going to be presented. Jorge's complete re-telling was brilliant. I also loved the use of black and white mixed with color. I do not have a 5.1 setup but the audio was perfectly balanced on my 2.0 down mix. The video quality of course was excellent with no hard cuts to be found

The story was very coherent and even if an individual has never seen the film before, by the time the edit is finished they will understand completely what they just have viewed.

The black and white mixed with color scenes were great, on occasion I was able to see some color that he did not want mixed in, but assuming there was no other way around it. It would happen every now and then with a frame or two (more noticeable when the joker crashes the party scene and you can see the flashes of his regular skin). Very minor and not distracting, but since this is a review, I did notice it

the layer break also was set well. I used pgcedit and img burn to burn my DL discs. It gave the best spot right before the officer riding with Gordon reveals his name and this is the tie-in with his wife at the hospital. It worked well. If it had been one second more that line would have been fucked by the break.

in short this is a completely alternate re-telling of this epic film and it was done extremely well

One of the better fanedits I have ever seen

10 out of 10—

As soon as I read about combining Chris Nolans two best films I was hooked.

the idea is very good and well executed. There are no plot holes because of deleted scenes. Even things like gordon not dying flow extraordinarily well. At first I thought “wow that’s not very believeable, bats goes to maroni and right after maroni’s “lesson” he wants to turn himself in” but in this edit it seems more like batman understood maroni and planned everything with dent – at least for me.

the flashbacks from batman begins were brilliantly placed. everytime you used something from Batman begins i wondered why it was inserted, but those flashbacks were one of the highlights for me, especially the “we burned the forrest down flashback” – the rachel as a kid flashback really moved me and brought back the knowledge of how long and how close bruce knew rachel

there are some audio issues when it comes to certain transitions for example the music is louder than the talking, but I don’t want to complain to much.
The story is interestingly told and the best parts are beginning and end. In the beginning it’s exactly like memento, you don’t know what the hell is going on, than black and white, ok this happened, back to dent, ah ok he was threatening the boy flashback and so forth – a fun puzzle but in the middle part it gets very confusing because the jumping forth and backwards makes it hard to remember all the plotlines (i am talking as if i would have seen dark knight for the first time) there is just an awful lot going on, but jorge managed the flow of the finale. The decision about maroni was great and i started laughing after the cut from bar to maroni falling – very good.

another great cut is when bats and rachel crash on the car and we jump to harvey in the hospital

the black and white and colour contrast worked and also the joker’s mouth is a nice touch that makes this enemy stand out.

SPOILERS FOR THE NEW ENDING

This the only thing that really bugged me. The ending per se is a well made choice to cut from gordon to batman begins when they talk about the joker. it bring back batman and gordon’s partnership, makes us clear how they underestimated everything and what it would cost. I was prepared that it would end with rachel’s letter and bruce apolgizing to harvey, but the way it turned out was handled perfectly.
my complaint is that the joker is the person that suffers most from this edit. Oneof the reasons i like Dark Knight so much is because of the juggernaught the joker becomes, at first he’s nobody and he gets more and more dangerous. By making dark knight memento style the joker looses steam and just appears now and then. Also the gambol scene seemed out of place as the line about getting rid of the joker was cut – don’t know why. but know it seems just like a random kill that doesn’t have a direct effect on the story.
This adds to the afforementioned confusion because in memento it was more like a connect the dots watching experience, here, apparently because of the source material not everything flows from a to b which is not the editor’s fault.

I just felt that focusing the ending on gordon batman and joker took away from the harvey dent angle of the edit

SPOILERS END HERE

Anyway I had such a good time watching this edit and the technical execution is great, the feel is different and fresh, everything i could have hoped for

10 out of 10

P.S.: damn it I am using a similar credit scene the edit I am working on…