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- Darkman Lives!
Darkman Lives!
Updated
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1990
Original Running Time:
96
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
84
Time Cut:
15
Time Added:
3
Additional Links:
Brief Synopsis:
'Darkman Lives!' is the first in a soon to be series of pulp style edits. In this edition of the film, MusicEd921 has converted the film to black and white, excised some of the sillier moments, created a new introduction for Durant, and many more other cuts to bring this film closer to its pulp routes.
Intention:
Something about the movie Darkman has always been a little off to me. It had a lot of potential and I wish Sam Raimi continued to build on it, but it was a weird mix of horror, comedy and superhero elements that didn't quite gel with this particular character. The film plays like what it would be like if you had a modern Phantom of the Opera superhero, so I embraced that approach and tried to bring it closer to that feeling.
Other Sources:
- Darkman score by Danny Elfman
- Darkman II
- Darkman II
Special Thanks:
BionicBob
Release Information:
Digital
Cuts and Additions:
- Whole film converted to black and white
- 1930's Universal logo added as an homage to the old Universal monsters
- Brand new opening title sequence
- Cut the warehouse opening (moved to later)
- Durant's brief introduction will take place when Stracks mentions Durant to Julie
- Trim lab fight so that not too long after Pauly grabs Westlake's hand as he goes to answer the phone. Now Westlake grabs phone, Pauly grabs Westlake's hand then we cut to Pauly as he is winding up to punch Westlake
- Fix continuity of Rick cocking the gun to kill the lab tech after the previous shots showed it ready to go. Now Durant says ventilate him, it cuts to Rick cocking the gun, closeup of Westlake then to the lab tech and then back to Westlake as the gun goes off. New gunshot sound effect added
- Fix continuity of the rocking bird (whatever it's called). When Westlake makes it to the desk it looks like it is really on its way down now as opposed to before
- Cut funeral. We fade to black after explosion, lingering on Julie. The transition from the explosion to the funeral always looked corny to me. There's nothing really important about the funeral part other than that they couldn't find Westlake's body.
- Cut anger flash in hospital
- Cut Westlake seeing Julie on the street.
- Insert clip from Darkman II opening with Westlake seeing his grave stone
- Cut anger vision when Westlake sees Rick at the party
- Trim the pacing of Rick's death
- Trim a little of Westlake going mad in his lab yelling at the cat. No more song and dance.
- Cut Julie saying she doesn't know about being with Peyton if he was scarred. That didn't resonate well with me.
- Cut Durant stopping by the car seeing Ted before encountering Westlake
- Edit carnival scene. No more rubber fingers.
- Cut Strack's dead wife joke to Durant
- Cut "you've got to be shitting me!"
- Cut terrible shot of Westlake jumping down from the roof onto Rudy
- Cut "you've been a bad boy!"
- Trim Darkman falling from the helicopter
- Cut Darkman crashing through the building during a meeting
- Cut Darkman running on top of truck and getting hit by the Raimi Oldsmobile
- Trimmed Darkman on top of truck that Durant drops him on. Durant doesn't continue to fire aimlessly and it takes too long for Darkman to hook onto truck.
- Cut POV from the screw gun
- Cut anger vision when Stracks talks about dating Julie
- Cut Bruce Campbell cameo. We now end after Julie can't find Westlake with a nighttime shot of the city and Darkman standing on a rooftop looking out at the city as he does his "I am Darkman" speech. The shots for this were lifted from Darkman II. Very superhero-ish.
- 1930's Universal logo added as an homage to the old Universal monsters
- Brand new opening title sequence
- Cut the warehouse opening (moved to later)
- Durant's brief introduction will take place when Stracks mentions Durant to Julie
- Trim lab fight so that not too long after Pauly grabs Westlake's hand as he goes to answer the phone. Now Westlake grabs phone, Pauly grabs Westlake's hand then we cut to Pauly as he is winding up to punch Westlake
- Fix continuity of Rick cocking the gun to kill the lab tech after the previous shots showed it ready to go. Now Durant says ventilate him, it cuts to Rick cocking the gun, closeup of Westlake then to the lab tech and then back to Westlake as the gun goes off. New gunshot sound effect added
- Fix continuity of the rocking bird (whatever it's called). When Westlake makes it to the desk it looks like it is really on its way down now as opposed to before
- Cut funeral. We fade to black after explosion, lingering on Julie. The transition from the explosion to the funeral always looked corny to me. There's nothing really important about the funeral part other than that they couldn't find Westlake's body.
- Cut anger flash in hospital
- Cut Westlake seeing Julie on the street.
- Insert clip from Darkman II opening with Westlake seeing his grave stone
- Cut anger vision when Westlake sees Rick at the party
- Trim the pacing of Rick's death
- Trim a little of Westlake going mad in his lab yelling at the cat. No more song and dance.
- Cut Julie saying she doesn't know about being with Peyton if he was scarred. That didn't resonate well with me.
- Cut Durant stopping by the car seeing Ted before encountering Westlake
- Edit carnival scene. No more rubber fingers.
- Cut Strack's dead wife joke to Durant
- Cut "you've got to be shitting me!"
- Cut terrible shot of Westlake jumping down from the roof onto Rudy
- Cut "you've been a bad boy!"
- Trim Darkman falling from the helicopter
- Cut Darkman crashing through the building during a meeting
- Cut Darkman running on top of truck and getting hit by the Raimi Oldsmobile
- Trimmed Darkman on top of truck that Durant drops him on. Durant doesn't continue to fire aimlessly and it takes too long for Darkman to hook onto truck.
- Cut POV from the screw gun
- Cut anger vision when Stracks talks about dating Julie
- Cut Bruce Campbell cameo. We now end after Julie can't find Westlake with a nighttime shot of the city and Darkman standing on a rooftop looking out at the city as he does his "I am Darkman" speech. The shots for this were lifted from Darkman II. Very superhero-ish.
User reviews
3 reviews
Overall rating
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
9.7(3)
Audio Editing
10.0(3)
Visual Editing
9.0(3)
Narrative
8.7(3)
Enjoyment
9.3(3)
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
9.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
This was a nice little fanedit but not my favorite B&W fan edits of pulp superhero movies like the phantom/the shadow strikes but I believe it's because those movies are more in the epic and adventurous scope which prefer and this movie here is a personal revenge story. This movie is technically a superhero movie in fact a good comparison to this movie would be the incredible hulk but it's more of body horror tragedy with gangster and vigilante themes from the 50's era which the movie does pay homage to those kinds of classic kinds of movies and this fan edit enhance the experience more than the original does. The movie does tone down some of the campy elements in the movie though you can still feel it like in the carnival scene to be consistent with the tragic themes in this movie and slim down the screen of the secondary villain who was the breakout character of the movie that even returns in the sequel in order to focus more on Darkman's personal journey.
Would fans replace this fan edit over the original movie? I doubt it as they probably do prefer and miss some of the scenes that were cut in this movie like the secondary villains' famous introduction but it is worth a watch just to see it not just in black and white which always helps when it comes to outdated SFX scenes but a movie that is more faithful to the classic pulp/horror movie that inspired the movie.
Would fans replace this fan edit over the original movie? I doubt it as they probably do prefer and miss some of the scenes that were cut in this movie like the secondary villains' famous introduction but it is worth a watch just to see it not just in black and white which always helps when it comes to outdated SFX scenes but a movie that is more faithful to the classic pulp/horror movie that inspired the movie.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
N
Overall rating
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Narrative
8.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Being a huge fan of Raimi's version of Darkman, I was very interested in seeing an alternate cut.
Overall, many of the changes are not immediately noticeable. I say that as a positive. Most of the cuts work and I really enjoyed the change to black and white.
Are suggestions supposed to be made here? I'm still new.
I think you did a great job, tightened up some parts and the continuity fixes were definitely welcome. I think cutting the funeral was a wise choice, however, I think a longer hold on the black screen could be more effective. That felt a bit abrupt. The only other thing that I remember (because, again, I really enjoyed this) was cutting Peyton seeing and approaching Julie on the street. It was an emotional scene that was handled well and I don't think seeing the building, instead, really gives him the motivational push being unable to communicate with Julie did.
Again, I really enjoyed this version and I look forward to trying out more, in the future.
Thanks for your hard work!
Overall, many of the changes are not immediately noticeable. I say that as a positive. Most of the cuts work and I really enjoyed the change to black and white.
Are suggestions supposed to be made here? I'm still new.
I think you did a great job, tightened up some parts and the continuity fixes were definitely welcome. I think cutting the funeral was a wise choice, however, I think a longer hold on the black screen could be more effective. That felt a bit abrupt. The only other thing that I remember (because, again, I really enjoyed this) was cutting Peyton seeing and approaching Julie on the street. It was an emotional scene that was handled well and I don't think seeing the building, instead, really gives him the motivational push being unable to communicate with Julie did.
Again, I really enjoyed this version and I look forward to trying out more, in the future.
Thanks for your hard work!
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
N
(Updated: July 21, 2017)
Overall rating
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
I first saw Darkman as a first run theatrical with en exceedingly rowdy audience. Shouting at villains, cheering mayhem, really into payback and retribution.
This experience coloured my memories, causing me to overlook problems that were more apparent when I bought LD and DVD of the film.
Chief was director Raimi’s misuse of silliness and goofy behaviour.
MusicEd921 trimmed the nonsense and more.
Video - 1920 X 1080p. The black n white definitely adds to the 30s look the editor was striving for. Exteriors were sharp, interiors, especially Darkman’s warehouse laboratory were soft. Night time saturation was fine. There was one editing quibble I had in a preview, which the editor rectified. Editing is smooth throughout.
Audio - 160 kbps, 2 Channel AAC. No subs. There were music alterations and special effects added. Nicely done. Dialogue is clear. No audio problems that I could hear.
Narrative - Trims were minimal, so the plot changed little. The tone, however, differs greatly. By design, this edit brings to the fore the pulpy elements. Violence is toned down. The love angle, which was clunky to begin with, seems trimmed as well. The weird sequences when Westlake hallucinates are heavily truncated - to the better. This is a PG, popcorn experience. While violent, it should be OK for older children.
Enjoyment - Yes ... but ... this was a fun film, though not as dark as before. I think I would have preferred a rougher ride. That said, MusicEd921 was upfront is declaring this would be a pulpier, lighter version. He delivers.
Bad guys, Durant and Strack, still have voices too high to feel menacing.
An excellent version. And if you want action, yet want to avoid obscenities and gore, this is a great choice.
This experience coloured my memories, causing me to overlook problems that were more apparent when I bought LD and DVD of the film.
Chief was director Raimi’s misuse of silliness and goofy behaviour.
MusicEd921 trimmed the nonsense and more.
Video - 1920 X 1080p. The black n white definitely adds to the 30s look the editor was striving for. Exteriors were sharp, interiors, especially Darkman’s warehouse laboratory were soft. Night time saturation was fine. There was one editing quibble I had in a preview, which the editor rectified. Editing is smooth throughout.
Audio - 160 kbps, 2 Channel AAC. No subs. There were music alterations and special effects added. Nicely done. Dialogue is clear. No audio problems that I could hear.
Narrative - Trims were minimal, so the plot changed little. The tone, however, differs greatly. By design, this edit brings to the fore the pulpy elements. Violence is toned down. The love angle, which was clunky to begin with, seems trimmed as well. The weird sequences when Westlake hallucinates are heavily truncated - to the better. This is a PG, popcorn experience. While violent, it should be OK for older children.
Enjoyment - Yes ... but ... this was a fun film, though not as dark as before. I think I would have preferred a rougher ride. That said, MusicEd921 was upfront is declaring this would be a pulpier, lighter version. He delivers.
Bad guys, Durant and Strack, still have voices too high to feel menacing.
An excellent version. And if you want action, yet want to avoid obscenities and gore, this is a great choice.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
V