Echo

I've always had a soft spot for The Island just for its "Logan's Run" style throwback Sci-Fi premise alone. Add to that Johansson and McGregor in their primes, and this is a lot of gorgeous Michael Bay eye candy. The fanedit maintains a lot of that visual impressiveness despite the age and file size, though ultimately the story editing falls apart literally at the last minute.

Aside from some typical over-the-top Bay action scenes that I wish had been trimmed down to make this at least slightly more plausible, there are really just two narrative choices here that hold this edit back for me. The first is a minor trim, but really a huge part of the story is these two characters' attraction for each other, despite every system put in place to keep them apart. UncannyAntman tries to cut out some of the sexual references and the love scene, but this stuff is still all over the movie and it's actually important character growth for them to be "like real humans".

Secondly, and more importantly, the ending wraps up all in a rush, cutting out any explanation or justification for how "Echo's" actions would save anyone. (SPOILERS) but the film has said that everyone believes outside is contaminated...so why would they all rush outside? The film has said that these clones are worth millions of dollars each, so how are we to believe that a whole corporation will just let them go because a roof opened up? They're still out in the middle of nowhere with no witnesses and military guys all around. Echo didn't solve anything as far as this edit shows, in fact, he still has at least 100 people actively looking for him, and no way back out of the desert! The edit just skips from "I made a big hole" to "everyone forgot about us and we somehow got back out on the murdered man's boat and yadda yadda Happily Ever After".

In short, you can't set up bad guys to chase after the good guy with everything they've got, then cut out what happens to them and expect the audience to think they just gave up. As dumb as Bay's original script might have been, there was at least some effort to explain this. In the current edit, continuity is fixed early on, there are some smart narrative adjustments, but ultimately it's still a dumb, glossy chase film...only missing some of its sexy gloss. And missing an ending.

If you have a tough time with Michael Bay films like I often do, this edit will be a huge relief. Much like Spence's edit of Mission: Impossible II, I actually enjoyed the whole film rather than enjoying certain sequences and then rolling my eyes during others. Highly recommended if you enjoyed the concept of The Island but wanted better execution and a lot of the fat trimmed!

white43 dec 26 2010

Nice work UA. Been a while since I saw the original, so this is one of those occasions where you can’t quite remember the exact detail, but your editing was top notch, no glaring unseemless edits.

Flowed really well and I didn’t note anything you’d cut. I remember something to do with Laurent and him ‘freeing the prisoners’ or something, but I only remembered that after the show!

It just goes to show that this “cut the crap” kind of edit totally works, because nothing is missed and it just gets on with it. Extraneous fight scenes aren’t missed either. I’d forgotten there was a big conflict with Lincoln vs Merrick.

Total improvement. It’s still not a great film, but that isn’t your fault is it?

10/10 for the great editing and sound work.
Film now sits at a 8/10, rather than 6/10.

joebshmoe mar 6 2019

this is a great edit and almost completely removes “the michael bay-ness” out of this film. with “echo” this film is now a faster paced and more mysterious reveal of “the island”. all of the creative decisions in removing fluff are spot on and SEVERAL of them are actually quite necessary to make this a more interesting movie (tom calling merrick biotech, lincoln telling his plan to jordan, minimizing merrick, and all of the goofs in this movie… several…).

a few bits that i think would make this a bit stronger would be including the bit about the agnates sex drive and then including the sex scene between lincoln and jordan. i realize that it was poorly done, but i think it is important to see the change they have gone through.

entertainment 10/10
fanediting 10/10
video 10/10
audio 10/10
original 7/10
fanedit 9/10

9/10

This version streamlines a lot of jumbled mess into a tight, thrilling narrative. This movie definitely replaces the original for me. I really like the ending. Losing Djimon Hansou and cutting some of the Merrick/Lincoln stuff at the end was a great call. The final act hits the ground running and never drags. The pacing was very good on this.

I might have trimmed a few more of the stupid, sexist Michael Bay jokes but that's really all I can say negative about this edit. Very well done.