Huntress: Dead On Arrival

This was a deeply welcome surprise. I had never heart of the Netflix movie "Kate" (2021) so, WakeupKeo's idea of lightly filing away her given name, switching in Birds of Prey footage seamlessly with the flashbacks to her past REALLY did make this feel authentic. Likewise, it was watching Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who just goes from strength to strength) apply all that training and physicality she employed as Huntress in what feels like a continuity of character. The only reason I've left one star off enjoyment is because this is such a sad tale, soaked in regret that time has run out. It's a 10 for engagement, but the subtraction for "enjoyment" signifies a bitter-sweetness, which is frankly, to me, BETTER. It means that like Leon (which this felt rather like) it will stay with me. Meanwhile my wife also wasn't aware of the movie's existence and only worked out it was a fanedit about halfway through, when she realised there were no references to anything DC-related outside the flashbacks. Now THAT takes some skill and subtlety. Bravo!

As an original film, Netflix's Kate falls into the usual Western action movie traps of relying on making fun of foreign names/culture and letting its story get a bit heavy-handed with exposition and fight scenes. It is a solid film, but gives its own game away too soon in an effort to make the viewer care for the protagonist.

Huntress: Dead On Arrival manages to fix the flaws of the original film while seamlessly integrating Bird of Prey flashbacks to make this a very special entry in the gone-too-soon DCEU. The story and its mystery flows better, the fight scenes are more brutal and a bit more "comic book-y" in their speed and focus, and the relationship between Huntress and Ani is allowed to both breathe and build to its heartbreaking conclusion. I appreciate the "show don't tell" philosophy on display with Boom Boom Yellow--film is a visual medium and we don't need to use the soda to take cheap shots at Japanese culture for levity.

I will echo jasonflippy's notes about the leftover dishonored killer line and the boardroom-captive-boardroom movement and just add that the subtitle track had a slight inconsistency: sometimes it would translate the spoken Japanese, leading to white subtitle text appearing over the burnt-in blue subtitles. It only happened a few times (the server speaking at the restaurant before the second and third fight scenes, when Ani first enters the hotel claiming to have gotten away, and one or two lines in Kijima's confrontation with Huntress).

Varrick's death/final confrontation with Huntress felt a little too quick (he says a shot to the stomach will make you die slow, then immediately dies), but given the dialogue trims and the original scene anyway, I don't know that much can be done about that. All in all, an excellent release and one I intend to revisit frequently.

This was a very tight and impressive clean-up of "Kate," and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The original was fun the first time but it lacked emotion, there were some strange choices, and it dragged just a little too long. This time through I swear I almost cried when she drank that damn soda. Good for her.

The one visual editing instance was at 1:06:26 where Kijima's subtitle says "...are a dishonored killer." but he doesn't say anything before that. It seems to cut in halfway through a sentence of his.

The one narrative issue for me was at the end when Ani goes from sitting at the board room table to being held prisoner, and she also goes from so mad at Kate that she shoots her to being really excited that Kate is coming to save her. I think cutting right from 1:08:47 to 1:09:13 will make it seem like Varrick and Ani have just been in the board room the whole time and also keep Ani's emotional responses consistent.

Other than that, this is a really really great cut. I enjoyed this so much more than the original. Excellent work!

This was a great concept, and I hope there are more opportunities to create superhero movies like this one. It's very well executed as well, with the flashbacks to Huntress' origin weaved in seamlessly, to the point that no one who didn't already know could tell you they were out of place.
I don't know if this was supposed to replace Birds of Prey or exist alongside it, but I felt it could have done with including some more scenes where Mary Elizabeth Winstead is explicitly being Huntress (though I haven't thought about it hard enough to know if that would be possible). I also think it would have been better for her to be acting as a vigilante rather than as an assassin for an agency. Removing the voice in her ear would go a long way to making this feel more like a Huntress movie.
Unfortunately the edit doesn't save Kate from being a pretty mediocre movie. If it wasn't an awesome concept fanedit, I don't think I would have much love for it, but I definitely hope the editor does more like this,

Even with the improved BOP movie we got from Keo, this is a huge contribution to the fan-edited-DCEU, and much closer in tone to an actual Huntress story. A super-clever idea, I hope this isn't the last backdoor-superhero movie we get. God knows there's lots of potential out there since just about every single actor has done a) a superhero movie and b) a middling action movie that could shine with some judicious trimming.