Icarus

Bond is BACK!
And Better Than EVER!!!

And it is all thanks to Last Survivor.

As LS has pointed out, the 40th Anniversary Bond film DIE ANOTHER DAY is a mess of movie -- too much bad dialogue, too much bad cgi and just too over the top and all over the place. Which is a shame, as the core story is pure classic Bond, but all that is lost on the audience by the producers kitchen sink approach to story telling and a director who I feel was ill suited for the Bond franchise.

But I knew there was a good Bond movie buried within, as I had seen evidence of it many years before in ADM's version BEYOND THE ICE. While that fan edit was very, very good, I can honestly say Last Survivor's version is aggressively superior and well worth the watch.

As with all of LS's edits, his passion for the material oozes in every scene. He knows Bond. He knows the character and franchise. He knows what works and what does not. And that knowledge gives him power and security in his editing.
He has deftly removed all the truly offending elements of the film -- horrible sexual innuendo, bad gci, the ridiculous invisible car -- and created a Bond adventure more fitting of this iconic character and a proper closing chapter to the Pierce Brosnan era.

It should also be noted, LS has once again done some fantastic audio work throughout this fan edit, replacing music in several key scenes with an expert's touch. Bravo!

To say I enjoyed this edit, would be an understatement. It was a wonderful piece of entertainment. I do have one tiny nitpick -- the John Cleese Q scene. In its new edited form it plays too short, throwing off the pacing of the film. LS acknowledges this in his commentary, but felt this was best for the over all narrative. Myself, I think to remove all acknowledgement that this is 40th anniversary film was maybe a mistake. For me, Q's workshop is the perfect place to pay homage to Bond's past exploits and was one of the few tribute moments in the original that actually worked. I also thought the VR training sequence that leads into it was logical and worked too. But as I said, this is personal preference and only a minor quibble.

Now no Last Survivor fan edit experience is complete until you listen to the commentary! Once again, a very informative and entertaining experience. Professional producers could take a lesson from LS on how to do a proper dvd commentary. He fills his commentary with not only how he made the edit and why he made the cuts he did, but shares his insights and history with the Bond franchise on a very engaging and personal level. Definitely a great listen!!!

And best of all, LS hints in his commentary that he may not yet be done with Bond. That another Bond edit or two may lurk in the future. I sure hope so!!! Bring on the Bond!

Thumbs WAY Up!

Only seen this movie once and it's been a very, VERY long time. Decided that when I watched it again I would watch an edit. It's always nice to experience a fanedit when you're not too familiar with the source material.

Being that I can't remember the original that well, I can't say much other than what I witnessed. The editing was tight. There were no awkward cuts and nothing felt out of place. The only thing that felt awkward was when Bond reversed his car and the bad guy drove through the ice. The editing was fine, but it just was slightly unclear what happened. I understand that this was due to removing scenes with the invisible car.

Watched this with a friend who was familiar with the movie and, bar a few cheesy lines that he missed, considered this a much better cut than the original. I thought it was an OK film, which I guess is an upgrade from the fairly naff film that I remember it to be. Although, no matter how much editing you do, you can't take away the fact that neither Halle Berry nor Madonna can act to save their mums.

Quality was DVD quality. No complaints there. Twas an average film so enjoyment gets an average rating. No fault to the editor.

The ending also felt a bit rushed, but from what I heard about what was cut, it's a small sacrifice!

Overall a good, professional edit.

I think the editor did an admirable job of cutting out some of the material that is silly and ridiculous, while preserving the plot, which is a difficult balance to strike when you are dealing with a 007 edit. Lately I have been re-watching a lot of the Bond films and so many of them are cluttered with annoying material that they risk being hacked to pieces by faneditors to the point that the plot is not longer understandable. Some examples of silliness that had to be left in this film for the sake of the plot are as follows:

- Bond and Company infilitrate an enemy foreign country by surfing the big waves. (gnarly dude)
- Bond meets Gustav for the first time and for some reason they get into an all out brawl of a swordfight.
- Bond and Jinx are able to get within 300 meters of their target in North Korea, yet they couldn't get a shot. That distance would be a "gimme" for a trained sniper. (Ok maybe this one is a little nitpicky, but it did take me out of the movie for a bit.)

Of course the list could go on and on, but the point is that the Bond movies are full of silliness and you definitely can't take them too serious. These are not the fault of the editor. He has to play the cards he is dealt as best he can. He really did do the best that I think can be done with such material by concentrating on the really bad dialog and some of the worst CGI stunts.

I have the 50th anniversary 007 collection and have been working my way slowly through the 60s, but having seen this makes me want to skip forward to re-watch some of the other Pierce Brosnan films to see if they contain as much silliness as Die Another Day. I think they probably do.

I also have not listened to the commentary, but look forward to it.

Wow, LS turned Die Another Die into something enjoyable. It's not "classic Bond" fully, but it's miles above what it was before.

Haven't listened to the commentary yet, but if it's as good as the Jaws III: Monster commentary I'm in for a treat.