World is Not Enough: Millennium Edition, The

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bondmillennium_front
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1999
Original Running Time:
128
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
105
Time Cut:
23
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
James Bond's 1999 adventure, The World Is Not Enough, is a mixed bag. Interesting ideas and a largely coherent plot, buried under an overdose of 1990's action flick, Roger Moor-ish one-liners, and too much effort to misdirect the audience as to who the main villain is. Brosnan plays Bond much closer to Daniel Craig's roughness than to Roger Moore's suaveness. But he's given so many cheesy Moore lines that this Bond feels tediously immature. This can be improved!
Intention:
I want to be able to watch 007's adventures without grumbling how the director / producers pander to profit with click-bait style shallowness. I can't blame them for wanting profit, I can make a fanedit how I would've wanted to see the story done.
Other Sources:
Robbie Williams' "Millennium", from his CD "The Ego Has Landed"
A three-second Youtube video of sunset over Istanbul harbor.
Special Thanks:
Thank you for ideas and counter-ideas from everyone who contributed to Tubes' TWINE edit 'Pressure Point'. Thanks to Zarius for solid suggestions. Thanks to TM2YC for introducing me to Robbie Williams' "Millennium".
Release Information:
Digital
Special Features
1080p MKV
5.1 surround sound
English subtitles
Audio track 1: "Millennium" plays during the end credits
Audio track 2: Arnold's original score plays during the end credits
Cuts and Additions:
The big cuts:
1) No more ski chase with paragliding snow-mobiles. It always bugged me that Elektra supposedly staged this to misdirect suspicion: she'd have died if not for Bond's interventions (including the laughable coat / avalanche protection bubble). Plus other Bond films have better ski chases.
2) No Renard showing off to other villains that he can grab a smouldering rock with his bare hands. It slows down the flow of the story and has no pertinent information.
3) Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones. Remove dumb moments. Make her character more enjoyable.
4) No chainsaw helicopter. Yes, the battle is dramatic. But it's long, less memorable than the Thames boat chase, has low stakes (Bond fights faceless minions, not the main villains) and no consequences for the story. Also, it broke my suspension of disbelief that the helicopter takes only 3 minutes to fuel, lift off, fly from its work site to the Caspian Sea, and attack. This new transition reminds me of my Back To The Future 2 edit where I cut Marty and Doc at the graveyard: I don't see how I can do it better with the available material, but it's not invisible.
5) No more Bond swimming outside the submarine. Added benefit: Bond no longer needs Dr Jones to work the buttons, which enabled me to have Bond go straight for Renard. He's focused on preventing a nuclear disaster, not freeing the girl.
6) No more M watching Bond shoot Elektra. Nor Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
7) No closing scene at MI6, where M watches Bond have sex on the infra-red screen. That was awkward, juvenile humor. Now we close on the high-note of Bond in black-tie, kissing his girl, with champagne and fireworks. We can imagine the rest.

And lots of small trims. Cutlist:
- Remove Bond's quip about Cigar Girl's body. Instead of inviting him "Would you *like to* check my figures?", she now asks more straightforwardly "Would you check my figures?"
- To rebalance the build-up of the film, the opening song is moved to its originally intended place: after Bilbao, before London. The first visuals had to be replaced because they referenced the Millenium Dome, which we now don't see until later in the movie.
- The squished opening credits (resulting in pillarboxing) are fixed (no more pillarboxing). Now the ball of oil is round again.
- Remove Bond and Moneypenny quip about cigar.
- Cut two short shots from Boat Chase. Left in a 70-frames third one that I wanted to cut (it's visually chaotic) because I can't get a smooth audio transition (police sirens lead seamlessly into music swell, while breaking glass accompanies what's on screen). Sirens and breaking glass I can replace, but I don't have a clean copy of that bit of music.
- Clean up the new transition from Bond falling on Dome to bagpipes at funeral (because the opening song is no longer between them). Double the clean visual part of the bagpipes by adding a reversed copy, and time-stretch the audio from both sides to overlap for the transition.
- Cut M's line "We'll chase them to the farthest ends of the world if needs be." Too much hyperbole.
- Trim Q's lab to make John Cleese less snarky.
- Retain: Cleese demonstrating the Avalanche Protection coat. The avalanche is cut, so this coat becomes an unused gadget. However, it sets up Q's final scene which I refuse to cut. So I have to retain the now unused Coat.
- Small trims to M's conversation with Bond. More matter-of-fact. Cut Moneypenny's jab at the doctor (Moneypenny is erased from the shot, we now see the doctor looking embarassed/ashamed at M's comment, then leaving the room). Cut M's 'shadow is never on top'.
- Trim briefing about Renard, cut Moneypenny's jab at Bond's doctor (used photoshop to remove Moneypenny walking behind the doctor).
- Cut Ski Chase. We cut straight from inspecting the pipeline to Elektra's stately house.
- Trim Bond / Elektra conversation.
- Trim Bond ogling women in the casino with his x-ray glasses.
- Trim Bond / Valentin conversation, because Bond no longer has fabric from the (cut) ski attack.
- Cut Renard / Davidov meeting with hot rocks.
- Cut half of Bond / Elektra conversation after sex.
- Lots of small trims to Christmas Jones and Bond's dialog with her throughout the film. Most annoying bits are gone, including an illogical jealous snipe at Bond having slept with Elektra.
- Small trims to fight inside muclear site.
- Cut Renard shooting bystanders as he exits the nuclear site. Yes, he's a bad guy. We know. I don't need to see mass murder to figure that out, and I don't like how cavalier the film treats it (i.e. no further mention that all those people were killed).
- No buzz-saw helicopter. Instead, Bond pushes Valentin into the pool of caviar (or is it oil?).
- Small trims to Elektra / captive Bond. Less corny.
- Cut M watching Bond shoot Elektra.
- Cut Bond appearing sentimental over Elektra's death.
- Many trims in the submarine. Bond goes straight for Renard. Cut freeing Dr Jones. Trim Bond / Renard fight. Jones only reappears during fight.
- Cut Bond swimming outside the submarine.
- Cut closing scene at MI6 and Bond having sex. Insert 3-second shot of sunset over Istanbul (from youtube) to transition from Bond in water to Bond in tuxedo. No more M watching Bond have sex in infra-red. No more awful "I thought Christmas only comes once a year."
- Robbie Williams "Millenium" plays over the end credits. It fits the era perfectly. Credit added for the song (with generous black space before and after the credit because the movie credits have a slight wobble, which became noticeable when I reduced the empty space). For those of you who don't like the song, the 2nd audio track retains David Arnold's original instrumental score.
- A brief post-credit bonus scene where Bond and M share a drink in her office. Taken from the SD deleted scenes.
Cover art by lapis molari (DOWNLOAD HERE)
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No More Moneypenny Swipe At Doctor (Password: fanedit.org)

User reviews

6 reviews
 
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1-3 stars
 
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Overall rating
 
9.1
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.5(6)
Visual Editing
 
9.0(6)
Audio Editing
 
9.2(6)
Narrative
 
8.8(6)
Enjoyment
 
9.2(6)
View all user reviews View most helpful
(Updated: June 05, 2021)
Overall rating
 
8.7
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Solid fan edit. Felt a tad short. The trims of quips and one-liners definitely made the movie more enjoyable. Most of the other small trims made throughout were good decisions as well. Cutting Denise Richards' screentime was a brilliant move - though sadly nothing can be done about her bad acting in what's left of her scenes. There were some abrupt scene changes which mostly weren't too distracting, but for one - vat of caviar - which was somewhat jarring (I actually rewound it, and had to watch that bit again to make sure it was as abrupt a scene change as I thought I saw.) Audio was solid, and I didn't notice any real issues with sound transitions. Moving the opening credits was a good change. "Millennium" playing over the end credits didn't do it for me, but the original audio was added as a separate track too, so no points taken off for that one.

Great job, man. Keep up the good work.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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(Updated: January 27, 2021)
Overall rating
 
8.7
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Before I asked for this film I didn't read the entirety of the cutlist nor did I follow the progress. I have the film in my collection but I can't remember the last time I took it down from the shelf so I thought my memory would be a litte hazy.

I liked the re-arranging of the boat chase to after the credits, I always felt the pacing was a bit too long for a pre-credit sequence compared to other films in the series, I felt the fade to the credit seemed slightly abrupt but it was the best that could be managed given how the rest of the scene plays out.

That said the post credits from Millennium dome to the Funeral worked particularly well and I enjoyed the rest of the film. I couldn't remember the helicopter sequence too well, But I as others have stated could see a transition had taken from the visual clues in bond's appearance. In my head I knew what had transpired but I chose to ignore it for the sake of storytelling.

That's one thing I particularly like about this edit, the cheesy quips and one liners have gone, so is the worst of Denise Richard's performance and some equally hammy acting from Goldie. Everyone has a role to play and they more or less set about doing it, character motivations are clear. We don't need to see that Renard is impervious to pain (except emotional) because it feels like a retread of Stamper from Tomorrow never Dies.

I disagree with the other review that the jacket has no pay off, it feels like one of the sillier gadgets that would have been seen in the background of another bond or spy movie. So it silencing John Cleese was it's own pay off. :D

I do wish I had read up on the second audio track having the original closing track, I would have swapped it in an instant. I didn't need a friendly reminder that Robbie desperately wanted to play the next bond. But knowing Lapis did put the option there for people means I can't penalize him for it.

It's a fun edit and definitely easier to watch than the theatrical cut. Yes I recommend it.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I really enjoyed this edit. It's much faster than the cinema cut and cuts out a lot of nonsense. Granted, there were a few obvious edits (e.g the buzzsaw, the jacket set-up with no payoff), but nothing too distracting.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Top 100 Reviewer 53 reviews
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(Updated: January 10, 2021)
Overall rating
 
9.9
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I quite like The World is Not Enough to begin with, it's probably my favourite of the Brosnan Bonds, but it's certainly far from perfect. It's a film with a great first act, an OK second act and then a flat ending.

I'm glad to report that this fanedit improved things all around - but I especially found the third act worked much better. I don't remember finding the submarine fight at the end particularly entertaining before but in this cut it works well. I suspect it's the old adage: if the third act doesn't work go back to the second act and fix it. By cutting a couple of largely extraneous sequences earlier on, especially the ski chase, the whole thing moves much better and we stay engaged through to the end.

Reducing bad puns, having less focus on Renard not feeling pain - a totally underdeveloped idea within the script which ultimately goes nowhere - and cutting back on Denise Richards' acting (but fortunately not cutting back on her wet t-shirt shots, ahem) - it's an excellent set of choices which have been made to smooth out a film which, IMO, is actually pretty good when the occasional missteps are removed.

Is it a perfect edit? No, I had some minor issues with the audio. You can hear engines approaching when Elektra and Bond are on the mountain. And the last minute isn't great, but I understand why the editor wanted so badly to cut the painfully bad "joke" at the end. It's just that without it the whole thing ends too abruptly. Plus the audio I felt could have been slicker in that last minute.

But overall, I thoroughly recommend this edit. It cements itself for me as the best Brosnan Bond film
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Overall rating
 
8.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
A new Bond fanedit is always of interest to me. It's little secret in this fanediting parts just how much of a Bond fan I am, so I was intrigued with Lapis Molari's cutlist on this one.
As a film, I've always enjoyed The World is Not Enough. Granted, there are issues with it, but I think it contains Brosnan's best performance as Bond, where he's finally allowed to explore a little of the more ruthless side of Fleming's fallible superspy ("I never miss"). The balance of serious spy and the more humorous scenes however, is still a little off kilter and not as finely tuned as Martin Campbell's excellent Goldeneye for example... it's nowhere near to the extreme of Die Another Day, but Feirstein, Purvis and Wade's script is still not what it could be. Despite this, there's a devilishly good villainous performance from Sophie Marceau who clearly enjoys every moment, whilst Robert Caryle lends his secondary villain Renard with enough depth and dimension to make one almost feel sympathy for him.

On top of this, there's a terrific score from David Arnold (you remember, when Bond scores used to be amazing right?? For God sake's just bring Arnold back!) even if some of the questionable sound mixing means it gets buried a little too much. Michael Apted's direction is solid, if unremarkable, and it's clear he's trying to get as much depth out of the script he's been given, as he can. Of course, there are a few over the top scenes such as the chainsaw-wielding helicopters, plus a remarkably flat ski-chase which is easily the worst in the film series' considerable history of such sequences. In addition, Denise Richard's character of Christmas Jones is not as well defined as she should be, and comes across far too dumbed down for a nuclear physicist - I don't actually blame Richards for this (even though she had a rough time during the shoot according to her), but more the script which falls back too much on stereotypes of Bond girls from yesteryear.

So, there's definitely room for some fanediting here... so how did I think Lapis Molari fared? Let's find out...

Firstly, the edit looks great, so no issues at all from this perspective. I even liked the idea of a short pre-credits sequence and moving the amazing boat chase down the river thames (a genuine classic Bond action sequence) to after the credits have rolled. True, the pre-credits scene does now feel a little underwhelming, but it takes away the problem of having the longest pre-credits sequence in Bond history (something like 15 minutes). It's executed as well as can be expected in terms of transitioning to the cool theme tune by Garbage, but unfortunately I wasn't so keen on the transition coming out of the credits into the next scene, as whilst the Garbage theme tune is finishing, you can then hear other music just ending from the new after credits scene. To me, this could have been easily solved by doing some sound replacement work (for background ambience) so that we just hear the Garbage song fading out. It may seem a small thing, but it just feels a bit clumsy as it stands.

Thankfully, as far as I remember, this is the only noticeable audio issue I experienced during my viewing. Otherwise, I thought Lapis did a solid job.

In terms of the visual edits, again, I didn't have an issue with most of them and in terms of the purpose of this edit they work very well. Occasionally, the pacing might feel a little off due to some scenes missing, but not to the point where it ruins your enjoyment on any level. For example, I was delighted the ski chase was excised. I didn't miss that at all. In fact I am eternally grateful. However, the one scene which I thought would cause a problem, is indeed the excising of the chainsaw helicopter as Bond is trying to get information from Valentin. One minute Bond has Valentin up against the wall, next minute he's falling into a vat of caviar. Plus, on top of what feels like an unnatural cut (my wife actually said to me "what happened there?"), Bond is suddenly seen to be much more dishevelled and even has a slight cut on his face. Whilst I totally appreciate the intention of this cut (as I too feel the helicopter chainsaws are a little unnecessary and as Lapis says, the stakes for this scene are not as big as say the boat chase), I just feel that the scene literally feels like there's something not right... something is missing.

That aside, most of the other trims worked well. The work done on removing Moneypenny from a shot where she's walking behind the Doctor during the briefing about Renard is exemplary, and there's tons of other nips and tucks which definitely help the film. I particularly loved Bond's somewhat emotional reaction to killing Elekta in cold blood, being cut. As much as Bond loves women, to the point where they are indeed a weakness of his, the emotion of having to kill her was already etched on Brosnan's face before he pulled the trigger - that was enough. Nicely done Lapis.

I also, to my surprise quite enjoyed the use of Robbie Williams' Millennium over the end credits. Thankfully there is the option of a second audio track which maintains David Arnold's score if your prefer that - to be greedy, I would have loved a 3rd track, which reinserted Scott Walker's "Only Myself to Blame", which was actually included over the end credits during the film's theatrical run, but has since been removed on all home media releases.

I have to say that I didn't like the post-credit scene at all. It's from a deleted scene, so the quality is significantly reduced, but most importantly it just doesn't do anything interesting and feels very much like an after thought.

Otherwise, I would say that I thoroughly enjoyed this Millennium edition of The World is Not Enough. It may seem I've been a bit harsh on some of the choices, but this is purely my opinion and Lapis, please be assured that I still had a great time watching this. It has also given me some good ideas for my own edit of this in the future. It's an ambitious edit, not afraid to tackle and change technically difficult scenes, and for that I would applaud you. Not all of it works, but overall this gets a hearty 007 recommendation from me.
Owner's reply January 30, 2021

Thanks for pointing out that music transition. I've fixed it by letting the opening song fade out 6 seconds longer as replacement.

L
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