Jaws III: Monster

Summer time is here, and if you're craving beaches and theme parks, it's a perfect time to live vicariously...through Jaws 3: Monster! My gold-standard is: does this replace or at least equal the original film? Well, since the original is a pretty schlocky threquel that seemed to be made with no thought to what it would look like NOT in 3-D...yes! This is definitely a better way to watch the film.

I agree with much of what Quickcut said in the first review for this:
Pluses- The trims to the story make it move a lot quicker. I can see where the original would've felt glacial. The 3-D effects would've looked horrible on video, so the replacement footage is very welcome. The ending of the film is famously cheesy, too, so the alternate ending here is refreshing. And I appreciated all the song additions, which fit the film so well that they're not even noticeable edits if you're not paying attention.

Minuses- As Quickcut said, the end goal of the film is a bit murky. LS said he wanted to lean into the B-movie quality of it, but honestly with films out there like Sharknado or Snakes On A Plane, it just feels like this doesn't go nearly far enough. Dennis Quad, Bess Armstrong, and Lea Thompson are all pretty good in this, and they're playing it straight. The story has a lot of ridiculous logic, often just using the monster(s) to move the plot, regardless of how real sea creatures operate. But the humans mostly make understandable decisions and have straightforward lines, so it doesn't have the delicious cheese that makes for a great bad movie like Army of Darkness or Killer Klowns From Outer Space. I also would've liked more footage and more buildup of the other Monster to bolster the film. There are also a lot of camera shots that were obviously intended for 3-D that are really impossible to remove from the film.

Extras- There are a plethora of extras included here, I think more than for any other fanedit I've seen! There are deleted/alternate scenes which show some interesting ideas that were dropped, some of which worked well (like the alternate opening 2) but mostly were happily abandoned for a better final edit.

There's a "Ghost Shark" short film that's essentially a micro fanedit of Jaws IV. It’s a bit odd because you’re steadily introduced to all these characters, and their goals, then we don’t really see any of them pay off. Instead, we see a stranger get eaten, then a new character show up and get attacked.The end. Is it any better than the actual Jaws IV? I don’t know, I heard that was horrible and the plot of it (and this one) is patently ridiculous, so I’ve got no urge to compare. The acting was surprisingly good in this, though!

There’s also a documentary that goes into depth on the making of the original film, its release and legacy, and the process of making the fanedit. This all could be seen as taking itself a bit too seriously, but it's very well done so I enjoyed it quite a bit. It gave me a new appreciation for the passion and effort which went into creating this fanedit.

I feel like the way to watch Jaws 3 would've been at a drive-in with 3-D glasses in 1983. Or at a retro 3-D theater now. Outside of that situation, the faneditor can only make it so good. I'm not nearly as passionate or forgiving of the film as he, but this fanedit is still enjoyable enough to watch once.

This was an outstanding fan edit and very professional in it's overall presentation. The extra's on disc two were top draw.

Most of the new footage and shark effects were integrated well. I particularly liked when the squid first surfaces further enhanced with an excellent music cue. The ending is a huge improvement over the original and the same can be said about the rest of the film.

Only thing that didn't work for me was the opening credits montage which featured way too many CGI sharks for my taste and simply went on too long. Personally I prefer the underwater shots as used in the originals where it's left to the music to set the scene and nothing is shown.

The video quality wasn't particularly good however I believe this was mostly a result of the source material. In any case the new footage was downgraded to match perfectly.

Overall this edit is highly recommended and deserves all the accolades it's received!

After a visit to my local Cex store I was able to pick up Jaws 3 and 4 for a bargain £1.50 each. The first Jaws film has long been a favorite of mine while I consider Jaws 2 to be a rather underrated sequel. Parts 3 and 4 however I haven't revisited to often as their barley screened here in the UK. I knew part 3 was set within a theme park but had no idea that the Brody family from the first two films were involved. I was also surprised to see Dennis Quaid starring in Jaws 3

Given my lack of knowledge to Jaws 3 I didn't take a look at the changes Last Survivor made but knew the edit would include a new monster and remove some dated 3D effects. After seeing the edit it was hard to see just what else he had done to this film. This is the biggest complement I can give to the editor as the commentary goes into great detail the various changes made I just presumed this to be how the film was originally released.

The added Squid monster fits in perfectly though maybe a bit of back story to the monster would have made for a stronger sub-plot. However seeing the footage on the deleted scenes I think the right de-session was made as it's clear that both films have some years between them. The film it self is a enjoyable B movie flick, a little more family friendly than it's predecessors but it's well acted and the characters are likable.

The bonus feature includes a great documentary with narration by Last Survivor in which we see some interesting ideas / stories regarding Jaws 3. Last Survivor also explains why he wanted to edit the film which is very insightful and I’d recommend to anyone who is just starting out or thinking about becoming a fan editor. The Ghost Shark short film is another welcome inclusion, as with Jaws 3 I haven't seen Jaws 4 in over 20 years but I’m well aware of what people's opinion on the film is. Last Survivor is able to salvage something from the film and turn it in to something watch-able and it looks great in black and white. As with the main feature another entertaining commentary is well worth checking out.

Now that I have Jaws 3 and 4 will I be watching these films in the future? Simple answer to that is NO. why would I when I can just re-watch Jaws 3: Monster. The only criticism against the edit is that maybe you don't get the shear size of the shark given that footage was removed.

So do what I did and get a big bowl of popcorn and enjoy some monster one on one action :)

April 16, 2012

The only problem I see with this edit is that its intention is a little vague – most of the 3D is fixed, and the ending is changed, but it’s still corny and stupid; however, I can’t say it isn’t entertaining.

Technical quality – 9/10 – well, the video quality was very poor, full of grain and blocky solids, but I’m pretty sure this was the fault of the original DVD and not LS.

Editing – 10/10 – the color correction, for the most part, was very nicely done.

Presentation – 10/10 – oh. My. Gosh. The extras. Ghost Shark was BRILLIANT. It didn’t have a real clear story progression, but it was still brilliant. It was entertaining and emotionally engrossing. It may have been better if the end was more ambiguous, and if Ellen had somehow confronted the shark in her own mind and overcome her fear or something. But, man oh man, that build-up of paranoia and what’s-real-what’s-not was incredible. Then there was a set of interesting deleted scenes and a MAGNIFICENT documentary. Cannot recommend that enough, it probably is one of my favorite parts of the edit. LS, you did a splendid job keeping the docu entertaining and informative. I never got bored, I learned a lot, and it was a really fun watch. I wanted to get this review posted soon, so I didn’t listen to the commentaries yet, but I have no doubt that they will be splendid. The cover art left just a tiny bit to be desired, but I won’t go into that in a review of the edit itself. Menus were very nice (great that you had scene selection even for the extras).

Entertainment – 8/10 – I never really finished watching Jaws 3. I watched about half of it and then never really got back to it. This time, I sat down and watched LS’s edit in one sitting without really getting bored at all. The opening flowed nicely, but the fact that it was in Amity and completely unrelated to the rest of the movie seemed kind of weird. Personally, I think the title sequence gave too much shark away – I guess you were trying to capitalize on the B-movie feel, but any and all mystery that could have been retained wasn’t. One of the things LS said was that he was trying to keep the shark’s presence less obvious so early on, and this was completely ruined by showing a huge, over-the-top shark montage during the opening credits. The rest of the film plays like a cheesy Jaws rip-off. I guess my problem with it was that it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be the next Sharksploitation Edit or whether it actually wanted to improve the film. But either way, it was entertaining, and I completely forgot I was watching a fanedit because the cuts were so smooth. The other problem with it is that it could have done with a few more [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] Octopus scenes to build up to that incredibly well-edited and corny B-movie climax that was a nice callback to the end of the Sharksploitation Edit [SPOILERS OVER]. I noticed the repeated octopus scenes, but my mind didn’t really register that they were meant to be part of the plot for some reason. The re-edited attack on the scuba divers was cool, though, and I think this edit can’t really be much better – I mean, the editing is completely perfect, and it really does feel like a very entertaining B-movie. I would give Disc One 8/10 and Disc Two 10/10, so that balances out to 9/10.

Overall – 9/10

April 17, 2012

This rocked the house! Super awesome fanedit dude!