Jaws III: Monster

A definite improvement on a really bad movie. Like the new B movie elements added with the new squid ending. Thank God for the removal of the tacky 3d effects of the original. Excellent soundtrack. Love the extras on the second disk... Love the "Ghost Shark" short. Fun edit!

Reviewed by Gatos on May 17, 2012

LastSurvivor is a faneditor whose work I respect and enjoy. So when I read about his plans for Jaws 3 I realized how passionate he was about the project and I realized I was gonna have to buy Jaws 3 so I could see this edit. So my Jaws 3 dvd is still wrapped in plastic and will probably remain so.

As usual I didn’t read any other reviews before writing this. The edit itself, excellent on the technical end. Listening to some of LS’s commentary helped fill in the details on a lot of the hard work he had to do on this edit. I was particularly impressed with the audio work on the opening scene, and I also thought the instance of filtering what was originally a day scene and making it look like night. I honestly wouldn’t have known had I not listened to the commentary. Nice touch with making yourself the DJ! If I ever need a voice over actor I know who to hire.

The movie itself, I didn’t really enjoy it that much, but that’s just me. The new ending was extremely creative though. However I did really enjoy Ghost Shark. Cool closing credits.

The documentary was great and is probably my favorite part of the whole edit. I followed the In-the-Works thread on a regular basis and know how time consuming it was to put this special feature together. Very interesting to hear all the training the actors went through. The tank that they built to film the underwater scenes was cool. I was surprised to learn that so many of the actors in the film were/are embarrassed by their involvement.

These special features definitely raised the bar on what a fanedit release can be. So well done.

Because I didn’t really enjoy the main edit (through no fault of the editor, everyone has different preferences) I rate this an 8/10.

A bit of a curious missing link between TMBTM's Jaws Sharksploitation Cut and LS' own Jaws 2: Amity Horror, Jaws III: Monster is a fairly faithful trimming-down of the original coked-out theme park horror flick with a few climactic twists thrown in to keep viewers off-balance. Still lots of fun, and impeccably assembled, but it doesn't quite reach the loving fidelity of Amity Horror's fanfix or the wild grindhouse heights of Sharksploitation.

On the other hand, the egregious Jaws IV is turned into a moody short film (on the second disc included here) called Ghost Shark that vastly improves that movie into a rumination on grief and aging... with killer sharks. Between that and the excellent behind-the-scenes commentaries, great cover art and extras galore, it's plenty enough to make you forget about the somewhat murky intentions behind the main feature, this is a wonderfully assembled fan edit package and very highly recommended.

April 14, 2012

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

April 15, 2012

I agree with what Blueyoda said. Except maybe about the opening credit montage, that I liked a lot.

- The movie is improved while being respectful of the original. Of course the CG shark shots are obviously not from the 80′ but I think it works better than the bad mix between Slow Bruce (who chased his victime at the speed of Friday the 13th’s Jason…) and random real sharks footages that always are a bit jarring. This gives a sens of unity in the special effects that this movie needed.
- The audio work is VERY good. A lot was changed but we do not notice anything wrong.
- The added plot works well and add to that B movie feeling. Although I think we could have seen maybe a bit more of this (but it’s always a good sign when you say that you want MORE of something, you know.)
- The commentary was really interesting. Kuddo for this extra work.

- So the edit is very good, but to me the real gem of this release is the bonus DVD.
I rarely saw (never?) such an amount of work for extra features on a fanedit.
The documentary, edited and commented by the editor is amazing and really pro-looking. Its first part is about the original movie Jaws 3D and the second is about the fanedit itself, so beware of spoilers.
Then we have Ghost Shark. A 30 + minutes short fanedit of Jaws the Revenge. The main idea behind this edit is something I wanted to make myself but did not have time and, to teel the truth, did not really know how to do. And I can tell you: I had the time of my life watching LastSurvivor’s version because I could not have done it better and it was a pleasure to watch a fanedit I wanted to do without, well, doing it! lol. I don’t see another way to make Jaws 4 better, IMO. Not to mention tha this short edit also have a commentary as an option.
Add to this: deleted (edited) scenes and trailers and you have an amazing bonus package.

So I would rate the main edit a 9/10 because I think it’s great but not perfect.
But the extra work of the bonus pushes it to 10/10.