Mars Attacks! From Space!

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Overall rating
 
9.3
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9.7(13)
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9.2(13)
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9.4(13)
Narrative
 
9.1(13)
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9.3(13)
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13 results - showing 1 - 5
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
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10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I remember seeing Mars Attacks in the the theatre. Twice. The first time I saw it, I loved it. I thought it was brilliant. I liked it so much that I went back a week later to see it again. The second time I found myself wondering what I had been thinking. It stunk. I was really disappointed.

Over the years, I've revisted Mars Attacks in the hopes that something will click and I'd rediscover my initial experience of the film. It's never happened, until I watched Mars Attacks! From Space!

It's just a terrific edit of the film, highly enjoyable. Cutting all the fat, turning bloated sequences with extraneous celebs into perfect little cameos. This is Mars Attacks the way it should have been. And that ending nearly made me choke on my drink. A perfect sting.

Well done, this will be my definitive version of Mars Attacks from now on.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
DVD
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(Updated: May 27, 2013)
Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Mars Attacks! was a movie I remember enjoying, and have been meaning to revisit - my DVD was getting dusty on the shelf, and Reave's fanedit was a good excuse to watch the film again.

As far as narrative and editing choices, Reave hit the mark pretty spot on. I get the idea of cutting side characters back to cameos, and that worked brilliantly. I would have probably excised more of the Art and Barbara Land scenes, though. Their screen time seemed to be in this awkward middle land - a bit too much for a cameo, but not enough to weave properly into the story. The only other minor complaint I had was that it seemed like the film moved too fast from the discovery of the aliens' weakness. One moment Richie and Grandma make the discovery, and the next, the military has integrated the speaker systems into their tanks. Something felt missing. Maybe it was just the loss of side plots that made it move fast. Those are pretty minor complaints though, and I don't want to focus on the negative. This was a REALLY fun watch, and Reave did a great job focusing the story

On the tech side, the cuts were invisible, the video was beautiful, and the sound was great. Again, I have two small complaints - this time about the audio. First, the sound was slightly off sync. It was a matter of milliseconds, so its was not really that distracting, but it was a bit off. I think at least one other person commented on this, so it wasn't just my system. Second, the scene where the spaceship crashes could use a bit of foley work. The music alone didn't carry it quite enough.

Anyway, awesome edit. highly recommended. Thanks Reave!

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
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10.0
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10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I enjoy the original for what it is. This is a nicely trimmed version and I appreciate the majority of the cast now reduced to cameo appearances. I might have moved Grandma's line "They blew up Congress!" to before the Army opens fire on the saucer, but otherwise I really had a lot of fun with this one. Thanks, reave.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
The pacing was on point. Concentrated absurdity at its finest. Loved every campy gonzo minute of it.

The mp4 version carried a bit of audio/visual asynchrony, whether played on QuickTime, MPlayer or my tibi. But that's OK, because I was too busy chortling to mind.

Bonkers stuff, Reave. This is definitely one I'll have to show to fanedit virgins.

Enjoyjoy: 10 pelvic aerothrusts.
Owner's reply February 15, 2013

Thanks for the review. Can you tell me exactly where the audio slips? I haven't had this complaint on the mkv version, so I would like to track down the issue on the mp4.

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Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
It's been a while since I have seen the original Mars Attacks! and Reave's edit was a welcome excuse to revisit Burton's crazy movie. This edit is extremely well edited. The pacing is much better than the original which got dragged down by a huge ensemble of characters.

This edit was a joy - while watching i tried remembering all the scenes I found funny or scenes that stuck with me. And every time I thought Reave would cut this he found a way to incorporate it.

For example the death of Jack Black's character with the american flag. Even though he has a much bigger backstory he more or less is a one-note character and works fine as he is now - an incompetent fool who has joined the army.
Many characters who get introduced earlier in the original are still there but get introduced much quicker via throwaway lines and because almost every character is a caricature it is not important to spend too much time with them as they are mostly there to deliver punchlines

I found almost no flaws in the editing other than I expected the Byron Williams character and the DeVito character to reappear because they were introduced when the martians arrived.

other than that I loved this edit a lot and will probably rewatch it the next time i am in the mood for "ack ack ack ack ack ack"
Owner's reply January 13, 2013

Thanks for the review, Sunarep.

The Devito scene is meant to be a cameo, nothing more.

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