Review Detail
9.7 25 10
Overall rating
9.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
8.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
8.0
QUALITY
Quality is excellent considering the file size.
VISUAL EDITING
Visual cuts are seamless. Newly added dream segments are nicely put together. One very slight nitpick:
- At 7:00 the footstep foley seemed slightly out of sync with the visual
AUDIO EDITING
In terms of transitioning from scene to scene and trims to dialogue, cuts are seamless. The rescoring was largely good but a bit of a mixed bag for me for a combination of technical and narrative reasons (more on that later).
- 37:50 - not actually sure if this is futon or not, as I couldn't see it on the cutlist, but music starts to fade in here and it clashes with the strings playing in the background of the scene.
- 41:30 - this montage has incomplete sound design which unfortunately betrays the music swap. Eg. There's a sound when Matilda puts the bag on the counter, but not when she takes something out the bag and puts it down. There's an isolated clink as she puts the glass on the drainer at 41:32 but otherwise there doesn't seem to be any foley here. The tap is running water and there's no sound from that or as it runs over the bowl. This would work fine without any sound design as a montage IMO, but having limited sound design betrays the foley.
- At 41:54 the dialogue is obscured by the music.
- 55:08 - a bit jarring that the music volume increases as the hotel clerk speaks. Feels unnatural and not an ideal place to shift the volume.
- The door chain sfx that have been chosen for the sweet dreams segment doesn't sound right to me. It may be because we hear the chain, but we don't hear it rattle against the door, or it may be the sound itself is just to bright and weightless. The foley just seems a bit empty here.
I should say that there is a lot of rescore work on the edit and a lot of it works very well. Keeping the film in surround is also commendable (I watched it mixed down on a 3.1 setup, so can't fully judge, but it seemed to work well). Sometimes the issue is Leon, who is quite softly spoken and has a thick accent, and so it's easy for the music to get in the way of his lines. Without subtitles, I wasn't able to comprehend what he was saying at points.
NARRATIVE
It's been a while since I've seen the original and an even longer while since I've seen Nikita. I presumed the black and white sections were created for the edit, but they fit well on a technical level. Narratively, I didn't really get what their significance was or what they added in the context of Leon's narrative. I presumed it was probably footage from Nikita, but I can't remember the context for those clips.
- 15:00 - this an observation, not a criticism: The context of this scene seems to demand Beethoven, so I assumed futon88 had swapped it for different music. But nope, that's the original score! Bizarre. I think there was a missed opportunity here, as it would have made more sense for Beethoven to score the scene if that's what Oldman is "dancing" to.
- Given the concept of the edit, I was surprised to see Mathilda still confess she's in love with Leon. I don't have an issue with it, but it's interesting that it's kept in. Generally, the awkwardness of that plot element is toned down significantly, as was the aim of the edit.
Subjectively, I didn't mind the music itself, but I thought there were sometimes odd choices for the scenes and they could be distracting. During montages? Not so much. But Sweet Dreams during the "training" segment and the Kate Bush scene didn't seem to fit for me. Part of it is it just being marginally (marginally) louder than needed, and part of it is being vocal-driven music during scenes of dialogue. I like both songs, but in the context of those scenes I just felt like they hindered the film conveying information. The instrumental pieces used, on the other hand, worked very well.
ENJOYMENT
A well-done edit and an enjoyable alt experience. 20 minutes cut and it doesn't seem to create any problems for the narrative; keeping things mostly from Matilda's perspective works well. Dream segments seemed superfluous and some music choices were a hindrance. The original film is fine from my memory and, apart from the awkwardness of Mathilda's feelings for Leon, I didn't think it really needed an edit. I think if Futon's edit had solely focused on toning that element down but without the other changes, it may have worked better for me.
On a subjective level (and unrelated to the main edit), not really a fan of having trailers at the start of fanedits as part of the same file. There's only one here, but I hope it doesn't become a trend. I have to deal with skipping past trailers on my home media discs and I don't want that to be a thing with fanedits (and it also contributes to the file size). I think it's different with a concept edit like a Grindhouse, where throwing trailers in an interval is part of the experience.
Anywho, well done, futon and thanks for sharing!
Quality is excellent considering the file size.
VISUAL EDITING
Visual cuts are seamless. Newly added dream segments are nicely put together. One very slight nitpick:
- At 7:00 the footstep foley seemed slightly out of sync with the visual
AUDIO EDITING
In terms of transitioning from scene to scene and trims to dialogue, cuts are seamless. The rescoring was largely good but a bit of a mixed bag for me for a combination of technical and narrative reasons (more on that later).
- 37:50 - not actually sure if this is futon or not, as I couldn't see it on the cutlist, but music starts to fade in here and it clashes with the strings playing in the background of the scene.
- 41:30 - this montage has incomplete sound design which unfortunately betrays the music swap. Eg. There's a sound when Matilda puts the bag on the counter, but not when she takes something out the bag and puts it down. There's an isolated clink as she puts the glass on the drainer at 41:32 but otherwise there doesn't seem to be any foley here. The tap is running water and there's no sound from that or as it runs over the bowl. This would work fine without any sound design as a montage IMO, but having limited sound design betrays the foley.
- At 41:54 the dialogue is obscured by the music.
- 55:08 - a bit jarring that the music volume increases as the hotel clerk speaks. Feels unnatural and not an ideal place to shift the volume.
- The door chain sfx that have been chosen for the sweet dreams segment doesn't sound right to me. It may be because we hear the chain, but we don't hear it rattle against the door, or it may be the sound itself is just to bright and weightless. The foley just seems a bit empty here.
I should say that there is a lot of rescore work on the edit and a lot of it works very well. Keeping the film in surround is also commendable (I watched it mixed down on a 3.1 setup, so can't fully judge, but it seemed to work well). Sometimes the issue is Leon, who is quite softly spoken and has a thick accent, and so it's easy for the music to get in the way of his lines. Without subtitles, I wasn't able to comprehend what he was saying at points.
NARRATIVE
It's been a while since I've seen the original and an even longer while since I've seen Nikita. I presumed the black and white sections were created for the edit, but they fit well on a technical level. Narratively, I didn't really get what their significance was or what they added in the context of Leon's narrative. I presumed it was probably footage from Nikita, but I can't remember the context for those clips.
- 15:00 - this an observation, not a criticism: The context of this scene seems to demand Beethoven, so I assumed futon88 had swapped it for different music. But nope, that's the original score! Bizarre. I think there was a missed opportunity here, as it would have made more sense for Beethoven to score the scene if that's what Oldman is "dancing" to.
- Given the concept of the edit, I was surprised to see Mathilda still confess she's in love with Leon. I don't have an issue with it, but it's interesting that it's kept in. Generally, the awkwardness of that plot element is toned down significantly, as was the aim of the edit.
Subjectively, I didn't mind the music itself, but I thought there were sometimes odd choices for the scenes and they could be distracting. During montages? Not so much. But Sweet Dreams during the "training" segment and the Kate Bush scene didn't seem to fit for me. Part of it is it just being marginally (marginally) louder than needed, and part of it is being vocal-driven music during scenes of dialogue. I like both songs, but in the context of those scenes I just felt like they hindered the film conveying information. The instrumental pieces used, on the other hand, worked very well.
ENJOYMENT
A well-done edit and an enjoyable alt experience. 20 minutes cut and it doesn't seem to create any problems for the narrative; keeping things mostly from Matilda's perspective works well. Dream segments seemed superfluous and some music choices were a hindrance. The original film is fine from my memory and, apart from the awkwardness of Mathilda's feelings for Leon, I didn't think it really needed an edit. I think if Futon's edit had solely focused on toning that element down but without the other changes, it may have worked better for me.
On a subjective level (and unrelated to the main edit), not really a fan of having trailers at the start of fanedits as part of the same file. There's only one here, but I hope it doesn't become a trend. I have to deal with skipping past trailers on my home media discs and I don't want that to be a thing with fanedits (and it also contributes to the file size). I think it's different with a concept edit like a Grindhouse, where throwing trailers in an interval is part of the experience.
Anywho, well done, futon and thanks for sharing!
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
T