Review Detail

The best of both worlds. It is debatable which of Steven Spielberg's suggested changes (yes, it was him) were for the best and which weren't, but I tend to align with Paranoid Android here. The opening works much better over black and with Doldinger's music, yet the Ivory Tower bits do improve with Moroder (Doldinger's score is beautiful but kinda repetitive) and Limahl's song is too iconic to be discarded completely so it fits over the end credits. It's debatable whether Spielberg was right in suggesting the removal of the janitor scene: it's in the book, but it should have been much more suspenseful than it is, so I can see both sides. I like having it in the movie, as a fan of the original novel. Pretty much the decisions taken for this edit are the ones I myself would have taken.

And as someone who toyed with the idea of doing a "book cut" of the movie - and decided against it so far because I can't find a way to fix the sphinxes scene without extensive FX/rotoscoping skills that I don't possess (fans of the book will agree with me here) - this cut is the next best thing for me, and my new preferred way to watch the movie.

An excellent first-time edit, very well realized and of a remarkable high quality. Recommended for anyone who enjoys the movie at all. And if you do - please, please, read the book as well. You have my word you won't regret it.