Phase IV: The Evolution Cut

Who would have thought 8 minutes of insects going about their business would be such a meditative experience...me neither . For a time there i was ensconsed.
I bought the bluray on the premise of watching Last Survivor's edit after I viewed the original. I had an inkling that I'd seen Phase IV in my younger days but it turned out I hadn't. I'm so pleased the editors passion for the project drove me to explore some horror/sci-fi in all its 70's glory. The film was great but this Evolution cut has turned the dial up another level. The new music is nuance -bordering on native to the original, as if it has always been there under the surface like the movies ant-agonists ...Last Survivor enticed the separate audio channel out for us to enjoy for the rest of our days or at least until the ants takeover.
I wholly agree with the disposal of the unneeded narration ..let the visuals do the talking. Some fine sound FX replacement was carried out, so kudos to the editor for his undertaking.
Now for the crowning glory , the reinsertion of the original Saul Bass ending...im so pleased this become available - its a thing of retro beauty - tinges of 007 opening credits, historic cigarette & perfume commercials, a real experience of the time period and kitsch as kitsch can be - a visual and musical crescendo of the 80mins of celluloid that came before it, heightened by the rescoring.

I have no technical issues with the edit but I would have made one dialogue edit, when Kendra wakes up and Michael asks her if she remembers him - this is a personal choice.

This edit is one of the strongest i've seen - as strong as an ant

Talk about elevating the source material, sheesh. This was awesome, awesome in the dictionary definition of the word. About as close to feeling like 2001: A Space Odyssey as a foot-fetishizing killer ant story with a crazed researcher and a leering linguist can get. I will very much look forward to returning to this edit in the years to come.

Saul Bass's only directorial contribution to the world of feature-film is Phase IV - a cerebral, science-fiction horror(?) concerning a dramatic increase in ants' intelligence and ability organise.

Last Survivor's edit removes overdub narration and restores Saul Bass' original ending, which was changed for the theatrical release. This brings the film more in line with Bass' original vision. Additionally, this edit embraces the film's atmospheric side with an all-synth re-score, utilising the likes of Jean-michelle Jarre.

On the audio editing front, it's hard to fault this. The score-work is perfect and fits the mood of the film wonderfully. Levels are excellently balanced and really show that care has gone into ensuring any changes are appropriate for the source material.

There is one piece of foley that is observable, but not distracting. This is mainly betrayed by where the new SFX sit in the mix and also the quality of the SFX, which are crisper than what has come before. This is fairly subtle though and you are unlikely to notice unless conscious of where the change has been made.

The narrative is easily followed without the presence of overdub narration, though aspects did feel a little rushed to me and so I wondered whether this would have been rectified with some of the narration intact. I will have to compare with the original to be sure. Regardless, the story is communicated well enough. I'm also not a fan of narration, so would possibly opt for this version regardless.

No complaints on visual quality. The only shift is towards the end when we transition into Saul Bass' original ending, where there is noticeable dirt/scratches etc., but this is no fault of the editor's and I didn't find it distracting.

My only real qualm with the edit is that it would have been nice to have had the original score/narration included as an audio option. This would allow both for an easy comparison and also for the film to be seen in a more pure form: with its original score and Saul Bass' ending restored. I do see that there is an editor's commentary though - nice touch! Will have to check that out sometime.

Enjoyment is high. Narratively, I wasn't keen on the ending this time around (again, will need to rewatch the original for comparison), but it was very cool on a visual level. The music choice is excellent and provides an atmosphere that I think I will find hard to separate from the film. I used to listen to a lot of Jarre, so it was nice to re-encounter his music in this form.

Overall an excellent piece of work and definitely an edit I'll revisit!

I loved the original cut, and this one rules too.

Just having the original ending spliced in was great. But LastSurvivor also did a great job tightening/modernizing certain aspects, while remaining very respectful of the source material. The new music cues didn't noticeably clash with the original score, to my surprise, and were a good match for some of the insane visuals. This movie has always felt weirdly contemporary (given how much old technology is featured), and some of the changes in this cut only augment that feeling.

I'm not sure I would have "gotten" it as much if I hadn't seen the original cut first...impossible to know what it would be like to see it this way first, but I will definitely be revisiting the LastSurvivor cut before returning to the original. Awesome job, obviously made with great care.

Great work in turning this into a more psychedelic, surreal and (in part) experimental film, while removing many of the goofy and cringe-inducing dialogues and scenes. And good riddance to the voiceover.

The original directing style and acting aren’t great (for me) but that’s minimized here because of the small changes throughout the film.

Really great job on the new score, it makes all the difference.