Quantum of Solace: Bond’s Revenge

Review by Neglify — August 7, 2012 @ 9:10 pm

(I watched and rated this in Jan 2012 but didn’t leave a review.)

This was a technically sound edit but for me didn’t 100% save QoS. This is no fault to the editor as additional scenes haven’t been made available yet to flesh everything out a little more. (I didn’t notice any tech issues as some other reviewers have pointed out.)

FANEDIT RATING
Audio/Video Quality – 9
Visual Editing – 10
Audio Editing – 10
Degree of Editing – 8

(NOTE: “Degree of Editing” is a 100% arbitrary rating that I keep in mind when reviewing edits. This is not meant to insinuate that a faneditor is lazy or not. Some fanedits require a lot more work than others and I take this into account.)

MOVIE RATING
Narrative – 8
Enjoyment – 8 (original is 7)


UPDATED review:

When I originally watched the edit I watched the AVI. I recently previewed the DVD and I was able to see some of the technical issues other reviewers brought up. They weren't terrible to my eyes and ears, but it affects some of the tech ratings.

New ratings:

A/V Quality - 8
Visual Editing - 9
Audio Editing - 9

Review by Aztek463 — May 26, 2011 @ 11:09 pm

I’ve been iffy on Quantum of Solace. I didn’t really care for it that much when it was released to theaters, although my opinion changed a bit on subsequent viewings. I actually did my own edit of this a few years ago, but I never released it. I was interested to see Last Survivor’s edit of this because, well, it sorta reminded me of mine. So without further ado, let’s see how it was, shall we?

VIDEO:
This is a nice looking edit. No combing, no pixelation, no digital artifacts. There was a slight quality drop from the commercial DVD, but that’s to be expected, and it wasn’t distracting save for when there were subtitles present (hard coded as part of the original picture. Yellow is an awful color). These were few and far in between, and not the editor’s fault in the slightest.
8/10

AUDIO:
No complaints here.
10/10

EDITING:
Last Survivor did a great job on the editing. The opening was great…while the Licence to Kill gun barrel theme didn’t quite feel right at first, as the opening shots of the film played out, it was a better fit than I thought it would be. The “previously on James Bond…” opening was very well edited, and with the music he used, it was suspenseful as well.

The new title song was great as well, it definitely fit, and I liked the inclusion of the credit for it. Good job!

The opera shootout and the fight at the end were done very well as…well, I guess. There was more emotion in both of them, especially the final confrontation between Camille and Medrano/Bond and Greene. The pace was great, and it didn’t seem “out of place” when the scene slowed down, in both cases.

I did feel that the opening flashback to Casino Royale went on a bit too long, and it probably could have been trimmed down a bit. Also, some of the scenes that were slowed down (the blood on the gun barrel, the car chase) were slowed down *too* much, to the point the video was a bit jerky. Not the worst thing in the world, but just for future reference, be careful slowing stuff down.
9/10

DVD:
Simple, but effective. It was quite pleased to see a scene selection menu (with different music on each page!) Extras include a trailer and info on the edit. No complaints.
10/10

I do have on major complaint for this edit, and it’s a doozy. In some scenes, particularly the flashbacks to Casino Royale, a good chunk of the Haiti sequence, and a little bit at the end, the video seems like it’s going a bit fast. The audio is not out of sync, but it appears as if perhaps the original source for this edit was PAL and not properly converted to NTSC. It also reminded me of how some HDTVs are configured improperly on the showroom floor of electronics stores, and the demos being shown appear to move too fast. What the cause of this was, I’m not sure, but it was distracting at times. I tested the edit on a few different players, the same result each time.

Don’t get me wrong…I really enjoyed this edit. It’s pretty damn close to my preferred version of the film. However, the aforementioned video issues are a distraction and take away from the experience, and prevents me from giving it a higher score. Maybe Last Survivor could look into fixing this or figuring the issue out and release a corrected version?

TOTAL: 7/10

Overall I enjoyed this edit and I think it helped the movie. There's not a lot to work with, so only so much can be done.

First, the good. Adding in the gun barrel Bond trope fits--it is kind of odd to not have it. Replacing the theme song was a decided improvement; I'm not 100% convinced of the P!nk song but it fits overall and is a massive improvement over the awful original.

Trimming the action sequences works. This is a Bond film, not a Bourne film, so the chases and fights shouldn't be the focus. In particular the opera sequence is fantastic IMHO. Going slow motion with just the music track get across the brutality of the fight without getting in the viewer's face about it. The Vesper flashbacks generally works. Same goes for the final hotel fight, though it isn't quite as effective. The technique helps to highlight Bond's state of mind.

Having a callback montage at the beginning is a good idea since this is a rare actual sequel film. Which segues me into the criticism. The initial sequence felt overlong. Probably picking up a couple of short clips then right to the sinking elevator and aftermath would be enough--not a summary of the entire Casino Royale.

Moving the Sienna chase to before the opening credit sequence also didn't work for me. It moved the credit sequence too far into the film--15 minutes or so in? It felt wrong.

As mentioned, some of the flashbacks to Vesper were a bit abrupt, even if appropriate.

With the cutting, the thin story and weak villain became almost secondary. It started to become more of Bond ignoring M's orders and avoiding getting caught by her and the other agents. Again, not much to work with here.

In the end I did enjoy the edit and it works, it's just not my favorite work by Last Survivor.

After the very good Skyfallen edit, I am picking up the other Bond edits and would like to give my impression.

Other than Skyfallen, "Bond’s Revenge" does indeed change the tone of the movie and I'd consider it rather an alternative "FanMix" than a "FanFix" which simply is out to make a better movie with the original intention like done with "Icarus".

Having said this, this edit is a success as it proves what the "Skyfallen" edit expands on: Bond movies need a strong villain to shine. By cutting away the mediocre eco story and making the chase personal, it doesn't matter anymore that the Greene character is just small fry and not very threatening to begin with. I felt with Bond and his drive to go after him.

Necessarily, the movie feels a bit shorter, but as it's consistent the fast paced cuts don't really give the impression of "fanedit", but of determination and energy. Well, the technical quality of the flashback scenes cannot really compete with a major Hollywood production, but what can you expect :-) and it shows that the story matters, never mind cgi or polished editing.

Last not least, I really missed the audio commentary on this one! Maybe you'll go back and add one, saying in retrospect after editing move Bond outings how you feel about Quantum?

Review by havok1977 — May 27, 2011 @ 5:34 am

So I felt in the mood for some Bond tonight, and of my pending fanedit queue i decided to go with this release from LastSurvivor; whom I’ve gotten a bit acquainted with lately due to his feedback of my work in progress.

Bearing in mind that these are just my personal opinions with no other intent than expressing myself, lets dive right…

VIDEO quality: Very good. I could not notice any significant difference between this and most of the SD discs that I own.

I see that Aztek mentions an issue with different speeds which are not noticeable to me, PAL to NTSC conversion is something I have not personally dealt with and can not really make a proper assessment. In full disclosure I watch DVDs using an upscaling stand alone player which does some nice signal cleaning, which could be a mitigating factor.
With this present I still give video a 9/10

AUDIO quality: Again it is great, this being made off fairly recent and high profile/budget movies means that the audio sources should and are of prime quality. The editing is flawless with no noticeable issues even thou there are some significant replacement of dialogue lines at many spots in the edit. Much effort and patience goes into accomplishing this level of polish and so: 10/10

EDITING / ENJOYMENT : LastSurvivor took on a movie which I hoped someone would fix and I have to say that his labors yielded quite a good final product. Here are some points i would like to highlight:

- The whole reason for this movie to exist is Vesper and Bond’s truncated relationship, his subsequent grief and the way he deals with what happened. It is a good thing to bring this to the foreground, and I felt that the new pre-credits sequence does a great job at this (the use of B&W and color was quite effective here)

And yet I felt the hammer falling on my head too often hitting me with the same point during the rest of the edit than I think is good – specially the flashback at the Opera house, which in turned made the escape feel non existent.

- Still about the opening sequence, I felt some more of the actual car chase was missing, just a tad. And a small thing that should also be mentioned is that during one of Vesper’s voice overs she is actually in frame with her lips out of sync, and it just felt a bit off.

- Fine choice with the theme song, it fits very well; kudos to the person whom you mentioned suggested it. To be honest I walked in biased here because I have never cared for the pop singer behind it, expecting to hate it; guess it would have been one of those cases of better off not knowing

- A great job was made to tone down the speed of the many action sequences that are present in the original release by using a clever choice of music and a semi slow camera that makes things feel somehow more real, yet I felt that the last one did not need so much of this treatment and therefore did not have the impact i would have expected, and the small flashback for Camille in there felt out of place to me.

- As it was surely planned, by consequence of the action sequence rearrangement the rest of the movie has a much better pace and the actual spying is properly showcased now. Very well done.

- There is a change in the final act that was honestly not to my liking: Greene’s fate. I understand that this is a matter of personal preference, but I have to say that I preferred the original version.

Because of these opinions, for me this is a 7/10.

DVD Authoring: efficient and right up my alley

Final score for me: 8.5/10. Original: 6.5/10
All in all I did quite enjoy the new take and the disc will have a place on my fanedits shelf