Raiders of the Lost Skull

December 19, 2011

This is My Review for the AVI version of this fanedit
Video-Audio:
The Video Quality was perfect. The whole thing looked superb, with no video problems whatsoever, Running smoothly all the way. the only small problem i had is that the video was rendered as 16:9 with black bars on the top and on the bottom. This about the AVI version, i dont know if this is present in the blu ray version as well but i didn’t mind it in the AVI version. The movie would have had black bars anyway when played on a normal 16:9 monitor. And the image wasn’t distorted or anything like that. Just something worth mentioning anyway. The Audio was also superb with no complaints here 9/10
Editing:
Almost all of the cuts were done very well, and most of the time i couldn’t tell where they were made. Some clever editing was done here with some scenes. The only one that comes to my mind and felt a little distracting was the quick sand scene. It felt a little too fast, a little too sudden. But it wasn’t a deal breaker, it was a minor gripe in an otherwise nicely edited and put together fanedit. there were some other scenes that felt a little off, but they were even more minor, not distracting and not really worth mentioning IMO. The audio editing was flawless. No noticeable abrupt audio cuts, the new score that was added fitted perfectly and was well edited to the film. Maybe at some points the music felt a little too loud but you could hear the characters what they were saying perfectly. 8/10
Entertainment:
A Huge improvement over the original and most of the major problems with the original were fixed. Gone are all those stupid over the top scenes (goodbye nuke the fridge, jungle boy with monkeys, flesh eating ants, CGI alien and more). None of the deleted scenes were missed. The film feels now like a proper Indy adventure. I also loved those small cuts in the edit that made Indy look even more badass. Really liked the part at the Camp when Indy looks through the eyes of the alien. Putting the nuke explosion, the alien and other scenes there was really cool! Also liked the edits on many characters that made them more tolerable and likeable. The Edited ending felt so much better than the original. No more spaceship crap. Furthermore i really liked the new soundtrack. Brings back even more nostalgia! In general, it felt more fast paced, more tight, more engaging and overal, much better film than the original 9/10
Presentation:
N/A It was the AVI version
Overall: 8/10

March 11, 2012

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

December 25, 2011

While I frequently check out what’s new in the FE community, the percentage of edits I’ll actually watch, let alone enjoy is pretty darned small.

I’ve tried to watch other Indy 4 edits and find them just as painful as the original version (which is appalling in itself.)

I watched and am reviewing the avi version.

With apologies to the editor, I usually write long involved reviews, but the thing is, when other people do that I usually just skip to the summary. So I’ll just cut to the chase:

Oh, GOD! YES! Thank you! I watched the entire film and never flinched or attempted to chew my leg off to escape the horror. Indy is a badass again and not a buffoon.

The pluses: Pitch perfect editing. I never saw the seams. I never felt like there were plot holes. I never felt like anything good or important was missing. Midway through I stopped thinking about the original version and what was missing and just enjoyed the film.

The negatives: The black levels were REALLY uneven. In some cases the blackest black was dark gray. This was emphasized by the letterbox borders which shifted with them. In the chamber of the skeletons at the end, the borders actually started flashing. Yikes.

The music… well this was both a plus and a minus. I LOVED how it improved the experience, but it was frequently too loud. Sound effects and dialog during action scenes were frequently drowned out. The action lost its weight and I frequently zoned out on the action because the music pulled me out of it.

I also wouldn’t have minded the editor stretching a bit into Indy 2 and 3′s music where appropriate. (And used a little less of the fanfare (bada da dum, bada da daaaa.) which got busted out too early and often.)

Honestly, 1/2 star movie is now a 2-1/2 star movie. But the editor gets 3-1/2 out of 4 for doing what I would have considered impossible.

Oh, and one more negative: No DVD version. I guess I’ll have to recode that myself (which at least gives me the opportunity to fix the borders).

Outstanding work njvc.

Oh, one more thing…
ALMOST nothing felt missing. I never had a problem with Mutt fencing Spalko (that I recall). Without it though Mutt never gets his ‘moment’, even though it is made clear that Spalko quirkily carries a sword, that Mutt has had fencing training and is good with a blade.

The story still works, but the pay-off is missing.

December 25, 2011

I enjoyed iit while atching. Good choices espaecially Marion’ silliness. I like the colour correction too.
A/V: 9
Presentation: 9
Entertainment: 9
Overall: 9

People say you can't polish a turd. But editor here proves that you can.

Thank you for making it so I never have to suffer that fridge scene again.