Wall-E Fantasy by TMBTM: I liked this quite a bit. I really enjoyed the original Wall-E until he got off the planet, so for me the ending actually worked very well. And the opening text was helpful in appreciating the ending. The mixing of the two sources was done very well. My only disappointment was the lack of 5.1, something that really would have put this over the top for me. By the way, I also thought for a moment that Wall-E was running away, rather than chasing after the humans, but overall it still worked fine for me. 9/10
Alien Elements by ThrowgnCpr: I was lukewarm on this one, but only because I’m not an AvP fan so it’s not my cup of tea. Certainly not Throw’s fault. I liked the atmosphere in this, and the 5.1 really helped sell the atmosphere. I thought the mixing of The Fifth Element with the Predator worked reasonably well, and it was very clear to me that the AvP scenes were supposed to be in the same location as the previous Fifth Element scene. I also noticed one flash frame (if that’s the right term) right near the end as the ship was leaving the planet – there was an extremely quick shot of the woman survivor, which was so fast I had to rewind to see if I had just imagined it. 6/10, although I have deducted a few points for my lack of interest in AvP. Otherwise I’d probably give it 8/10.
Humans are Limited by Adabisi: I thought this was very cool. Basically a short story about Hal vs. the Humans. When I got to the end, my first thought was that the short couldn’t possibly be over. But after thinking about it for a moment, I loved the alternate direction it took. Well done. 9/10
Star Wars Episode 2.1 by Gaith: I think this was based on the EP 1 deleted scenes doc, but applying it to The Phantom Editor’s EP 2 instead. I liked the bits from the doc, with talking heads discussing how hard it is to cut and then showing clips that are in the theatrical, but presumably gone from The Phantom Editor’s edit. However, that part felt too short to me, and I really didn’t want to watch the Asteroid Chase scene, even if it made sense in context of The Phantom Editor’s edit. I think the idea was interesting but would have liked something different in execution – perhaps just more talking head clips intercut with the worst bits of the movie, rather than making it about The Phantom Editor. Also, the Asteroid Chase scene had a few random B&W bits I was confused by. Usually color vs. B&W is used to indicate deleted material vs. non-deleted, so I assume that’s what was being done there. 4/10
Clone Wars – Aggressive Negotiations by Uncanny Antman: Pretty good stuff here. Embiggens, indeed :) A nice action packed piece that kept me engaged. The sound was a 5.1 upmix , so if you’re using a 5.1 system, make sure to adjust your levels accordingly. 8/10
Mayflower Madness by M77: Loved this! A nice change of pace to throw some comedy in the mix. Although a few jokes fall flat, I really enjoy this type and period of comedy (original Airplane, Police Squad / Naked gun, etc.). Ending was perfect. And out of eight shorts, we get two with HAL and one with ROC! 9/10 – loses a point for a lack of Shatner :-(
Humans Are Limitless by Blueyoda: I don’t think I’m the audience for this. The opening narration was fine. I didn’t mind the idea of the rock video (even thought I don’t like the song, it didn’t bother me) except for one thing – seeing the band was a big minus for me. Replacing the band with more clips would have worked much better, as the band just dragged me out of this. I felt the rest of the music worked really well. The idea of combining Megatron and Hal was cool, but no one reacts to Megatron, and the interviewer continues to refer to him as Hal. It just was too jarring. The end bit with the BY logo also dragged me out of the film. I wanted to like this but just ended up frustrated. 4/10
Klone by Elbarto1: Nice work here. I always liked the Clooney version of Solaris and this was really enjoyable to watch and listen too (liked the music quite a bit). Another 5.1 upmix here, but I just made another levels adjustment and it worked fine. 9/10
Overall – 8/10. I actually liked this better than the Batman Consecution, mainly due to the source material. Except for a few misfires, I thought this was a really successful project. And the DVD is well done, including a really nice Alien intro/theme, Consecution Trailers, and info about each editor. Too bad Adabisi didn’t get an avatar! Thanks to all :-)
This is how I see it:
Most of this (and other consecution editions) consist of material I may or may not have seen before. Therefore I do not read descriptions ahead of time and just sit back and watch what is presented. In doing so this gives me a total unbiased view of what I am watching. Does what I see make sense? Do I see a nice short story or understand what the editor is trying to accomplish? For some of the past consecution projects (namely Batman) a lot of the time I had no idea just what in the world I was supposed to be watching, until I read the descriptions afterward, then it made more sense. Luckily that did not happen here.
I am going to do this as a group project review and not go through edit by edit. I will say I did see some nice stand outs and some that, well… kind of remained in the background. I also noticed more creativity and nice visuals raising the fan edit effects bar.
I loved the menu system, however on my 27″ analog tv the font writing for each fan edit on the menu was almost un-readable. A slightly larger font size would have worked better
Still with only that minor issue, the edit was almost a balanced mix of ones I did enjoy and ones I did not enjoy so much. I am giving this consecution an 8
