Spectre: The LS Cut

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Spectre: The LS Cut
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2015
Original Running Time:
148
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
136
Time Cut:
12
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
Spectre was an attempt by Eon Productions and director Sam Mendes to embrace the grandiose nature of the Bond films of yesteryear, both in terms of the locales used, the scope of the picture and in bringing back the arch villain Blofeld and the Spectre organisation. Whilst it was wildly successful at the box-office, the reception on the film was very mixed. Some reveled in the large scale nature of the film, whilst others cited a poor script, lacklustre direction and a poorly executed idea of linking all the Daniel Craig Bond films together - not to mention the little controversial storyline regarding Blofeld being related to Bond as an adoptive brother.
Intention:
The LS Cut is an attempt to address what I believe to be the most damaging aspects of the film, such as ensuring that Bond is no longer related to Blofeld in any way other than being a nuisance to his Spectre organisation and their somewhat shady goals. There's also a concerted effort to tighten the pacing in some areas (for example - trimming the showy one long shot during the pre-credits scene). Whilst I don't think it's possible to fully save the lacklustre final 3rd act, I hope that Bond fans can at least enjoy Spectre a little more as a proper Bond romp without having to endure the idea that Blofeld was 007's adoptive brother all along.

Oh, plus I've added a slight colour correction to try to add a few red midtones, as the picture always seemed to have a very yellow/sandy palette.
Other Sources:
Freesound.org for some added sound effects
image
Special Thanks:
Sophie Welch
Release Information:
Digital
Special Features
Audio Commentary
Cuts and Additions:
- Removed “The Dead are alive” opening title card
- Trimmed long tracking shot during opening pre-credits sequence
- Added new title song “007nside” by Lara George over title sequence
- Cut scene where Bond sees the order of temporary guardianship notice and the burnt photograph from the artifacts recovered from Skyfall
- Trimmed scene where Bond looks over the old Aston Martin DB5 when visiting Q
- Cut brief scene where Bond gazes down at the special gadget buttons on the new DB10 after he has arrived in Rome
- Trimmed scene at funeral
- Trimmed the meeting of operatives for Spectre, as Blofeld is introduced for the first time, to remove any personal links between Bond and Blofeld, such as the “Cuckoo” remark
- Trimmed car chase scene – removing comedy moments such as the Frank Sinatra song and when the airbag is deployed on the car Bond has been ramming
- Trimmed Madeline and Bond at L’American, removing her line “I see 3 James’”
- Cut scene of Madeline and Bond having sex after the fight with Mr Hinx ends
- Shortened scene of Bond and Madeline waiting to be picked up after they get off the train… also removed her line “I’m scared James” as they are on their way to Blofeld’s secret HQ (I feel Bond just gentle holding her hand is enough)
- Scenes at Blofeld’s HQ trimmed to remove any indication that Blofeld actually knew Bond from when they were kids (including the torture scene). Now it appears that Bond has just been a nuisance to him instead. Also removed the “You can touch it if you want” line when Bond and Madeline are looking at the meteorite
- Finale at the old MI5 building trimmed – Bond no longer comes across pictures of Le Chifre, Vesper, Silva, Mr White and M, which always seemed way too much in my opinion
- End scene of Bond and Madeline driving off in the DB5 now cut. Film ends with Bond walking to Madeline as Blofeld is arrested by M
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Overall rating
 
9.5
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.9(8)
Audio Editing
 
9.3(8)
Visual Editing
 
9.6(8)
Narrative
 
9.4(8)
Enjoyment
 
9.1(8)
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Overall rating
 
9.0
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9.0
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8.0
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10.0
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9.0
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9.0
So to make it short. because the critique that is already given regarding the audio:
I liked LS cut and what he´d tried to achieve and accomplished it. I grew fond of Spectre over the years, but never could like the pseudo-brother-story. SO thanks to LS this is gone. Now i´m able to watch Spectre more often and thorougly enjoy it.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
Thoroughly enjoyed this edit, it made what was a convoluted story with nonsense actions a face-paced and tightly formed story.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
T
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Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Spectre. This is a lesser Craig Bond movie along with Quantum of Solace, but I still find it better than most Bond movies and I’m generally a fan of the Craig era. That said, almost all of the issues I’ve had with this set of Bond films stems from the decision to treat them as a series or continuous story as opposed to the more one-off nature of the rest of the Bond filmography. Giving Bond more depth with more of a backstory is an admirable goal, but it fails for me most of the time and often the connections become silly, even for Bond. At the heart of that is the backstory that comprises the central issue for this movie. Without spoiling it, it wasn’t necessary, it isn’t needed, and it makes the entire thing feel smaller and sillier. Sadly, adding to this is the usually great Christoph Waltz who fails to sell the super villain as believable at all. The Craig era Bond films have relied more on plausible real world storylines and, as such, this entire movie feels like everyone including Bond must be so woefully incompetent to allow any of this to happen. It’s trying to throwback to the Bond franchise’s more fanciful days, but it ends up undermining itself—and the previous movies—at every turn as a result. Craig is fine as the stoic Bond and Lea Seydoux is fine as the “Bond girl,” but they have a more uncle/niece relationship until they don’t; their relationship is never really sold. It may sound as though I didn’t enjoy this movie, but I did. I think there’s a lot to like and, if taken at face value for a typical Bond entry, it’s better than most.

Spoilers from here on out.

For the fan edit, I think Last Survivor did a good job getting rid of the problematic relationship backstory between Bond and Blofeld and as such I think it improves the overall experience immeasurably. Though the result is at least one spot where I found the editing noticeably choppy. Once again LS has altered the theme song. And while I’m glad the theatrical theme is gone, I would’ve much preferred Radiohead. The only other quibble I have is with the ending. It was very abrupt. I hadn’t seen this movie in years so I had to check to see how the theatrical ended. I much prefer the theatrical ending, even if it’s a bit too neat. It is James Bond after all. Otherwise the editing is great and there was nothing that jumped out at me. I’d definitely recommend this edit if you’re like me and find it to be a good Bond outing diminished by the unnecessary backstory.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
7.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
Audio/Video Quality:
The audio and video quality are exactly what I'd expect from and HD file at this size.
10/10

Visual Editing:
The visual editing was great and if all I had were eyes and subtitles I wouldn't have picked up on much of anything. Here's some nitpicking: The opening shot felt a bit off due to the lack of audio leading into it. It's exactly the same (minus the on screen text) as the source so this is more an interesting by-product of the new sound design. The original version of this movie has a pretty ugly color grade. I like what you were able to achieve in a lot of the interior shots, especially the color grade of the interior shots of M's office and at Q's new underground facility. These scenes now have a great vibrance and the darks actually look dark instead of a very dark shade of blue. I also like how you were able to remove some yellows from the funeral scene. Only other real nitpicky things I could say is that when they leave the train there is a jump in placement of Bond from away from the building to leaning against it and the view is from behind him, a flash frame occurs at 2:10:28 and there's a "Enter Text" that fades in at the very end of the film 2:15:50.
Great work!
9/10

Audio Editing:
As noted above, the jump into the Dia De Los Muertos scene felt a bit abrupt without the fade in of the crowd.  It works, but for me personally I'd prefer the fade in. The restored 007nside theme music was a vast improvement over Sam Smith's track. The transition did feel a little abrupt as Bond looked at the ring and the shift in the music occurs. I think this could be smoothed out by using a bit of a longer audio transition through a more gradual cross fade and/or using the first percussive lines to bring us fully into the new track. I honestly don't know why they didn't use this track in the theatrical release. It nails that iconic Bond feeling. Great choice! I did notice most of the audio cuts in the movie as they have a jump feeling to them due to the omitted portions causing the music to jump out of rhythm with the scene. Again, I think some crossfading or reworking of the audio tracks could smooth those out and then there'd be no issue.
7/10

Narrative:
I personally didn't have an issue with the connection between Bond and Blofeld, but it was interesting to see how you were able to turn Blofeld into a classic Bond villain by omitting a handful of lines. It tightens up the movie and makes it more of a classical stand alone Bond adventure. Great job!
10/10

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed seeing how these slight adjustments brought the story more in line with the classic Bond formula. While I'm not a classic Bond fan, I do like the Daniel Craig era with its ongoing story line. I thought this edit might hurt that storyline, but LastSurvivor retained just enough of the previous connections as to keep the story connected and moving whilst also eliminating a twist that perhaps didn't need to be there in the first place. I'd say I enjoyed the narrative of this movie as much as I did the original. The only real issues I had with this edit were the audio transitions during the cuts. I'm a bit obsessive in that area. My enjoyment would be a solid 9  if a few audio edits were smoothed out. A handful of crossfading and soundtrack rebuilding could do the trick.
7/10

A special shout out bonus for your awesome editor video diary. The fact that you create these is awesome and I hope one day to have the courage to get in front of a camera to talk about what I did. I always enjoy and learn from editors that share the "why" of what they do :)
D
Top 500 Reviewer 21 reviews
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(Updated: April 11, 2020)
Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Say what you will about Spectre – Lord knows I have, in places other than this – the real question is this: How does Last Survivor’s cut compare to the original?

The differences are immediate, in fact. The pre-titles sequence skips some of the uninterrupted single take and gets to the action faster; the titles song focuses on the mystique surrounding 007, rather than the epic romance song that Sam Smith wrote for a decidedly non-epic romance. We don’t have to endure a scene wherein Bond rifles through a box of childhood knick-knacks while sitting at home in his pajamas. Later on, the embarrassing “author of all your pain” line is gone, and the old MI6 building is no longer decorated with photocopied production stills of characters from Craig’s previous movies.

In addition, the entire movie’s colour grading is improved, as the original’s washed-out look is replaced with a higher contrast look and the pervasive yellow tint is lessened.

The edit’s greatest accomplishment, however, is the removal of all references to Bond’s secret: that he and Blofeld are foster brothers. This improves the film immeasurably. In the original cut, Bond is aggressively pursuing a secret suspicion – so secret his colleagues and not even the audience get to know about it. We follow the character closely, but never close enough to reveal his emotional stakes. When the “ghost” he’s been chasing is finally revealed, Bond doesn't register a single thought or feeling about any of it.

The result is a cold, confusing movie that turns the character into a near-psychopathic liability who pursues personal missions on the government’s dime, all while disrespecting his boss and endangering his colleagues' livelihoods every chance he gets.

With 007’s secret cut from the movie, all of this weirdness is almost entirely sidestepped. Now, he is simply carrying out an assignment left by his old boss, and then following lead after lead to see where it goes. Does it hold up as a story? Not really, but Bond films aren’t famous for their airtight plotting. For example, the first half of Thunderball is written in the same way. And all of Octopussy. And all of Quantum of Solace. I could go on. Is he still a bit of an asshole along the way? Maybe being disrespectful to superiors and reckless in general? Sure, but again, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. For example, in Thunderball. I can accept Bond’s rather bratty attitude just so long as he doesn’t also take the liberty of assigning himself a secret personal mission.

As should be clear, I was delighted with the removal of Bond’s secret. However, I did notice that Bond randomly still has the name “Franz Oberhauser” on his mind when he calls Moneypenny to ask for help. And when Q shows up in Austria to tell Bond that Oberhauser is dead, Bond insists that he saw Oberhauser at the SPECTRE meeting. It’s not clear where Bond gets this name, but at least it’s no longer implied that he and Blofeld knew each other as children.

The film is now generally enjoyable. Not quite engaging the viewer emotionally or intellectually like Craig’s other outings, but instead rising more to the level of fare like Tomorrow Never Dies or For Your Eyes Only. Decent, but never transcendent.

The editing is nearly flawless. I noticed only two hiccups, which are easily corrected: there are no subtitles to translate the terrorists’ conversation in Mexico City, and there’s a quick flash frame right before the end credits.

Once again, Last Survivor reveals himself to be a tasteful, skilled editor with a clear love for Bond. Recommended.
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