Review Detail
9.2 13 10
Overall rating
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Having just recently watched another fan edit of Batman Begins that I enjoyed immensely, I decided to skip njvc's edit of it for now (I'll give it a watch in the future) and go straight to part 2 of the Dark Knight Saga.
njvc shows tremendous editing skill here. I had to give a perfect score for the editing because it seemed professionally done to me. In fact, I wasn't always able to notice when certain things (whether short clips or pieces of dialogue) were cut out and only realized that they had been once I referred to the detailed cutlist.
The most impressive and, in my opinion, worthwhile changes were: adding Batman using a grappling hook to reduce the impact of his and Rachel's fall (THANK YOU so much for doing this njvc), removing most of the scenes of the citizens/criminals on the boats (especially that big intimidating criminal throwing the trigger out the window), and removing Gordon's son asking his dad why Batman's running (First of all, Barbara shouldn't have just let him run down there like that, by himself, especially after what just happened. Second of all, I've always thought that Gordon saying all that stuff about Batman to his son was ridiculous because his son would have no idea what he's talking about. I mean, I doubt a boy that age can/should grasp the concepts of moral ambiguity, and lying for the greater good). These three significant changes alone drastically improved those parts of the movie for me.
Overall, I liked most of the choices njvc made, in regards to what things to cut. A lot of the one-liners are gone in this edit, which reduced the campiness and better complimented Heath Ledger's raw performance. Unnecessary pieces of exposition, like the clown mask guys talking about The Joker, were cut out so the viewer could focus more on the events unfolding visually, rather than processing information.
There were a couple of things cut that I would have left in.
I'd have left in the copycat Batmen at the beginning (minus the hockey pads comment) because it contributes to showing us the effect that Batman's presence has had on the citizens. Also, by cutting them out, it made it seem bizarre that Batman had so much difficulty stopping the criminals in that scene (in the original, it made sense that he struggled because he had to worry about disarming the copycats too). And also, when The Joker kills one of the Batmen later, I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to interpret it. It wasn't until I read the detailed cutlist afterwards that I knew what njvc was going for.
Also, I wouldn't have cut so much of the dialogue between The Joker and Batman in their final confrontation. I think the high quality of that dialogue outweighs the annoying-ness of Bale's delivery of it, but that's just my personal opinion. And the narrative wasn't hurt too too much by removing it.
Also, I wouldn't have cut any of Batman and Dent's dialogue at the end. I feel that the dialogue that was cut was key to showing Batman's final effort to appeal to the man that Harvey Dent was. I think it was important for Batman to do that because he spent most of the movie moving towards the decision to stop being Batman, largely because of (pre explosion)Harvey Dent and all that he accomplished legally. And AAron Eckhart delivered his lines here so well that it was heart-wrenching.
And the only other significant thing I'd have left in was Gordon describing Batman as 'the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now', because I thought the polarization of Batman/Harvey Dent in that moment was really good. Again, just personal opinion though and removing this didn't hurt the narrative.
A small note about Gordon talking aloud about Batman at the end: By removing his son from that scene, I automatically interpreted this moment as the movie speaking directly to the viewer, via Gordon. Almost like in a play, when a character has a soliloquy or an aside. In my opinion, it worked very well in this way and was much much better than having him speak to his son.
And lastly, njvc, if you happen to respond to this, I was wondering what your opinion is on the idea of cutting out the dialogue:
Batman - "Let her go."
The Joker - "Very poor choice of words."
from when Joker is holding Rachel out the window. It seemed like too obvious of a set up for a cool line for The Joker to say. How awesome would it be if The Joker just looked at Batman before dropping her with a laugh?
Overall, this was a fantastic edit. njvc was able to make a very good movie even better. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Dark Knight.
Thanks njvc
njvc shows tremendous editing skill here. I had to give a perfect score for the editing because it seemed professionally done to me. In fact, I wasn't always able to notice when certain things (whether short clips or pieces of dialogue) were cut out and only realized that they had been once I referred to the detailed cutlist.
The most impressive and, in my opinion, worthwhile changes were: adding Batman using a grappling hook to reduce the impact of his and Rachel's fall (THANK YOU so much for doing this njvc), removing most of the scenes of the citizens/criminals on the boats (especially that big intimidating criminal throwing the trigger out the window), and removing Gordon's son asking his dad why Batman's running (First of all, Barbara shouldn't have just let him run down there like that, by himself, especially after what just happened. Second of all, I've always thought that Gordon saying all that stuff about Batman to his son was ridiculous because his son would have no idea what he's talking about. I mean, I doubt a boy that age can/should grasp the concepts of moral ambiguity, and lying for the greater good). These three significant changes alone drastically improved those parts of the movie for me.
Overall, I liked most of the choices njvc made, in regards to what things to cut. A lot of the one-liners are gone in this edit, which reduced the campiness and better complimented Heath Ledger's raw performance. Unnecessary pieces of exposition, like the clown mask guys talking about The Joker, were cut out so the viewer could focus more on the events unfolding visually, rather than processing information.
There were a couple of things cut that I would have left in.
I'd have left in the copycat Batmen at the beginning (minus the hockey pads comment) because it contributes to showing us the effect that Batman's presence has had on the citizens. Also, by cutting them out, it made it seem bizarre that Batman had so much difficulty stopping the criminals in that scene (in the original, it made sense that he struggled because he had to worry about disarming the copycats too). And also, when The Joker kills one of the Batmen later, I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to interpret it. It wasn't until I read the detailed cutlist afterwards that I knew what njvc was going for.
Also, I wouldn't have cut so much of the dialogue between The Joker and Batman in their final confrontation. I think the high quality of that dialogue outweighs the annoying-ness of Bale's delivery of it, but that's just my personal opinion. And the narrative wasn't hurt too too much by removing it.
Also, I wouldn't have cut any of Batman and Dent's dialogue at the end. I feel that the dialogue that was cut was key to showing Batman's final effort to appeal to the man that Harvey Dent was. I think it was important for Batman to do that because he spent most of the movie moving towards the decision to stop being Batman, largely because of (pre explosion)Harvey Dent and all that he accomplished legally. And AAron Eckhart delivered his lines here so well that it was heart-wrenching.
And the only other significant thing I'd have left in was Gordon describing Batman as 'the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now', because I thought the polarization of Batman/Harvey Dent in that moment was really good. Again, just personal opinion though and removing this didn't hurt the narrative.
A small note about Gordon talking aloud about Batman at the end: By removing his son from that scene, I automatically interpreted this moment as the movie speaking directly to the viewer, via Gordon. Almost like in a play, when a character has a soliloquy or an aside. In my opinion, it worked very well in this way and was much much better than having him speak to his son.
And lastly, njvc, if you happen to respond to this, I was wondering what your opinion is on the idea of cutting out the dialogue:
Batman - "Let her go."
The Joker - "Very poor choice of words."
from when Joker is holding Rachel out the window. It seemed like too obvious of a set up for a cool line for The Joker to say. How awesome would it be if The Joker just looked at Batman before dropping her with a laugh?
Overall, this was a fantastic edit. njvc was able to make a very good movie even better. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Dark Knight.
Thanks njvc
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
D