Dark Knight Saga Recut, The - Part II

A quicker and leaner Dark Knight.

Gone is the fluff of supporting expositions and narratives and what remains in the wake is a less nonsense action film that most people probably wanted from the Dark Knight.

Stand outs of this edit include the Swat Tower scene. This was my favorite scene in the original cut and I thought for sure I would not like the cuts made, BUT upon watching this sequence I was pleasantly surprised. This edit shows Batman's agility, dexterity, and brilliance in a way that the original edit was unable to convey. The shear speed at which Batman executes each decision is amazingly clever and brilliant in this edit.

I did feel a little rushed visually with Batman's introduction in this edit. The cuts to eliminate copy cats and the karate chopping of the van felt hard and too fast in pace, ultimately leaving me in catch up mode while moving into the next scene. This is, I'm sure, partly the result of my watching this movie WAY too many times :) Besides these few hard cuts, the video editing was near flawless.

The only things I didn't really care for were a few audio edits/cuts and the narrative at times. Audio editing is always a struggle when making significant cuts and some of these pulled me out of a couple of scenes especially at Batman's introduction where the horns swelled then swelled again as Batman walked to the ledge of the descending car park, and at the end when key moments of Hans Zimmer's score were cut out to omit Gordon's son and rearrange the ending(which is my favorite narrative part). This edit made me unsure as to who Gordon was talking to at the end.

I really enjoy the moral struggle and tension of the ferry scene, and while I agree it may be drawn out, I feel it is essential to the final conclusion of Batman and the Joker's confrontation. I've always felt the movie was analyzing whether or not humans are inherently good, and this scene is the thesis statement of the film. I really missed this part and felt the climax of the Tower scene fell a little flat in terms of conclusion and resolution because of these cuts.

Ultimately I really enjoyed the alternate take and speed of this edit as I feel I saw the story more in the immediate moment and through the hero's eyes. While I don't agree with many of the cuts made in this edit, I applaud NJVC for taking the risk to show us all a leaner Dark Knight and to give me a real sense of excitement and anticipation in waiting to watch this edit. Thank you NJVC

NJVC second fanedit edit to the Batman saga takes what is rightly considered to be one of the best comic book movies and gives it a little touch up. as with part 1 some things work for the better (the cop chase sequence) while some things just don't feel right. the removal of the vigilantly Batman's from the beginning feels a little awkward when batman makes his appearance. the removal of the people on the boat made the jokers plan a little anticlimactic while the sonar vision removal doesn't pay off as good as the original. it felt a little off having batman's eyes suddenly glowing while we the viewer don't get to see what it is he's seeing

these parts i most confess i don't have a problem with when i saw the original and while a lot of the cuts go unnoticed (i tend to view the cut list after i watch a fanedit) these scenes for me were more noticeable in there removal. removing Gordon's son from the end again while done well it now has Gordon seemingly taking to himself and just felt a little unnatural. overall i feel some things are better left in, while they may not be the strongest parts to the film they do in my opinion make the film a lot better with there inclusion.

as with part 1 the cuts both from a visual and audio point of view are done extremely well and the quality is of a high standard. but as with part 1 it falls a little short when compared to the original film but is well worth the watch.

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

This was a pretty damn great version of The Dark Knight. Not a lot is cut, but that's because not a lot needed to be cut. The story flows a bit smoother and some of the cringe-worthy deliveries are done. The only editing issue for me was the removal of the copyBats and recutting of Scarecrow's scene felt disjointed. I think the copyBats are an important thing to show, in that we get a clearer picture of how Batman has influenced people and how he reacts to it. Other than that, this was most decent!

I sure miss superheroes and superhero movies that are fun. I guess Iron Man is still fun. But the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, for me, are downright depressing. I suppose that is a terrible way to begin this review of another absolutely excellent--perfect, as far I can tell--edit by njvc. But dammit, I miss Tim Burton and few songs by Prince or Siouxsie and the Banshees. (Dwight Fry's edit Batman: Descent into Mystery remains a big favorite of mine.)
This edit is just so perfect, the only things I can find to talk about are the movie itself--which is a matter of taste. To me, this movie is exhausting and too long, even this tighter edit feels like it goes on forever. This is not an issue with this edit--I cannot see any further cuts that would help, so I cannot even offer suggestions. I remember leaving the movie theater in 2008 just thinking "wow...I used to love Batman; like James Bond I used to think he was such a cool, awesome character to watch. But in 2 movies, his girlfriend is blown up, Wayne manor has been burned to the ground, the Bat-signal is destroyed, The Batmobile is destroyed, Harvey Dent is disfigured and killed and the whole city hates and blames Batman. Woo-hoo, fun." I realize the Batman of the 60's TV Show and the 2 Tim Burton movies is not the Dark Knight of the graphic novels, but jeez, I don't even really like this guy. And I guess that is why I only watched the Nolan movies one time in the theater and never again, until now.
I would say this is my go-to version of Nolan's second Batman movie, except I don't ever plan to "go-to" it again. But with a gun to my head, this is the easier choice. This cut is better than the original. I wonder if someday in the unforeseeable future there could be a Joss Whedon Batman? A light touch sure would be welcome. I am looking forward to the third and final one, as I recall liking it much more than this 2nd one--which might have to do with Anne Hathaway in tight-fitting leather.
I recommend this to fans of the Dark Knight. And I hope this negative-sounding review doesn't put people off from this edit, because all the negativity stems from the original script and plot--which is streamlined as much as possible here, I believe. It is an outstanding edit, a "tour de force" as dangermouse said.