Shadow Strikes!, The

The Shadow Knows.... this is a great edit! Removing the beginning origin scene and getting rid of the forced humor not only makes The Shadow more mysterious and intimidating, but it also saves us from Alec Baldwin's silly long wig! Learning about Lamont's dark past later on in the film instead of the beginning also improves the narrative, as we see him as a hero first and the extent of his criminal past comes as a surprise when Shiwan Khan reveals it to the audience.

While I miss the saturated colors of the original, the conversion to b&w gives it a fun pulp noir vibe, like it came right out of the era the Shadow originated from.

This is the definitive version of "The Shadow " for me. Highly recommended.

The Shadow Strikes takes what was, unfortunately, a mediocre treatment of one of the greatest fictional characters of the early 20th century, and makes it a very engaging watch. This may be the ideal way to watch this movie!

This edit has succeeded in improving The 1994 Shadow movie by tightening up the narrative, removing most of the awful dialogue and increasing pacing into something that is a much more enjoyable film. The original cut was never going to be what The Shadow deserves. This edit polishes the film into something that even Walter B. Gibson, The Shadow's creator, would be proud of.

By transferring the film to black and white and removing a lot of the nonsensical one-liners and unneccesary attempts at humor, this edit offers a pulp-noir experience, closer to the original magazine stories. Everytime I have seen the original cut I wince in many places, and wonder what the screenwriter was thinking. In many places the film feels like the screenwriter didn't know what to write, so he put in weird dialogue and gave the audience a series of strange scenes that don't make for an engaging experience. What I think this film does is trim out nearly all of the bad bits and gives us what the film should have been. Could this edit have been in color? Sure, but that's not what the editor was going for. By making this edit feel like a movie serial, the editor has demonstrated that he understands The Shadow and understands how a pulp-noir world is supposed to work.

A very well done and thoughtful effort.

Im a huge fan of this movie and to be able to watch it like a old school 1930s serial , was just absolutely amazing.

A great take on this fun, underrated, gem of a movie. The new opening sets up the main character much better. Now we only find out later in the story, appropriately through a nightmare, how disturbing the Shadow's past is. The black and white works really well, though I love the richly saturated colors of the original. The "reel changes" are a clever way to set the tone of old, worn film without forcing us to watch the entire movie that way. In all a great success.
Despite the improvements, this movie remains flawed. Much better than the clunky story of Doc Savage (1975), it falls short of nostalgia for the 1930s of The Rocketeer (1991). But for fans of The Shadow, there's no alternative (until the if-wishing-made-it-so animated feature in the style of W.M. Kaluta using Orson Welles' voice from the salvaged radio plays!).
While not a perfect replacement for the original, I find myself watching this version more often than the color original.

I hadn't seen the original since it was released and seeing this brought back memories.

In saying that, it was okay. I would prefer colour, and some other reviewer said something about the quality of the B&W which I agree with. It's not entirely consistent.
My feelings of nostalgia are no longer strong now as I see it for the weak movie that it really is.

Bad guy who can control minds steals building and builds bomb. okaaaay then. I could think of more cool things that I'd rather do.

This is a good fanedit, just not a good movie. Thanks for making it.