Shadow Strikes!, The

I saw this one in the theater and loved it right away. The movie is a solid throwback with some minor pacing flaws and a few weak jokes. BionicBob realizes this and simply makes minor cuts to make a good movie even better. I did not notice any editing flaws and the pacing has been improved and feels great. It's just a tighter and better movie now.

My only complaint is a personal one and I'm even conflicted on it: the use of black and white. BionicBob was trying to make this seem like a movie right out of the 50's so black and white works fine, but the problem is that the movie also looks great in color. The scientist being colorblind also does not work so well in black and white.

That being said, the edit is great and I highly recommend it.

Two words: Awe Some. BOB this was a triumph. You really made some excellent editing choices. In our discussions of the edit, I didn't agree with a lot of you choices, but now I see you were right on the mark with most of them. There are still a few I don't agree with, (See my nitpicks) but overall you really set a great tone for this movie.

One of your best cuts was the removal of Cranston's joke after the sailor jumps. That scene is now so much more sinister. Second best: "Oh that knife."

I don't think this edit will quell the harsh critics of the original movie, but for us that liked the original, this is so much better. The Shadow is placed in just the right context without the over-exposition of his past as in the original film. At times it felt like I really was watching something made in the 30s or 40s.

Here are my nitpicks:

- The beginning credits you made were really well crafted, but I don't think they fit the overall tone you were trying to set. I would have preferred some old timey looking credits, kinda like something you would see at the beginning of a serial or film from that era.

- I think the test shot of The Shadow on the bridge with the CGI cape should have been used. It wouldn't have been that noticeable as inferior quality, given that it would be in B&W and as you said, a lot of the image quality was somewhat inferior. I'm still just distracted by the damn missing cape.

- The scratch and line effects during scene transitions were well placed. My only gripe is that you had them fade at certain points. I think I would have preferred to see them stay until the scenes shifted to another angle.

- The few cuts that I miss are: Shrevvy driving like a maniac then kicking the couple out of his cab; Khan in sanctum talking about where Cranston got his suit and tie; "I sense someone is coming" and "you're not supposed to be here" The last one was cut for a reason, but I can't remember what it was. My complaints about the Shrevvy cuts stem from the fact that he was comic relief in the radio shows and I wanted to see that role retained as much as possible in the movie. I understand why you did it though.

All other cuts were right on the money and they really did change the mood and tone to a considerable degree, much more than I thought they would.

I watched all of the special features before the movie and they were great. First off the table of contents was ingenious and It was great to hear the radio clips. Your "About This Edit" section was a great little mini-documentary of The Shadow, chock full of great little tidbits of info. Thanks for using "Original Sin" in the gallery feature. I would hate for it to have completely disappeared from this edit. I completely understand why it was taken out of the end credits. It would not fit the new tone of this edit. All of the artwork created for this edit was incredible and really captured the feel of the movie.

I watched this on my computer, so I won't comment too much about the audio video quality or editing. I didn't catch anything that looked or sounded bad.

I really appreciate the special thanks at the beginning. Although, to be honest, I don't know that I deserve it. As Wayne & Garth would say, "we're not worthy."

This should be the Edit of the Month then straight onto Edit of the Year. Its got my vote. Thank you so much for this.

Bill

Warning: I watched this edit in 640p. Please take that into account when reading this review.

The Shadow Strikes! is a prime example of how little really needs to be changed in order to turn an OK movie into a really good one. The switch to black and white should always have happened. Many bad lines are removed. That godawful prologue is right where it's supposed to be: gone. No more red fingernails; no more goofy as hell knife fight; no more bad wig, and Lord has the movie improved from that massive flaw alone.

A/V Quality: 9
-Visual Editing: 9
Taking FCE's limitations into account, this was fantastic. Not taking them into account? It's still fantastic. The bright colors of the theatrical release are gone here in lieu of a more classical low contrast black and white. So many people use black and white wrong: the shadows are too dark, the visuals are too sharp, etc. BionicBob nailed it. Scenes that were cut, trimmed, and added were seamless. If I had seen this the first time, I wouldn't have known the difference.
The opening crawl did seem like your basic slideshow but considering the terrible, terrible, original opening it was still a vast improvement and I did like seeing the gallery of Shadow artwork through the ages.
Possibly the only thing I would have done without was the film scratch effects during the scene transitions. For the most part these were fine, but every now and then they would noticeably fade from the screen. Removing them altogether probably would have been for the best, but now I'm just being nitpicky. They didn't ruin the movie for me at all.

Audio Editing: 10

The cut one-liners are a more than welcome removal that adds a sinister 40's serial tone that the theatrical cut had always tragically lacked. No more "Oh, that knife," either. That alone was a wonderful thing. The removal of the Shadow's one-liners during his fights also added a nice bit of intensity that the original didn't provide.

Narrative: 10

I didn't like the decision to cut the cringeworthy prologue just because it was bad and needed to disappear. I also found that the removal added something that the movie desperately needed: a sense of mystery. Suddenly the Shadow became an enigma. He still has a past in Tibet, but now that past is illustrated in hints, lines, and visions that make the viewer think. The Shadow's history is no longer spoonfed right off the bat, and as a result the sense of wonder survives to the end.
The change in color scale also served a purpose. What was once hokey and stupid in bright cartoon colors is now charming and funny in a more mature black and white. The entire atmosphere has replaced goofy camp with a certain golden-age charm that reflects a simpler time.

Enjoyment: 10

I'll admit, I wasn't too fond of The Shadow when I watched it for the first time since I was four. I snagged it out of a bargain bin and still felt jilted. Sure it picked up and improved along the way, but it still wasn't good enough for me, and the DVD just got packed away in a box.
If I'd picked up The Shadow Strikes! however, I would have had it in my DVD player far more often. BionicBob, you have turned a crappy B-movie into the love letter to old serials that the Shadow had always deserved. Thank you.

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.

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.