War Of The Worlds – The Extinctive Cut

Review by blueyoda — August 4, 2009 @ 4:59 am

*MILD SPOILERS AHEAD*

The great thing about this fanedit is that the movie feels much, much more like an old Spielberg movie. That great sense of timing, that great eye for detail and that sense of rhythm that the once great director has now mostly lost.

This fanedit gave me that feeling of awe I had as a kid when I watched Jaws, Duel or Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Ray is no longer a superhero but an average Joe trying to cope with extraordinary events and sometimes failing miserably. The removal of Tim Robbins has much more impact than I originally thought it would; the cellar scene is now much more suspensful and like I pointed out above, now feels like a good old Spielberg movie. The whole thing not only flows much better but also makes a lot more sense both on an emotional level and on a “realistic” level which is much needed in a movie about aliens from outer space destroying the human race.

If I had to nitpick, I’d say even more scenes could have been removed; Ray’s character “dramatically” throwing a peanut butter toast at the window should have been cut; it’s a scene right out of an Austin Powers movie and absolutely doesn’t work. And what I like to call the zombie attack on Ray’s car should have been cut or trimmed as well. It’s simply ridiculous. A couple of other moments had me cringe but the overall impact of the changes that were made drowned out the gripes I had and I was quickly drawn back into the movie.

The movie comes with two endings thru seemless branching; the extinctive cut and the purist cut. The former is a brand new ending for the movie created from scratch but unfortunately did not work at all for me. The change in narrative style is too drastic and clashes with the rest of the movie. I can see what the editor tried to create but it simply fails at its mission as it was impossible to pull off. Only a close approximation could be created, and this is what we got. The purist ending works much, much better; it’s the original ending re-edited to make sense in the context of this fanedit and again in observance of early Spielberg brilliance. This is the ending you should watch, in this reviewer’s eyes.

The DVD is a typical CBB release, which means its presentation is flawless. Great menus, a choice of subtitles and extras (which include a fascinating comparison of the shack scene) all make watching the whole thing an experience rather than just watching a two hour movie.

8/10

Review by veggieguy12 — March 13, 2011 @ 2:40 pm

As the reviewer above wrote, “I’m giving this a 7/10. Not Boon’s fault at all… I greatly *admired* this fanedit, I wish I could say I *enjoyed* it as well.”
There was a vast improvement, and if Boon was in the editor’s role for Speilberg and the studio, this could have been awesome – though Tim Robbins would have gotten no paycheck.
Editing: 9/10, Movie in Fanedit Form: 7/10

October 15, 2010 @ 10:01 pm

This has been my first encounter with Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (FE.org rules only stipulate one has to *own* the original DVD, not *watch* it), and I can’t begin to imagine the total and absolute horror that must dwell in the theatrical version, as despite Boon’s work being clearly excellent as usual, I had to force myself to keep watching it. Problem is, I didn’t give a rat’s ass about that badly written stock TV movie family, about Tom Cruise being totally unable to be even remotely believable as a working class Joe (that opening sequence of him operating machinery got me thinking of Jennifer Beals’ steel worker at the beginning of Flashdance!) or about uncle Steven’s usual and tiresome parenthood obsession. I kept waiting for them to get vaporized or eaten or whatever by the aliens, and in a movie that depends entirely on the audience caring about the characters that’s not exactly a good thing. Of the elements from the original, only Dakota Fanning’s performance was worth it. That kid is amazing. Her dialogue is not.

This said, on a purely fanediting level, it was amazing! Boon delivers again. I don’t know how big Tim Robbins’ role was in the original, since his part does not appear in the deleted scenes section, but one would never guess there was an extra character there. Boon went a long way to delete him from individual shots, and did so masterfully. Be sure to check out the comparative featurette on the subject! We’re also presented with two different endings to choose from, and I must say I vastly preferred the totally original and much darker Exctinctive one, warts and all. Kudos as well to the special guest President of the USA, great voice and delivery. Yet I, once again, thought that some extra bits should have been excised, particularly that baseball sequence in the first act. Enough with the fatherhood thing, Steven! It’s not meaningful as character development, we’ll get plenty of the same estrangement cliché later from the son, and just slows things down. Not a fan of the peanut butter sequence either, at least half of it should have gone.

Overall I’m giving this a 7/10. Not Boon’s fault at all, it’s just the movie is not for me. I greatly *admired* this fanedit, I wish I could say I *enjoyed* it as well.

Review by Daewa — October 2, 2009 @ 1:00 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

I watched this one a while ago but never wrote a review. Definitely not the best CBB edit. While I liked some of the changes (a lot of the minor cuts worked well for me) the big changes left me confused and irritated. Note, I watched the Extinctive ending, not the Purist ending. Purist ending might have been more up my alley but I never felt like rewatching the edit.

Editing was kind of a mixed bag. The removal of Oglivy (or whatever) was really well done but simple scene transitions felt awkward and other scenes were choppy.