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 zeppelinrox — November 15, 2009 @ 5:04 pm

Thanks for another great edit boon.
As mentioned above by Rock Savage, there was one wtf moment when, in the shack, Ray call out to his daughter and runs to her.

Everything else was great.
FYI, I prefer the second ending, where the world doesn’t get blowed up real good.

8/10

Review by jjrdias — November 19, 2009 @ 2:35 am

Finally got round to watching v2. It’s an ambitious fanedit, and given what Spielberg left for (fan)editors to work with, a difficult one. Sure, there may be some issues – i actually didn’t notice anything too distracting in the shack sequence -, but even so i feel any they are not major. I really like the extinctive ending. It’s brutal, yes, but does take the picture away from Spielberg’s “happy end formula”, showing, IMHO, a bit more respect for the audience’s intelligence. And the last line whispered by Fanning was very well placed. That’s the Cut i’ll be watching and showing off to friends. The Purist ending may suffer from the lack of voice-over to fully expose what caused the demise of the aliens, another reason i prefer the EC.Very good DVD presentation – great menus and always happy to see editors going the extra-mile in providing subtitles.

In conclusion, an 8 outta 10.

Review by Syfo-Dyas — February 14, 2010 @ 9:51 am

This movie was ruined from the get go. All the crowds magically know where the safety zones are being set up at, and of course they all move in herds making them selves easy prey…

…actually, come to think of it, moving in herds and making themselves easy prey does kind of sound like a lot of people I know…

Of course there is the fact that Tom Cruise is in it, with his 2 dimensional acting, though thankfully he wasn’t quite as Tom in this movie, then again I could not help but remember who I was staring at and how stale the characters were.

Anyhow, aside of the fact that this edit is about a lost cause, I still got to hand it to the editor for doing such a great job! Everything was edited beautifully and seamlessly till the end. The whole scene where Tom Cruise puts a grenade up the walker’s reversed rectum did not work out well because right after they fall, you suddenly see his daughter looking off into the horizon, then it suddenly switches to a bunch of people walking to the fall out shelter. I felt everything ran smooth up until that moment. Perhaps if the editor would have paused on the girl’s staring scene, then faded it out slowly, while fading into the crowds walking to the fall out shelter.

Then again, how did the crowds all know where the fall out shelter was? You’d think that communications would pretty much be wiped out at this point, and mass organization and planning impossible. It wasn’t like people could sit on the comfort of their couches, eagerly waiting on new instruction from the TV to guide them along, and I’m sure all the Radio DJ’s went home, or died in their studios.

I think what I would have done is try to find a way to provide an ending where we just presume they are dead, but given that I’m only a fan of this film’s effects, I don’t think I’ll be taking on that effort and will end by saying that if you are a fan, this is probably the best version you can watch at the moment. My complaints aside (most of them not the editor’s fault), this is a drastic improvement over the original with it’s typical Steven Spielberg ending.

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