X-Files – Exordium

Best intentions notwithstanding, the resultant edit remains locked in its episodic roots. Not that this is a bad thing. For me, the Season 01 paled in comparison with S02, S03 and S04. Influences from Outer Limits to Twin Peaks were readily apparent. It found an audience readily enough, but finding its narrative footing took longer.

This is an excellent introduction to X-Files, especially for newcomers. Neither Duchovny nor Anderson seem comfortable in their roles in the Pilot, though by Deep Throat, Duchovny had found his Mulder. The Erlenmeyer Flask section is by far the strongest. Anderson was secure with Scully, though she was heavily pregnant.

Video - Grain is to be expected, all my X-Files DVDs suffer from it. Cropping to create a widescreen view worsened this, but blacks remained solid and aside from a few pan jitters, the look was fine. Editing was quite good, though it is readily apparent when one episode concludes and another begins.

Audio - Solid work here, as well. Nothing hard or noticeable. Could do without the final music at the end. Editor’s perogative, I understand, but non Snow tunes ushered me out of the mood and I punched mute.

Narrative - The three episodes selected are wise choices of the earliest views on the various “myth” strands of arcs that would be elaborated and explored to dizzying heights in subsequent seasons. Did this feel like a movie? No - to me - never. The three stories never transition or connect well.

Enjoyment - Very much, I must say. Again, I am not a fan of S01. The show reeks FOX quality for most of that year. Aside from a handful of episodes, I never view that season. This edit, however, I suspect I will return to numerous times. If nothing else, it is a concise package showing Duchovny and Anderson grow into characters, and spotlights how swiftly the overall writing (plotlines, dialogue, characterizations) improved in quality.

September 28, 2008 @ 11:10 pm

Molasar’s FanEdit Review

Title/FanEditor: The X Files: Exordium by Throwgncpr

Prologue: In Western classical rhetoric, the exordium was the introductory portion of an oration. The term is Latin and the Greek equivalent was called the Proem or Prooimion. (from Wikipedia.org). This is a great title to a special fanedit. Fans of The X Files will appreciate this introductory “film” culled from several episodes of the show that deal with the alien mythology, namely the pilot, “Deep Throat,” ”Fallen Angel,” ”Tooms and “The Erlenmeyer Flask.”

The Edit: This is a monumental task. Editing five episodes of a show together into one long tale. Does it work? In a word, yes. There are some commercial fade outs and fade ins — but most have been trimmed away. Many of my favorite scenes are present and I found myself wishing that there were more X Files fanedits to watch. One can only hope that Throwgncpr has a few more in him. Overall, there was a sense of point A to point B, culminating in a climax, just like a real film. (It did not flow like several episodes sewn together.) In a few instances, some noticeable changes occur, namely in Scully’s hair style, face and body (due to her pregnancy). I mentioned before how “Exordium” is a great title. This fanedit is the introduction that leads to several more tales of alien mythology investigated by our favorite paranormal investigators Mulder and Scully. ****/*****

Image Quality: The image has been reframed from 4:3 to 16×9 and it looks about the same as the show when it aired on TV. Some backgrounds were a bit muddy and macroblocking was evident on my display – it did not deter from my enjoyment of the film. Colors were muted just as I remember them from the weekly episodes. Basically, it is a reflection of the source material used. ***/*****

Audio Quality: Dialog and sound effects were loud and centered in the front channels. Ambient noise and effects panned into the rears when appropriate on my Dolby ProLogic II set-up. ****/*****

The DVD: Besides the film, there are some coming attractions for other edits as well as chapter stops. The menus are a combination of animated and static and are very easy to navigate (I love when I can go up or down on my remote). ****/*****

Overall Rating: An Xphile’s delight. Well worth a viewing for even casual fans. ****/*****

Epilogue: I hope there are more X Files fanedits to come, featuring additional pivotal (and fan favorite) characters such as Skinner, Krycek, X, the Lone Gunmen, and more of the Cigarette Smoking Man. This exordium has me ready to enjoy more of the story.

Reviewed using Sony 51” 16×9 RPTV with Oppo DVD player upconverting to 1080i via DVI and Onkyo 650 Watt 5.1 surround sound.

I've always been a huge fan of The X-Files, way back to the original broadcast run. I can even remember the promo spots before it aired - What's with the music? Who's the redhead? Aliens and other weird shit? Cool. I watched religiously each week. The source material is now almost 20 years old and I still think that this show is one of the best ever created. I watched this edit years ago and never left a proper review. I watched it again recently and and thought I should fix that.

A/V Quality: Cropping the 4:3 ratio to 16:9 inevitably reduces the video quality. However, the end justifies the means in this case. The edit looks like a movie, not a TV show. The picture looks a little dark and I did notice some stuttering in scenes with motion, but it was not unwatchable. I think the sacrifices made to make it 16:9 were worth it.

Visual editing: Great job with removing the commercial fades, but there were still too many fade in/outs for my liking. I did notice one errant frame in the scene with Skinner, Mulder and the CSM, but no real issues otherwise.

Audio editing: No jarring, hard cuts. Perfectly fine.

Narrative: The toughest thing with a TV to movie fanedit is removing the episodic nature of the source material. I don't think that this edit succeeds with that, at least through the first half or so of the edit. The second half flows much nicer and it feels like a real movie. There are some strange scenes that did not seem to serve the plot and some scenes where plot points are introduced and not resolved (what happened to the helicopter chasing Mulder and Scully? Who is the cop in the woods calling for the fire department?). I think further cutting could have been made.

Enjoyment: Despite my criticisms above, I really enjoyed this edit. It's one of the few fanedits I've watched more than once, so I guess that's something. Fans of the X-Files will love this. If you're new to the series this is the perfect introduction. The only question left is, where are parts 2-9?