Review Detail

Although it's been a while since I've seen this series, I think this edit is infinitely more satisfying than the original trilogy. I'm not sure if every copy is like this (and I struggled to find even one), but there was some audio sync issues early on (only off by about half a second). I may have found version 1 instead of version 2, although I don't really know. I originally desperately tried to find Wraith's original trilogy edit but in the end I'm glad I watched this instead. It seems the other trilogy edit had over an hour more included (and wasn't rearranged nearly as well as this is), and honestly even with some weird dialogue from time to time, I think this flowed better all the way through. I'm also not sure I would want to sit for 4 hours and 20 minutes and watch the minutiae of every relationship they tried to cram into the damn trilogy (or over 6 for the original trilogy, talk about excruciating).

So while yes a lot of character motivations have been glossed over and we may not feel all the appropriate emotional beats, in terms of action and plotting this edit is king. If you want a streamlined story where every subplot isn't explored (and I feel like a lot of the included rogue/iceman scenes should have been cut) then this works really well. A few times in the edit its unclear why someone said something (due to the reordering) but I would say 90% of the time it works.

But then again it totally depends on what you want out of the trilogy. Wraith has given us about as close as you can get to a true live action Phoenix/Dark Phoenix saga as we'll ever get, and I in particular really appreciate the darker less cheesy tone throughout. I think you executed your vision for a more serious trilogy that's not tailored to children/all audiences and I think the trilogy is better off for it.