X-Men: Requiem War

February 25, 2009 @ 10:19 pm

X-Men Requiem War v3.21 by Wraith

review by boon23

Prologue:

It is the length of the movie with 192 minutes that kept me a long time from watching this, even though I promised Wraith to do it a long time ago. Now finally my bad conscience was strong enough to launch it and it took me 3 sessions to finish it, not because I was not entertained, but because I hardly ever have over 3h to spend for a movie.

The project itself was always fascinating to me, as it was such a huge undertaking to really turn the 3 X-Men movies into one consisting story. I watched an hour of the first ever release of this (which is another reason why I put it on hold for so long – and there were quite some inconsistencies, but the potential was already there for a great movie.

And with this probably final release I started again. It’s X-Men time.

As for all my reviews: this is just my personal opinion of this fanedit. I cannot tell anybody else, if he or she will experience it in the same way or the opposite. So my review is not objective and does not reflect the opinion of fanedit.org.

!!!!This review contains heavy spoilers!!!

The edit:

From the very beginning it is perfectly clear that this is not just all X-Men movies united to one. The plot jumps from 1 to 2 and back and forth to really tell one story about the coming war between mutants and humans and that’s about all this fanedit is about. There are hardly any sidetracks and the plot develops to the peak in the finale with quite a huge climax with the finale of X-Men 2.

What wraith did with the 3 movies is incredible. The fanedit has a completely new flow to it and so many well known scenes are presented in a truly different context. Wraith had an idea and he consequently put it to life with a lot of skill. So much effort went into this project and it really shows, starting with a great plot, very good edits and audio cuts. It really has the feel of ONE movie. And it’s a great one.

It isn’t perfect though. At various points scenes are referred to that have not been included, when for example Rogue says she saved Wolverine’s life, when in fact she did nothing but watch in this movie. There is a Jean Grey scene, where she says she had lost control before, but nothing happened in the fanedit. Also the quality of the scenes varies, because some of the included deleted scenes were of lower quality.

Then there are some things about the plot that should be mentioned: The capture of Magneto is not shown and it is kind of missed. He suddenly is imprisoned and the first Xavier visit feels a bit out of place. I also had my difficulties believing that the war plans of the Magneto group were continuing without him. The X-Men 3 part felt a bit too long, especially the final fight.

However, it is the best version of X-Men I have ever seen – and I mean that for all 3 of them, especially the third one, which really gets a great improvement by the huge amount of cut scenes. For such a huge project I cannot say much else but: Bravo.

editing: 9 of 10,
entertainment: 8 of 10

Image and video quality:

The image quality was good, except for a few of the deleted scenes that were of a bit lower quality. Well done starting and end credits, though I think that one starting credit would have been better than two.

Video quality: 9 of 10

Audio editing and audio quality:

The audio editing was most of the time well done. There are some clicks and some scenes are a bit too loud in comparison or too quiet. Still: wonderful audio editing.

audio editing: 9 of 10
audio quality: 8 of 10

presentation:

The DVD comes with a still main menu on which 2 video screens are put. it looks a lot like tmpg dvd author and not realyl good. 25 chapter menus all with sound is kind of an overkill. The included extras are both bad quality. Cover art was attached, which is ok, but not great.

DVD menus: 4 of 10, cover art 6 of 10, extras: 3 of 10, existence of chapters, extras and cover art: 10 of 10

This results in a 6 of 10 rating from me for presentation.

Final result: 8 of 10.

A great fanedit, which I can highly recommend to anyone who likes X-Men or superhero movies in general. It is a huge improvement over the originals IMO.

A vast improvement over the movies, it's a must watch and carries an x-men's fan seal of approval. The audio and video comes from a 576p source, so I cannot score it higher, but once you see past that, it's a truly enjoyable viewing and the only way you should be watching the trilogy from now on, solid narration, fun factor to the 11, good cohesion and great characters.
Hats off to Wraith for putting so many hours of hard work onto this project, can't recommend it enough!

Wow. I loved this!
Although I wish an HD version would be possible, this edit is fantastic. I normally don't want to spend too much time watching each individual movie of the original trilogy, and this is a perfect way to watch it from now on. I enjoy the focus on Logan and Jean, and the flawless transitions. I felt like I was not missing anything!

Let me start by just giving "Wow!". X-Men: Requiem stands to be one of the greatest all time fan edits. The original X-Men films have always stood out to me as the OG of supehero movies, so this was a no brainer of a watch. I have viewed Wrath's previously edit build years back and fell in love with it. Now, with an updated version the adrenaline doubled up. No wait...tripled. The amount of precise attention and detail given is explicity amazing.

My goal now is to re-watch X-Men (2000), X2: X-Men Unites(2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) to nitpick their flaws that Wraith has doubled down and fixed. If I ever want to watch the X-Men trilogy again (which i probably will) this edit is the way to go.

Now, I only have watched this in standard definition but that didn't stop me from having a good time. I am now anxiously awaiting the upcoming high definition version. Wraith is geniously and uniquely talented and should not go overlooked. I highly reccomend everyone to experience and bask over the glory.


Cheers Wraith to all you do and for whatever lies ahead. Congratulations!!!

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