X-Men: Requiem War

This trilogy was one of my favorites growing up and is one of the reasons I have a deep appreciation for Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. It’s been a few years since I’ve sat down and gone through the originals but I still memorize most of it.

If I had seen this edit when it first came out I would’ve been in awe. A three and a half hour X Men epic. Sure the actual video quality doesn’t hold up by today’s standards (I’d love a 1080p remake of this) but it’s still doable on any size TV. I think the most impressive thing to note are both transitions between films. I couldn’t even really notice when they occurred and I’ve watched this multiple times now. Well done Wraith!

I love this edit so much. The way that Wraith had combined the original trilogy was great. The story now focuses on both Jean Grey and Logan (but mostly on Jean, actually), and although minor characters have taken a back seat in this edit (like Rogue, Kitty, etc.), it does not bother me at all. But then again, I can understand if others might find it jarring, especially if they are looking at the smallest details and the like. I just found a couple of ghost frames and audio jumps here and there, but as Wraith have said to me, those will be cleaned up with the upcoming update. All in all, the editing was superb. I can feel the passion Wraith have put into this edit. Looking forward to the updates (especially the HD update), and also the sequel.

By the way, I've watched the updated SD version with the new ending.

Finally, I would like to say that this will be my go-to version for revisiting the franchise now. And I would highly recommend this to others, even on first time viewers. Thank you so much for sharing! :)

Original review from 12-08-2011, 02:43 AM
Wraith, you are a man of great talents. Thank you for sharing this project with us all. I was absolutely blown away by your edit, and I'm now no longer embarrassed to have the official releases on my shelf. They will likely go sit in a box somewhere and collect dust (along with my Star Wars prequels and the ST:TNG movies). This fanedit will be burned to disc and put in their place. Totally stellar effort.

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!