This is tremendous!
I don't get the the constant hoopla in the reviews about this being impossible to understand. It's honestly fairly obvious and just a few details are left to interpretation or to your own imagination to fill in the blanks.
I think another example of the suggestibility of most people. You see a review about how it's difficult to follow and suddenly it is. But there's nothing confusing about any of this. It's just kick ass.
I do see the critiques about the edit though, and I would add my own usual Michael Mann bitch about his dialogue record and mixing. I don't know why he can't get a consistently audible volume from his films. At times I was deafened by the soundtrack and sfxs and later when obvious moments of ADR were needed he stuck with nat sound despite it being a low muffled mess. Something he continues to do in later movies and I hate it (cough Public Enemies). And there are some quick cuts in there that feel like mistakes.
Apparently this is a three hour movie cut to 90 minutes and I don't think it suffers too much from it but I think some moments of tension building are lost ... like when McKellen's character is introduced, he goes from being the camp to suddenly in the Keep being given instructions. We miss him being plucked out of the camp and brought to the keep, all would have been good moments to build his character and add tension. In the end you don't lose anything for the plot, you know who he is and why he's there, its just a bit of added texture we miss. But I don't think there's anything that should be considered confusing about these trims. Likewise the little romance that happens comes right out of nowhere and the bond those too should have by the end I don't think has really been build. But by the same token you could come up with in universe reasons why that ends up being the case too.
But the plusses are such big plusses. The location and sets, the practical effects and the performances from Prochnow and Byrne are brilliant. McKellen is too hammy as usual but whatever. This is one will get a future re-watch for sure.
This is tremendous!
I don't get the the constant hoopla in the reviews about this being impossible to understand. It's honestly fairly obvious and just a few details are left to interpretation or to your own imagination to fill in the blanks.
I think another example of the suggestibility of most people. You see a review about how it's difficult to follow and suddenly it is. But there's nothing confusing about any of this. It's just kick ass.
I do see the critiques about the edit though, and I would add my own usual Michael Mann bitch about his dialogue record and mixing. I don't know why he can't get a consistently audible volume from his films. At times I was deafened by the soundtrack and sfxs and later when obvious moments of ADR were needed he stuck with nat sound despite it being a low muffled mess. Something he continues to do in later movies and I hate it (cough Public Enemies). And there are some quick cuts in there that feel like mistakes.
Apparently this is a three hour movie cut to 90 minutes and I don't think it suffers too much from it but I think some moments of tension building are lost ... like when McKellen's character is introduced, he goes from being the camp to suddenly in the Keep being given instructions. We miss him being plucked out of the camp and brought to the keep, all would have been good moments to build his character and add tension. In the end you don't lose anything for the plot, you know who he is and why he's there, its just a bit of added texture we miss. But I don't think there's anything that should be considered confusing about these trims. Likewise the little romance that happens comes right out of nowhere and the bond those too should have by the end I don't think has really been build. But by the same token you could come up with in universe reasons why that ends up being the case too.
But the plusses are such big plusses. The location and sets, the practical effects and the performances from Prochnow and Byrne are brilliant. McKellen is too hammy as usual but whatever. This is one will get a future re-watch for sure.
