I received my DVD in the mail on Friday. First thing I notice is that the address label tells me it's coming from you in the US. Then I rip it open and see the now-familiar De-Assified cover slip. I knew I couldn't watch it right then and there, I had to wait. I was going to force myself to watch the original Batman & Robin and then watch the De-Assified version, to be able to compare. However, when I went to my family's VHS drawer and grabbed the tape to watch it. It seems our VHS player was playing up or the tape itself had gotten too old. So, I couldn't watch that version. I decided that I'd wait until the next day to watch the DVD as I was having my girlfriend over for a movie day.
So, I ended up watching the DVD with my brother and my girlfriend. Let me just say right now, you have made a version that is far, FAR better than the original. It does seem very short as a live-action film, but when there wasn't enough good material to salvage, what can you do? I was surprised to find myself remembering bits & pieces that were cut out, from entire scenes to snippets of dialogue. I was really glad to see that although the 'bidding for Ivy' scene scene had been left in, you cut out Batman and Robin's bidding and bickering. I think the opening sequence is the best sequence in the film due to its Bond-like 'straight into the action' setup.
Now, my brother said when it was over, that it was "definitely a much better version", and I could tell he enjoyed watching it. My girlfriend was cringing at the corny one-liners (those that survived) and shaking her head at the dialogue - particularly Dr. Isley's (sp?). I'd told her about the film beforehand and when I asked if she was brave enough to watch it, she said she was. She also said that she would not watch the original version with me to compare. A Tim Burton fan, she loves Batman & Batman Returns. I recently saw Batman Begins with her, and she thought that was excellent as well. However, she apparently saw B&R at the cinema with her parents when she was little. She must not have liked it even then, because she's always hated this movie. I asked her if she thought this version was better, and she is adamant that nothing could save this film. It's a shame, but I don't think she could stomach B&R even in it's De-Assified form
. Granted, we had just watched the Army of Darkness Director's Cut, and she thought that was a really bad movie. I kept saying throughout both AoD and B&R: DA that she'd have to learn to live with it as I do love a lot of movies she considers to be bad. I keep telling her I'm going to buy the 1966 movie and the instrumental soundtrack to it, because I had it on tape as a child. She justs shakes her head firmly and says "No! It's a waste of money". Lol.Anyway, I don't have any real gripes about the film, except for 2 minor ones. I don't care to see more Bane, but I thought the after-the-credits bit (while I can see the intention), doesn't work too well as Bane isn't in the film enough. Just my opinion. I liked it though.
The second thing is exactly what a lot of others have been saying; Where's Alfred? I know the footage is probably corny or whatever, but Alfred just seems to disappear for the 2nd half of the film. I understand there's probably nothing you can do about that, so it's alright.I have 2 minor comments on the tech side of things. The DVD's menu is a bit hard to read, and the highlighted items were hard to read as the colour used was bright pink. This made the menu screen a little unprofessional. You might want to think about changing the menu's 'selection' colour. The other thing is, and maybe this was just my setup. I watched this film on our secondary TV (which only has built-in speakers) and sometimes the loud sound would cause loud buzzing and detract from the film. We couldn't turn the volume down to stop this, otherwise we wouldn't be able to hear the dialogue. Again, if this is just due to my crappy setup on our 2nd TV, take no notice of it.
All in all - Batman & Robin: De-Assified deserves to be recommended to family and friends who disliked/hated the original version. I don't like to give ratings to fan-edits (term used loosely in the case of B&R), but you've done a tremendous job upgrading this film from 'Crapfest' to 'Watchable/Enjoyable Edit'. I look forward to any future edits you release.