The one thing that had always bugged me when watching the original Director's Cut (DC) was the placement of that little scene in which two of the deadites exclaim: "Retreat, retreat!", "Let's get the hell out of here!". This scene was originally placed near the beginning of the final battle which made it look as though the deadites were the kind of fellows who would flee at the first signs of their comrades meeting their maker for the second time, and hence making it seem as though they were absolutely no threat to the living. However, place this same scene at the end of the battle when Henry the Red's men save the day at the last minute, and you now find the deadites are genuinely scared witless of the inevitable crushing defeat that they will suffer.
Considering the DC was the first in the line of many of its re-interpretations as dictated by the studio/producer/distributors (at least in terms of the actual number of them that were officially released, more so than for any other movie I suspect), this DC pretty much represents a work-in-progress. As such, when the second round of re-edits were ordered, the scene in question was given more time to have its placement in the movie evaluated and essentially given a second chance to prove its worth when it was inevitably found to be in the wrong spot. An oversight of this size could have easily been missed even in the second round and beyond, but no doubt Sam Raimi picked up on it eventually.
I would like to thank RidgeShark for having noticed this oversight when he was recreating this all-time classic, since this scene's position at the beginning is located in the studio cut, not the DC. Anyone else doing this fan-edit probably would not have bothered shifting its placement in the battle sequence since it was just another one of those "unimportant filler scenes", or at the very least may not have realised that it wasn't in the same spot in all versions. Either way, a scene like this would usually go unnoticed by the general uncaring population as having no bearing to the overall feel of the movie ... but I guarantee you that it does.
Again, kudos to RidgeShark for having taken as much time as he has to putting this project together, and then for going that extra mile to foresee how all those other little moments really do count to the movie as a whole. This seemingly insignificant little four-second quotation is ultimately given more prominence, relevance and ultimately humour to it when it is placed near the end rather than its mistaken position near the beginning.
The other thing that I don't mind at the end of the day from this fan-edit (FC) is the use of the alternative takes as seen in the studio cut ... personally, I was always a fan of the original "I ain't that good". However, the artistic side of me is not terribly keen on the use of the slapstick music in the Windmill sequence as well as the "Chinese Jet-Pilot" quotation, both of which I believe feel like when the typical school bully decides on a whim to push us over the other side of fence from the side of "comic horror" to just "pure comedy" (not that bullies are any fun).
Ultimately, I wouldn't really have seen the point of watching this FC if all it was going to be was some insertions of the deleted scenes that are already on the DC DVD anyway, no matter how masterfully they were integrated into the main feature. This project is really meant to help showcase the very best of everything else that this movie has ever been, and it's wonderful that between the DC and FC I have the choice to enjoy whichever version suits me at the time, both of which have now become the perfect set of bookends.
Finally, all the best bits of AOD are now viewable in two superb editions, giving us direct access to everything single moment that the movie has shown us in its various incarnations. Now, if only I can get a hold of the Waterworld Ulysses Cut, I think I can finally die happy.
Klatu Verata Nicktu.