I love fanedit.org. I love the possibilities of taking movies I enjoy and making them better, or movies I hate and making me like them, or even just making an alternate interpretation of an already wonderful movie. I think so many of the editors there are amazingly creative and clever. But as I pointed out in the first post of this thread, fanediting sites seem to create a culture where nothing is good enough, and I think that while we specialize in tearing down Star Wars here, FE.org is much broader and can destroy pretty much any movie's original form. Often the editors remove elements that frankly I enjoy, so watching their edits can be a trade off, where I get some improvement to a film, but I also have to live with some loss. For instance, I like the idea of tying The Hobbit to the LOTR trilogy with a Bilbo/Frodo conversation in the beginning. I mean, if the movies had been created and released in proper order, such would not be necessary. But since many fans of the films have never read the books, I find it a nice way to tie the two together and a fine way to make clear that, hey, we're watching a prequel. But people and FE.org are convinced that it's all just pandering to mindless masses. From the same film, I actually liked the Azog the Defiler subplot, and think it is what makes a trilogy out of the novel possible. It's not the purist thing to do, but I found it a worthy way to adapt it to the film. Another example is the film that prompted this thread: The Dark Knight Rises. I freely admit that Nolan probably made more bad choices in this film than the previous two, though in many ways I love it best. But still, there comes a point where the critiquing goes overboard. For instance, we are in a prison, but because it doesn't have the same prison culture that Bruce's prison in the opening of BB had, it's "not realistic." In my mind, it has its own culture, one much more fraternal in nature. First, I suspect most of these prisoners were not evil wrongdoers, but rather men who crossed the League of Shadows. Second, Bane's (though really Talia's) escape has created a belief that all those condemned to die might find an escape. In my mind, it's a brilliantly different culture. But these kinds of things bug far too many of the editors there. If I ever had the time and skill, I'd love to approach movies more moderately, but I don't think I'll ever find those missing elements. In any case, I found this thread captures perfectly what I feel is too serious a problem for the folks who frequent these two sites:
http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?9146-Is-our-collective-palate-too-refined&highlight=dark+knight+rises