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After some discussion with my pals on fanedit.org, I’ve decided to take on Joel Schumacher’s 1995 guilty pleasure, Batman Forever.
As the sentence above suggests, I enjoy Batman Forever, but not because it’s good. So-bad-it’s-good is the best description I have for it. But for obvious reasons, I’ve wanted to see a version of the film that is decent at least. I’ve watched a few edits of Batman Forever over my time in fanediting, including the acclaimed Red Book Edition. However, my favorite edit of the film was by a faneditor named ThatGuyWhoEdits. I was given the honor to review it for any issues, and it was my favorite take on this troubled film to date. While it did have some flaws, the many strengths far outweighed them, and actually made the film… Watchable.
But alas, it was never released. I’m still not 100 percent on what happened, but my good friend ArtisDead said that ThatGuyWhoEdits got a harsh response from someone, and he ghosted and bailed on the project. The edit was never released, and I was left with a highly compressed must-see.
This is what brings me to the present. I had a lot of faith in The Editor’s Cut and wanted to give it the justice it deserves. After talking with ArtisDead and Bobson Dugnutt, I’ve decided to make my own fanedit of Batman Forever, using the abandoned Editor’s Cut as a main inspiration. I have changed a few things (and you can find what’s different in the changes list), but for the most part, this edit is a close approximation to The Editor’s Cut, and one that I hope does both ThatGuyWhoEdits and this movie proud.
In addition to the edits I’ve made, I also decided to compete with the color grading of the Red Book Edition by throwing in my own style. I’ve desaturated the reds, greens, and blues to black and white. Thus, only the yellow, cyan, and magenta colors remain in full color. This gives the film more of a Frank Miller vibe, and in a lot of ways, the color palette reminds me of The Dark Knight Returns. It also gives the film a darker tone that is desperately needed. I have thrown together four color grading examples below to give you an idea of what I’ve got so far:
https://youtu.be/a5nWM4EkRk4
https://youtu.be/m7XXCoMx070
https://youtu.be/B7bjPuV23xY
However, some scenes needed reds at times, mostly for the red book scenes and the Robin scenes. So I slightly resaturated the reds in those moments. This example is one Robin moment (My favorite, by the way). I didn’t like Robin’s helmet being black-and-white during this scene, which is why the resaturation was needed for this to work.
Deleted Scenes
One thing I should note is that the deleted scenes I have are in the dreaded SD 480p, and they’re in need of an upscale. They also lack music and sound effects. This edit will be a first for me in the sound effects department, since I’ve never added in SFX to an edit before. I will be uploading the deleted scenes of my edit onto this thread in the future for sound editing purposes and to get some feedback on what I’ve done to them. Also, if any of you have Topaz, I will be happy to send you my Deleted Scenes file for upscaling.
Otherwise, I think that’s everything for now. The changes list is down below.
Changes List
++= Added
–= Deleted
//= Altered
// Desaturated the red, green, and blue hue vs. sat curves for a less colorful comic book style (Partially inspired by the Red Book Edition and the works of Frank Miller)
++ Deleted Scene 1: Two-Face’s escape from Arkham (Inspired by the Red Book Edition)
++ Added thunder and lightning sound effects to Deleted Scene 1
++ Added Holy Rusted Metal to Deleted Scene 1
// Moved Edward Nigma’s introduction to scene 2 (Inspired by thatguywhoedits)
– Dialogue only: “Oh No!”
– Dialogue only: “Oh no! It’s boiling acid!”
– Dialogue only: “No!”, “Hold on!”, “Yes!”
– Dialogue only: “Gimme your hand!”, “Don’t let go!”
– Dialogue only: “Hey! Hey! That’s my hearing aid!”
– Dialogue only: “My shoes are melting! Ohh!”
– Dialogue only: “Ohhh! Nooo!”
++ Deleted Scene 2: Extended helicopter footage of Two-Face’s opinion on Batman’s “I don’t kill” ethos (Inspired by thatguywhoedits)
++ Added punch sound effects to Deleted Scene 2
++ Added The Pull of Regret to Deleted Scene 2
// Moved Edward’s “demonstration” on Mr. Stickley to scene 4 (Inspired by thatguywhoedits)
– Dialogue only: “Hang on!”
– “Ooooh, nice form, but a little rough on the landing. He may have to settle for the bronze.”
– “I couldn’t possibly continue on here! The Mem… Ories!”
– Deleted Edward Nigma’s first apartment scene
– ”I’ve really gotta get you out of those clothes…”, “Excuse me?”, “…And into a black dress.”
// Moved Dr. Chase Meridian’s naughty little usage of the bat-signal to the 45-minute mark for better comedic effect (Inspired by thatguywhoedits)
– Dialogue only: “Last night at the bank…”
++ Deleted Scene 3: Bruce Wayne seeing Robin’s vengeance-filled kickboxing practice on Two-Face (Inspired by thatguywhoedits and the Red Book Edition)
++ Added bigger (and louder) cracking sound effect on Deleted Scene 3
– Deleted second action sequence between Two-Face’s minions and Batman
– Deleted Edward Nigma’s third apartment scene
– Deleted Robin’s questionable laundry cleaning antics (Those poor clothes are gonna be stretched out badly if he keeps doing that to them)
– Trimmed out Robin’s attempt to convince the hookers that he’s Batman
– Dialogue Only: “Batman!”
++ Deleted Scene 4: Bruce Wayne fears that Batman is his enemy
++ Added The Pull of Regret to Deleted Scene 4
– Deleted the Riddler’s baseball throw
– “Joygasm!”
++ Deleted Scene 5: Bruce Wayne confronting his fear
++ Added some scary monster SFX on the bat in Deleted Scene 5
++ Added The Pull of Regret to Deleted Scene 5
++ Added Mouth to Mouth Nocturne to Deleted Scene 5
++ Added Batterdammerung to Deleted Scene 5
– The Bat-ass
++ Added scary monster SFX from Deleted Scene 5 to the bat shot demonstrating the Riddler’s descent into madness
++ Deleted Scene 6: Does it ever end?
Current Running Time: 126 minutes
I have altered Lucas’ visions. Pray I don’t alter them any further.
