Chemical Syndicate – Wasn’t to impressed here, seemed to me that not much thought/time went into this edit. (but still an easy watch)

Intruder Alert! – I didn’t really under stand what the editor was going for with this, was just some bad parts from a horrible movie. (also why is everyone so cool with her being bat girl? it was just like oh here’s your costume go fight crime)

Mayhem and Mistletoe – The Sin City approach was okay, but still don’t think much was done with this edit. (didn’t thrill me at all)

Bat Memento – Actually thought this was pretty cool edit, would of liked to see some lines of narration in though (like they do in Memento).

Inner Turmoil – I personally didn’t like this, though i did like the idea. It just didn’t work for me sorry.

Savings Never End – …wow, what was that? I mean really…was this supposed to be funny? I think i got like 5 mins in and then just started skipping ahead to see if it got any better…which it did not. Maybe if the voice over was funny this could have worked, but it was not. Even then should not have been longer than a few mins.
(PS those 5 mins felt like hours)

Pussy Control – I thought some parts were funny, but over all it fell a little short to me.

Gordon Perspective – This (like the joker one) was a little to simple for me, and almost felt like a cop-out (just take all the clips involving one character and string them together).

Killing Joke – I had never seen Birds of Prey before, so this to me felt new for that reason alone. I was still not impressed with anything here…sorry.

overall i felt like more time should have been spent ahead of time to come up with some really cool ideas, personally the majority of the shorts felt quickly thrown together. apart from DoD they didn’t really tell any new story to me, which i thought was the point…because otherwise…why do this at all.

InfoDroid – What a fantastic idea! And the execution was brilliant. I was a touch confused here and there, mainly due to my unfamiliarity with the source material, but once I caught up, I really enjoyed it. I was surprised how many sources you used. Well done. 10 Frinks out of 10.

Throw – Another great short. Returns is my favorite of all the movies, and to see this in b/w with color highlights was fantastic. I especially loved the opening music with the first scenes you chose. I think you mentioned the possibility of doing this for the whole movie, and I’d love to see it. But I’m curious – would you cut out the Penguin in a full version? 10 Frinks out of 10.

JMB – Joker’s origin from the first movie as a TV episode? I loved it! The credits were great, especially the “Dark Knight will return in a moment” bit. And keeping the focus on Nicholson was a fun way to go. This made me want to program my DVR for next week’s episode. 9 Frinks out of 10.

Dluppers – Meh. I applaud the attempt at using the fourth movie, it took guts. But it just reminded me how awful the movie was. 5 Frinks out of 10.

UA – This was a very professional and technically impressive edit. Unfortunately, I’m not really a fan of the current Batman films, so I’m probably not one to judge this. I did like how the focus remained on Gordon, but the “Batman Voice” still drives me crazy, and Gordon’s action hero bit at the end bugged me as much in this as it did in the original movie. But none of this is UA’s fault, and once again the edit was very well done. Just not my cup of tea. 6 Frinks out of 10.

Jack Tourette – I didn’t realize there was a live action Batman show. It reminded me a bit of a lower budget Smallville. Having never seen this before, it’s hard to comment on the actual editing, other than to say I didn’t see anything distracting or poorly done. A nice piece of work. 7 Frinks out of 10.

Grievous Angel Draven – Yikes. I really wanted to like this based on the description. It’s a great idea. But it might have worked a lot better as a 30 or 60 second commercial, rather than a 10 minute infomercial. And I didn’t really care for the narrator voice treatment. At any rate, I’m glad this was on there, because it was a fun attempt at something different, even if it didn’t quite work for me. 3 Frinks out of 10.

Mollo – This was really great. It’s too bad there were two pieces on the project that used such similar stuff, although in the end this was obviously much different from Throw’s work. The beginning credits were nice, the end credits were superb (laughed like crazy, I did), and the actual edit itself was very well done. 9 Frinks out of 10.

Kolpitz – I liked this a lot. A great idea and it was very well executed. Is it me, or did the animated Bruce Wayne look anything like Brock Sampson from The Ventrue Bros? 8 Frinks out of 10.

Boon/CBB (yeah, I noticed it said CBB on the menu but Boon in the edit) – Wow. I am not much of a Nolan Batman fan, but I loved this! What a wonderful idea and flawlessly executed. 10 Frinks out of 10.

This was a great project and I’m really glad I had the chance to view it. Thanks to all the editors for putting this together. Overalll, 8 Frinks out of 10.

In my opinion, that is the complete opposite of what this collection was about. The whole point was to have varying styles and ideas. Forcing them to connect somehow would defeat the whole purpose.

And were all the shorts really “too serious, too silly, or too strange”? Not a single one fell outside those categories for you? Really?!

I find it extraordinary that there was not one Batman film that entertained. For me personally, the stars of this effort were Throwgncpr’s Mayhem & Mistletoe and the wildly imaginative “Depth Of Darkness” from InfoDroid.

This Consecution was the first of its kind and of course there were going to be problems. FanEditors from all over the world contributed and some first-timers as well, so quality will differ. I am sure that lessons have been learnt, already quality control standards have been increased greatly for the next Consecution project but what ever ones opinion, I simply find it hard to believe that someone who “grew up with the Batman” could find not one redeeming quality in the whole of the Batman Consecution effort.

Variety is quite mixed. The highlights are the frankly superb “Depths of Darkness” (probably the best fan film I’ve ever seen and works fantastically well in the short space of time – a true masterpiece) & “Mayhem & Mistletoe” (love the “Sin City” approach here – it works really well and creates a real comic mood to the piece.) Inner Turmoil also used the animation / live format well – good work Kolpitz!

Only two that got me fidgety (you know that feeling when you’re watching but would rather be doing something else) – of these “The Savings Never End” was hard work to watch. The concept was quite clever – just didn’t work in practice. Perhaps if it had been run more as a commercial, lasting 30 seconds it would have been OK; however, it goes to show that you really can’t polish a turd The other film that didn’t work for me was “The Killing Joke”. If it had been called anything else, then fine – but my expectation was set too high by the title alone! Maybe on repeat viewing it might be better and it was good to see Birds of Prey used as a source – just the difference source alone makes it stand out a bit from the rest, so I may be judging a little harshly on first viewing.

Overall, this was a great film and I want to thank everybody who contributed to this for such a good project.

About the shorts:

Depths of Darkness:
If you watch the DVD make this edit the last you watch… a great continuation of TDK, the music fits perfectly even the dialogue sounds like it was written for a Batman movie (especially the Machinist part about the mother-cemetary-mother’s day) if Chris Nolan doesn’t do a third Batman movie, then this is my official sequel to TDK

6 out of 5

Mayhem and Mistletoe:
I like the Sin-City Style, B&W suits Burtons movie very well and the scenes originally showing the Penguin are cleverly tweaked, very very very good movie

5 out of 5

Intruder Alert
It’s a nice idea and reminds me very much of B&R de-assified – funnier to watch than Schumacher’s original work, but still not good, not your fault Dluppers, but the source material’s

3 out of 5

The Savings Never End
I don’t want to flame you now Grievous Angel, because your idea was actually pretty cool and funny – to present B&R as the toy commercial it was. I don’t want to be rude or something but sadly it was not very fun to watch. Please don’t let this negative feedback stop you from fan-editing.

1 out of 5

The Case Of The Chemical Syndicate
Well after watching DoD first I already had my favourite , but I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, it really felt like a Saturday morning Episode. The Intro was very nicely done, the “The Dark Knight will return” commercial thing was funny. I liked how you edited the Batmobile-attack on the AXIS-Chemicals as a “Batmobile approaches” scene. The story was simplified but still coherent, a down to the crime fast-paced movie and well… it’s just cool Jack Nicholson/Joker action.
Congratulations, very entertaining.

5 out of 5

The Killing Joke
I really don’t know what exactly to say about it, as I’ve never seen birds of prey. The story was neat, but the thing about the catacombs seemed a little strange. Sure it was here to tell the story about Batman/Joker/Batgirl and that part worked but it seemed to go nowhere, like this mission was just here to tell Oracle’s backstory. Don’t know what has been cut, so I can’t judge.

3 out of 5

The Gordon Perspective
Ahhh…. UA again. Maybe I’m preoccupied but after I’ve read UA’s name I knew that this edit would be good – and it was. A few scenes could have been longer, but I understand that this was not a movie, but a short. I’m feeling guilty that I don’t have anything particular to say about this edit, except:

5 out of 5

Bat Memento
A tribute to Nolan, an interesting take on BB and the CBB-group to carry it out… unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this edit that much, as I already mentioned about Gordon Perspective the goal was to make a short, not a movie and whereas I like the Gordon-Edit despite the missing scenes a Batman story spawning the events of BB within 10 minutes was in my opinion to little time.

Sadly 3 out of 5

Inner Turmoil
Using fear Toxin in order to transcend from real life to TAS is a great concept and it was very well executed, even though there could have been more animated scenes.

5 out of 5

Pussy Control
As another poster already stated the problem with this edit is that there is another edit about Catwoman and Batman. It isn’t a bad edit, but the Sin-City style of Mayhem and Mistletoe was more interesting to me. A few cuts were not that well executed, but overall it was an entertaining solid fan-edit

4 out of 5

And once again I have to say “THANK YOU” for an entertaining collaboration. The concept of joining fan-edit-forces alone deserves a 5 out of 5 rating + there are a lot of very good/entertaining/well executed edits. Thank you thank you

P.S.: How about a crime movie collaboration? Like cutting Heat/Departed/Godfather etc.
It could be even more sophisticated by trying to tie the separate fan-edits into one story concerning a city for example. Maybe it’s a ridiculous impossible concept, but I’m thinking about something along the lines of “Gotham Knight” when it comes to story connections, that tiny things from previous shorts appear in the next short. Just an idea… sorry if it’s stupid/impossible

greets Sunarep

Boon did an amazing job on the DVD design for starters. Loved the title intro, the music and all of the transitional flutters of bat wings between menu selections. You’ll have to teach me how to do it as good as you, Boon.

The first short I watched was [b]Dluppers’ “Intruder Alert”[/b]: Batgirl Begins. It was interesting to see any scene from Batman & Robin again since the last time I saw it was in the theater. I own the DVD which came as part of a box set, but haven’t dared to crack it out of the case yet. Dluppers did a good job editing, he can’t be faulted for that. I think though that you probably could have left it at her getting suited up and then she runs off as Batgirl. We kind of know what happens after that. Or maybe we don’t want to know. No need for the Poison Ivy stuff, in my opinion. And then “Suit me up, Uncle Alfred!” was one of the worst lines of the entire Batman film franchise; a line which my friends and I still deride to this day. Why anyone would choose to do something serious with any scene from Batman & Robin is beyond me, but it was interesting to watch, nevertheless. Even if only to be reminded of exactly how bad Batman & Robin really was.

The next one I watched was [b]Throwgncpr’s “Mayhem & Mistletoe”[/b], which I absolutely loved. How incredible did Batman Returns look in black-and-white? It looks like it could have been filmed that way originally. Those security guards looked like they belonged on the Andy Griffith show. And I loved the “Pleasantville effect” you employed. Catwoman’s red lips have never looked more seductive and Batman has never looked more heroic with the screaming yellow Bat-belt and Bat-symbol blazing across his costume. This was a really interesting way to view this story, Throw. Forget the “extras” discs you’re always releasing and start doing some true fanediting! You’ve got a real talent! Great job!

And then we come to the unfortunate [b]Grievous Angel Draven’s “The Savings Never End!”[/b]: Not sure how this one got by Quality Control. While I like Grievous Angel Draven, and I agree with the point of his short, which is that Batman & Robin was nothing more than a cartoonish, insulting, cash-grabbing toy commercial for Warner Bros. and the awful Joel Schumacher…a) this is information we all have known for ten years now, and b) we got the point loud and clear after the first few minutes. No need to drag it on for ten minutes just because that was the time limit. Now, I know it was supposed to be comedic in a subversive, self-deprecating way, and I think we needed some comedy in this collection. But it quickly became tedious to watch and toward the end downright painful. The over-loud voiceover didn’t help it much and quite honestly my finger was on the forward button through the latter half. Sorry, Grievous, but it was a true disaster. But somehow, I have a feeling that maybe that’s exactly what you intended.

[b]Jokersmailbag’s “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate”[/b]: Not only do I love the title, but the idea and execution of this was perfect. The question? What would it be like if Batman would have been an 80’s TV series instead of a movie? Have you got the visual in your head? That’s exactly what Jokersmailbag delivers. This is definitely one of my favorites on this collection. I enjoyed it immensely. Great job!

[b]Jack Tourette’s “The Killing Joke”[/b]: It was really unfortunate that the picture quality couldn’t have been better on this, but I understand the reason why. And I’m glad Jack Tourette went through with this edit despite that fact. It was interesting to see a sliver of this “Birds of Prey” series that I never even knew existed before this project. Very cool. Seems like you did a good job on the editing, even though I don’t have anything to compare it to, which makes it difficult to gauge the extent of the work done on this. But kudos for unearthing this rare find and presenting it to us in ten minutes.

[b]Uncanny Antman’s “The Gordon Perspective”[/b]: Gary Oldman’s portrayal of James Gordon is one of the best and most underrated performances to come out of the world of popular film in the past ten years. A lot of times, seeing a sequence out of context, even if you’ve seen it a hundred times, when it’s pulled out from under the weight of the rest of the film…especially one as big in scope as Batman Begins…it can create an entirely new experience. And that’s how I felt when watching this short. I felt like I was watching a cop-drama instead of a Batman film and I think that’s what Uncanny Antman intended. Great to see it solely from the perspective of Gordon. Editing was seamless, picture quality was brilliant. Great job!

[b]CBB’s “Bat Memento”[/b]: Video quality aside, which I hear has been corrected in the new version, as someone else has observed this was an inspired and completely appropriate choice. I love the idea. I love the execution. It couldn’t have been an easy thing to approach, but I think you covered all the bases. And even though we all knew what happened and what to expect, the entertaining part was to see your choices, Boon, on what you chose to show and not to show. If I had one minor criticism it would be that I would’ve included the Katie Holmes character or her as a little girl at the very end (or is it the beginning?), just to bookend and have some resolution or justification for what we had seen in their exchange at the very beginning (or is it the end?). Other than that small observation, I found it vastly interesting, unique, entertaining and for the most part complete. Great job!

[b]Kolpitz’s “Inner Turmoil”[/b]: Being a big fan of Batman the Animated Series, I was very happy to see someone used it’s material. And Kolpitz has done it in a very creative way, blending it with scenes from Batman Begins, Scarecrow’s fear toxin affects Batman by transporting him into this animated hallucination (which I thought was an excellent device, by the way). And then later, the tables are turned on Scarecrow as Batman gives him a taste of his “own medicine” much to the same animated effect. Again, I loved the concept. Loved the execution. And this being Kolpitz’s first edit, I emphatically encourage him to keep practicing and do many more in the future. Great job!

And finally to [b]Mollo’s Pussy Control[/b]: I think it’s really unfortunate for Mollo that his Catwoman story came after Throw’s on the disc. Because, of course the two are going to be unfairly compared. And since they use a lot of the same footage, whichever one came second was doomed to be written off by most as superfluous. For me, the two couldn’t have been more different and are equally as good. Mollo’s skill at editing is great, his handling of the story is great. I LOVE the end credits and the “Pussy Control” song that plays to an image of Catwoman endlessly licking herself. LOL! This short was done with style and an unexpected sense of humor. I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to seeing more of Mollo’s stuff in the future.

On the next Consecution project we should probably try to be careful not to pick similar ideas.

A few words on mine [b]“Bruce Wayne – Depths of Darkness”[/b]: I’m happy with how it turned out. It was a challenge to meet that time limit and I regret not being able to do a more complete end credit sequence. The goal was to create a pseudo-sequel to The Dark Knight without using any footage of Batman. It was a twilight-zone style, guilt-ridden nightmare through an alternate reality that could’ve been Bruce Wayne’s future, but wasn’t. Or was it? The end can be interpreted either way. Which Bruce is dreaming? I think what the short really ended up accomplishing was that it showed what a great actor Christian Bale really is. To see him go from one extreme to another is actually frightening. I think we covered all the bases of emotion in this short and Bale plays it to the hilt. For those who haven’t seen The Machinist, the one where he lost all that weight, I’d definitely recommend it.

Anyway, great, great, great, great project, Guys. Lots of fun. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Let’s not stop. What’s next for Consecution? Zombies? Is the vote tally in yet?

–ID

Depths of Darkness:
One or two pieces of material felt (unavoidably) a little out of place stylistically, but this is the standout piece from this collection. Great work.

Chemical Syndicate:
Very well reformatted as an episode of early ‘90s TV. Reminds me of just how desperately The Flash TV show tried to emulate the style/success of Burton’s Batman.

Intruder Alert!:
Man, “Batman and Robin” just stinks no matter what you do to it. No offense, Dluppers.

Mayhem and Mistletoe:
The Sin City approach was a great idea. It felt very natural meshed with Burton’s style.

Bat Memento:
Merging Begins with the style of a previous Nolan film was inspired.

Inner Turmoil:
A great way to incorporate multiple forms of Batman’s history. The visual quality of the Animated Series segments detracted slightly, but not enough to lower my score.

Savings Never End:
The idea is sound, but the actual piece didn’t do much for me. I hate to jump on the badnwagon, but the main thing that made it hard to watch was having the voice over so loud that it was distorted. (Either that or was recorded poorly.)

Pussy Control:
Some great editing in the introductory scenes. And quite funny to see some very similar choices to a previous edit I had been trying. Thank goodness mine wasn’t working out.

Gordon Perspective:
Not as good as it could have been, but it gets the job done. I guess.

Killing Joke:
I think using the bootleg of the Birds of Prey pilot as the source on this was a bad call as it has harsh, distorted audio and a pretty mediocre picture quality. Which is a pity, because using BoP makes it stand out from the crowd.

As a collection, this was great fun. I absolutely can’t wait for the next one, whether I get to participate or not.

Anyway, onto the praise. EVERYTHING about this comp otherwise I really enjoyed. The splicing between animation & live-action for the Scarecrow could’ve been handled a bit neater, but that still ended up really good. My personal favorite of all the shorts is absolutely Depths of Darkness. Brilliant how he meshed so many different films to tell a cohesive tale. I feel like watching that again right now.