Avatar Recycled
 a TRUE FANEDIT by Kevinicus
This is a less heavy-handed version which focuses on the core story of Jake’s journey and assimilation with the Na’vi. It also cleans up the more clumsy and general structural problems of the original. member ratings: |
(5 votes, average: 8.80 out of 10, rated)
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INTENTION:
This edit aims to eliminate the extreme environmental and political overtones that the viewer is bashed over the head with in the original. The original tried to make poorly conceived political statements which were executed even more poorly. At the same time it attempts to clean up some poor dialogue, poor acting, poor pacing, and just a slew of other problems inherent with the film.
EDITING DETAILS:
CUTLIST:
*Cut opening flyover of forest
*Cut extended shot of Jake in his pod (This was basically just for the 3D effect anyway).
*Cut all of Jake’s voice over until his first “confessional.”
*Cut first shot of Jake’s brother.
*Cut small clip inside spaceship with Jake going to his locker.
*Cut recruiter’s line about making a lot of money.
*Cut stupid lines by soldiers about “fresh meat” and an insult of Jake
*Cut guy in robosuit telling Jake to watch out.
*Cut the “rules” from Quarritch’s speech.
*Cut Norm’s line about the Avatars maturing.
*Cut Jake’s last line of first video log.
*Cut short Grace’s introduction.
*Cut short Grace’s storming out of room and instructions for Jake.
*Cut “Unobtanium”
*Cut lame discussion of Jake’s brain.
*Cut short Jake’s conversation with Quarritch. There’s no mention of his “real” legs.
*Cut line by grunt after helicopter lands.
*Cut Jake’s first encounter with Pandora wildlife.
*Cut almost all of Jake’s taunting.
*Completely cut initial conversation between Jake and Neytiri when she goes off about “No thank for this!”
*Cut Jake’s foray into the Na’vi’s powwow where nothing happens except him stepping on someone’s tail.
*Cut scene of Grace commenting on Jake fleeing from the Panther like thing.
*Completely remove the useless subplot that goes nowhere – Norm being jealous of Jake.
*Cut mention of unobtanium in briefing room. (I felt this scene was needed since it is the only one that mentions why Home Tree specifically is important).
*Cut line about shareholders caring more about bottom line than killing.
*Cut Jake being quizzed as he prepares to go back in – eliminating another moment of Norm’s jealousy etc.
*Cut bickering about floating mountains – again more pettiness with Norm and Jake.
*Cut Trudy’s line about seeing their faces.
*Cut Trudy’s line about “Air Pandora.”
*Cut Jake’s voiceover about Grace and what she knows, trim shots of photos.
*Several cuts to montage of Jake training – talks of flow of energy, and spirits of animals, etc.
*Couple cuts to Jake’s battle with Banshee for continuity purposes, removal of Tsu’tey laughing when he falls, and Jake’s taunt to the Banshee when he finally gets him.
*Small cut of flying sequence
*Cut more of Jake’s voiceover (pretty much everything throughout the rest of the movie that can’t be attributed to him doing his video logs).
*Cut part of Jake’s talk with Quarritch when he tells him he’s got approval to get his legs for him.
*Cut Grace’s objections to Tsu’tey going to battle.
*Heavily trim of argument scene on the bridge. Removed much of Grace’s lines, specifically about the “wealth of this world.”
*Also cut Grace’s dog line and Quarritch’s mocking Jake.
*Cut scene of Jake saying “This is how it’s done!”
*Cut Jake’s line about falling in love with the forrest.
*Cuts to home tree attack – No Trudy, fewer shots of Quarritch, “Get some”, fixed a few inconsistent shots.
*Remove Trudy calling Jake/Norm/Grace Treehuggers.
*Cut a Trudy’s response to Grace being shot, and trimmed part of Jake and Grace being flown away in the station.
*Cut shot of Na’vi gathering w/Jake’s voice over.
*Cut Neytiri’s talk of her fear.
*Shorten gathering of tribes (By far my least favorite cut in this edit – done to remove Jake’s voice over).
*Trimming of Quarritch’s briefing to eliminate “terror with terror” line as well as stupid shots and reactions of soldiers.
*Cut “Shock and Awe” line and Trudy wanting to avoid martydom.
*HEAVILY cut Jake’s prayer to Eywa. No more yapping about killing our mother.
*Trim takeoff scene to eliminate idiots cheering in the background.
*Lots of trims during final battle: Many shots of guys in cockpits, shots of soldiers being pumped, Neytiri’s war cry, Jake telling Tsu’tey to follow him, more “get some!”, shortened Trudy’s “success” against Quarritch, Jake calling out to everyone, the “get some” guy’s expression during death, “That’s an order”, old spirit Na’vi staring up, etc.
*Cut Quarritch’s comments about Jake betraying his race and being one of them.
*Cut Quarritch’s dying expression close up.
*Small cut of humans marching into ships to go home.
*Added “recyled” to the title.
*Cut extended shot of Jake in his pod (This was basically just for the 3D effect anyway).
*Cut all of Jake’s voice over until his first “confessional.”
*Cut first shot of Jake’s brother.
*Cut small clip inside spaceship with Jake going to his locker.
*Cut recruiter’s line about making a lot of money.
*Cut stupid lines by soldiers about “fresh meat” and an insult of Jake
*Cut guy in robosuit telling Jake to watch out.
*Cut the “rules” from Quarritch’s speech.
*Cut Norm’s line about the Avatars maturing.
*Cut Jake’s last line of first video log.
*Cut short Grace’s introduction.
*Cut short Grace’s storming out of room and instructions for Jake.
*Cut “Unobtanium”
*Cut lame discussion of Jake’s brain.
*Cut short Jake’s conversation with Quarritch. There’s no mention of his “real” legs.
*Cut line by grunt after helicopter lands.
*Cut Jake’s first encounter with Pandora wildlife.
*Cut almost all of Jake’s taunting.
*Completely cut initial conversation between Jake and Neytiri when she goes off about “No thank for this!”
*Cut Jake’s foray into the Na’vi’s powwow where nothing happens except him stepping on someone’s tail.
*Cut scene of Grace commenting on Jake fleeing from the Panther like thing.
*Completely remove the useless subplot that goes nowhere – Norm being jealous of Jake.
*Cut mention of unobtanium in briefing room. (I felt this scene was needed since it is the only one that mentions why Home Tree specifically is important).
*Cut line about shareholders caring more about bottom line than killing.
*Cut Jake being quizzed as he prepares to go back in – eliminating another moment of Norm’s jealousy etc.
*Cut bickering about floating mountains – again more pettiness with Norm and Jake.
*Cut Trudy’s line about seeing their faces.
*Cut Trudy’s line about “Air Pandora.”
*Cut Jake’s voiceover about Grace and what she knows, trim shots of photos.
*Several cuts to montage of Jake training – talks of flow of energy, and spirits of animals, etc.
*Couple cuts to Jake’s battle with Banshee for continuity purposes, removal of Tsu’tey laughing when he falls, and Jake’s taunt to the Banshee when he finally gets him.
*Small cut of flying sequence
*Cut more of Jake’s voiceover (pretty much everything throughout the rest of the movie that can’t be attributed to him doing his video logs).
*Cut part of Jake’s talk with Quarritch when he tells him he’s got approval to get his legs for him.
*Cut Grace’s objections to Tsu’tey going to battle.
*Heavily trim of argument scene on the bridge. Removed much of Grace’s lines, specifically about the “wealth of this world.”
*Also cut Grace’s dog line and Quarritch’s mocking Jake.
*Cut scene of Jake saying “This is how it’s done!”
*Cut Jake’s line about falling in love with the forrest.
*Cuts to home tree attack – No Trudy, fewer shots of Quarritch, “Get some”, fixed a few inconsistent shots.
*Remove Trudy calling Jake/Norm/Grace Treehuggers.
*Cut a Trudy’s response to Grace being shot, and trimmed part of Jake and Grace being flown away in the station.
*Cut shot of Na’vi gathering w/Jake’s voice over.
*Cut Neytiri’s talk of her fear.
*Shorten gathering of tribes (By far my least favorite cut in this edit – done to remove Jake’s voice over).
*Trimming of Quarritch’s briefing to eliminate “terror with terror” line as well as stupid shots and reactions of soldiers.
*Cut “Shock and Awe” line and Trudy wanting to avoid martydom.
*HEAVILY cut Jake’s prayer to Eywa. No more yapping about killing our mother.
*Trim takeoff scene to eliminate idiots cheering in the background.
*Lots of trims during final battle: Many shots of guys in cockpits, shots of soldiers being pumped, Neytiri’s war cry, Jake telling Tsu’tey to follow him, more “get some!”, shortened Trudy’s “success” against Quarritch, Jake calling out to everyone, the “get some” guy’s expression during death, “That’s an order”, old spirit Na’vi staring up, etc.
*Cut Quarritch’s comments about Jake betraying his race and being one of them.
*Cut Quarritch’s dying expression close up.
*Small cut of humans marching into ships to go home.
*Added “recyled” to the title.
*Other various small cuts.
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What this edit needs is a review. Okay, so I’ll do it.
Technical-
Video: First let me be clear, I hate the official DVD. It contains plenty of compression artifacts that shouldn’t be there. It shows all the signs of them being in a hurry to dump a barebones edition on the market so they could get started on the double dip.
Even fully re-encoded to fit on a DVD5 and burn in the subs, this edit doesn’t look much worse than the source.
Unfortunately, in the process it has been converted from 24p to 29.97p by adding one duplicate frame every 4. As a result all the detailed liquid smooth CG work now looks jittery and awkward.
To be fair, I’ll bet that 9 out of 10 people will never see it.
Anyone wanting to add this to their collection should consider demuxing the disc, using Decimate() during re-encoding and adding pulldown flags.
At least it wasn’t hard interlaced or letterboxed… I consider THAT unforgivable.
3.5 out of 5.
Audio:
Besides sounding like the dialog normalization got thrown out of whack (I found myself raising and lowering the volume), everything sounds great in 5.1.
I don’t feel like comparing it to the original DVD so I’ll just give this
5 out of 5.
Editing (Technical)-
Seamless. Really there is nothing else to say. Even knowing where the cuts were, I found no tell-tale signs of the movie being altered.
5 out of 5.
Editing (Plot/Story)-
Hmm. This is a bit more difficult. James Cameron’s, and for that matter anyone’s, biggest film of all time, and if it had the budget of a SyFy channel Saturday night movie you probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
Several groaner lines, occasional poor line deliveries, and complete contempt for the audiences’ ability to understand the subtext without smashing their brains out with it.
Really, “Aliens” told us how he felt about “Evil Corporations and their Military Lapdogs”.
“Abyss” taught us how he felt about xenophobia and to respect the environment.
“Terminator 1 & 2″ told us that he can tell an intelligent and complicated story but still give the audience a roller coaster ride… but struggled with it in “Avatar”.
That said, this movie is the kind where more usually is more. It’s a shame Cameron didn’t realize that a few subplots and/or back stories would have served better than repetition.
So there are 3 factors to this category: does the movie still make sense and seem professionally constructed, does the edit do what it intended, and is it better than the original.
Is the movie clear, concise and feel professionally made? Yes. At no point did I experience a WTF moment. I never felt like things were disjointed, awkward or that someone who had never seen the film wouldn’t completely understand it. In fact except for cleaning up the existing movie, there is no change to the plot or story. It’s the same film, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Did the edit succeed with its intentions? Yes. I was much happier with the flow of the film, and it never drags. The toning down of the caricature portrayals of the military, corporations, and the planet worshiping natives was well done without gutting the film.
Is this edit superior to the original?
That’s difficult. I do like the original movie. There is no question of that. Do I like this edit more? Hmmm.
The original is shallowly plotted and light on story, something I hope will be fixed in the Director’s Cut, or Super Director’s Cut, or the 5 Hour Deluxe Extra Special Unrated Edition Cut.
What does happen is this edit seemed shallower.
The thing is, if the worst you can say about an edit is you wished there was more of it, I have to consider it superior to other edits.
Unfortunately there is one easy test to this last question… will it sit in my collection as a replacement to the original? Sadly, my answer is no. I really can’t say why. Maybe Kevinicus will revisit this when more footage becomes available to help flesh things out, but in the end, I just wish he had left a little more of the harmless flourishes untouched. Half the movie’s experience is in the immersiveness of it, and I was a little less immersed.
4.5 out of 5
Overall rating (not an average):
4 out of 5.
Landstander would stand on land and watch this.
I love following edits and reading about them, but 9 times out of 10 I dislike the final product.
This was a watchable and fun alternative to the ham-fisted storytelling of the original.
Strongly recommended to anyone who walked out of the original movie shaking their head that once again Cameron felt a ‘message’ was more important than a good film. (Yes Titanic, I’m looking at you. Don’t look away. I know you see me over here glaring at you.)
Review by Landstander — August 18, 2010 @ 6:02 am
I was very excited to see this in AVCHD and am glad I waited. The quality is amazingly crisp with the exception of a few artifacts in deep blacks. This only happened though for a short time. Otherwise it was breathtaking.
No noticeable audio problems. I heard what Landstander heard (dialog quieter in places) but I’m not sure this is exclusive to Avatar. I’ve heard this in many other fanedits (as well as commercial releases) and they all have similar problems. I’m not going to hold Kevinicus responsible.
This cut is much better than the official release (though I still like it a lot). It is quicker paced, no voice overs and much of the environmental vs industrial has been vastly toned down.
Overall, 9 out of 10.
Review by thunderclap — August 22, 2010 @ 3:26 am
I saw the blue ray version of the edit. It looked and sounded great. Editing was seamless. Over all a great improvement from the original. I give it a 10. A must see.
Review by dja8185 — September 17, 2010 @ 3:08 am