Rambo - A Warrior's Journey

Overall this fanedit is another Last Survivor gem. A classic example of a fanedit remix, turning an action movie franchise into a mini-TV show. The first Movie-to-TV edit I’ve seen!

This is a hefty package, more than 10 hours of total content what with each Episode having a commentary. Brilliant man, brilliant. I listened to the first 2 and enjoyed them for the most part. They got a bit tedious but not unpleasantly. I may or may not ever listen to the rest, if I do I’ll edit my review.

The TV concept was hit and miss at times. I highly enjoyed the TV spots (slight bit more on those later) and the LS Network bumpers. But overall it felt a bit forced. That’s not the greatest way to explain it really. I mean with this type of fanedit you ARE forcing a round peg into a square hole, but I guess some of the edges were a little rough and the peg splintered a little.

The structure of the episodes were the biggest breakdowns in that regard. Was each disc supposed to be like a mini-season? Or like was this a “Summer Event” type of show? I know in the UK it’s common to do short 6 or so episode seasons. I think it could have worked better if each movie was broken up into three 25 minutes episodes. Or do a 40 minute pilot and the rest are 25 minutes. Who knows though if the episodic arcs would have been better that way.

Editing wise… holy hell LS puts a lot of attention to detail. Title sequences had me glued to the screen each time. Majority of the audio editing was seamless. Some edits bugged me but nothing major.

The added Chuck Norris as Delmar Berry scenes felt very unresolved. LS talked about this in the commentaries I listened to and I dig that it was mainly a fan service for himself and other Chuck fans. But it came across to me as a plot thread that was forgotten about. I may just be a moron with ADD and it could be brilliant to you.

I guess overall I’d say that the editor scored big on the finer details but the broad strokes were a little sloppy. If you’re a fan of Rambo and/or Last Survivor odds are you will enjoy this.

P.S. - TV Spots were fantastic, very fresh and full of energy. Oh how I wish we had made more. Highlights were Plan 2001 and Taxi Driver.

A/V quality – 10
Editing – 9 visual, 8 audio
Narrative – 7
Enjoyment – 8

Recommended drink: Sylvestor Stallone

I loved this edit so much that after I finished watching all 5+ hours of it, I went back and listened to another 5+ hours of Last Survivor talking about it. Simply put, this is one of the most professional, original and downright fun fanedits ever created. Everything from the title cards to the audio commentary has been carefully crafted by a true master. Highly recommend.

Audio/Video Quality: With the amount of cropping, colour correction and panning and scanning done to the original picture, I'm surprised this looks as good as it does. Well done.

Visual Editing: As above, Last Survivor has done a ton of work to make this look and feel like a TV series. It works incredibly well and the editor's hand is invisible. The only thing that jumped out at me was the aspect ratio of the Payback commercial seemed to be off.

Audio Editing: Listening to the commentary track, I was shocked by how much actual editing was done to create each episode. It's professional and seamless.

Narrative: Incredible. The story hooks you right in and doesn't let go. It's one of those "Oh, I'll just watch one more episode then I really should be off to bed" scenarios where before you know it, it's the middle of the night and you've just finished episode 8 and you're disappointed that there's no episode 9 to watch.

Enjoyment: It's effing awesome.

This was pure action adventure bliss for me!

LS has pulled off a remarkable feat in creative editing and storytelling, recrafting the original four Rambo features into an eight part 80's style television series!

The absolutely wonderful LS Network music/graphics/intros immediately set the tone for the viewer, I was immediately transported back in time to the Movie of Week specials of the late 1970s and early 80s. Brilliant work! I so want to subscribe to the LS Network!

As a fellow editor who has attempted to create some tv style edits too, I fully appreciate the complexity and time consuming work that went into the opening and closing credits. The end credits in particular are amazing and feel completely authentic. And I totally smiled like a 10 year old kid at the retro-Knight Rider style commercial breaks. Very cool LS!

As to the edits themselves, all work very well, though some play stronger than others. Surprisingly, Rambo 3, which I always viewed as the weakest entry in the franchise, seemed to play the strongest as a TV episode. Maybe simply because it is so over the top in 80s style action, it fit the concept the best. Though my favorite edit has to be episodes one and two, just because I LOVED the seamless inclusion of the Chuck Norris material. The edits of Rambo 2 and 4 are completely solid and held my bride and I completely engaged and entertained.

Of course watching a Last Survivor fan edit is just half the fun; listening to his commentaries are real hidden gems -- filled with interesting insights and facts, they are often better than many "professional" studio commentaries. So make sure you take the time to check them out too!

This is a ratings blockbuster! True Must See TV!

Congrats LS on another fantastic fun fan edit!

Thumbs UP!!!

Mission accomplished: the fourth Rambo movies are now a cool TV series.

Maybe this could even be seen as the "season zero" of the possible future true Rambo TV series that could maybe see the light of your TV screen in the upcoming years.
Anyway back to the review.

(side note: I did not watch it with the commentary on. But will sure do this one day)

Everything that makes a TV series fun to watch is there.
Interesting pre credits scenes that get you hooked, very nicely done opening credits, cliffhangers and pauses used when they needs to be. Nice to see all the little teasers for other fan edits at each pauses. I watched those edits two by two and by the end of the fourth evening evening I wanted more! It was a very intresting and cool way to revisit those movies.

Few remarks:
- The first movie flows very well separated in two episodes. Good work even if the opening confrontation with the sheriff is missing. To me it's a crucial part of the whole tension that makes the original movie works. But as a TV series I understand that opening "in media res" and explaining later what happened is the way to go. So no problem.

- The second movie felt somehow maybe a bit less engaging than the original as I remembered it. Maybe in part because of a scene that I felt was missing (but that was masterfully used in the episode 7 in a flashback. So everything is forgiven!)

- Rambo 3 is, to me, MUCH better in this TV series version than the original. Thank you for that (still not the best of those movies...) I only missed THE quote of the movie: "Well, surrounding them's out..." ;) Also the stupid lines about the blue light are gone and I understand that, but they always makes me laugh in the original, lol.

- The fourth movie is VERY violent and it felt that it was too much for a TV series. But well: out of the four it is the movie that is the more ABOUT violence, so it would have been difficult to cut most of the blood without removing what it's all about. The directing also felt more actual but it was not that jarring. In fact those two episodes felt the most engaging of them all. Maybe because the source is in fact a better movie than one could think when he's gonna see the third sequel of an old franchise. Some Cliffhangers and pauses where maybe just a bit less good than in the other episodes but just my feeling.

Technicaly I have nothing much to say, very good job on recropping the picture (tedious work!) and I the audio always felt well in place.

Another work from LastSurvivor to keep because of its rewatchable quality.