Dark Angel: Children of the Revolution

I was always disappointed in the second season of Dark Angel,
so I've distilled what I personally enjoyed from the season into
a three hour film.

If you prefer your Dark Angel without mermaids, vampires,
mind-powers, dinosaurs...(ugh, too many more rotten things
to mention here) then this one is for you.

Teasers 3 and 4:
[youtube:2bjgjwq0]

AVI release only for now, with a DVD to follow at some point.


I hope there's no glitches I've overlooked, and that y'all enjoy it. This is by far the
longest I've ever spent on a project. (It's also the first I ever started officially,
so there was a lot of going back and revisiting it as I learnt what I was doing.)

Dude... I'm feeling like I should be hopping around like my six-year-old who wants to open a Christmas present sometime in early December.

I can't wait!

If you've made anything of worth out of the debacle that is Season 2 of Dark Angel, you are my new hero.

Slade!

I was hoping you were still interested in seeing this. I'm not under any illusions that my edits will be widely watched, but it certainly helps to know there's at least one person who'll see it.

Also, I've added teaser #4 to the original post, (Last teaser, I promise ) I hope you like it.

If the finished product carries the feel of the trailers, you've accomplished your mission, and you should be proud.

You've taken a bloated, overdone, failed attempt at a neo-Sci Fi show... and made it into something that any fan of the first season would be proud to watch.

Uncanny Antman said:

Slade!

I'm not under any illusions that my edits will be widely watched, but it certainly helps to know there's at least one person who'll see it.

Also, I've added teaser #4 to the original post, (Last teaser, I promise ) I hope you like it.

Click to expand...

Another viewer here when it is finished, my ex loved this program & cannot wait to view it also

Original post edited to add release links.

I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

Damnit! And me without any RS free space till 6 pm tonight!

As soon as my DVD finishes burning and I can watch your movie, I'll review this, and maybe we can get you FE approved, UA!

he already is for his Nightmare on Elm Street 7 fanedit.
But of course every review is welcome, sladetwc.

I didn't know, boon, because his edits aren't up on the main page...

yeah, I know, I am slow.... ;-)

Cool. I didn't know this was coming.
The 2nd season really was such a disappointment.

DARK ANGEL: CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION by Uncanny Antman

review by boon23

I finally finished watching this. Clocking in at about 200minutes it took me actually 3 sessions, which was on the one hand based on not having a lot of time lately and on the other hand on my desire to take a break. But I wanted to finish watching this, so I can say: I was kind of well entertained.

The edit:
This is a good fanedit created from the entire and final season 2 of Dark Angel. The total running time of all the 22 episodes was about 17h, so Uncanny Antman cut out almost 14hours and he did this really well. The focus of his edit never left the Trans-X people breaking out and being hunted, which is by far the most interesting part of season 2 anyway. We get to know the break out, their fight for survival and the final hunt.
This is a well designed plot for a movie, however, it did not work as a movie. The episodic feeling stayed all the time, most of all because of the way climaxes were presented and little stories told from start to finish.
The score also gave that episodic feeling, for it was clearly spottable, when an episode would end and a new one begin.
So I would not call this a movie, but a compressed version of season 2. And as this, it is a great fanedit. There are still loads of scenes worth cutting, when the spoken lines are to cheesy or the effects are to over the top, but still it's fun to watch as it is.
The editing job was done quite well. I would have wished for a different score at times and a bit less embarrassing moments though. Still there are no rough cuts, no flaws to the plot. I was entertained, sometimes bored and sometimes really thrilled.
editing: 4 of 5,
entertainment: 3 of 5

Image quality:
I only watched the avi version (as it was the only version available at that time) and of course the image quality is not the best, but it is still good.
video quality: 4 of 5

Audio quality:
The audio comes in 48000Hz 180 kb/s tot , Joint Stereo, which is not really good. The audio was ok though on my headphones, no hard cuts, but real stereo would have been the least to expect.
audio: 3 of 5

resulting in a 3 of 5 overall rating from me. BUT please keep in mind: This fanedit is a huge improvement over the crappy season 2 of Dark Angel and if I ever had to endure it again, I would for sure rather pick this fanedit. Could the fanedit be further improved? Oh yes. It will never be a masterpiece, but it could lose the episodic presentation and be more like a movie. 120-150 minutes could be perfect.

Boon23, do you think it would it have been possible to intertwine the plots between episodes to make it more seamless?

Cheers for the review, Boon. I originally aimed for a shorter running time, but found that several elements needed for the later sections were introduced in sections I would not have otherwise included. Oh well.

boon23 said:

The score also gave that episodic feeling, for it was clearly spottable, when an episode would end and a new one begin.

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, do you mean the episodic scores themselves, or my transitions? None of the episodes actually feature their real beginning or ending within the edit. (With the exception of the final episode's fade to black.)

DoctorM said:

Boon23, do you think it would it have been possible to intertwine the plots between episodes to make it more seamless?

Click to expand...

Obviously I can't argue whether it worked or not, but there's actually a lot of that done. Only the first, second, and last episode remain in their basic order of events. The rest are mingled together in various ways.

Uncanny Antman said:

Out of curiosity, do you mean the episodic scores themselves, or my transitions? None of the episodes actually feature their real beginning or ending within the edit. (With the exception of the final episode's fade to black.)

Click to expand...

I clearly remember one scene, when MAX leaves on a bike and that singing started. It was like I was waiting for end credits. It happened several times though.

DoctorM wrote:
Boon23, do you think it would it have been possible to intertwine the plots between episodes to make it more seamless?

Click to expand...

I think so. A lot was already done in that direction, but I think it could have still been more.

boon23 said:

I clearly remember one scene, when MAX leaves on a bike and that singing started. It was like I was waiting for end credits. It happened several times though.

Click to expand...

Yeah, sounds like the transitions you didn't care for were my fault then. (The real episode has more after that point)

I used that approach when I needed to indicate a short passage of time as opposed to going straight to the next scene.

Cheers.

maybe I had prejudices, was not totally open minded... but these transition songs did not work for me to well. Then again I am sure it is simply a matter of taste.
nah, honestly, I respect your work here A LOT and I know, you altered a lot of things and most of them 100% successfully.
I hope my review does not read like I wanted to trash it, because I don't.

No, not at all! All constructive criticism is welcomed wholeheartedly.

Sorry if I sounded defensive, I really didn't mean to be. It's more about exploring why stuff may or may not have worked for an audience, I just wanted to be clear on what it was we were talking about, for myself.

I have the exact same attitude concerning my works.
Good to know.