G
Guest
A CBB Group Extended Edition of Unbreakable
http://www.fanedited.com/extended_editions/cbb12_absolutely_unbreakable/absun.html
I watched this edit a couple of days ago and would like to give my two cents. I saw Unbreakable in the movie theater when it was released. I really had no idea what it was about besides a man survivng a train crash. To my surprise it was much more than that. The lead character David (Bruce Willis) begins a journey of self discovery and finding purpose to his life amidst the tragedy of a failing marriage, the loss of a promising football career and being the sole survivor of a train crash.
Enter Elijah,(Samuel Jackson) a man who suffers from a disease that I couldn't remember if I had to but, basically his bones are as fragile as glass. His mission in life, it seems, is to find a real life hero just like the ones he read about in comic books. (You have a lot of free time when you spend a third of your life in the hospital due to broken bones.) To find someone at the other end of the health spectrum. Someone who could walk away from a train crash without a scratch. Someone to believe in.
Ok, now, I'm not here to review Unbreakable nor am I here to compare AU to it. I watch all fan edits with the same thought in mine. Is this a good movie? Were the changes necessary or warranted?
This the first and only Extended Edition from the CBB Group.
They done an interesting job taking a slow movie and making it even more of a journey of self discovery and even something what Joseph Campbell refers to as "The Hero's Journey." The CBB Group added in six deleted scenes and adds a total of 15 minutes to the run time.
AU is a metaphysical excersise on film. Are we born with a purpose? How much does Random events play in our lives? Do we have Free-Will and if so why? Can one man make a difference? AU to some degree answers these questions.
David wants to be alone and the unhappy Mr Glass scenes give more characters depth and they are more human for it.
The Priest scene is a great addition to this movie. It underscores a philosphical argument of randomness (luck) or pre-determination.
The scene in the hospital gave the movie more of a real time feeling but I don't think it was needed.
The fair scene is interesting because it shows how Elijah wants to do all things regular kids do but can't. Where as David has stopped playing the game of football like regular kids do, because his girlfriend (later to be his wife) fears he might be injured.
The Weight Lifting scene is very important to AU. David's return to a college football locker room. But it becomes redundant with the earlier scene in the basement. I prefer this scene over the basement scene because I feel the basement scene was more for laughs. The locker room scene is more important to the character of David because it shows that he was right to leave football but he left for the wrong reason. Someone else could've gotten hurt. The editing of this scene is superb as with other scenes but adding it in the middle of Elijah's talk with Audrey is a little discomforting. Elijah is talking about extraordinary things in life and how we live in dark times. Then we see David lifting an extraordinary amount of weight, then we're back to Elijah finishing his talk with Audrey. In my opinion, the ending of the talk could've been cut. As it is, the scene (weight room) comes across almost in a dream like quality. Maybe thats not a bad thing. But it does take you out of the moment.
Overall I like this version. But I don't feel its for everybody. The editing is excellent maybe even brilliant as is the sound editing. The menus are great. Animated with Chapter selections and CBB Trailers. If I didn't know any better I would believe this was a Holywood production.
So overall I'd give it 4 stars.
I asked Boon some questions before I wrote my review and I'd like o share the answers I got.
****************************
1. This was the first and only CBB Group Extended Edition why Unbreakable?
Boon: Unbreakable had just great deleted scenes and we thought they could really add to the movie. Titanic on the other hand did not have any scenes that made re-installing for us necessary. That's why we picked this movie and of course because we all like it a lot.
2. Did you think adding the scenes was important to the movie or was this more of a film geek thing? (You have the ability to do it, so you did)
Boon: Well, our extended edition does something to the movie. By adding the priest the element of surprise is completely taken out of the movie and WE WANTED THAT, because the surprise ending did not work so well. Many people were disappointed by the movie because they expected to be surprised like in 6th sense again, but they weren't. We wanted to destroy this expectations, so people might see a real good "beginning of a hero story" movie. So, yes it was important.
3. Did you consider not adding the second weight lifting scene?
Boon: YES!!! It repeats what the first did and adds length. Still it is a good scene and if you are already are in the kind of slow mode of the movie, it fits (we tested in several screenings).
4. The most common complaint I've heard about Unbreakable is that it drags in the middle. Yet you've extended it and taken some of the surprise out. Were you worried that AU would be too slow and by losing the twist at the end you might have castrated the movie. (M Night is more known for his twist endings than anything else)
Boon: Actually we thought NO ONE would be interested in it, because of what you said. But we do not create our edits for a mass of fans. We create them out of very personal reasons to improve what we find worth being improved. If it also happens that people like it that is just a great addtion. When MATRIX DEZIONIZED was such a huge success, we were corrumpted by the impact it had on us, which lead to being very frustrated and close to the end of our group after releasing 27 DAYS LATER, because this one was hardly noted by anyone at all. Since then we do not ask and we will not ask, which movie to edit, we do it for our own viewing pleasure. So when Blade 3 was again so huge, we directly decided to take FLATLINERS first instead of T3 to rule out the possibility of being corrupted by fame again.
5. You've said that this is one of your favorite movies were you nervous about editing it?
Boon: Yes and no. We consider it a masterpiece and we did not want to destroy or even harm it. On the other side we always plan a lot and nothing you see is an act of chance. So we knew what we would be getting. Several projects we tried did not work out and were never released, e.g. CONSTANTINE or ALIEN 3
*****************
Thank you Boon
I made some small changes (mostly typos) to Boon's interview to clear up his language.
http://www.fanedited.com/extended_editions/cbb12_absolutely_unbreakable/absun.html
I watched this edit a couple of days ago and would like to give my two cents. I saw Unbreakable in the movie theater when it was released. I really had no idea what it was about besides a man survivng a train crash. To my surprise it was much more than that. The lead character David (Bruce Willis) begins a journey of self discovery and finding purpose to his life amidst the tragedy of a failing marriage, the loss of a promising football career and being the sole survivor of a train crash.
Enter Elijah,(Samuel Jackson) a man who suffers from a disease that I couldn't remember if I had to but, basically his bones are as fragile as glass. His mission in life, it seems, is to find a real life hero just like the ones he read about in comic books. (You have a lot of free time when you spend a third of your life in the hospital due to broken bones.) To find someone at the other end of the health spectrum. Someone who could walk away from a train crash without a scratch. Someone to believe in.
Ok, now, I'm not here to review Unbreakable nor am I here to compare AU to it. I watch all fan edits with the same thought in mine. Is this a good movie? Were the changes necessary or warranted?
This the first and only Extended Edition from the CBB Group.
They done an interesting job taking a slow movie and making it even more of a journey of self discovery and even something what Joseph Campbell refers to as "The Hero's Journey." The CBB Group added in six deleted scenes and adds a total of 15 minutes to the run time.
AU is a metaphysical excersise on film. Are we born with a purpose? How much does Random events play in our lives? Do we have Free-Will and if so why? Can one man make a difference? AU to some degree answers these questions.
David wants to be alone and the unhappy Mr Glass scenes give more characters depth and they are more human for it.
The Priest scene is a great addition to this movie. It underscores a philosphical argument of randomness (luck) or pre-determination.
The scene in the hospital gave the movie more of a real time feeling but I don't think it was needed.
The fair scene is interesting because it shows how Elijah wants to do all things regular kids do but can't. Where as David has stopped playing the game of football like regular kids do, because his girlfriend (later to be his wife) fears he might be injured.
The Weight Lifting scene is very important to AU. David's return to a college football locker room. But it becomes redundant with the earlier scene in the basement. I prefer this scene over the basement scene because I feel the basement scene was more for laughs. The locker room scene is more important to the character of David because it shows that he was right to leave football but he left for the wrong reason. Someone else could've gotten hurt. The editing of this scene is superb as with other scenes but adding it in the middle of Elijah's talk with Audrey is a little discomforting. Elijah is talking about extraordinary things in life and how we live in dark times. Then we see David lifting an extraordinary amount of weight, then we're back to Elijah finishing his talk with Audrey. In my opinion, the ending of the talk could've been cut. As it is, the scene (weight room) comes across almost in a dream like quality. Maybe thats not a bad thing. But it does take you out of the moment.
Overall I like this version. But I don't feel its for everybody. The editing is excellent maybe even brilliant as is the sound editing. The menus are great. Animated with Chapter selections and CBB Trailers. If I didn't know any better I would believe this was a Holywood production.
So overall I'd give it 4 stars.
I asked Boon some questions before I wrote my review and I'd like o share the answers I got.
****************************
1. This was the first and only CBB Group Extended Edition why Unbreakable?
Boon: Unbreakable had just great deleted scenes and we thought they could really add to the movie. Titanic on the other hand did not have any scenes that made re-installing for us necessary. That's why we picked this movie and of course because we all like it a lot.
2. Did you think adding the scenes was important to the movie or was this more of a film geek thing? (You have the ability to do it, so you did)
Boon: Well, our extended edition does something to the movie. By adding the priest the element of surprise is completely taken out of the movie and WE WANTED THAT, because the surprise ending did not work so well. Many people were disappointed by the movie because they expected to be surprised like in 6th sense again, but they weren't. We wanted to destroy this expectations, so people might see a real good "beginning of a hero story" movie. So, yes it was important.
3. Did you consider not adding the second weight lifting scene?
Boon: YES!!! It repeats what the first did and adds length. Still it is a good scene and if you are already are in the kind of slow mode of the movie, it fits (we tested in several screenings).
4. The most common complaint I've heard about Unbreakable is that it drags in the middle. Yet you've extended it and taken some of the surprise out. Were you worried that AU would be too slow and by losing the twist at the end you might have castrated the movie. (M Night is more known for his twist endings than anything else)
Boon: Actually we thought NO ONE would be interested in it, because of what you said. But we do not create our edits for a mass of fans. We create them out of very personal reasons to improve what we find worth being improved. If it also happens that people like it that is just a great addtion. When MATRIX DEZIONIZED was such a huge success, we were corrumpted by the impact it had on us, which lead to being very frustrated and close to the end of our group after releasing 27 DAYS LATER, because this one was hardly noted by anyone at all. Since then we do not ask and we will not ask, which movie to edit, we do it for our own viewing pleasure. So when Blade 3 was again so huge, we directly decided to take FLATLINERS first instead of T3 to rule out the possibility of being corrupted by fame again.
5. You've said that this is one of your favorite movies were you nervous about editing it?
Boon: Yes and no. We consider it a masterpiece and we did not want to destroy or even harm it. On the other side we always plan a lot and nothing you see is an act of chance. So we knew what we would be getting. Several projects we tried did not work out and were never released, e.g. CONSTANTINE or ALIEN 3
*****************
Thank you Boon
I made some small changes (mostly typos) to Boon's interview to clear up his language.