After three long years of OCD, my cherished MoS and BvS edits are finally complete. These are two movies that I now love. Allow me to document the long road for posterity.
When MoS came out, I was absolutely heartbroken - this didn't feel like the Superman I remember. When BvS was announced, I got on board with this Superman to see the movie of my dreams, or so I thought. Then I saw Batman killing people like I'd never seen before. Needless to say, I wasn't on board with "what they did to my boys."
And so my fanediting journey began. I was sure there were great movies buried in these blasphemous turds. I did a ton of work at the beginning, learning as I went. My skills were terrible, but I could not stop trying for some reason. After the first year, I was happy with the result, taking out all the parts of the movies I didn't feel matched the characters I wanted. I showed my better half, and her response was that all the characters felt flat, lacked depth. At the time, I thought there was no solution for this due to the source materials. By this time I had also seen TM2YC's amazing MoS edit and Mr. Blue's equally amazing BvS edit. I recognized that I was beating a dead horse, and retired the effort. Their edits are the gold standard, and every faneditor worth a lick already has their own edit of these movies, so I decided to put my edits on a shelf.
Or so I told myself over and over again. I would constantly revisit my edits however, watching them at least once a month and making at least 5 new revisions each and every time, always with an intent to bring more character development and depth to my heroes. OCD if there ever was one. But it was also the greatest hobby for me. I design for a living, working within deadlines and creating the visions of others. Fanediting has allowed me to pursue my own artistic vision, on my own timeline and to the exacting vision I that have, not the client's. I do think the broader audience opinion matters, but its much like my personal art in other mediums I have done in the past.
When Zack Snyder announced his Justice League were on their way, I was once again excited, knowing I may yet again be disappointed. But my little pet MoS and BvS projects had given me new appreciation for the movies, as I now know pretty much every frame WAY too well.
My better half asked what the ZSJL hubbub was all about, and when I mentioned her reaction to my edits a couple years ago, she gave me a completely blank look, not remembering already watching them. So I showed her the edits as they existed at that point. And... she loved them! I brought up the character development issues from the past, but she said she didn't notice them now. Validation. These new edits were not the same as my first attempts.
Next up was to make my friends watch. Most of them liked the movies much better than the original, but one friend had this to say: "If the Martha Name Trivia scene is still in the BvS movie, there is no saving this franchise." And he still wouldn't watch. I told him it was hopeless, and that I think he'll like everything else about the movies. Still a hard "NO" from him, who is even a comic book collector.
I took to Reddit next, sharing my edits there as I was still not an approved editor on this site. Lovely complements, and lots of fans and followers, but not the real constructive criticism I was looking for.
And so, my OCD kicked in again, and I dove into the goddamn Martha scene. And for the past six months, these movies have again been polished, honed. They have been compared with the original films again as well as the TM2YC and Mr. Blue edits as well for any remaining opportunities. Over the past three years, every viewing would reveal a little more opportunity for making the edit just a little better. I now have two edits I can watch completely though without feeling the need to adjust anything. Only after hundreds of viewings LOL
So what can I summarize about the result you may ask? These are definitive FanFixes, trying to keep the spirit of the movie, but edited to find the best movie hidden inside.
- My MoS edit is about a confident hero, with boy scout morals almost to a fault. He is confident in his actions but remains hidden from the world due to to personal choice. With the arrival of Zod, Clark Kent must finally reveal himself. This is not an origin story, although his origin is retold. This is about the confident kryptonian boy scout we all recognize, and we watch as Zod forces Clark beyond his limits to save his adopted world.
- My BvS edit is about the world having mixed feelings over the appearance of Superman and what that means for society. Batman, older and weary from years of fighting crime, descends into fear of what harm Superman couple eventually pose. Lex Luther, also fearful of Superman's unconstrained power, begins a master plan to control the situation.
I am ready to release these first two edits. I added Wonder Woman into the trilogy series to keep everything canon for the ZSJL release, but WW has not had nearly the same scrutiny I have done to MoS and BvS, so I will continue working on it. But BvS and MoS are DONE.
Thanks for reading, and please reach out if anyone wants to preview and offer feedback before these are released.
t1 