Fall of the Pacific, The:

[MCP]

This is a really fun project and I hope people who are fans of various aspects of the material will give it a whirl, Clocking in at right around one hour, The Fall of the Pacific is an ambitious and highly focused project unlike anything I've seen before. I thought long and hard about how to describe this edit and after some time, the best way that I can think to describe it is an Action Movie Ballet. The music is omnipresent, you cannot get away from it, and for me that is not only a great thing, like the Dude's rug, it's what really pulls the room together so to speak. As the score plays, we are treated to a visual telling of key moments spanning from just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, to the final moments of the Battle of Midway. Murikamir takes two flawed movies* and mercifully cuts everything that has nothing to do with the key events that he covers and provides a visual telling set to one of the most iconic video game soundtracks of all time, and the result is pretty damn fun. There is very little time to rest, there are no 'personal stories' to focus on, just the desperate straggles of two world powers, and the incredible bravery of men on both sides of the battle. Here and there you get some character moments, FDR, Yamamoto, Layton, Nimitz and so on. As some figures are depicted in both films are played by different actors, an unavoidable compromise in this project, but the edit is cut in such a way that I think you can take those cases and presume them to be different people (the ones that stand out are Layton and Nimitz, but if you're not an absolute history buff or know both the original films back and forth you can easily just assume they're different people. Where Murikamir really shines is how he has matched the video to the songs, and the song selections themselves for each sequence. This level of score replacement is seriously tough work, and for a first-time submission, it's even more impressive. There are some areas where the original score isn't 100% removed and can be felt bleeding through, but never in a way that detracts, and no worse than other lauded edits which have replaced scores. In the end, he achieved the goal that he set out to do, and he did it very very well. As someone with a degree in history and who loves Halo and its music, this was a lot of fun and highly satisfying. While I did give a 9 for narrative, it was, similar to Stramboli, a tough call because he absolutely achieved his goal, and it is a wildly fun ride, but there were some things that for me could have been handled in a way that would have been even more enjoyable, provided a little more structure and pacing that I enjoy, but don't let that 1 point distract you, this is a very impressive first edit that takes big swings and connects. I hope there are more in the works from Murikamir. Great job! * I just have to say, Pearl Harbor is a TERRIBLE movie. I mean, absolutely terrible. The only decent things in it are more or less the pieces used in this edit. Midway is a film that I really enjoy, but it is not without its flaws; it suffered from budget constraints, the screenplay could have used a few more passes, and the guy who plays Dick Best just really wasn't right for the part, and he is the guy who is meant to carry that film.

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