Kang: Quantumania - finished

[tremault]

This movie was a mess. I wanted to see if this could be fixed by turning it into a more serious movie rather than an 'Antman movie'. This just wasn't it, there was no Louis or any of Scott's life in here, this was a story about Kang, let's be honest. The forced inclusion of the comedic elements to try and make it more like Antman, did not work. Darren was sickening. Jentorra was an awful insert.

The idea is to frontload Janet's flashback to reinforce Kang's story.
Cut out as much of the family's stories as possible.
keep the focus on Scott and Cassie as that is what Kang uses to manipulate Scott.
Remove Darren but keep Modok.
Remove Jentorra and cut most of the denizens of the quantum realm.
cut anything that feels irrelevant.

Most of what I've experimented with so far feels good to me and I think this works well.

This first clip shows how I have removed Darren from the approach to Kang's heist mission.

This second clip shows a change to Cassie freeing Jentorra. Instead of freeing Jentorra, she frees a group of other prisoners and it is they that protect her off screen when she's getting the message out. The prisoners are from a later scene that I've removed.

This third clip shows Cassie fighting Modok with Darren removed as much as I could. I needed to include the impact of Cassie's punch so I used some crude effects to change Darren's face to look like the metal mask. It's fast so it shouldn't be too noticeable. I may work on some animations later as it's not very many frames.

I'll put an edit list here.

• Inserted Janet meeting Kang right at the start before the Marvel logo.
• added Janet's 'flashback scene' giving a fuller introduction of Kang. The shot's of Janet actualy telling the story and Hank's interjections are removed.
• cut to black with Janet's narration ending on " I wanted to be a mother".
• removed Scott walking down the street and into cafe.
• removed book reading. We go from Kang intro straight to Cassie getting out of Jail.
• removed Scott turning on his own audio book in the car.
• removed the pizza being enlarged and the small talk about the quantum realm at start of dinner. Dinner starts on conversation about Cassie.
• removed parts of lab scene that suggest Janet never talked about quantum realm.
• removed Hope grabbing her parents during the miniaturisation scene, she isn't with them when they land.
• cut Hope's waking up shot, it's too long and the story isn't meant to be about her so much.
• removed Hope and Hank quizzing Janet about the state of affairs like they know nothing.
• cut Scott yelling "what?" after Cassie tells him to drink the ooze.
• Removed entire scene where they meet those dudes in the desert and get clothes and flying ray thing.
• cut 'scary' bit of people chanting, Cassie is obviously fine and she told him to drink, we go from her saying that almost straight to him being force fed it.
• removed awkward unfunny mind reading part, just kept the essentials.
• removed introduction of Jentorra. She is a terrible character.
• removed flying ray sequence. we go almost right from Scott's description of Earth, to the van Dynes walking through the port area (?)
• shortened the needlessly long door opening scene
• removed scene of Jentorra telling them about how they lost their homes. it's unimportant and she's a terrible character.
• cut Hank's questions during the Krylar dinner scene as if he knows nothing.
• adjusted the colour curve of the entire restaurant scene to brighten it and provide a contrast between it and the village.
• cut from restaurant to village when the fight starts.
• cut the beginning of the attack on the village, to remove Jentorra. She is a terrible character.
• cut all shots of Jentorra from the attack scene. apart from Cassie rescuing her because at this point she can be seen as just a random villager.
• edited MODOK intro, he welcomes Scott, scott says "what?", MODOK fires on them and we cut to the next scene. There is no Darren.
• cut back to restaurant fight.
• removed all talk about 'sexual needs' on the ship.
• the scene on the ship of Hope questioning Janet is removed.
• cut to Kang's base with Cassie and Scott imprisoned.
• the approach of MODOK is removed, when Scott turns round to look, it is Kang approaching the cell.
• Jenet's flashback scene is completely removed as it was repurposed for the beginning of the movie.
• MODOK's interruption of Kang is removed.
• reframed shots around the portal to remove the presence of Darren.
• many edits to the following mission to remove Darren's dialogue.
• removed 'mentor' dialogue from when MODOK finds Hank in the ship, cut to next scene as soon as MODOK has flown up into view.
• cut the struggle of MODOK and the ship before it is thrown downwards.
• removed Hank's elaborate description of receiving the strange signals. was unnecessary.
• removed Hank's pointed reference to the book that I removed from the intro. He just says "There's always room to grow"
• removed Jentorra from jailbreak scene (she is a terrible character) and inter-spliced a later scene of different prisoners being set free.
• removed Jentorra from Cassie's broadcast scene. She is a terrorcon charlatan.
• removed Kang telling MODOK to kill Cassie. totally needless.
• removed this prison break here as I used it earlier.
• removed beginning of MODOK finding and chasing Cassie.
• removed MODOK Cassie chase scene after the ship approach scene.
• Cassie and MODOK is no longer intercut with giant Scott yelling at Kang.
• removed Hope trying and failing to deal with the airborne units.
• After the house ships land and the people run out, the entire sequence featuring their attack is removed.
• When MODOK attacks Cassie on the ledge and she grows giant and destroys him, all references to Darren are removed. except one shot;
• The shot of Cassie punching MODOK is visually adjusted to appear much closer to the metallic MODOK mask.
• The sequence with both Scott and Cassie giant is slowed down a little and the framing is tighter and lower to better hint at their size.
• removed shot of Jentorra leading charge on the base. She is a tortilla cartwheel.
• removed shots of Jentorra fighting Kang directly. She is a tricuspid mollusc.
• drastically shortened the 'showdown' of Scott and Hope vs Kang. They are not that good. Instead, Scott is acting out of desperation.
• edited Kang's monologue to be shorter so I could remove some tough-guy poses, they are not that good.
• removed shot of dead house ship being carried. Hopefully this will made some young child somewhere much happier ^^
• edited
• removed another shot of Jentorra. SiaTC.
• removed "my name is Darren", the explosion of Kang's shield is caused by the ants overloading it.
• cut straight from Hank saying "a lot of ants" to Janet calling him, thereby removing Darren.
• removed the farewell to Jentorra. yes, she is a terrible carrot.
• shortened the hug between Scott and Hope. The story is not about them.
• removed all scenes back on normal sized Earth. inserted the council of kangs scene at the end before any credits.
• moved final scene with Loki and Morbius to mid credits instead of after credits.
• There is no final end credits scene.

 

[vinie12]

this movie i could not finish is so bad
but your edits are so good

 

[futon88]

Your list looks good...I agree with peeling back Darren/Modok. Felt like a tacked-on exposition fest, and his heel-face-turn (face-heel-turn?) was a bare-minimum effort. There's like 64 frames of redemption, then he's dead.

And yeah, Rudd didn't carry the film at all this time. Your note about Louis missing is on point. Scott needs a full satellite of supporting characters to be more than just a walking SNL skit. If you can pull out his smarmy "just a normal guy" walk at the beginning, I'd appreciate that. And if you can keep that big "house" creature from dying, my kid would appreciate that.

 

[tremault]

Your list looks good...I agree with peeling back Darren/Modok. Felt like a tacked-on exposition fest, and his heel-face-turn (face-heel-turn?) was a bare-minimum effort. There's like 64 frames of redemption, then he's dead.

And yeah, Rudd didn't carry the film at all this time. Your note about Louis missing is on point. Scott needs a full satellite of supporting characters to be more than just a walking SNL skit. If you can pull out his smarmy "just a normal guy" walk at the beginning, I'd appreciate that. And if you can keep that big "house" creature from dying, my kid would appreciate that.

Yeap, I've removed that. So I moved the introduction to Kang from after the open roll to before the open roll and then taken Janet's expository flashback and placed it after the open roll, with all the shots of the aircraft they are in removed. it finishes on black with " I wanted to be a mother" then cut straight to the prison scene, Cassie being bailed out. no 'welcome back' montage. no book reading. The dinner scene is trimmed quite a bit to focus on Cassie's arrests, then straight down to the quantum realm. Removed Janet being all mysterious and them being completely in the dark about Kang. Removed Janet challenging that guy in the desert place. Removed all the bits with Jentorra and trimmed the extended 'drink the ooze' nightmare bit. removed the silly jokes about the guys flashing head. I had to remove the beginning of the attack on the settlement where Scot and Cassie are in order to remove Jentorra, but Bill Murray heavily implies that they are in trouble and probably already dead so it's okay.
I'm afraid to say, the intro to the house creature is lost but they can still be seen during the battle and I'll try to remove any shot of them being killed
I've removed most of the shots of the denizens attacking Kang's base, it's all too much. I have slightly slowed down the bit where Cassie and Scott are giant and talking to each other, because it needs it. They are giant. I wish I could change the camera angle to be lower. Maybe I can get a similar effect with framing. That's where I'm up to anyway.

 

[futon88]

Did they ever explain how Scott no longer passes out when he's huge? He spent a lot of time in big mode in this one, and and he just got...hungry. If it's based on experience, shouldn't Cassie have totally passed out? I suppose there's a trope out there about kids just naturally being great a things for the first time...

 

[tremault]

Did they ever explain how Scott no longer passes out when he's huge? He spent a lot of time in big mode in this one, and and he just got...hungry. If it's based on experience, shouldn't Cassie have totally passed out? I suppose there's a trope out there about kids just naturally being great a things for the first time...

I don't think so. I guess they just improved the technology? It is a shame they dropped the ball on that. It all became a bit of a joke in this one, I was glad to remove Hank enlarging that pizza.

edit: also they are quantum sized so I guess it could be different?

 

[futon88]

I suppose. But then why not scale up until you're big enough to just squash Kang under your boot? So many things, lol!
(for that matter, scale up until you're no longer in the quantum realm!)

 

[asterixsmeagol]

It also makes no sense that he gets hungry when he's "big" because he's not big. He's just less small.

And I applaud removing the mystery about Kang. It drives me crazy in movies/TV when the whole plot just evaporates if characters talk to each other instead of saying crap like "That doesn't matter right now! What does matter is..." This movie wasn't quite as bad as JJ Abrams movie, but there I was unbelievable that she wouldn't tell them any of the important details, especially once they're shrunk down and in immanent danger.

 

[kinnikuman]

I’ve sometimes wondered about combining sequels like making ant man 2 And 3 into one movie - but then I think the age differences or actor changed could be glaring. I just feel a lot of the hero universe is mostly content with furthering the plot/arc by 1 percent. Reminds me of the dragon ball cartoon

 

[lifeincontext]

It makes me SO happy that you're taking a crack at this. The clips give me some hope lol.

 

[tremault]

It also makes no sense that he gets hungry when he's "big" because he's not big. He's just less small.

And I applaud removing the mystery about Kang. It drives me crazy in movies/TV when the whole plot just evaporates if characters talk to each other instead of saying crap like "That doesn't matter right now! What does matter is..." This movie wasn't quite as bad as JJ Abrams movie, but there I was unbelievable that she wouldn't tell them any of the important details, especially once they're shrunk down and in immanent danger.

They do still act a little clueless, but I don't think there's any way to totally remove that. I'd just chalk it up to them not realising the magnitude of the threat.

 

[Editzilla]

Honestly, I feel like you can remove MODOK completely from the film.

Even with Darren removed, it's still nothing like him from the comics. Better to just junk the eyesore rather than salvage it.

 

[tremault]

Honestly, I feel like you can remove MODOK completely from the film.

Even with Darren removed, it's still nothing like him from the comics. Better to just junk the eyesore rather than salvage it.

I appreciate that. That would present some difficulties though. MODOK is the catalyst for Cassie becoming big and There's no way to remove that. Cassie is big when Scott eventualy finds her and that's very difficult to edit so she isn't big. It's throughout the dialogue. Also, MODOK is physically in some shots that show movement through scenes and it's nearly impossible to remove him. It's not totally impossible, but it's an extraordinary amount of effort to work around that without it feeling incredibly choppy. I'll keep it in my mind and give it some thought though.

 

[Editzilla]

I appreciate that. That would present some difficulties though. MODOK is the catalyst for Cassie becoming big and There's no way to remove that. Cassie is big when Scott eventualy finds her and that's very difficult to edit so she isn't big. It's throughout the dialogue. Also, MODOK is physically in some shots that show movement through scenes and it's nearly impossible to remove him. It's not totally impossible, but it's an extraordinary amount of effort to work around that without it feeling incredibly choppy. I'll keep it in my mind and give it some thought though.

You could edit in a quick snippet of her becoming big during the scene where Scott rampages through and implies she joins him on it. And IIRC those other shots with him have him not in focus enough to where you can just write it off as another Kang stooge.

 

[tremault]

Looking at this cut, not sure if it works. I brightened the entire scene in the restaurant to ensure there was enough contrast for the scene change to be prominent, but I'm not entirely sure it completely does the job.
The beginning of that battle is gone, but Bill Murray does say quite clearly that the hunter has gone after them and they are probably dead by now.

 

[tremault]

I have an initial edit of this done. I have a feeling it's rough in places, particularly the audio. It feels really messy for now, I'm not a fan of the film's soundtrack to be honest.
This edit in general now feels more focused. The mid point is just before Scott goes inside the power core. This actually feels like a good pivot point for Kang and for Scott. The second half of the movie does feel very chaotic though. I feel like it would be nice if there was a period of calm during the second half but it doesn't seem like this is possible. Perhaps it's not necessary. I don't have a good head for thinking right now so I can't think of any films that have this sort of vibe... can anyone think of any?

generally the flow is like this...
Janet is in the quantume realm, meets Kang, Kang neds to fix his ship, they fix it but Janet learns his past and busts his power core. setup complete. Kang needs his power core. Change to Cassie who is getting into bother. setup the family dynamic, family get drawn into quantum realm. They are split up and need to get back together, Scott and cassie get captured and meet some weird guys. The Van-dynes search for a freedom fighter and find him but get double crossed and are told that Scott and Cassie are in trouble. Scott and Cassie get attacked by MODOK during a raid. The Van-dynes escape. Scott and Cassie are greeted by Kang, he convinces Scott to fix his power core. Mid point.
He succeeds with the help of Hope Van-dyne who has arrived. Kang takes the power core and does not return Cassie, but instead takes Janet. Cassie escapes within the base and frees some people. Hank reveals he found his ants who had created a civilization. They make a plan to go and rescue Janet and Cassie.Cassie sends a message and convinces people to attack the base. Modok arrives. While Cassie is chased by Modok, Scott attacks Kang's base, succeeds in stopping the teleport thing while people also attack. Cassie defeats MODOK. Kang gets mad and starts killing everyone. Hank turns up with an army of ants and they defeat Kang. They start to leave but Scott is stopped by Kang. fight. Hope saves the day. Kang is deaded. They are happy and decide to go home. A council of Kangs discuss stuff and things. END.

 

[stferguson78]

I have an initial edit of this done. I have a feeling it's rough in places, particularly the audio. It feels really messy for now, I'm not a fan of the film's soundtrack to be honest.
This edit in general now feels more focused. The mid point is just before Scott goes inside the power core. This actually feels like a good pivot point for Kang and for Scott. The second half of the movie does feel very chaotic though. I feel like it would be nice if there was a period of calm during the second half but it doesn't seem like this is possible. Perhaps it's not necessary. I don't have a good head for thinking right now so I can't think of any films that have this sort of vibe... can anyone think of any?

generally the flow is like this...
Janet is in the quantume realm, meets Kang, Kang neds to fix his ship, they fix it but Janet learns his past and busts his power core. setup complete. Kang needs his power core. Change to Cassie who is getting into bother. setup the family dynamic, family get drawn into quantum realm. They are split up and need to get back together, Scott and cassie get captured and meet some weird guys. The Van-dynes search for a freedom fighter and find him but get double crossed and are told that Scott and Cassie are in trouble. Scott and Cassie get attacked by MODOK during a raid. The Van-dynes escape. Scott and Cassie are greeted by Kang, he convinces Scott to fix his power core. Mid point.
He succeeds with the help of Hope Van-dyne who has arrived. Kang takes the power core and does not return Cassie, but instead takes Janet. Cassie escapes within the base and frees some people. Hank reveals he found his ants who had created a civilization. They make a plan to go and rescue Janet and Cassie.Cassie sends a message and convinces people to attack the base. Modok arrives. While Cassie is chased by Modok, Scott attacks Kang's base, succeeds in stopping the teleport thing while people also attack. Cassie defeats MODOK. Kang gets mad and starts killing everyone. Hank turns up with an army of ants and they defeat Kang. They start to leave but Scott is stopped by Kang. fight. Hope saves the day. Kang is deaded. They are happy and decide to go home. A council of Kangs discuss stuff and things. END.

Regarding the period of calm during the second half of the movie, while preferable to let the viewer catch their breath, I just don’t think the material is there for you to work with. I liked your transition clip above, it works well though I would perhaps consider bringing the sound from the second part in a little earlier (as the lasers are firing in the restaurant). Not sure how that would sound in practise though. Good luck with your edit, some great ideas here

 

[tremault]

Thanks, that's really helpful!
It's true, there's nothing really to work with. All I can do is try and play with the level of energy in the chaos. Perhaps by removing as many quick cuts as possible or reducing movement speed of shots by zoming and tracking... could be highly experimental but maybe have a desired effect....

 

[tremault]

Hey guys I have my first draft done. I would really appreciate it if anyone is willing to watch it and let me know if I've royally screwed up anywhere!!

what I did today is, I basically removed a lot of the fighting with Cassie inside the base, before Scott makes his attack on the city. These bits are fairly action-y and keep tensions high throughout the second half. By removing them, it actually has that period of calm I was after mostly anyway. There is the jailbreak. Perhaps I should remove the majority of the jailbreak too? I'll hold off on doing that though, it might not be necessary, and it does help Cassie's development.

I'll put an edit list here. current running time 1:28:51, that means I've removed 36 mins.

• Inserted Janet meeting Kang right at the start before the Marvel logo.
• added Janet's 'flashback scene' giving a fuller introduction of Kang. The shot's of Janet actualy telling the story and Hank's interjections are removed.
• cut to black with Janet's narration ending on " I wanted to be a mother".
• removed Scott walking down the street and into cafe.
• removed book reading. We go from Kang intro straight to Cassie getting out of Jail.
• removed Scott turning on his own audio book in the car.
• removed the pizza being enlarged and the small talk about the quantum realm at start of dinner. Dinner starts on conversation about Cassie.
• removed parts of lab scene that suggest Janet never talked about quantum realm.
• removed Hope grabbing her parents during the miniaturisation scene, she isn't with them when they land.
• cut Hope's waking up shot, it's too long and the story isn't meant to be about her so much.
• removed Hope and Hank quizzing Janet about the state of affairs like they know nothing.
• cut Scott yelling "what?" after Cassie tells him to drink the ooze.
• Removed entire scene where they meet those dudes in the desert and get clothes and flying ray thing.
• cut 'scary' bit of people chanting, Cassie is obviously fine and she told him to drink, we go from her saying that almost straight to him being force fed it.
• removed awkward unfunny mind reading part, just kept the essentials.
• removed introduction of Jentorra. She is a terrible character.
• removed flying ray sequence. we go almost right from Scott's description of Earth, to the van Dynes walking through the port area (?)
• shortened the needlessly long door opening scene
• removed scene of Jentorra telling them about how they lost their homes. it's unimportant and she's a terrible character.
• cut Hank's questions during the Krylar dinner scene as if he knows nothing.
• adjusted the colour curve of the entire restaurant scene to brighten it and provide a contrast between it and the village.
• cut from restaurant to village when the fight starts.
• cut the beginning of the attack on the village, to remove Jentorra. She is a terrible character.
• cut all shots of Jentorra from the attack scene. apart from Cassie rescuing her because at this point she can be seen as just a random villager.
• edited MODOK intro, he welcomes Scott, scott says "what?", MODOK fires on them and we cut to the next scene. There is no Darren.
• cut back to restaurant fight.
• removed all talk about 'sexual needs' on the ship.
• the scene on the ship of Hope questioning Janet is removed.
• cut to Kang's base with Cassie and Scott imprisoned.
• the approach of MODOK is removed, when Scott turns round to look, it is Kang approaching the cell.
• Jenet's flashback scene is completely removed as it was repurposed for the beginning of the movie.
• MODOK's interruption of Kang is removed.
• reframed shots around the portal to remove the presence of Darren.
• many edits to the following mission to remove Darren's dialogue.
• removed 'mentor' dialogue from when MODOK finds Hank in the ship, cut to next scene as soon as MODOK has flown up into view.
• cut the struggle of MODOK and the ship before it is thrown downwards.
• removed Hank's elaborate description of receiving the strange signals. was unnecessary.
• removed Hank's pointed reference to the book that I removed from the intro. He just says "There's always room to grow"
• removed Jentorra from jailbreak scene (she is a terrible character) and inter-spliced a later scene of different prisoners being set free.
• removed Jentorra from Cassie's broadcast scene. She is a terrorcon charlatan.
• removed Kang telling MODOK to kill Cassie. totally needless.
• removed this prison break here as I used it earlier.
• removed beginning of MODOK finding and chasing Cassie.
• removed MODOK Cassie chase scene after the ship approach scene.
• Cassie and MODOK is no longer intercut with giant Scott yelling at Kang.
• removed Hope trying and failing to deal with the airborne units.
• After the house ships land and the people run out, the entire sequence featuring their attack is removed.
• When MODOK attacks Cassie on the ledge and she grows giant and destroys him, all references to Darren are removed. except one shot;
• The shot of Cassie punching MODOK is visually adjusted to appear much closer to the metallic MODOK mask.
• The sequence with both Scott and Cassie giant is slowed down a little and the framing is tighter and lower to better hint at their size.
• removed shot of Jentorra leading charge on the base. She is a tortilla cartwheel.
• removed shots of Jentorra fighting Kang directly. She is a tricuspid mollusc.
• drastically shortened the 'showdown' of Scott and Hope vs Kang. They are not that good. Instead, Scott is acting out of desperation.
• edited Kang's monologue to be shorter so I could remove some tough-guy poses, they are not that good.
• removed shot of dead house ship being carried. Hopefully this will made some young child somewhere much happier ^^
• edited
• removed another shot of Jentorra. SiaTC.
• removed "my name is Darren", the explosion of Kang's shield is caused by the ants overloading it.
• cut straight from Hank saying "a lot of ants" to Janet calling him, thereby removing Darren.
• removed the farewell to Jentorra. yes, she is a terrible carrot.
• shortened the hug between Scott and Hope. The story is not about them.
• removed all scenes back on normal sized Earth. inserted the council of kangs scene at the end before any credits.
• moved final scene with Loki and Morbius to mid credits instead of after credits.
• There is no final end credits scene.

 

[lifeincontext]

Hey guys I have my first draft done. I would really appreciate it if anyone is willing to watch it and let me know if I've royally screwed up anywhere!!

what I did today is, I basically removed a lot of the fighting with Cassie inside the base, before Scott makes his attack on the city. These bits are fairly action-y and keep tensions high throughout the second half. By removing them, it actually has that period of calm I was after mostly anyway. There is the jailbreak. Perhaps I should remove the majority of the jailbreak too? I'll hold off on doing that though, it might not be necessary, and it does help Cassie's development.

I'll put an edit list here. current running time 1:28:51, that means I've removed 36 mins.

I'd be happy to give it a watch!