Mortal Engines - Mature Cut

[ParanoidAndroid]

A series I really enjoyed as a child (reading through the final installment in a single evening), I was very excited when I heard that Peter Jackson would be producing an adaptation of the first book in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet. When I went to see the film in December 2018 I quite liked it (Hester's toned-down appearance notwithstanding), and was disappointed that it grossed so abysmally that there is no chance of the rest of the series being adapted. Coming across the thread started by @ScottCrane for his own edit (https://fanedit.org/forums/threads/mortal-engines-the-story-of-hester-and-tom.25922/#post-404756) prompted me to give it a revisit, this brought back elements that didn't work for me too well.

In the books, Tom, Hester and their contemporaries start off as adolescents, whether for reasons of executive nervousness (at how certain events in the later issues unfold) or production practicality they are much older in the film, being played by actors double the characters' original ages. A few times it felt to my ears that some of the dialogue and action wasn't adjusted accordingly, at others it felt like the script was playing down to the audience with awkward "humour" and clunky exposition. This is therefore a very conservative edit, as of now I have reduced the runtime from 128 to 123 minutes, unlike "The Story of Hester and Tom", I have not reordered any scenes and do not anticipate doing so. Changes at the moment include:

• A slightly reduced image colour temperature and increased saturation (to make it appear less muddy), also applied a light grain layer to reduce digital sheen
• Cutting the shot of Clytie Potts steadying the "American deities" with a goofy face
• Trimming some of Melliphant's dialogue ("You're just a skivvie from the lower tiers with no family and no prospects.")
• Removal of crash drive exposition in Tom's workshop and "...so scientific..." from Katherine's statement
• Cutting Tom's final comment on Anna Fang
• Removing Valentine remembering that Tom wanted to be an aviator, this is likely an attempt to justify him taking the controls of the Jenny Hanniver later but it feels forced
• Valentine not having to explain to Katherine that the rail broke, she realises herself
• Valentine not spelling out Katherine's beliefs for the benefit of the audience
• Removing second scene of Tom and Hester in London's tracks where he fails at navigating and she describes "Southies", the latter is unexplained and comes up later anyway
• Reducing Magnus Chrome's exposition during his video call to Valentine
• Reducing Valentine and Katherine's conversation after Chrome's call
• Valentine not saying (for the benefit of the audience) that Dr. Twix gets all the Old Tech
• Cutting dialogue during the (now second) scene of Hester and Tom in London's tracks, less like a quote from Blackadder's "Potato" episode and no reference to the food item by name or how long ago it was best before
• Cutting section of scene where Tom tells his life story, fades from above shot after they eat to Hester apparently asleep
• Cutting Hester saying "Too close!" after Tom says "That was close!" after falling on top of her, in this cut she is more hostile for longer and her response is now an immediate "Get off me!"
• Cutting some juvenile dialogue aboard Scuttlebug
• Cutting Bevis Pod's line "The first rule down here is keep your mouth shut", feels like a present-day expression that drags one out of the far-future setting
• Cutting some Scuttlebug doorway chatter
• Tom not saying that they are locked in after saying that the door is locked
• Hester not saying "That's my sad story.", references a now cut scene and again feels out of place
• Tom takes over the controls of the Jenny Haniver but again no reference being made to his past career plans, let's just assume that flying is easy!
• A certain character no longer lives through their airship crashing only to be promptly flattened, survival of the first event looks rather improbable

An editing first for me was a first few instances of taking clips of people speaking and using audio from a different section to cover dialogue deletions, hopefully it will not be too noticeable! Prospective page image is a recolouring of one of the book covers, to avoid any lawsuits from disappointed viewers I must stress that this is not a shot that occurs in the film in any form!

Thanks @ScottCrane for not minding me jumping on the bandwagon and putting together my own version at around the same time as him doing his, hope having two fan cuts doubles any interest rather than halving it!

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Watched through again and made a few more trims for smoothness, also tried a little rearranging.

In the original, the scenes of Tom and Hester being rescued and her telling him about Shrike are separated by Melliphant meeting Valentine. I think it works better to have them flow uninterrupted, with the Melliphant scene transitioning to Kate and Bevis at the museum.

This also gives a bit of suspense, you wonder if the characters in the now-sequential scenes are going to run into each other. Dr Pomerory's line saying that the "...two thugs from engineering..." came in the morning is removed to imply that only a short time has passed, also removed some dead space and repeated dialogue at the start of the scene.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Also had a play round with the ending, think it works quite well without the final conversation on the Jenny Haniver. Feels almost like a fanediting rite of passage, removing dialogue by muting the centre channel!

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Uploading the latest iteration now, anybody interested in previewing please feel to message me, should be ready within a few hours.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Made a few more tweaks (mainly in the 2nd half), now running 122 1/2 minutes, almost exactly 6 less than the theatrical version. Expect to have it uploaded sometime tomorrow morning UK time, would appreciate any offers to preview before posting the edit page in a week or so, if nothing else needs doing of course.

Looking forward to seeing what people think of the effect of these mostly minor trims throughout, only one scene being deleted in its entirety. Probably not going to convert anybody who hated the film into liking it, but if even just one viewer finds the recut that little bit more enjoyable I shall consider the project a success!

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Had a go playing around in DaVinci Resolve after reading/watching some guides on how to emulate 3-strip Technicolor (via separating, inverting and recombining colour records through nodes) and applied this to the the blu-ray rip of Mortal Engines. Quite like how it has turned out, the increased saturation feeling to me more fitting to the fantasy setting: a light grain layer also helping to make the image a bit more alive/less digital-looking.

Would be interested to know other people opinions, whether they think the scheme looks good/suitable or is a step too far, original are first/odd-numbered and regraded are second/even-numbered.

 

[ScottCrane]

I like the added saturation. Like you said, it fits the fantasy feel of the movie.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I like the added saturation. Like you said, it fits the fantasy feel of the movie.

Thanks, as much as you can tell from still images what do you think about the added grain?

 

[ScottCrane]

The only difference I can see in the images concerns the saturation.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

The only difference I can see in the images concerns the saturation.

Bit hard to see if not in motion!

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

A couple more revisions have been made and an audio sync issue fixed, thanks @ScottCrane for previewing so soon after doing your own edit.

Thanks too to @DonkeyKonga for starting the thread about applying grain more realistically, making the layer gain dependent on image luminance gives a much nicer texture than simply overlaying it universally, to my eyes at least this (combined with boosted saturation) all adds up to a more filmic aesthetic.

If anybody else would like a look before submission I would be happy to share this latest version. I would be particularly interested to know if people miss Tom's deleted backstory, something in my mind that felt too expository but then again I already know it from the book..

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Finished, submitted and uploaded, if anybody would like to see this just PM me.

Besides the "standard" version, another one with identical editing but a different look is also available. See the attached thread below if interested, would like to know what people think!

https://fanedit.org/forums/threads/early-technicolor-processes-grading.26824/

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Have re-exported the edit (both the standard "Mature Cut" and more low-fi looking "Retro Mature Cut") at a much higher bitrate to give a nearly 20 Gb file. The files are in different locations to the early versions, anybody interested would need an updated link via PM to access.