The Movie - Yeah, you hate it. But how would you fix it?

Ya, I can tell you're tired! Reread the first few posts of the thread to see what they are actually asking for, and what they can actually do! ;)
My mistake. I forgot to read the original post.

Alright, I got the movie in my Netflix and ready to re watch when it arrives in that red envelope.

I promise I won't freak out like Spoony.
 
I dont know wheter its just me or did storytelling in certain genres go downhill the past 2 decades? I dont know wheter its overstated childhood memories, but rewatching certain shows and movies from 2 decades ago I feel they had a more serious aproach to them, even when they were aimed at teens and children. But maybe thats a misconception on my part. Though I have to say that since the late ninetees I have quite a problem with the ways films and TV shows feel, especially the more action oriented ones.

They are extremly fast paced, often have no or rather bad character development. Another thing is the way personal interaction is mixed in with the rest of the movie plot. Its not just Wing Commander, but the onboard interaction of the pilots very much breaks the immersion to the military part of the film. The way the group acts just does not feel right - its like watching a clip from Greys Anatomy in space every time the film cuts to those scenes - and it feels very much out of place when compared to the shots done on the bridge. Series like Space Above and Beyond partly did a great job when depicting the "pilot crew" in its quarters in very similar situations - one would think that the mood would be a lot cooler, down to earth, with Earth facing destruction and a constant threat of beeing blown out of space by the main enemy fleet. For example there is no single charater that shows any real fear of dying by the hands of a hairless cat.
 
I think the edit works pretty well. Although, as scenes go, this was one of the few that works fairly well before the edit too.

Editing does help the flow, and it cuts a lot of the slow drama out of a scene that really doesn't need it. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more examples before I make up my mind as to how much of a difference it'll make for the overall movie.
 
I like this edit because it makes Blair look more like the Blair we know from the games - more serious and less talkative, knowing where his duty is.
 
I like this edit because it makes Blair look more like the Blair we know from the games - more serious and less talkative, knowing where his duty is.

Cool! That's pretty much what I was going for. In the future I'll try and clean up the audio. Having the music clip in and out makes it fairly obvious where the cuts are and takes you out of the scene a little. But the main idea here is proof of concept.
 
OK, after re watching the movie, I would do this.

-Get rid of the Pilgrim subplot. It really adds nothing in my opinion.
-Trim the Maniac/Rosie bed scene (I'm no prude but it hardly adds anything).
 
OK, after re watching the movie, I would do this.

-Get rid of the Pilgrim subplot. It really adds nothing in my opinion.
-Trim the Maniac/Rosie bed scene (I'm no prude but it hardly adds anything).

I actually like your idea about the bed scene... but I wouldn't get rid of it. At least not all together. I would probably just trim out some of the goofy inuendo since some of the other lines are key to maniac's character.

The pilgim stuff is pretty hard to drop though if you reinstate all the traitor sublot. You could probably minimize the emphasis on Blair's abilities though.
 

I like it. It fixes what's probably the goofiest exchange in the film (the only one that really bothered me, anyway):

"Like I care!"

"THEN CARE... (.. about the billions who'll die if the fleet doesn't get those jump coordinates.)"

Most of the other stuff in the movie I can see conceivably being said, but that line was just too stiff. It breaks what should be the point of the scene (Blair going on with the Mission): yes, Earth is going to explode if he doesn't, but that line, or at least the way it's parsed, seems jarringly corny.
 
Alright, here's another sample for you: http://outlander.solsector.net/vid_files/blairandmaniac.avi

This particular sample uses subtle editing to change the tone of the scene in question - removing some of Maniac's goofier bits for example - but then goes a bit further. Some lines are moved around within the scene, and to give the scene context I used a still shot at the end along with subtitles to put in an exchange between blair and Merlin that would have continued on had they not removed Merlin from the film. It's not the prettiest solution and It's not the greatest dialogue, but it's here mostly to give you a sense of what the scene is about and it provides a lovely transition to the following scene with Paladin... Note that the placement of the Paladin scene more matches the script instead of where it was on the DVD.

All constructive comments and suggestions are welcome.
 
the Ships being so close to each other in space is such a dumb non realistic thing that it almost ...not quite but almost hurts the movie, i still enjoy it so much i can ignore that but that comes to mind as the first and most glaring error of any and all. It is sadly an error in many sims and games for naval things both Terran and space.
 
the Ships being so close to each other in space is such a dumb non realistic thing that it almost ...not quite but almost hurts the movie, i still enjoy it so much i can ignore that but that comes to mind as the first and most glaring error of any and all. It is sadly an error in many sims and games for naval things both Terran and space.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Do you mean the fighters that hit eachother? The capships are never really all that close to each other, at least not like in - say - Starship Troopers.
 
You mean during the whole broadside sequence...

I guess thats just movie making - If space combat was to be realistically portrayed it would probably get kind boring - taking shots at things beyond visual range etc. etc.

You gotta stretch the believability muscle a little... Of course there are a multitude of things we take for granted in sci-fi movies, gravity being a good example. At least Wing Commander never committed the crime of making up pseudo-science to explain it, like that awful show 'Defying Gravity' - robots in your clothes. Yep. So has that baseball you're tossing and catching got robots in it too? How about the food you're eating? Worst. Science. Ever.

At least Wing Commander just leaves it unexplained.
 
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