One of 2016’s television hits was HBO’s Westworld. The adventurous 10-part first season was a remake (of sorts) of the 1973 sci-fi western starring Yul Brynner. That film was written and directed by legendary author Michael Crichton and spawned a sequel as well as a short-lived television series in 1980. Though considered a cult-favorite, the original film was probably created too early to fully realize with the appropriate effects. More than thirty years later film technology has advanced enough to bring these sci-fi brain-f@#ks to life. Just have a look at films like I, Robot, Ex Machina, Under the Skin, Ghost in the Shell, or any of the Terminator movies. We have also been seeing a huge increase in production values for recent television series, so the potential for a new Westworld story was high. The short teaser HBO posted in 2015 didn’t showcase much in the way of effects, but it sure did pique our interest. Have a look:
The show aired this past fall and didn’t disappoint. Without spoiling anything for those who haven’t seen it, Westworld delivered on all counts: effects, casting, acting, cinematography, and of course editing. The story featured quite a few twists, and was presented of course in a non-linear fashion. As the episodes aired, a number of wild fan theories started to emerge on what may be happening, and several podcasts discussed some cool possibilities. One such podcast, Out West: Westworld Fan Theories, Dissected analyzed some of the most far-fetched ideas each week.
To help clear things up, or simply as an exercise in insanity, one of the creators of that podcast put together a chronological fanedit of the show’s first season. You can watch a shortened (some parts are sped-up) version streaming on their blog HERE.
While a chronological cut isn’t an improvement, it definitely makes for an interesting viewing experience. Given the wealth of great material in the series so far, I’m sure we’ll see a fanedit or two in the not too distant future. That will have to hold us over until we get season two sometime in 2018.