Making good on her promise, Miley Cyrus released the director’s cut of her “Wrecking Ball” video in celebration of the original reaching 150 million viewers.
Subverting expectations, the video is considerably less risque than the original.
While the original transitioned from an initial close-up into clips of a scantily clad–and even naked, at times–Cyrus writhing around the floor and riding a literal wrecking ball, Terry Richardson’s cut focuses only on her face.
Never departing the initial close-up, the new video serves to more poignantly present the song’s emotional element. And so close is the shot that the physiological consequences of Miley’s sadness–including tears, messy strings of saliva and a runny nose–are on full display.
Though Cyrus never made any promises regarding the director’s cut, history suggested it would expand upon the more edgy images from the original. That, after all, was the format for the “We Can’t Stop” helmer’s edition.
But subverted expectations or not, the new edition appears to be receiving more praise than the original. It presently maintains a far more favorable thumbs-up to thumbs-down ratio than the original.
Of course, given the role the polarizing initial clip played in launching “Ball” to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, one would be hard-pressed to call the negative reviews a bad thing.