Star Wars: Episode II - The Approaching Storm

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Star Wars: Episode II - The Approaching Storm
Faneditor Name:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2002
Original Running Time:
142 minutes
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
118 minutes
Time Cut:
26 minutes
Time Added:
8 minutes
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
The second of the revamped '9000 Series,' The Approaching Storm delivers a re-crafted perspective on Star Wars Episode II in keeping with the drive of the original trilogy of films. Unnecessary 'galaxy shrinking' cameos from classic characters have been cut-down or removed. Anakin and Padme are depicted as realistic adults developing romantic feelings for one another. The political plot is made more straightforward and graspable. Superfluous action is subdued to make the film more story driven.
Intention:
By stripping away extraneous tangents and bolstering attention to character development, this edit seeks to improve the original film. The original trilogy is regarded as the template toward which the prequels strive. The prequels are made to submit to the continuity and drive of the originals to the degree possible.
Additional Notes:
I could not have done this without the prior fan editors who have tackled this film, including Slumberland, L8wrtr, Q2, T528491, JasonN, The Phantom Editor, TM2YC, Seciors, MagnoliaFan, ADigitalMan, Spence, Father Merrin, Sithlord, and Diamond Wan. This edit is an update to Attack of the Clones (9000 Saga).
Special Thanks:
Seciors
L8wrtr
TV's Frink
Hundsdorfex
DominicCobb
Kerr
MrBenja061
Jackpumpkinhead
Emanswfan
OnlyOneKenobi
Smudger9
DrDre
Schorman
Erik Pancakes
Sir Ridley
NeverarGreat
Release Information:
  • DVD
  • Digital
  • Digital
Special Features
Fan editor’s commentary track.
Subtitles in English, Spanish, and French
Editing Details:
The following three goals are held in balance.
1) Bend the prequels to the story continuity of the original trilogy and the impressions it gives.
2) Improve the prequels in and of themselves, as films, through conventional 'FanFix' methodology. The pacing is improved, dialogue trimmed, and characters are developed better. This is the most readily apparent of these three goals that can be seen in The Phantom Edit, for example. The edits should be viable as films on their own.
3) They ought to be functional as replacements for the original versions. This means leaving the film's thoroughly "prequel" nature unaltered, respecting the broad strokes of Star Wars orthodoxy, and avoiding making changes that would betray to the audience that they're watching a fan edit. In other words, none of the other two listed goals should put undue stress on the goal of producing something that would have been suitable to have been released in 2002.
Cuts and Additions:
Cuts and Additions (An asterisk, *, signifies a change for V6):

The primary source material is a preservation of the HDTV version by OT.com user Schorman.

New title crawl, courtesy of Sir Ridley.

Camera pans down, rather than up, after the crawl, to maintain continuity with the other five films.

Removed Captain Typho's lines before the ship blows up.

Trimmed Corde's death.

Added deleted scene where Padme addresses the Senate. This establishes some context for the political content of this film, as well as Padme's post-Queen character.

Trimmed the scene in Palpatine's office to remove unhelpful dialogue.

*Reinstated Jar Jar greeting Obi-Wan and Anakin at the elevator

Anakin's inappropriate compliments are trimmed in favor of making it a relatable awkward moment for him. It doesn't give Padme pause.

In the interest of downplaying Obi-Wan and Anakin's antagonism, their discussion about their roles in front of Padme is trimmed to get to the point.

Anakin does not talk to Jar Jar.

Removed Jango talking to Zam, to save his reveal for later and remove redundancy.

Removed scene where Obi-Wan and Anakin merely bicker.

Tightened Padme's reaction to Anakin slicing the poison slugs.

Tightened up the speeder chase to remove overly dumb moments, dialogue, and physics.

Anakin doesn't lose his lightsaber, and Obi-Wan doesn't lecture him about it.

Cut Windu's instructions to Anakin. It's more effective characterization if Anakin decides to talk to Palpatine himself.

*Reinstated Jar Jar being given responsibilities as Padme prepares to leave.

Removed Anakin complaining about Obi-Wan to Padme. Padme consoles him, and they acknowledge that Anakin has grown up. Padme's only initial barrier to him has been dissolved.

*Reinstated the original ending to the packing scene

*Reinstated a truncated version of the Dex’s Diner scene

*Added two lines of dialogue from the removed scene where Anakin and Padme meet with the Queen to the refugee transport scene

Anakin doesn't mention attachment being forbidden. This on its own doesn't change anything drastically, but it's not necessary to define the universal 'Jedi Way' so narrowly.

Added deleted scene where Obi-Wan and Mace talk on the landing platform.

Used extended arrival scene on Naboo.

Added first deleted scene of Padme with her family, replacing conversation with the new Queen.

Removed Kaminoan prime minister listing numbers of clone units. It lessens the power of their reveal in a few scenes.

Boba Fett is not described as being a clone. He probably still is a clone, but the pacing is off when the movie pauses to talk about him when nobody asked.

No fireplace scene. Instead, we have a sunset kiss that is interrupted by a scene transition. Scene has been regraded by NeverarGreat.

Trimmed Obi-Wan and Jango's dialogue.

When Obi-Wan reports to Yoda and Windu, removed Windu's perspective-less question about the assassination attempt.

Removed dialogue about the Jedi not being able to use the force due to the dark side clouding everything.

Lightly trimmed the fight in the rain.

Tightened up the chase through the rings of Geonosis. Removed childish Boba moments, and sped up the pacing.

Removed Threepio recognizing Anakin as "the maker."

Trimmed Cliegg Lars' dialogue that goes over the top to characterize him as a good guy.

*Removed dialogue between Anakin and Padme as he plans to search for his mother

Removed scene where Yoda senses Anakin's pain.

Removed Separatists' walking conversation with Dooku, including the reveal that Padme's assassination attempts stem from Nute Gunray's pettiness.

*Undid the change from Dooku talking about “ten thousand” systems to “a thousand”

Obi-Wan identifies Count Dooku as the mastermind of the assassination attempt, rather than Nute Gunray.

*Replaced 3PO’s line about never having flown before, in order to complement a change made in ‘Cloak of Deception’ which gently implies a backstory for his character

Trimmed dialogue as Palpatine and company discuss what to do.

Jar Jar doesn't fumble his words as he proposes giving Palpatine emergency powers. He also doesn't seem caught by surprise when his colleagues applaud him. He appears more competent.

*Reinstated Yoda hinting that he is going to visit Kamino

Threepio and Artoo stay on the ship and do not make their way into the battle.

*Reinstated a truncated version of the droid factory sequence, though retained the deleted scene where Padme speaks with Dooku (FX of Anakin deactivating his now non-broken lightsaber courtesy of Sir Ridley)

Trimmed love confession scene to remove Anakin's surprised reaction, because they had not decided not to get together.

Trimmed Nute Gunray's dialogue during the Gladiator sequence.

Removed Threepio and Artoo from the battle, as well as trimming it up slightly.

Removed Geonosian war room sequences in order to remove the unnecessary Death Star cameo.

Lessened Obi-Wan and Anakin's antagonism after Padme falls out of the transport.

Removed the Jedi giving the clones military advice; this helps establish the clones as competent soldiers and the Jedi as being dependent upon them.

Trimmed the duel with Dooku.

*Removed an odd two-second shot of Anakin in pain prior to seeing Padme laying in the sand

Yoda does not take out a lightsaber. I borrowed one brief shot from L8wrtr's edit.

When AOTC first came out, I read somewhere that reversing the audio of Dooku's pilot droid sounds like, "Use the Force, idiot."

Sidious does not address Dooku as 'Tyrannus,' and that title has been removed from the film.

Added credits for myself, workprint viewers, contributors, and acknowledgments of all other AOTC "FanFix" fan edits to date.
Cover art by OnlyOneKenobi (DOWNLOAD HERE) image

User reviews

46 reviews
 
96%
 
4%
5-7 stars
 
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.6(46)
Audio Editing
 
9.7(46)
Visual Editing
 
9.8(46)
Narrative
 
9.4(46)
Enjoyment
 
9.3(46)
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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
The flow and the pacing are much improved, which is the most important fix that can be done in the slog of the original film. A great example of this is the shortening of the Dooku duel; even though the original is a great moment, it does seem to last forever.

The reduction of the bickering between Obi-Wan and Anakin is also a big plus.
I also found it was a great idea to trim the Boba Fett backstory; less is more here, the context in the film seems more than enough.

The 20min reduction in final lenght is a showcase of the editor's skills, impressive.

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Yes
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Digital
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Overall rating
 
10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
Star Wars: Episode II - The Approaching Storm is a remarkable achievement.
After watching Hal's edit of Episode I, Cloak of Deception, I found myself liking the changes made and felt the movie benefitted from the cuts in a lot of ways, however I felt that overall the majority of the film remained similar to The Phantom Menace. So when I booted up Episode II, The Approaching Storm, I expected something similar -- Attack of the Clones but with minor changes and better pacing to clear up some oddities. What I did not expect was for my opinion of Episode II to be completely overhauled.
With the addition of deleted scenes, cut fat, and editing magic, this fan edit does the impossible. It makes the romance between Anakin and Padme watchable, it makes Anakin's dark side moment feel impactful, it makes the droid factory and arena exciting, and it makes the showdown with Dooku and Yoda feel like it what it should have been to begin with.
I'm absolutely blown away with this one and I'm very excited to see what's in store for Episode III, a flawed movie, but one that I actually liked a lot originally.

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Yes
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Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
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9.0
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10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
I watched HAL9000's Cloak of Deception back in 2019 (the first fan edit I'd seen) and while I felt it was an improvement, I didn't necessarily find it transformative. The Approaching Storm, however, is transformative. I am truly amazed at how much I enjoyed this. Sure, it is still a flawed movie (thus my 8/10 enjoyment), but a fan edit can only do so much. Since I am less familiar with Attack of the Clones than the Phantom Menace, I was less aware of the changes as I was watching, but they seem to have been executed near perfectly from reading them on here. As mnkykungfu mentions in their review, the exchange with Padme's "It makes me uncomfortable" is probably one of the only things I'd change in this edit. In any event, HAL9000, this is the best fan edit I have watched so far and has convinced me again that fan edits have massive potential.

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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
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9.0
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10.0
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9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
This is the first fan edit that I can enjoy on this page, I'm really happy to have seen it, I'm surprised, I never imagined seeing episode 2 turned into a good movie, Hal's work is impressive, all the changes made improve the movie on so many levels from the pacing of the movie to anakin and padmé's relationship their relationship couldn't be better it cuts out all the cringe and awkward scenes and leaves the best of them to the point where it makes it a good relationship the part Anakin's mom is also very well shorter and straight to the point, the fight in Geonosis is also excellent, the unnecessary comedy has been completely removed, and the movie gets a better tone in my opinion, the added deleted scenes are very good, the scene of Padmé in the senate raises the political conflict of the film much better, the scene with Padmé's family also quite liked a better addition than "I don't like the arena", and As for the quality of the edit, I have nothing to say, it's just perfect, the deleted scenes are perfectly colored and have incredible quality, the cuts are perfect and imperceptible, a GREAT JOB highly recommended

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(Updated: June 05, 2022)
Overall rating
 
9.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
Weakest movie in the saga (with IX now I think), still not a good movie, the original writing and directing is too bland to be completely saved.
But still, you've made some great changes, as well as additions I had never seen (the deleted scenes especially, and they are a great fit in this).

A small music oddity when transitionning from Anakin and Padme first kiss, to Obi-wan in Kamino, the two themes do not perfectly blend together in my opinion. Except this small complaint, on a technical level it's top tier as usual.

Thanks for making the prequels rewatch less painful (and even enjoyable most of the time). And another thanks for the french subtitles.

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