Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Episode I: Army Of The Republic

This edit is ambitious, and does a solid job of condensing several plot lines from the Clone Wars TV show (a great series, but one notorious for its filler) into a satisfying 2 hour viewing experience. Narrative elements are repurposed cleverly and it serves as a much better introduction to the series than the awful theatrical feature (which this edit extracts the worthwhile segments from).

However, as with most TV to Movie edits, I think the edit sometimes feels like several separate plot-lines strung along and Frankensteined into a feature. I think smudger9 does the best job he can with the material, but plotlines do resolve and new ones start up frequently, and much of the action gets repetitive. I wonder if trying to edit the series into 40-60min cable style episodes would make more sense.

All that said, I did enjoy the edit and am very much looking forward to watching smudger9's Episode II!

WOW I LOVE THIS EDIT

An absolutely excellent edit. For the most part the edits were seamless and flowed well together. Smudger did a great job of interlinking unrelated episodes into one overarching plot through clever use of clips and dialogue from other episodes. A few dialogue replacements were obvious but overall very well integrated. I highly recommend this edit.

A lot has been said about this, pretty much all of it good and with good reason. This is a very well-executed edit. This pretty much works as a film. There's a touch of jumpiness which is inherent in almost all TV-to-movie edits but Smudger has done a great job plotting a narrative throughline. The visual editing was topnotch, nothing stood out or threw me off. The musical additions (only watched the show once so I don't think I picked them all up) that I noticed were really great. All of the battles sounded and felt great. I read after that there was a lot of sound replacement. You did a great job because nothing sounded thin or was noticeable. My only real criticism (and it's minor) is a couple audio transitions. The one after Heavy, Fives and Echo meet Captain Rex and Cody stood out, and at 1:48:45 there's an odd transition where the music transitions with the video and swells up but then cuts off kind of abruptly. Just as a preference, I would have preferred cutting the joke about how "Heavy really did hate that place" - it took away from the emotion of the moment in my opinion. Overall, the editing on both fronts is fantastic. This is absolutely my preferred way to revisit the series. Smudger has taken pretty much all of the annoying stuff out (both plots and jokes) which gives it a more serious tone. Still light and Star Wars-y but much better. If you hated the show, you probably won't like this. But if you enjoyed the show but were annoyed by some elements of it then this will take it from good to great. Nice work.

Intelligent condensed edition of the heavily padded animated series. smudger9 wisely cut the juvenile elements, as well as Jabba’s kid, choosing to focus on Domino squad. I didn’t understand what he was doing initially, but it makes sense as the edit progresses.

Video - Good cutting throughout as the narrative weaves between Jedi Obi-Wan and Anakin and Domino squad, skitters over to Greivous and the delicious Asajj Ventress. Blacks are solid throughout and there are no problems around flares, bursts, explosions, etc ... Some of the edits seemed quick but never too noticeable.

Audio - Clear 2.0 stereo. No subs, though the dialogue was clear and understandable throughout. That includes droid-speak and garbled mutterings of Admiral Trench.

Narrative - Some unavoidable problems here, I’m afraid. smudger9 has shaved chunks of time, so there is a loss of cohesion. With the necessary re-arranging, there is a “jumpy” feel to the story. Character arrivals and departures are frequently abrupt. The same could be said for the Lucas originals and live action, however. In my eye, clone 99's story was nicely done, yet the subject of a spy onboard Resolute was broached and forgotten.

Enjoyment - Despite my teasing of Trekkies, I have been just as obsessive / compulsive at times with Star Wars. And, as I have commented with TrekVerse fans, Star Wars buffs can also be guilty of jumping for any installment of the canon. Which is why most older fans bought these “kiddee” videos, and learned to leap over lame portions.

smudger9 has done all the leaping for us. Despite above-mentioned quibbles, this edit holds together well and is enjoyable from start to finish. His version is more battle action heavy, less character study. Yet it is also Clone Wars, so what do you expect? It does not quite work for me as a fledged theatrical release, but it is better than a stitched together TV series or a vintage serial (no recaps!).

Anyone who does not have a problem with the animated series in general will have a blast with this.