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

This is a quite enjoyable and commendable edit. It doesn't quite work very well as a film - the structure's all off - but I suppose that's to be expected. This is built out of mainly episodic, 22 minute stories. Smudger9 tries his best to hide this by incorporating multiple episode arcs and having different storylines play at once, but the edit still, for the most part, ends up being made up of a number of small stories, each with their own climax. Some don't even seem necessary to the overall edit (the "Cat and Mouse" and "Grievous Intrigue" portions for example), though I understand why they were included. The issue is, once we get to the end and the real climax, it just doesn't feel as momentous as it should.

Still, if you take this edit as a shortened, rational compilation of episodes from the series, it works very well. I look forward to future installments by Smudger9.

Smudger9 has done what I had previously thought impossible: He made the earlier parts of The Clone Wars TV series into an enjoyable viewing experience. I have frequently expressed my deep-seated hatred for the beginning of the series, and was really surprised by what was done in this wonderful edit. I'll go through my favorite things about the edit before I get to my minor complaints.

Pros:
-What I really like in this edit is how smudger9 took multiple arcs and was able to mesh them into a single cohesive story.
-I found myself much more attached to characters (specifically the clones of Domino Squad) due to his editing.
-Some really awful story arcs were cut (Jabba's son, anyone?)
-Ashoka wasn't pushed to the front. While I have nothing against her, she wasn't important to the story of this edit and would've detracted from the plot.
-Most of the editing was extremely well done. It was barely noticeable mostly.

Cons:
-There were a couple of points where you could tell a conversation had been modified. It would have a slightly noticeable visual and audio glitch when it happened. However, it was rare.
-There was a poor ratio of action vs. character development, but I can understand this since most of the character development happens in cut story arcs. However, it would've been nice if a little more could've been preserved.

All in all, a wonderful edit that created a movie worthy of any Star Wars collection.

A really well done re-imaging of the Clone Wars animated series which makes the story much tighter, better focus, and more chronologically correct. I'm curious as to how Smudger9 will deal with the rest of the Clone Wars episodes and maybe even Star Wars Rebels.

If I had any complaints, is that there are some notable too quick cuts in some transitions between certain parts(episodes of the show). Most can easily be ignored but some are actually noticeable.

Smudger9 has done a fantastic job of creating a genuine Star Wars movie experience out of a set of Clone Wars episodes. I truly hope the rest of his series are woven together as masterfully as this first release. The narrative is nearly flawless with constant themes throughout and a strong feeling that the story comes full circle in a naturally way.

A few of the transitions could have been a little stronger, several seem too quick but I imagine this in most cases is a limitation of the source material. There was at least one instance where I noticed dialogue had been stripped from a character and the resulting line he delivered didn't make much sense but it wasn't too out of place. Some of the scenes felt a bit jumpy like the encoding didn't go off quite 100% perfectly but again it was very minor.

This is one of the best Star Wars edits I've seen and I'm very excited to see what Smudger9 comes up with next. Great work!