Star Wars - Episode III: Dawn of the Empire

This is an excellent edit, very well done.
There seemed to be some visual compression issues on the lava scenes, likely due to the MPEG-2 encoding (Y U NO use h.264?), but other than that the picture and sound quality are great.
Editing is very well done, trimming unnecessary bits and slight reorganization of scenes.
The extras are missing on the Blu-ray but are available on the DVD.

Imho “Dawn of the empire” is your best fan-edit, l8wrtr, because you manage to edit it in such a way that it isn’t obvious that it is a fan-edit, there are no scenes that seem abruptly short like with the arena-fight-scene in part II or with the visit in the underwater realm in part I.

You retell the story of Anakin Skywalker falling to the dark side it in a much more exciting and dramatic way than George Lucas did.

Ok, the movie itself is better than the first two outings, but still you add so much tension and better structure that it is a phenomenal success.

There are of course still things that I don’t like, but these you can’t change cause Lucas filmed it in that way: The CGI-landscapes and actors walking, running, fighting in them. They look fake and videogamish, and I didn’t like them in the second part when Anakin was riding through the desert either or the look in the arena. In the original trilogy CGI didn’t exist and it was for the better, the crew had to film in real locations and it showed. Unfortunately this can’t be changed anymore.

The pacing, the structure is in this third part of your fanedits just perfect. You clearly got better from part to part and now achieved your masterwork.

If there was one scene I would have completely cut, it would be the fight between Yoda and the sith lord. It served no purpose, was redundant and didn’t look well as the setting was awful. You did well when you removed the swordfighting of Yoda in Episode II, but here the complete fight should have been cut.

It was already enough that Windu fought against him, and that fight had a purpose, namely to force Anakin to choose side, but this Yoda-fight had no purpose.

And I don’t know if this was your intention or not, it’s not possible for those who never watched Star Wars to watch the prequels first and then the original trilogy. The whole story of Anakin Skywalker is a major spoiler for the best surprise in the original trilogy.

For that to work out, all mentioning of the name Skywalker and the pregnancy of Padme would have to be removed.

Movie: 7.5/ 10, Your fanedit turns it into a 9.0/10. The edit itself: 9.5/10. (If the Yoda-vs-Palpatine-fight were removed, it would have been a 10/10).

Thanks for your hard work on this edit.

I always hated the original Episodes I and II, but Episode III is different for me. I didn't like it but neither did I hate it. It was bad, but not terrible.

Thankfully just like in Episode II, L8wrtr has successfully nailed it in Star Wars editing.

The video/audio quality was great. There is one part that looked a little pixely, it's before the Anakin/Obi-Wan fight. Obi-Wan says "I will do what I must" and there, the screen looked pixely. That's a very minor flaw though, other than that, it looked great.

The video/audio editing was perfect, it felt like it was never actually edited.

The narrative was much better than the theatrical cut. I have some problems that prevents this from being my favorite though. Chewbacca is still there (universe shrinking) and Padme dies unlike her daughter's memories, C-3PO's memory isn't wiped, the reason how Obi-Wan and Yoda can use the force ghost technique is no longer here (continuity errors). Because of that, HAL9000's edit is my favorite. However if you prefer Chewbacca and continuity errors over "NOOOO" and no Yoda vs Sidious fight, then this is a better edit for you. Kinda depends on minor opinions, as both fanedits are almost perfect.

I really enjoyed this fanedit and I definitely recommend it!

The editing is superb…hard cuts: gone. Audio: Great…video: amazing quality…the edits…

This movie started out amazingly, but it started to fade out in spots…certain things were left in that were gone in other edits that I was really happy about were left in this edit:

The Grevious body armor “duh” moment, The stupid lightsaber twirling and force pushing, and even the smidgeon of Vader rotating up on the table during the birth of Vader scene is entirely unwelcome, Chewbacca is still in there (that was a terrible scene to begin with), and the Palpatine suddenly all white and wrinkled for no reason left me scratching my head…there were a couple other minor niggles, scene-wise, but they didn’t matter too much.

On the good side, though, some of the edits were mind-blowing…like the way the Anakin/Obi Wan and Yoda/Palpatine fights were edited together, the opening space battle was unreal, the Boga sounds were all new and incredibly cool…there were many, many cool edits in this that made me smile.

I hate to bring up other editors in a review, but if Stankpac’s and JasonN’s versions were this beautifully refined, I would have to go with theirs.

So…

Audio: Amazing – 10/10

Video: Amazing (like REALLY amazing) – 10/10

Editing quality: Amazing – 10/10

Editing Choices: Sorry…( 6/10…just because some of my most hated scenes were left intact.

Overall, I have to give it a 7/10

Even with the amazing audio, video and editing quality, this isn’t my go-to version…perhaps with some tweaking, it will be.

Great job, overall!!!

*******Updated May 13, 2012********
Heyo again…

After re-reading my earlier post, I realized how negative it seemed. I was very distracted and rushed while I wrote it, so it came across as overly harsh, and I have to apologize.

While there were the parts I mentioned that didn’t work for me, my review overshadowed what a truly amazing edit L8WRTR has put together. The audio and video editing was flawless, and I mean FLAWLESS. Quite honestly, it was a technical marvel to behold.

If lucas had put as much love into HIS versions as L8WRTR, he would not have lost the long-time fans that he did.

Just because this edit wasn’t completely to my tastes, it really doesn’t deserve the drubbing I gave it earlier.

Keep up your amazing work L8WRTR!!!

the start of the edit is extremely well done, our heroes complete their mission without the unnecessary distractions that got in their way. however after this the edit becomes a little to quick in it's pacing for my liking without any real follow between scenes. the inclusion of the deleted scenes are welcome edition and the edit settles within the second half. the ending is well done and address's what many consider the worst moment in the star wars prequels rather well (NOOOOO!!!!!!)

Palpatines sudden change in appearance into the empire is rather baffling. i don't believe any viewer should have to listen to a commentary track in order to understand what just happened. this also isn't consistent to the previous film and raises more questions than it should. can he return to his normal self? why didn't he take on this disguise in the first film?

is the way in which he transforms into the empire in Episode III so bad that this needed to be addressed. overall George Lucas decisions weren't fantastic but addressing such issues causes for me more problems than there worth. the problem that i have is that it almost become a Redletter Media tick list to how to improve the films.

there are some brilliant moments within this edit but overall i feel that too much has been removed.

my original Episode III score 7/10
my fanedit Episode III score 7/10