Star Wars - Episode III: Dawn of the Empire

This is a very well done fan edit, and I do recommend it.

I do have 4 quibbles with it though:

1) The transition you make from loud audio and lots of action on Kashyyyk to suddenly a calm quiet meeting room on Coruscant where no sound is to be heard for several seconds is rather jarring;

2) I had to listen to the commentary track to understand how the Emperor suddenly changes his appearance–the movie alone doesn’t make it obviously apparent;

3) The cut from the Emperor’s shuttle landing on Mustafar to him suddenly standing next to Vader is too quick–it’s almost like the Emperor teleported;

4) and, though not a problem with the actual film, your “About the Edit” special feature is frought with typos.

These problems have brought me to decide that, though Revenge of the Sith is a better movie than Attack of the Clones, I liked your The Republic Divided edit better than Dawn of the Empire.

This edit is still very well done. I just found your edit of Episode II to be flawless. I do hope you may take time to fix such issues as these.

******Added July 15, 2012******
Also:

Certain silly dialogue choices remain, such as Obi-Wan’s “Another happy landing” after crashing the Invisible Hand;

The shot where Yoda defeats the troopers after Order 66 has been trimmed. Now, while we do find out he survived long enough to escape to his ship, we never see how he got there. This creates a “WTF” moment because we leave him in immediate visible danger and when we come back he’s safe and somewhere else;

Chewbacca is mentioned, which is eye-rollingly unnecessary;

C-3P0′s memory erasing is removed. This creates a plothole for episode 4.

This is a good movie. Not just good for a prequel or good for a fanedit but actually a good movie. For the first time ever I can understand why Ani turned to the dark side. In the original his motivation is a jumbled mess, but in L8′s edit we follow his descent caused by a desire for power. When Anakin is put in the Vader suit, I can actually identify him with the Vader we meet in A New Hope. That is really the highest praise I can give for this edit. Before, I had to consider the PT and OT as separate entities; there was no real connection for me on a plot, character, or emotional level. But, after finishing DOTE I couldn’t wait to put in ANH:Revisited.

Spoilers

Here is my one tiny complaint: it bothers me as a grammar nerd for “sweep” to be used twice in the opening crawl. I think “unprecedented powers” would be better than “sweeping powers.”

There is so much that is good about this edit, but I have to make special mention of two things: 1. The arrangement of scenes from the crash landing to when Obi leaves for Utapau is phenomenal. I love how it brings out Ani’s inner struggle over whether his loyalty is with the Jedi or Palpatine. It is abundantly clear in this edit how Palpatine plays on Ani’s frustrations while the Jedi just feed him platitudes and scoldings.
2. The final sequence from the end of Mustafar battle to sending Luke to Tatooine takes the movie to a new emotional level. Most of the dialogue is removed. The music and the visuals say more than enough. Lucas almost achieved this emotion until he sabotaged his own movie with “nooooo” and then killed all momentum with the Yoda, Bail, and Obi discussion on Tantive IV.

This leads to my one question/concern. I wonder how a person new to Star Wars would react to Palpatine’s face reveal and the cutting out of the Tantive IV dialogue. Both of these changes are great in my mind, but could they be confusing to someone else? I can hear them asking “what happened to his face” and “why doesn’t C3PO recognize Obi Wan or the name Skywalker in ANH?” But, it is also confusing as to why force lightening melts Palp’s face when it does nothing to Luke’s in ROTJ. And, I would rather have the 3PO plot hole than to destroy the flow of the final scenes.

On top of all this I really like the menu and the commentary.

Without a doubt this is 10 out of 10.

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Can’t say much that aready been said. This is my go to version also.
Some others fanedits are great too, but this one, while removing a lot, almost has that “Star Warish” lenght and feels like a true Star Wars movie instead of just a great fanedit.
Reorganization of the scenes is here pushed to the limit of what can be done with editing without a heavy load of special effects.
I don’t know if I’m totaly sold on the new transformation of Palpatine but it’s working okay and I like all the rest of the cuts.
Also loved rewatching it with the commentary done by L8wrtr.
I watched the AVCHD version and it was great quality.
10/10