Empire Begins, The

By 1 hour in, the movie is cooking along: Padme has been attacked twice, Anakin has seen his mom die and married Padme (no dumb sand dialogue included), Obi-Wan has followed leads, found Jango's clones, and discovered Count Dooku's droid army, and Palpatine has taken control of the Senate. AMAZING.

This is the first time I've managed to put the actual plot of this storyline together, with no filler to distract or confuse me. The rest flows and flows, it's fantastic. This is such a great way to watch the prequels (even though I miss the podracing) and that musical cut into the explosion into "3 years later" was fucking amazing. I got chills!

Thanks for the hard work, this is an easy 10 for me.

I still don't know how I really feel after the prequels. I think I regard them much higher than the Disney attempt and I even have a soft spot for Phantom Menace, but I can understand why the editor mostly left that out (only the Maul/Jinn/Kenobi fight remains) due to focusing on Anakin's story. I think it was an interesting choice to start with that. But I think it was a little odd to have the title crawl appear straight after Qui Gon's death. I know the audience isn't supposed to know who he is, so would have little sympathy, but for me it still felt like an oddity and didn't feel very Star Wars to open with that. Maybe the title crawl should have been placed at the beginning before that scene? But just that's my lowly opinion and feel free to ignore it. That's my main criticism over with.

I was overall happy with the trimming down of Attack of the Clones (as I've never been a fan) and you can't tell where the editor has cut for the average casual viewer such as myself. You may see a lot of screen wipes at times, but I can't say that it put me off as I was simply happy watching the bare bones of the story without the filler. The main narrative is put forward such as Anakin and Padme falling in love, Count Dooku announced as a Sith and the creation of the Clone Army. When watching it I never thought "Oh, I really missed the Yoda/Dooku confrontation" or "This film could really do with Dexter". Finally, some other things to note is that Hayden Christensen's mostly bad acting is toned right down (or better still - removed) and that helps lift the entire film and actually helps with his portrayal of Anakin. I find that you can actually sympathise with Anakin more when his mouth is actually closed. The love scenes flow and are mostly minimal so that the audience can fill the in-betweens themselves. All of the AotC's chapter is seamlessly made within a snappy 55 minutes. What fans may miss? More battle on Geonosis footage. But that's it, frankly.

The clone army is announced, we do see some minimal footage of the battle on Geonosis and led straight into "Revenge" onto the Palpatine rescue mission with a quick title. The actual rescue of Palpatine is done and dusted in around 10 minutes from when they land, but the suspense is left in. What is missing from the entirety of "Revenge" is General Grevious and it makes you realise how inessential he is to the plot. I can't say I missed him or his little multiple lightsaber action at all.

From this vision of "Revenge" I felt Anakin's battle with his thoughts was at the front of the edit. Something happens and then it's back to Anakin unsure of himself. Something else happens and Anakin is still in turmoil. The editing and pacing works in that regard, which somehow never really works in it's original release as there's simply too much going on. Additionally throughout the film I should add that the audio is spot on and nothing seems strange or off-key.

The rest of the film is pretty straight forward and there's no "shocking" things taken out. Some lines have been trimmed down or removed. Bail Organa witnessing the padawan's death is gone - probably for pacing, I don't know. Some things that I thought may have been taken out such as the Yoda's/Sidious fight and Padme dying of "unexplained circumstances" or a "broken heart" remains. But it's the editors work and I applaud the editor for it.

Finally, Jar Jar Who? .... midi-whatiants? Gone. ;)

This is the first Star Wars fanedit, besides 'Revisited', that I have seen and it did not disappoint! You certainly achieved what you set out to do; Anakin is a MUCH more likable character, the love story is not frustrating or too long, and the trimming down on dialog has definitely helped the pace and tone of the film.
The plot flows a lot more smoothly and the transition between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is flawlessly edited, and shows amazing talent. Apart from the deleted scenes (which can't be helped), the video and audio quality is perfect. The intro was amazing and the opening crawl was done very well.

A definite must-watch!

This is probably the best "3-in-1" prequel edit of Star Wars I've seen attempted. The idea to use the climatic lightsaber duel of the Phantom Menace as a pre-credits scene was a particular stand-out. The editor also achieved a means of conveying all of the important bullet points of Episode II without any of the fandango that encircled it, character motivations are more concise, the romance has no real muddles, and the relevant plot lines unfold without hinderance. The transistion from Clones to Sith is handled sublimeley via a nice music montage of the Clone armada's initial outing through to the battle that opens the third film. There are other nips and tucks I won't spoil but everything comes together more smoothly. Empire Begins is a great watch and I feel more at ease with the prequels now than I've been previously. Take away that old Jazz rift and you're left with a satisfactory song.

Excellent boiling down of episodes I, II, & III which widely believed to be the weakest of the currently released material (I-VI). To be honest I don't have a lot of faith that the upcoming VII, VIII, and IX will be worthy BUT I wanted my kids to see understand the story line of the first three (3) episodes with out forcing them to watch the almost eight (8) hours of content. This fanedit successfully does the job. Were some of the subtle points missed, yes, but the trade-off was more than worth it. If you haven't watched the first three (3) episodes and aren't a Star Wars purist, watch this fanedit and thank the editor. A lot of work must have gone in to this. Thanks.