Empire Begins, The

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.

Fan-editor Darth Awesome combines all three Star Wars prequels into a single viewing experience. Running time is two hours forty minutes, with the heaviest trims coming from Phantom Menace. For action fans seeking Clone Wars, this is not it. Though Darth Awesome describes it as rise of Empire, fall of Anakin, the story is really a character study of Anakin Skywalker, with all the good and bad that entails.

Video - Good work, nice transitions. A couple scene shifts were marvelous. Professional all the way.

Audio - Fine 2.0 stereo. No subs. At any given time, dialogue was understandable, during combat, street activity, whispered conversations. And yes, this is a big deal. I have heard, yet not understood, my share of dynamic sound designs. Mr Awesome has done well here.

Narrative - OK, not scratching here, but pointing things out. Kamino barely appears, to me a startling omission. Seemed like all but eight minutes of Phantom Menace was jettisoned. What survived was a highlight - hooray! The battle on Geonosis was minimized. Duly noticed and missed. General Grievous, on the other hand, was no loss. I could go on and on, parts I missed, others I was happy to see gone. The narrative holds together, but this is a story about Anakin, and I don’t particularly care for this Jedi. Exchanges with Padme remain awful, specifically because of utter lack of chemistry between the leads.

Enjoyment - Grumbles aside, I did enjoy Mr Awesome’s edit. I rewatch E02 and E03 fairly frequently, E01 never. There is clever invention in this effort. It held my interest and I returned several times, to study specific sequences. Having conceptual ideas is one thing, bringing them off is another. Definitely recommended, especially to readers who have a fondness for the Christensen films. For those who hated those installments, I doubt it will better your opinion.

Brief Summary: A great 3-in-1 Prequel edit, although the first half feels a bit rushed.

Some negatives & nitpicks:

I don't know why you used "Episode III" in the crawl. You should have just gone with the title and no Episode numbering.

We should have seen more on Kamino. We see Obi-Wan leaving and thanking the alien, then he makes a report to the Council about the droid army, but we didn't see any of that. Remember, show don't tell. Also, the Jango and Boba introduction scene should have been kept.

I didn't buy the romance between Anakin and Padme. But to fair, so far the only prequel edit I've seen that handled the romance well was L8wrtr's Episode II.

I agree that Anakin and Obi-Wan's duel should have been cut down. I especially hate the moment where they just twirl their lightsabers and look like idiots.

Some positives:

I really liked the opening.

Overall the way you stream-lined the story was wonderful. Amazed at how much can be cut out without losing anything too important.

Excellent work cutting out the Geonosis battle and the way you transitioned to Episode III.

Damn fine work cutting out Grievous!

Recommended.

This is by far the best 3 in 1 edit of the prequels. Narrative wise it hits the right notes. The awkwardness of the Anakin/Padme romance is mostly gone due to them getting together early so there's not that back and forth bullshit that's in the originals. Weirdly enough though the wedding is shown and Anakin has his mechanical hand. The Separatists have a decent reason for succeeding from The Republic now. You also handled Shmi dying perfectly. Also not having Anakin tell Padme he slaughtered children made the scene in which he did slaughter children work. I'm glad someone actually attempted this. Aside from that a lot of the super cringe worthy dialogue has been removed , the pacing is decent and you handled introducing Vader in his suit perfectly.

There are a few things that troubled me during me watching it though. I'm not a fan of having Sidious and Yoda duel. I would rather see the scene picked up when Sidious is throwing the senate chairs at Yoda. Also the fact that Padme dies for the exact same reason that she dies in the original PT bothers me to no end. The Obi vs Vader duel should have been shorter and I think Padme being the reason Anakin turns to the Dark Side should have been downplayed a bit when Anakin is actually turned.

All in all this edit is fantastic though the source material holds it back.

I really enjoyed this edit. As a disclaimer, I'm not a massive Star Wars fan. I like the original trilogy and have probably watched the prequels once since I picked them up years ago. I've watched a few edits over the years but that's about it. I watched this hoping it could be a really good concise version and that's exactly what it was. The visual editing was really well done. I thought the wipes were very well done. Despite being pretty rusty on the nuances of the story, I got it just fine. Actually, better than I remember since Anakin makes a lot more sense. There are problems (such as Hayden Christiansen being horrible at conveying emotion and downright laughably bad dialogue) but they are pretty much with the films themselves. Most of my problems with them are minimized here. There was a weird black frame as Dooku approached around 58 minutes and at 1:08 the music swells then dies super quickly. These are the only things I noticed and they are very minor in the grand scheme of things. The editing was really well done and this is my preferred version of the prequels now.