Empire Begins, The

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.

This is the best 3-in-1 edit I've seen. The transition from the Episode 2 to Episode 3 material is a revelation. As is the elimination of Greivous. There are areas I still feel have been done better elsewhere. The confrontation between Windu and Sidious has worked better in other edits where the screen has darkened to hide the transformation from Palpatine to Sidious.

I was really disappointed to see Yoda with a lightsaber in this edit. Maybe it's warranted on Kashyyk, but I don't like that the Yoda/Sidious duel was left in this edit.

Also in the Anakin/Obi-Wan duel, I've seen edits that show Anakin and Obi Wan leaping from the tower to the "shore" for the final confrontation. That works better, IMO, as I hate them dueling on those stupid lava-surfing bots.

This works as a single movie, though it lacks a strong sense of three distinct acts.
There are still many issues that keep it from being a great film, not the least of which is the poorly realized villians. At least there is one less in that Greivous is gone, but Dooku is now a throwaway as well. One might say this keeps the focus on Sidious as the villian, but he is unknown through a majority of the film. This isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't feel Star Wars-y to not have a clear baddie throughout.

Overall I'd rather watch this than any version of the trilogy I've seen so far. Sadly that's in large part because it's relatively brief. That isn't a criticism of the editor, but rather a feeling that the prequels are mostly a lost cause. It could be better by making some of the changes mentioned above., but it is still recommended for anyone that wants a prequel, but really hates the original prequels.

This is a technically (except for a sudden fade to black at minute 58:02 or so) well edited 3-in-1-edit of the Star Wars Prequels. But I felt like the narrative didn't convey well the story of a republic descending into an empire. And it felt like characters required a foreknowledge as they imho weren't introduced well to the viewer and to each other. But that is all subjective, maybe it just hit me the wrong way. I recommend people interested to watch for yourself and to make up your own mind.

P.S.: My wdhd-tv-mediaplayer had problems playing the edit back smoothly, maybe because of the LPCM used for sound. I converted it into a mkv with AC3 sound and then it played it smoothly. On my computer both versions played smoothly.