Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – The Spence Final Cut

I finally watched this, and I have to say it's a tough one to review. Overall I think I enjoyed it, and although there were many things that didn't work for me, it was a pretty interesting watch.

The main footage (I assume) is from the 2004 DVD, which means in some cases we get some SE footage I would rather not see again. Spence did cut around some of the worst stuff (the Jabba palace musical number and the Hayden force ghost, for instance), but Vader's awful candy cane lightsaber is still there. And in some cases he replaced SE footage with other sources (presumably the GOUT?), but it sticks out pretty badly. I know he did the best he could with it, but it still bugged me.

As others have mentioned, there were a few audio hiccups, mainly several places where the lip sync was slightly off and the really jarring increase in audio levels when the credits roll. Oh, and the fact that the "Fanedited by Spence" credit is superimposed over another credit feels sloppy. Give yourself more credit, man!

The prequel music worked fine, but it's always jarring for me when I hear it during an OT music.

The other two things that stood out for me were that I missed some of Han's lines (like "fly casual" and "hey, it's me") and I was at first confused by the Emperor not being on the Death Star. I thought that needed to be established better.

The opening sequence was pretty neat to watch, although I still think I prefer the original. The way Spence handled Leia meeting Wicket was fantastic. And the Ewok battle was pretty well done as well.

In, the end, I gave this a 7/10 due to the minor tech issues and the things that just didn't work for me. At the same time, I do recommend watching this, as it's a really interesting attempt at editing a Star Wars movie that hasn't seen too many edits.

Review by QuickCut — January 15, 2012 @ 7:36 am

This isn’t my go-to version of ROTJ, but it’s pretty well done.

Technical quality – 8/10 – in general, the video was pretty good quality, but there was some flickering or something during the opening crawl. The audio was great except for the end credits when the volume abruptly went really high.

Presentation – 8/10 – special features and scene selection were a nice thing to include, but the random clip after I clicked play was rather abrupt and unnecessary.

Editing – 8/10 – all the transitions were nice, but there were some choices I didn’t particularly like that I’ll address in the entertainment section.

Entertainment – 8/10 – if a few things were cleaned up it would have been a 10. First of all, the cutting between Luke and Han/Leia. I got why you were doing it, but it wasn’t real clear. The transitions to Luke were too abrupt. When Luke and the rest leave Tatooine, it makes no sense why Luke leaves since you relocated the Yoda scene. The Ewoks could have been trimmed a little more and the scene where Wicket pokes Leia with his spear was way too short. There are various bits that could have been trimmed but I won’t recount them all. I half-wish you had left in the ghosts at the end. Other than that, I liked most of your cuts, especially the trimming of the Tatooine sequences, the edits to Han’s character, the changes to the battle, and the added prequel music (only good thing about the prequels).

Overall – 8/10

Most fans of Star Wars can admit that Jedi is nowhere near on-par with Empire. Having been released thirty years ago, I decided to do some research to find out what the awesome community at Fanedit.org was doing about this film. Spence's final cut was the first edit of Jedi that I watched, and I wasn't very moved. Many of the cuts made were great, and I have to compliment the editor on the entire last act (save a few music choices I'll mention). The complete rearranging of the final battle added more tension than I ever felt during that scene. The Ewoks and their "shenanigans" were limited and tolerable, drawing the focus to the Rebellion in a much more convincing way.

Most of my problems come from personal preference, though I'll try to stay unbiased: The Tatooine scene was cut way too short. Jabba's palace has this slow buildup in Jedi, which I think adds more to Han's rescue in terms of tension and adventure. Some cuts of redundant conversations were good, but the scene moved much too quickly, which resulted in a "tying up loose ends" scene from that whole Cloud City arc from Empire. The strongest part of Jedi, I felt, suffered the most amount of cuts in this edit.

There were a lot of smaller cuts, mostly with Han, that I actually approve of. His humor was tagged down in this edit, I think that adds a ton to his character's growing maturity (which, of course, stemmed from the moment he joined the Alliance). Some transitions from scene to scene were a bit too jarring, but the characters didn't suffer from it.

The biggest problems I have with the edit involve the choice of adding tracks from the prequels. I love those soundtracks, but Duel of the Fates did not fit at all. That scene didn't need music, it dragged my focus away from the Vader/Luke conflict. The new song over their last conversation was also distracting and too overbearing. Simplicity and a minimalistic sound worked well in both those scenes in Jedi, they seem too bogged down now.

Was the edit truly bad? Not at all, and I can see why it won Edit of the Month. Would I watch it again? No, most of the cuts were just too radical for my taste.

I really like Return of the Jedi, but in terms of ending a saga, it's really disappointing. The story is flat and tensionless. The special editions added more nonsense to an already weak entry to the saga.

I presume the source for this edit was the 2004 Special Edition DVD + 2006 GOUT DVD (for replacing SE nonsense), so the quality isn't the best. Same goes for the editing. It's not bad, but in some places it feels choppy. Especially in Tatooine where Luke senses his friends. Still a minor problem though, it doesn't hurt the experience.

Spence has created a great narrative in this edit. He fixed the Tatooine plot perfectly, for example. In my opinion, the Dagobah scene should have been left as it is, Obi-Wan and all. Also the new ending is IMO too abrubpt. I wish that would have been left in. The biggest problem, though, is the Death Star/Star Destroyer swap. In the original movie, we find out that The Emperor is confident enough to see the final stages of the Death Star II, and so he is in it. The Rebels decide to end the war once and for all with this information and destroy the Death Star. There was tension there, but not enough. Here, though, he goes to the Star Destroyer, and the Rebels attack the Death Star. Huh? This plan makes no sense, why not destroy the Star Destroyer? Also the tension is gone here. And Luke ends the war. It's abrubpt again.

Finally, we end up with a fanedit that is just as good as the original, but I prefer the original because of the narrative making more sense. It's a good edit, though. Just not as good as I expected.

7/10

Decent edit. Some great ideas. Some which I didn’t feel worked as well.

Liked new cut down opening – although I did wonder why Chewbacca was instantly captured in the crawl!

The separation after the rescue was weird – why did Luke go off somewhere else – and the reunion then after the briefing was…weird. Why are they so overjoyed to see him - they saw him, like 5 minutes ago. And why does Luke choose that moment to get all mystical about her being his sister. That should have been cut.

I liked the new arrangement of the final battle. Keeps the tension up, really well handled. Although the shield should have gone down earlier – there’s enough tension in the original version of the attack run to be intercut with the Emperor.

However – why did you move them off the death star? I had no idea where they were. You seemed to indicate they were on the SSD, but you could SEE it in the battle, AND the Death Star. So they were just lurking about on another random SSD? Also it deflated the attack run of any tension. They’re not on the Death Star, so who cares if they blow it up? In the original the Death Star = Emperor, so blowing it up was a big deal and a crippling blow to the Empire. In your cut they just blew up a big gun….

Also, the death of the Emperor came too early – it should have come after the death star blowing up – it’s the death of the Emperor that the galaxy is celebrating! Everyone was cheering when the death star goes up and all I’m thinking is “but what about the gigantic fleet with the SSD and everything still parking off ready to kick everyone’s ass”. They seemed much more of a threat in your cut than the Death Star.

The duel of the fates was really out of jarring - but I LOVED the Anakin theme music at the end. Inpsired!

And the last shot of the movie being Vader. YES!

In all I enjoyed the movie. It was a fresh cut, with some amazingly good ideas. Would you ever do a v2 with the Emperor back on the Death Star and his death during the attack run (remember, it’s not a given that they succeed…)?