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

Review by TMBTM — March 27, 2011 @ 10:42 am

This is a very well thought, very bold fanedit.
People above already said more or less what I think but let me say that the pacing is awesome.
Maybe some scenes feel a bit rushed at time, but overall it worths it, IMO.

- The sadest tone of the movie is very well done by placing the Luke/Yoda scene at the begining. bravo.
(And to cut at the funeral pyre of Vader also end the movie on the same sad tone)
- I like Han Solo a lot more as a character in this edit.
I never really thought about that, but, yeah, his jealousy is really useless
After the “I love you. I know” scene in ESB and Leia’s “Someone who loves you” at the begining of Jedi, what proof Han needs more?
- Ewoks are handle very well. They never bother me as much as other SW’s fans, but the Leia/Wicket scene always felt like a “pace killer” to me.
So glad this one was removed.
- I loved all the small, very smart cuts all along the movie. Made me smile.
- The only thing I think could work better, pace-wise, is to have the first shot of Luke “reacting” to his vision a bit longuer (or maybe place a little later, I don’t know)
Now at first it looks like you forgot a random little video in your editor. We of course understand just the moment after but
it put me out of the movie as it is now. I know it’s “prequel’s canon” but what about adding some “dream like” effect on it?
- The other thing is: as cool as it is to have this amazing shot of the Emperor with the death star right behind him, I’m finaly not entirely sold, story-wise.
Because the Emperor is too self confident in his new weapon, it’s his weakness. He is sure the rebel will be defeated.
So why not be in the safest place during the battle? Also, in the original I like the fact that the rebel are about to blow the thing while Luke is on it. It’s part of the thrill to me.
I understand the concept that “if the rebel wins, the Emperor would be killed no matter what, so if the scene takes place somewhere else it has more meaning”,
but Luke is not coming to kill the Emperor, he comes to save his father.
Anyway, fanedits are for alternate takes on movies, and you did an amazing job achieving your goal and vision. Congratulations!

- Video quality is VERY good.
- Audio have a level problem at the start of the ending credits. I also feel that the music during the speeder chase (amazing by the way) could be raised just a little.
- Bonus are a real plus. Kuddo to Spence to take the extra time to do that.

So, all in all I’m not sure it is the ultimate ROTJ for me but I enjoyed it a lot, and a lot of fans had/will love it.
Try it now!

Review by tylerdurden389 — April 14, 2011 @ 8:47 pm

Just finished watching this. Here’s my thoughts. First let me start by saying that I am not a huge Star Wars fan anymore. Never cared for it as a child, but I was quite obsessed with it around the time leading up to the special editions (I was 12-13 years old during this time). I did actually see Phantom Menace (4 times to be exact), but my fascination with all things Star Wars fizzled out shortly afterword, and I never even saw ep. 2 in theaters.

Anyway, I definitely like this version over the theatrical/special edition. However, I feel it’s too short. I understand that dialogue and Ewok stuff was cut to avoid camp, but I think some things could’ve been retained. I LOVED the entirely new opening. From the text crawl, to the introduction of characters. Superbly done. I like how now we understand that Luke has been training since the end of Empire. I always wondered about the timeline between Empire and Jedi, and what Luke’s training consisted of. I liked how we got through the Jabba stuff much quicker. However, I didn’t understand where Luke flew off to after they fly off of Tatooine. Also, his return when they’re discussing the plans to attack the Empire. I understand that by using the fade cuts of Luke being aware of what’s going on with his friends meant him rushing to save them (Which was GREAT btw. I loved how they did this at the end of Empire and was disappointed it wasn’t utilized in Jedi), however I hated losing his conversation with Obi-Wan. I understand that the dialogue was bad since it negates things from the first film, but it left me wondering how Luke figured out that Lea was his sister. I suppose this works better though.

I personally didn’t care for the added music during the forest speeder chase. We heard the triumphant Star Wars-ey music during the big action sequence from before, so no need to re-hash. Actually, I just say that cuz for some reason I LOVE the sounds of those speeders. Speaking of music, since I could care less about the prequels, I DID NOT care for the “duel of the fates” music for the first half of the saber fight at all. Also didn’t care for the music change for the Vader reveal at the end. i also didn’t like the special edition ending with all the other planets celebrating, but it’s better than the Ewoks celebrating. As for the final shot of Luke burning Vader’s body, there was no sound of fire, only the music. The scene didn’t seem “complete” (ugh, I hate using that word in context of this film, lol).

Lastly, did you add in sound effects of Harrison Ford grunting from the Indy films for when he fights the stormtroopers? Nice touch if you did. Anyway, this film will never be on par with the first 2, but this edit certainly is an improvement. I consider the theatrical/special edition about a 6 out of 10. I give this fan edit an 8 out of 10.

Review by Captain Khajiit — April 16, 2011 @ 2:54 pm

Spence’s edit shows that ROTJ has the potential to be much better than it is. I didn’t think that I would enjoy watching a ROTJ edit this much.

Video: The quality was good overall. In some scenes the color correction doesn’t quite work, but this aspect of fanediting is *very* hard to pull off. Some extremely ambitious effects work was undertaken, mostly successfully. 8 out of 10
Audio: The audio editing and audio quality were excellent. Most of the cuts were smooth, which was impressive given that they were done in 5.1 and this film is rather heavily scored. There were a few relatively minor audio problems that others have noted. 8 out of 10
Entertainment: I found this more enjoyable than watching the theatrical cut or the special editions. 8 out of 10
Editing: There were many clever edits and most of the changes were successful. I still feel that more could be done with this film, but Spence has really shown the way. 8 out of 10
Presentation: there is cover art available for those that want it. The menu is basic, but that’s fine with me. There are some nice special features. Great to see and hear you, Spence! 8 out of 10

Overall: It’s a solid 8 out of 10 from me. I hope that Spence will consider revisiting this film at some point after he has had a break from it, but as it stands this version is very highly recommended. :-)

Review by videohead — August 25, 2011 @ 5:43 pm

I would have to agree, this to me was by far the worst of the original trilogy, and with that said this is a great edit of the final episode in an epic saga.

A part of me really misses the rancor pit scene (though i agree with the reason that u took it out).

One of the little shots that always bothered me was – at the execution scene where r2 launches Lukes saber into the air, why does luke have to look up to catch it? hes a jedi, he should just catch it, light it, and swing it all in one movement. little things like that would make the jedi’s in the movies look that much tougher in my mind.

The only cut that looked strange to me was after the rescue when Luke leaves the group he just pops back up in the next scene and is like “hey guys!” while i was just like “wait, didn’t you just leave?”, a very strange cut in my mind. I think the talk he has with Obi Wan should be left in.

The only real problem i had with this edit was that the ending, it felt a little flat to me. I mean this is the final episode in an EPIC saga, and the ending should show that. Now with that said i still hate the original ending and yours is still superior.

Overall great job! 8/10

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