Fall of the Jedi: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

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This review is for V1 of this edit, which has Lord Sideous.

I’ve watched a bunch of episode 1 edits (L8wrtr, Yads, Jasonn, Seciors, Hal9000, Magnoliafan, and Q2 v2) and I have to say Q2’s v1 is my absolute favorite.

What’s different about it from the others?

• It has the emperor/Sideous! A couple episode 1 edits have removed him (Seciors, Q2 v2), which may add to the suspense factor in the later movies, but I think it really hurts episode 1 to not have him present. There is just no driving force for the movie without him pulling the strings. Also, cutting Sideous cuts too much Darth Maul, making his appearance a wtf.
• Jar jar and Anakin are at a bare minimum (in my view hal9000 left too much Jar Jar, Seciors left too much Anakin).
• The underwater Gungan city is preserved, in a very abbreviated fashion. (hal9000 removed completely). Without this, the end battle with the Gungan army is not set up properly.
• No god-awful “are you an angel?” line. Q2 is the only editor which removed that, afaik.
• No horrible scene with young Greedo making his cameo (L8wrtr, Yads, Seciors all kept this)
• No C3p0! It always bothered me having him be built by Anakin, now it doesn’t have too! (hal9000, l8wrtr, seciors all keep 3p0).
• Q2 kept in Padme’s line “Well, I don’t approve!”, which is possibly her best line in the movie. (Seciors cut it)
• Mercifully short pod race
• No necklace (L8wrtr, seciors keep it)
• No ascension guns (yads keeps)
• No Disney parade (hal9000 and seciors both keep some parade)

Of course what really makes this film shine is the editing. Q2 is a master at trimming the fat, while keeping the good stuff.

In my view, the only things that would make this edit better would be to dub Jar Jar, as Magnoliafan has done, and maybe tighten up the Anakin farewell as L8wrtr did.

Bravo, Q2!

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Wow, what an improvement. Clearly far better than the painful original. As it stands, if I had a kid, this'd be the version I'd show them.

Great work on the scrolling wording.

Well done on getting Anakin out of space in the final act. Reviewers have questioned it, but you are spot on - a comedy accidental destruction of a big boss (droid control ship) by a child ? Why didn't Lucas have Darth Maul die after being distracted by a puppy?
Personally I'd like to lose from this version of the control ship scene the lines that suggest that the rest of the squadron didn't know why the ship was blowing up (otherwise what was their plan?!). So I'd take out "What's that?", "We didn't hit it." and "It's one of ours", but keep "It's blowing up from the inside."

Glad 3PO's gone too. I wouldn't have minded R2 kicking around, but not bothered.

Which brings us to JarJar. Frankly any appearance is too much, and it's great there's so little of him. The problem is now, because he can't be entirely removed, that he seems to be stalking the principal characters! From the dialogue, once he's taken them to the underwater city his role is over. But there he is in Theed. Oh and look now he's in the Jedi spacecraft & following them round Tatooine...
But what can you do? It's the source's fault. Given that we can just about believe that he might have guided the Jedi to Theed, it would be good if we could have just a couple of line's of dialogue to explain why he's following the principals off Naboo.

I remember the pod race as interminable. This version seems better, though ideally would be just two laps!

So essentially great. There is only one thing I strongly disagree with, and that's taking out Obi-Wan's promise as Qui-Gon is dying. That *is* a key moment in the trilogy. To have him mention it casually to Yoda later felt weak. You managed to speed up the pace everywhere - it's ok to slow it when it's important!

I can't compare to other fanedits of Phantom as I haven't seen them, but this is great - I say find it and watch it.

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(Updated: April 20, 2016)
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9.2
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Q2 you are really on to something here. I'm a fairly seasoned Fanedit watcher and a dabbler in (mostly audio) editing myself, and I can honestly say I f&^%in enjoyed watching this cut of the film. I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that TPM is the best of the prequels and with the proper editing and you have achieved something really special. Daring cuts and proper respect to the OT solidify this as my favorite edit that I've had the pleasure of watching.

Some comments on the pacing are understandable, but I found they added to a sense of urgency so it worked well for my tastes.

Whatever your perspective is on how you approach your projects keep it up! The editing choices can make or break a film and I really think you nailed this one. Looking forward to your work in the future!

All the best!

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I started off by watching Q2's version of Ep 3, since that's the only prequel that the infamous "Phantom Editor" (the man who started the fan edit revolution) didn't do. I really liked that cut so I decided to go back and watch his cuts of the first two movies.

While I applaud his effort and enjoyed most of his decisions, I think he went WAY too far in his edits. Q2 cut out material that may have been silly, but were still essential to the story, and took out bits that left me scratching my head (and no I don't have dandruff).

For example, he totally removed Anakin being the one who takes down the Droid control ship (he made it seem like it was some random Naboo pilot). Ok, sure, I cringed at Anakin "bungling" his way to an accidental victory, but it's still an important part of his story; without it, there is essentially no payoff to Anakin's story arc and his character becomes completely unimportant - and almost absent - from the last act of the movie. If it were in my hands I would have just tried to make it seem more like he was acting deliberately, calling upon both his skill as a pod racer and, albeit unwittingly, being helped by The Force. Like it or not, the movie still needs this to work.

Other odd choices is his removal of Subulba sabotaging Anakin's pod. Now it just seems like he has a part come lose at random. I liked the tension that was present when WE knew the pod was sabotaged, it added a strong element of suspense. I have no idea what he thought he was achieving with that cut; there was nothing silly about it and it was a major element in the setup of throwing every obstacle you can in the path of the hero's victory.

On the other hand, he left in the whole "immaculate conception" speech, which had always been a major cringe moment. And it's very easy to cut, just snip where Qui-Jon asks about his father until the end of her explanation. It lifts out very easily. So why cut stuff that isn't silly and helps the drama but leave in one of the worst moments in the movie?? Unless Q2 is a religious fellow and has personal reasons for wanting to leave that in. But once again, if you're going to leave in a moment that cements Anakin's role as a Christ figure, you can't cut out his "miracle" of saving everyone at the end of the movie!

He also chops out not just the explanation that 3PO was made by Anakin (I totally agree with that choice) but he cuts him completely out of the movie! In some of his comments he said one of his goals was to remove the droids from the trilogy as much as possible. I'm waiting for him to explain why, as we all know they are supposed to be - more or less - the heart and soul of the franchise and the only characters meant to be in every film. There are plenty of moments of stupidity that center on the droids, so I agree that a lot of R2 & 3PO moments have to go, but given their importance to the Star Wars saga, I would have made it my goal to keep as much of them as I could. I mean look, like it or not, R2 is the wonder droid that often saves the day. That's just who he is, and most of the time he does it in Ep 4 and 5 are fine and I don't think anyone has a problem with it. So while I agree flying artoo crosses the line and has to go, the pilot's comment in Ep 1 "that little droid did it!" is the very first time that R2 proves his worth and thus starts the saga-wide thread that R2 is everyone's favorite pint sized hero.

So while I applaud his success in cutting out dumb humor and tightening up story focus, he just goes too far and cuts stuff that either needs to be there or material he seems to have some personal issue with. Personaly, I think the goal of any Ep 1 edit needs to be REDUCING the elements that are so bad they pull you out of the movie, but I think Q2 got so caught up in gettjng rid of ALL of them, he lost sight of the big picture and wasn't paying enough attention to silly moments that, even if we hate them, are necessary to complete the movie. Besides, I think most of those moments, even if you have to leave them in, can be made a little better with skillful editing. When Anakin accidentally destroys the droid control ship, some good sound work could at least get rid of most of his lines like "what does this do? Ooops!" Which are the real cringe inducing moments. But cutting the whole thing leaves the movie incomplete.

In conclusion, I'd implore everyone dojng a fan edit to remember that the goal of these works is not simply to chop out stuff you hate, but to make a better movie! So when you cut those moments out, you need to pay careful attention to how those edits effect the movie as a whole. I've done some edits myself, and at some point you lose all objectivity since you get so wrapped up in the project; that's why having friends whose opinion you trust is a vital part of the process - they become your test audience and can often be a better judge of the big picture than the editor is. How many stories have you heard about the reaction of a test audience having a big impact on how the movie gets edited? Without the voice of a test audience being heard we never would have gotten "I love you, I know!" So all fan editors should make sure they screen their cuts with friends before making their final cut.

Ok, I'm done ranting. I only say all this because I care :-)
Owner's reply December 29, 2012

First, thank you for your extensive review. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as my Episode 3, and I look forward to reading your thoughts on that when once you’ve submitted it.

I just wanted to give you some insight into my thought process to help you better understand where I was coming from with this edit. Will it make you like it anymore? Probably not, but hear me out and see if it makes you reconsider your position.

The reason I cut Anakin completely from the final battle was for two reasons. I hated that Anakin accidentally saved the day. The other reason is I just don’t buy an 8-year-old kid taking down a heavily fortified ship that is controlling an entire droid army. No one is that lucky. I know other editors have successfully made Anakin actually succeed on purpose (L8wrtr comes to mind in this instance), but for me, even on purpose, I don’t see a kid succeeding where trained security fail.

You mention that the film needs this for his arch. I disagree. If Episode I was suppose to be Anakin’s story he wouldn’t have been introduced 30-40 min. into the film. This was poor writing on Lucas’s part, and if Anakin was suppose to be the focus then the film should have started with him (or at least not introduce him so late). If you do a comparison to Star Wars, Luke is introduced late as well (though not as late) but from that moment on virtually every scene that doesn’t focus on the Imperials has him an active participant. The same cannot be said for Anakin. For me, Episode I is more about Obi-Wan’s rise from Padawan to Jedi Knight. Because of this Anakin’s major hurdle is being freed and finding purpose outside of slavery.

For the immaculate conception speech I don’t look at it that way, nor do I see Anakin as a Christ figure. (And no... I’m not a religious person by any means.) This scene works for me because the payoff is in Episode III when Palpatine is telling Anakin about how Darth Plagueis learned how to create life. This insinuates that either Darth Plagueis or, more likely, Palpatine created Anakin to infiltrate the Jedi. It’s a long drawn out plan that ultimately succeeds. If this scene was not present in Episode III then the immaculate conception line would have been cut from Episode I, but because that curiosity comes full circle I left it in.

As for R2 and 3PO I disagree with Lucas’s assessment that they were the figures that cemented the trilogies together. One evening I was talking with L8wrtr and we were discussing this and his assessment was spot on. Not verbatim, but he said, “It’s like Lucas wrote Episode I without the droids and then Rick McCallum asked, “Where are the droids?” You know you have to have them in there!” That’s how they are to me, and I think it’s represented as such in my cut. When you can cut two characters so easily and not miss them (assuming you never knew they were there) then obviously they are unnecessary. If they had an actual purpose to the prequels, then by all means leave them in, but if they’re just filler then cut-cut-cut.

As for having early viewers I did, and they all provided invaluable feedback. Some I agreed with, some I didn’t, and I made many choices on edits based on their feedback. (They’re listed in the special thanks.)

So there is my long-winded explanation of why I made certain choices in what I cut. I hope it clarifies my position on certain aspects so that you, or others who read your comment, have a better understanding of my direction with these films.

M
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(Updated: April 21, 2015)
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
What can I say other than WOW. Through all three films in the Fall of the Jedi series you've managed to rewrite history. You've taken three of the worst films of all time and turned them into "reasonably decent" films. That's saying a lot. Considering how bad the theatrical releases were (bad enough that I haven't even been able to enjoy the original series since), I would have thought your achievement impossible. Thank you for renewing my enjoyment of the Star Wars movies. Although all new viewers should still watch 6 films in the order they were released theatrically, the Fall of the Jedi edits are good enough to watched, good enough to be enjoyed, and most importantly good enough that they don't ruin the enjoyment to the original movies. Kudos galore!

I watched the 1080p .m4v files, and the video quality was excellent, as was the audio. Quality of the cutting was also excellent. Everything flowed nicely.

BTW, I'm rating this as 10 across the board as a comparison to the theatrical releases. Certain things about these movies could never be completely fixed, such as the nonsense narrative and horrible acting. However, compared to the theatrical releases these definitely deserve a 10 in my opinion.

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