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.