Fall of the Jedi: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

First fanedit I've seen, cool

The edit has a lot of things I disagree with but they work amazingly, Jar jar is cut so much it's a wonder why he goes with Qui-Gon and Padme on to tatooine (not that this is a bad thing but it makes you wonder why he's even there standing in the background), 3P0 and R2 aren't even involve in the films which is unique to this particular edit (I believe) and does work but I believe that R2 and 3P0 narrate the story and provide some (good) comic relief so without droids talking, Jar Jar and some others, the movie ends up trying to really serious which it isn't. Once you strip away nearly all the stuff you can it ends up being a very fast paced movie that still isnt that good. Watching the original lets you enjoy the good parts of the movie but this shows how hard it is to make a fanfix. The first time around I found the movie almost too fast and kept forgetting what he cut out but I gave it another chance and realized amazing things I had never seen before like seamlessly cutting out anakins DUBBED SOUNDS when his lips aren't EVEN MOVING (my brother and I have always hated those)

A/V Quality:
The video can only be so good with either the blu ray or the DVD because the blu ray stresses on blue (watto looks like someone poured a bucket of blue paint on him) and has nearly NO edge-detection (Qui gon looks photoshopped for a magasine) but the DVD is grainy and stresses on pink so it's hard to understand why the movie looks as bad as it does but this is all lucasfilms' fault and NOT the editor's. Also he color corrected the deleted footage so it looks similar to the blu ray but does stand out a bit.

Visual Editing:

Done great, no special effects but nothing that stuck out at all so... good job

Audio Editing:

Pretty good, first time around I thought it was a mess but that was because I was expecting things that were cut like Jar Jar's big monologue at the beginning shortened down to two words. If you expect the change, it sounds better every time.

Narrative:

Extremely fast paced, like I said earlier but it really does work, everything is at superspeed even at an hour and thirty minutes, GEEZ how much was there in that half hour of a cutlist that sped up the movie SO much?! Anyway it was great over all

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!

Great edit. There were some places that enough narrative was cut out to make it a bit confusing if you hadn't seen the movie before (not that the original movie made to much sense). With that in mind, I felt that the majority of the cuts were well placed and completed the overall goal of the edit, to cut out 3P0, R2D2 and JarJar.

as with many fanditors for me the Phantom Menace is the most watched fanedit I've seen, this is perhaps the 4th or 5th time I've seen this film in some way or another. having seen L8wrt version i wanted to wait a while before i saw Q2 take on the trilogy.

technically this is a fine fanedit the editors aims to remove everything wrong with the trilogy are done incredible well as i didn't notice any errors. you can see a lot of work went into this and the pay off is a more enjoyable version than the original. jar jar is kept to a minimum, he has one or two goofy moments that are probably impossible to remove but overall he is very much a background character. i thought the pod race was extremely well put together however i do wish Obi Wan's 'pathetic life form' line was cut as it doesn't feel like something a Jedi would say regarding someone.

the edits failings however i feel is the amount that has been cut, at just over 82mins (not including end credits) this is a bare bones version of The Phantom Menace. it did feel very choppy while i was watching it, and more often than not reminded me that i was watching a edited version of the film. i feel a extra 10 to 15mins even if it means including one or two cringer moments would have benefited the films narrative in terms of slowing down the pace when needed and fleshing out the characters a little more.

i do agree that removing Anikin from the final battle is a mistake. though it may not be executed very well in the original film at it's core it's what i feel star wars is about. we all grow up watching star wars and more often than not we'd act out scenes from the film (be honest). the prequels failings for me was that they perhaps neglected the older generation as by and large these films are made for new younger audience. for for the 9 year kid watching The Phantom Menace and seeing Ankin save the day he's the hero to which they'll act out. just having a random guy blow up
the ship that takes down the droids and ultimately saves the day removes the hero factor from the film. you have to ask yourself if that was the version you saw in the cinema what would your reaction be towards George Lucas?

overall this is the best version of The Phantom Menace that i seen and I'm already looking forward to EP II (never thought I'd hear myself say that)

This was my first time watching a Fan Edit, and i enjoyed it immensely. the editor went to great lengths to clean up the junk, and i think it's well done over all. look forward to the rest of these!