Fall of the Jedi: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

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.

(A caveat before I begin: I hate the source material for this edit, so I did not take into account my bias when giving a score for enjoyment.)

This was a flawless edit, technically speaking, very professional. And Q2 has removed the most egregious mistakes from Phantom Menace (midichlorians, little Annie's accidental adventure, most of Jar-Jar, R2D2 and C3PO). He also manages to make young Anakin tolerable; the biggest impression I got was that he was a cute kid, which is plenty at this stage in the game, if you ask me. The whole thing clips along at a much faster pace, completely to the film's benefit. And, in what ended up being the most beneficial change in Q2's prequel trilogy edit, Darth Sidious is no longer in the movie at all!(You need v.2 for this) I cannot overemphasize what a difference this makes. Once it's no longer obvious from the get-go who the "phantom menace" actually is, top-to-bottom everything gets better. The eventual reveal in the third film is way more satisfying, for instance. Ultimately, however, these prequels are horrible, with this being easily the worst Star Wars film by a long-shot. But if you're on the fence about liking them, and you want to give them another shot, Q2's versions are a marked improvement.

The ONLY thing that stood out as a kind of "huh?" moment was why Jar-Jar is suddenly a part of the Jedis' crew. I understand the explanation had to be cut to keep him out of our faces, though, so fair enough.

Hey everyone, I had the wonderful opportunity to watch this edit. I'm a big fan of L8wrtr's edits of the Prequel Trilogy because of the new flavor it adds to them. This is definitely another great alternative for those that are looking for something a little bit more closer to the original prequels, but told better. The edits are greatly made. It makes the film move at a much better pace as well. This is definitely my go to alternative to the theatrical of Phantom Menacce. Great job. I'd highly recommend it.

After watching Harmy's new version of Star Wars, followed by the first versions of ESB and ROTJ, my wife insisted we watch the prequels too. I protested, but gave in. I glanced to see which fan edits of the prequel trilogy were rated highly. I had seen L8wrtr's edit of TPM in the past, so I decided to give yours a try.

I've only seen TPM so far, though I briefly scanned II and III and will watch them in full next. While I don't think it's perfect, I can honestly say I had never had such a painless viewing of TPM before. The film blew past quickly, with everything critical to episodes II and III remaining. I do support the idea of removing R2-D2 and C-3PO from the prequels as much as possible, if not totally. 3PO has no business on Tatooine prior to ANH, IMHO. I understand recoloring R2 is impractical, though I believe it would have to be done to really sell the concept that this is a different droid. Threepio could be redubbed, when he appears in II and III. He could still be personably similar to the 3PO we know from the OT (given his onscreen mannerisms and body language), yet different enough to distinguish him. He could even identify himself with a new name, and identify R2 with a new name too.

I second the opinion that removing Anakin's involvement in the final battle seems strange. Anakin is painted as being the [Plinkett Voice] protagonist [/Plinkett Voice] and it seems strange to have him be next to the Jedi in the midst of danger one moment, and be absent the next. (Did he die?) I'd suggest either including Anakin in the film's climax, or downplay him as a main character until Episode II. If I could make another suggestion, showing some close-ups of R2 during the final battle would help prevent it from looking like a "mystery pilot" that never gets revealed later.

My only other complaint, and unfortunately both HD sets of prequel trilogy fan edits retain these, surrounds the bound up issues of Anakin's virgin birth and the chosen one prophecy. I don't really need to say much about these.

You did well to make Obi-Wan seem more jealous of Anakin, and to take him as an apprentice himself. It makes him more responsible for his fall later, which is something Obi-Wan seems remorseful about in ROTJ. It also gives us less reason to view Obi-Wan as annoyed at Anakin in AOTC, since he's not a horrible kid that he was obliged to train.

That being said, I really did enjoy the film. The pacing and focus makes this film much more... enjoyable. There are very few things about it that I would change. If I can, I should like to finally find a decent program and gain the skill needed to edit from this HD source and merely make a few small changes to your edit so that I could have a version I could really be happy about.

Tremendous job! It's really a tough call between your edit and L8wrtr's. Yours is bolder, though I think his sits more securely by being more conservative.

Hi again!

After watching all your fanedits of Star Wars prequels, and watching some other fanedits, first of all I can only say THANK YOU for all your superb work. It is a work all Star Wars fans should check out, and even people that want to learn of this new experience that these edits give.

This said, I have to admit that despite the astonishing work on the Phantom Menace, this is not my favourite edit of the 3 movies.

I love the beginning of the movie. The pace is a bit too fast, but the overall experience of the movie is far better than the original, more mature, more focused, and removed all the nonsense and almost all stupid sentences that appeared on the original version.

There is a taugh work there, and the cutting is superb. You don't realise most of the changes.

Removing R2 and C3PO, is a new thing as far as Star Wars edits go, and for me this edit demonstrates it can be a success. The movie is better without them!
At least it works better with them just as another droid would be.

Eliminates a lot of plotholes.

But, the great "but" is the ending. I did not like Anakin is missing from the Naboo battle. I like better the L8wtr version in Shadow of the Sith. This thing really took me out of the movie, so I can say that the perfect edit for me would combine Shadow of the Sith for the ending, and all the previous part of the movie from this edit.

I want to tell people that watch this edit and are dissapointed for its ending, that please don't be let down and please watch the other FALL OF THE JEDI edits. They are perfect and they are 100% worth watching. This one... I think was too agressive on Anakin's role.

So despite all the success in all other aspects, I can only recomend this edit for the beginning and the last 30 min from Shadow of the Sith! You should team up for this one :P

Thank you!