Fall of the Jedi: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Full disclosure: I watched The Phantom Menace in the theater when it came out when I was 10-12, so the original has a bit of nostalgia value to it. Also this is the first fan-edit I've seen.

I've seen this TPM dozens of times and I know pretty much every line and audio/visual cue, so to me, things seemed a bit too fast paced, but only slightly. I love that that almost all Jar-Jar "shenanigans" are gone (and his entire subplot of him being banished from Otoh Gunga), and C3PO is only seen a couple times in the background with no dialogue. The other big change I noticed is a couple of 4th wall breaking lines such as "What are you some kind of jedi?" from Watto and removing Anakin from the final space battle, which was done VERY well in my opinion. There were a few audio cuts that didn't sync too well with the video (sudden score changes) but if I wasn't looking for changes, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

As someone who thinks the original TPM film was pretty good (I love poking fun at the awful dialog), I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to get through the movie in marathon mode or maybe to show someone who hasn't seen it before. To me, it was a bit too fast paced, but I still recommend it to anyone looking for an alternative edit to TPM.

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!

A nice, fun cut - now I need to check out the rest of the PT

Keeping it a bit short this time.

Phantom Menace is IMO the worst Star Wars movie. It's still enjoyable but it's very childish with Jar Jar Binks and young Anakin Skywalker. I actually like Anakin but many of his dialogues are quite bad.

This fanedit edits out a lot of Jar Jar and makes Anakin better among other things. The best part in my opinion is the space battle which always was quite bad. Q2 managed to edit Anakin entirely out from the battle and it worked very well. Majority of the cuts in the movie worked better but I missed the part where they are starting the podracer engine for the first time. It's so touching to see innocent Anakin yell "It's working! It's workiiiing!" :)

Overall a nice, compact edit of the Phantom Menace. I enjoyed it a lot.


Edit: Changed Audio/Video Quality from 8 to 9. It's a bit too light at default but otherwise the video quality is very good.