Review Detail

Hey Q2

Just discovered your edits (more power to Usenet! I wish more people would post their edits there. Upload it once and it stays put for about a year, in most cases).

Anyway, Ep 3 was the only prequel that the Phantom Editor never released, so I've always felt the "watchable" trilogy was incomplete.

Well, the circle is now complete!

I've seen a few Ep 3 recuts but I enjoyed yours the most. I especially loved the opening where Anakin goes straight to chopping off Dukoo's head and only begins to question his actions later. It made more sense that way and shows that he is beginning to get caught up in the Dark Side. Wonderful! Ditto at the end where you got rid of the ridiculous "I have the high ground" BS and Ben makes the final blow in a more continuous moment.

What I love most about your cut is you've chopped half an hour out of it and I never even noticed what was missing, nor did it feel like there were any gaps in the story. Personally I like that you left Padme alive, since in Jedi Leia says she does have faint memories of her mother and that she died when she was very young, but not THAT young! Plus there was never any rhyme or reason to her death, it just made no sense. And having her spontaneously name them Luke and Leia was another dumb moment, jammed in there just for the sake of getting the characters names into the movie.

Of course no comment would be complete without a suggestion :-) This is something that bugged me the first time I saw the movie and is yet another example of how George doesn't understand his own universe - when Ben & Anakin face off against Dukoo in the opening act, Ben is the first one to ignite his saber. Come on, George! A true Jedi would never start a fight. Dukoo powering up first would make sense since he's the bad guy; even Anakin going first could work since it would demonstrate that his training is failing and he's becoming too aggressive. But BEN? Never. That's the one change I've always been waiting for in a fan edit and no one has done it yet! I actually think it's one of the more important changes that should be made since it would fix a character moment.

Did you ever think about that cut? I know you don't want to go through the whole upload process again, but if this cut is something you hadn't considered and if you agree it's one of those "small cut but big change" moments, I'd love to see it in YOUR cut, since it's the one I would watch when I feel like watching Ep 3. For what it's worth, the first time I talked to the Phantom about doing Ep 3 (he started but never finished), that's the FIRST cut he made! To him, it's all about staying true to character.

Let me ask you, what's your motivation for wanting to cut out R2 and 3PO? I totally agree with cutting moments of stupid humor, or removing R2 flying and cutting the concept that Anakin built 3PO, but we all know that those droids are sort of the heart and soul of the saga, and the only characters intended to be in all the films.

So why try to get rid of them?

In any case, I'm about to sit down and watch your cuts of 1 & 2. I've never seen an Ep1 cut that made me want to watch it again, and frankly I think the Phantom's cut of Ep2 is the best fan edit of all time, so I can't wait to see what you came up with.

I see you've got a lot of edits out there - just promise me you won't turn into a "quantity over quality" editor. There are lots of fan edits out there but only a handfull of good ones. A really good edit takes a LOT of time - it's not just about adding deleted scenes or cutting a scene or two you didn't like; any edit worth doing should be because you felt that despite a movie's flaws, there is a good movie in there trying to get out, and you are compelled to try and extract that good movie. Honestly, if a major rework of a film takes you less than a few weeks (assuming you're spending a few hours a day on it in your spare time) then it's probably not any good. No offense to anyone who's done edits in just a few days, but both the creative and technical hurdles in doing a major re-edit are very time consuming. It SHOULD take a long time and it's not a race! I see people brag about how fast they did an edit and to me it's a red flag.

Anyway, great job. I shall be following your career with great interest ;-)


Regards,
Mojo