Review Detail

I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was but a boy, and a fan of Tarantino since I was but a teenager. So, naturally, when I saw this I was instantly excited.

The quality of the MKV I watched was really, really nice. I didn't notice any blocking or anything of that sort. The audio was good, too. There were a few times that I had trouble hearing dialogue over the music, but that could have been the set up I was watching on. More on the audio later.

The visual aspect of this edit was nearly perfect. Not a single rogue frame to be found. I'd have to say my favorite sequence was the duel with Darth Vader at the end. It was incredibly well done and worked well with the music you selected. The splitscreen were also great to watch. They worked quite well at compressing time! I did have a few minor peeves, first being that the slow motion effects weren't always that smooth. I understand that you can only slow down 24fps so much (which is to say not a lot) before it starts looking kinda derpy, but I feel that it was overdone a few times throughout. The second was that during a number of the fades between shots was that the scene that was being faded out or into would change shot midfade. I found it to be a mite distracting, and it's something that I try not to do while editing.

The music selections were pretty good, however, there were a few instances where I felt they didn't quite fit. For example, when Han is getting frozen, the music used was from the scene in Kill Bill Vol. 2 where the Bride is digging herself out from the ground. It's a rather upbeat and almost heroic piece, and it doesn't quite fit with the action on screen. There were also a few times when the music faded out to nothing, not quite suddenly, but it didn't particularly sound right, either. That said, I really enjoyed hearing the Pai Mei dialogue dubbed over Yoda. The lipsync on that was spot on. Very clever, very well done.

The narrative, I felt, wasn't quite cohesive. There's one instance when Luke is rescued by Han that we see him recovering in the bacta tank, but we don't get that scene afterwards where Han and Leia ask him how he's doing. It's an important character moment that helps to build Han and Leia's relationship. My main concern for this edit is that it was a lot more style over substance. The addition of a sixth chapter felt wholly unnecessary - that bit could have very easily been woven in with Chapter Five. And while I enjoyed the character title cards that introduced Luke, Han, and Leia (Darth Vader's was great, by the way!) I was half expecting a second credits sequence. In a Tarantino-esque edit, character should be numbers one, two, and three. While his ecclectic music selections are certainly memorable, they play to the characters, not just because they sound cool (although Rule of Cool is always a consideration).

If you plan on revisiting this (which I do hope you do - revision is always a good thing) try to give the story a bit more time to breathe. A few times it felt like things were rushed along to try and keep the length short. Don't worry about how long or short it is. Remember, a great film will always feel too short, and an awful film will always feel too long. I do hope you don't feel as though I'm poo-pooing your edit. It was a marvelous technical achievement, it really was. I look forward to seeing what else you produce in the future!

(and, for what it's worth, this has inspired me to do a similar type edit for Return of the Jedi)