Review Detail

After seeing the Force Awakens teaser trailer I had a renewed interest in the OT (I've come to the conclusion that the PT is beyond saving for me). I decided to watch RotJ, which like many folks, has always felt like a let down and a missed opportunity. I was going to watch Q2's hybrid edit, but discovered this edit was on my hard drive. I honestly don't remember downloading it and don't think I ever watched it. This edit narratively has many things I always wanted in a Jedi edit: no Boba Fett, a Han Solo more in-line with the first two movies, dispensing with the more childish humor, trying to make the Ewoks seem a bit more realistic in battle. Most of this is accomplished and done well. There are definitely areas where this edit could use polishing. I won't go into them in detail as I'm not an editor and they've been well documented by the other reviewers.

The ending is where this edit really intrigued me. The Ewok celebration always bothered me (well okay maybe I like d Yub Nub as a kid) and wanted to see it done with classic Williams score. This works, sort of. Again this is an area where I think it could be polished. I disagree with other reviewers that all dancing needs to be excised. I looked at that as music we, the audience, is not hearing and the score is just that: the score. The dancing takes place in the background so this worked for me. With another pass, I think this could be the best version of Jedi. Nice work.

One final thought. Yads did tighten up the Han/Leia interaction right after the Death Star is destroyed which I was very glad to see. But I think it can be taken further. What if it went like this:

- Leia says "he wasn't. I can feel it."
- Cut to Han looking a little confused buy this statement
- Cut to Leia who simply says "He's my brother."
- Cut to Han as he realizes this and the rest of the scene plays out normally

I never want to hear Han even suggest that a) he might be jealous and not completely trust Leia; and b) volunteer to "not get in the way." I mean this just threw away the great love story of the trilogy. Yads has it close, but a slightly more aggressive cut I think would work.