Return of the Jedi: Remastered

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Return of the Jedi: Remastered
Faneditor Name:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1983
Original Running Time:
136
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
118
Time Cut:
18
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
This fanedit improves Return of the Jedi by mercilessly trimming down the Ewoks, streamlining the third act in addition to a reassortment of the scene order, improving Han's character and chopping out all of the goofy/distracting moments of the movie. These changes hope to make for a satisfying end to the Star Wars trilogy.
Intention:
When it comes to the Star Wars movies, I consider episodes 4 and 5 to be nearly untouchable masterpieces. The prequels were lacking for myself but luckily there is a massive selection of wonderful fan-edits to choose from. Return of the Jedi on the other hand has always stuck out like a sore thumb for me. It was good, but disappointing compared to the cinematic heights reached by the previous two in the original trilogy. Han Solo acted completely different and lost all of his swagger. Strangely enough, he was jealous of Luke. The Ewoks presented an illogical solution to the threat of the Empire and they sucked up a lot of the tension in the third act. And there were just a handful of moments that take the viewer out of the experience. Overall, I felt that Return of the Jedi has not been done justice in the fanediting field. I felt it necessary to provide a streamlined experience which mitigates the Ewoks, improves the character of Han Solo and trims down the more distracting elements of the film.

Additionally, the scene structure for the third act has been shuffled around. Originally, affairs on Endor were turning up as Luke and Vader's situation got worse. Now both plot lines are in sync. Only when Luke stands up to the Emperor and Vader turns does the tide of the overall battle begin to look better. This makes for a much more satisfying emotional experience.
Other Sources:
- Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Special Thanks:
DominicCobb, ironman23, Moe_Syzlak, ssj, DigiModification, cubbyguy1, towne32, Scott109, MalaStrana, YodaFan67, Palindromic Gas, KumoNin, Depheros, RogueLeader and HKseriesDroid
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
This will all be using the Theatrical version of Star Wars. No Special Edition elements are retained except for the SE music/city celebrations and Vader’s eyebrow-less face.
Cuts and Additions:
- Use retro fox fanfare
- removed 3PO’s captain obvious moment where he says “Oh look, it’s Captain Solo, and he’s still frozen in carbonite.”
- remove droid screams in droid torture scene. (Lovingly borrowed audio from Ziggy's edit here)
- cut out disintegration of the past protocol droid.
- Both Jedi Rocks and Lapti Nek are very bad, so neither of those survives my edit, but I did retain the nice little musical piece that the harmonica-playing turtle was doing. This also means that Jabba’s servant doesn’t fall down the pit. This makes it more of a surprise when Luke falls into the Rancor pit himself.
- Rescored Chewie’s getting taking away with “Bounty for a Wookie”. (This idea is borrowed from the Dan Edit)
- removed Boba Fett’s nod at Boush.
- We no longer see Lando pull his mask down.
- cut out the frog burping outside of Jabba’s palace
- added force choke sfx when Luke approaches the two Gamorrean guards. (Lovingly borrowed audio from Ziggy's Edit here)
- Trim Luke and Han’s dialogue scene on the skiff so it ends on Han saying “you’re going to die here, you know”
- added music to the scene between Luke and Obi-Wan on Dagobah for improved emotional effect.
- cut Han and Lando's conversation before rebel briefing starts.
- took out Han’s line of “good luck, your gonna need it.”
- took out 3PO’s line of “exciting is hardly the word I would choose.”
- took out the entire scene of Lando and Han talking in the hangar
- removed the beat of Han worrying about the falcon
- cut out Han's "Keep your distance Chewy. But don't make it look like your trying to keep your distance. I don't know, fly casual" during shuttle sequence.
- cut out the useless exposition scene in the throne room where the Emperor tells Vader to go on the executor. It slows down the plot and is not needed.
- remove Leia and Wicket scene
- took out Han saying “I hope she’s all right”. It's far too on the nose.
- cut out Han grabbing Ewok’s spear and his “proper” line. This helps make the Ewok's seem more scary. Han easily manhandling the spear of an ewok greatly reduces any tension that might even be present.
- cut out cutesy shots of Ewoks when 3PO is being floated in the air on his chair
- cut out R2 electrocuting the Ewok.
- Threepios storytelling cuts off at “I was just getting to that”. We cut to Luke outside from there. That god awful laughably delivered line from threepio saying “we are now part of the tribe” and the following celebrations is just so damn SILLY! Watch that part again and you will giggle whether it be on the inside or the outside.
- cut out Han talking to Leia after Luke leaves. This cuts out Han acting jealous of Luke.
-New scene structure for the third act. Originally, affairs on Endor were turning up as Luke and Vader's situation got worse. Now both are in congruence. Only when Luke stands up to the Emperor and Vader turns does the tide of the battle begin to turn. This makes for a much more satisfying emotional experience.
- I cut out ATON of the ewoks in the battle. They arrive as an early distraction, then when you see them the rest of the time, they are usually getting there asses handed to them by the Empire.
- Take out Chewie’s tarzan yell
- remove the cringeworthy “I love you—I know you” callback.
- have Vader’s head fade away when he dies. This now is consistent with Obi Wan and Yoda dissapearing when they died.
- Han and Leia’s conversation after the death star explodes, is as follows: Han- "I’m sure Luke wasn’t on that thing when it blew." / Leia- "He wasn’t…I can feel it." / Han gives a very confused look / Leia- “He’s my brother”. The scene flows REALLY well now, and is a huge improvement over the original. In my edit, there is absolutely no trace of jealousy in Han.
- Thanks to Q2, the ending scene has the SE music (“Victory Celebration”) and it has Sebastian Shaw as Anakin. Also, the "wesa free" line has been removed. I think the SE music is more grand and emotional, I despise the “wesa free” line in the Naboo shot, and I hate hayden’s ghost, so this ending works PERFECTLY for me!

VERSION 3, ADDITIONAL CHANGES:

(Cutting out the Extra Rubbish)
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-cut out all of salicious crumb laughing
-cut out the laughing of Jabba’s creatures when Han and Leia are captured
-cut out scene of Han and Chewie reuniting
-cut down rancor scene to avoid some of the poor special effects and get the story along since the scene doesn’t serve much purpose besides “hey, look at this cool monster fight”.
-cut out Jabba pulling Leia back from sail barge window and talking to her
-cut out C3PO asking why R2 is serving drinks
-cut out 3PO asking them if they want to plea and Han’s cheesy response. Now 3PO just says Jabba hopes they will die honorably and then Luke warns Jabba it is his last chance.
-cut out Boba Fett completely from sail barge fight
-remove Salicious pulling out 3PO’s eyes and R2 zapping him
-remove more shots of ewoks after Han, Luke, Chewie, R2, and 3PO cut themselves out of the booby trap.
-remove more cutesy shots of ewoks during feast

(Make Vader more independent and his turn more believable)
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-remove Vader saying “I must obey my master”. Now he just says “You don’t know the power of the dark side”. Vader should be confident in what he believes is right like in ESB, rather than doing it just cause of the Emperor. For goodness sakes, he was plotting to take over before this film.
-remove Vader saying “It is too late for me son.” Way too obvious of foreshadowing, cheapens his eventual turn, and makes Vader seem like he already knows that what he believes in is wrong and misguided. This moment of self revelation for our characters is meant to happen at the END of the arc.
-remove the Emperor saying “You must know by now your father can never be turned from the dark side.” This just sounds plain stupid and makes the Emperor think of Vader as some prize that he has fooled. Vader should feel like a respected ally and learner of the Emperor.
-remove Vader saying “It is useless to resist.” What is this, some sort of shiny object called the Dark side being dangled in front of Luke. This makes the dark side feel less complex.
-remove the Emperor saying “You, like your father, are now mine”. Again, my point stands. Why is the Emperor talking about Vader like some fool he tricked and has under his leash right in front of Vader? There should be more respect between such two powerful and ambitious men who have similar goals.
-cut out the Emperor telling Luke that if he picks up his saber that his journey towards the dark side will be complete. This just makes Luke look like an idiot. Instead the Emperor basically just tells Luke his friends and the alliance will die and that there is no hope. This actually now makes more sense as to why Luke would fall into the temptation of attacking the Emperor.

(Restructuring the third act)
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I always felt it was odd that the Endor/Space battles are basically about to be won by the time we see Luke and Vader have their heroic triumphs in the throne room. Those triumphs should be followed by things looking better in Endor and Space so the new scene order reflects that.

User reviews

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Overall rating
 
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.4(17)
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9.4(17)
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9.7(17)
Narrative
 
9.1(17)
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9.0(17)
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Overall rating
 
9.6
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Star Wars was the reason I discovered fanedits years ago. Unsurprisingly, it was because of the prequel trilogy. I lost count of how many fanedits I've watched over the years and unfortunately continue to look for, because of the God awful Episodes VIII and IX and their TV counterparts. I'm looking at you Obi-Wan Kenobi! For some reason I haven't found any Boba Fett fanedits, I'm guessing it isn't salvageable..

When it comes to the original trilogy I was pretty happy with the infamous despecialized editions, but, a little voice in my head reminded me that, although I grew up with the original trilogy etc etc, Episode VI was always like a wasted opportunity for me. I lament to the fact that instead of Wookies we got the Ewoks, plus all the other misfires like Palpatine's plan at the end and some other stuff. So, I started digging for fanedits, that also weren't DVD quality, hopping for the best. I was surprise to see that, on the contrary to the other trilogies, there weren't many choices for the original, at least none that were trying to alter the original in a serious way and not by adding metal score or just combining vfx from the special editions. I was actually down to 2-3 choices, barely, and I'm happy to say, Darthrush did it!

The Ewoks were trimmed considerably. Some reviews are saying it wasn't enough, I can't say that I agree. I mean, guys, the Ewoks are here, it is done. We cannot remove them completely or make them seem like being out of place by having them a couple of minutes. Maybe there is an edit out there that does that and I haven't seen it, but I was pretty happy with this one. And since I'm commenting on other people's reviews, Darthrush was pretty much vindicated by living the death scene of Boba Fett, because it was reminded to us, and in a ridiculous way I must add, in the Book of Boba Fett series. The thing is though, I do not understand why there is still an issue with this death scene, because the editor did an amazing job in this whole sequence with Jaba and the rescue of Han Solo. All the silliness and the stupid gags that were going on in the original were removed! Another common remark is the choice of the ending from the special edition, with the exception of Anakin's force ghost. Well, to each his own, you can't please everyone with this one. I personally like it because it makes perfect sense to see the whole galaxy celebrating this momentous victory over the Empire.

Technical wise, all the edits were seamless, picture quality was pretty good as was the sound. The editor did a really great job with this one. I was surprised to see this is the only edit he has done, or at least listed here.

I totally recommend this edit, as long as you accept that Ewoks are unavoidable, that Boba Fett falls inside Sarlacc's Pit and that the editor chose the special edition ending, I believe this is a superior version over the original!

Thanks to anyone who read my review and special thanks to Darthrush for all his hard work!

User Review

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Yes
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Overall rating
 
9.4
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9.0
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10.0
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10.0
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9.0
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9.0
Probably the best edited version of ROTJ. Not every cringe moment is cut (kind of depends on how much you like Boba Fett) but enough of them to be a major improvement. This cut strikes a nice balance between purity and revisionism. If you want something more radical, go to Spence...but if you want a version of ROTJ that is both good and true to the original film, I recommend.

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Digital
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This is a great streamlining of a good film, and the changes made in the movie were of a great benefit to the viewer. I highly recommend this excellent piece of work;

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Yes
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Digital
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Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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6.0
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6.0
Compared the Spence's final edit, this is more of a gentle trimming. Boba Fett's awful death is here. Obi-Wan's force ghost is present. Leia talks about memories with her mother and the cheesy ending remains (with Sebastian Shaw's ghost). I was hoping mostly that the Ewoks had been cut down quite considerably, but unfortunately not as much as I'd hoped.

But that aside, it's still a brilliant edit if you want a more fuller lengthier version of RotJ and if you are a fan of the film then I think this would be the edit more to your likening. The cuts are seamless. The audio has no faults. It uses some of the "remaster edits" as I did see the odd CGI character (yet the Sarlacc Pit is the original version - maybe the editors on here just prefer the original? Who knows). Jabba's Palace does seem more lengthier, but the cheesy dance numbers are removed, which will please many.

Conclusion? If you aren't a purist and desire a more film length edit then here it is. No big shocks or anything to annoy the fans really.

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Digital
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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
Darthrush has truly done god's work here. When reading the cutlist, I did expect an improvement, but just a milder one. What I ended up watching was not a mere improvement. Darthrush has turned the black sheep of the original trilogy into a masterpiece on par with the other two movies. No longer is the whimsical tale of some ewoks messing around on Endor somehow kicking the Empire's ass, but rather the story of the redemption of Darth Vader and the victory of the rebellion against all odds.

The pacing of the movie is the most beneficial of any change. He could have left out most of his other changes he made to this edit, but it still would have been a worthy replacement to the original if the pacing was improved. Needless to say, Darthrush delivered. The movie flows like a dream, just like the other 2 movies, not only on a movie-wide scale, but even many individual scenes flow noticeably better.

My biggest fear going into this edit was the erasure of a lot of Han's scenes. Sure, the butchering his character got in the theatrical release was awful, but I was worried that the complete absence of such an iconic character from the climax of the trilogy would be just as damaging. Thankfully, even when all of the bad Han scenes are cut out, he still has a decent amount of screen time and there isn't a hint of a toned down personality. The Han in this edit is the one we all know and love, not some awkward, unfunny, jealous mess that he originally was.

The screen time given to the worst part of the movie, the ewoks, is handled masterfully. They get *just* enough screen time that they give some flavour and variety to the setting without completely destroying the tone. Making them less cuddly and cute was well done, and they're purpose as an early distraction, without actively fighting back the enemy, is well implemented. Now that their scenes gradually devolve into defeats against the empire, it actually strengthens the narrative, as both the rebellion and our new friends are being brought to their knees.

I can't talk about every little change he made in this edit due to how many there are (though I would love to if given the time), so for the sake of brevity let me just say that every tweak was done in good taste and every single one subtly improves the movie. From the music/audio ques, the tiny trims and even added vfx, the level of subtlety in this edit is masterful to say the least. Even the jumps between theatrical and special edition footage was remarkably tasteful.

To cap this review off, this ending is just perfect. The best of both versions, really. SE music, city celebrations and eyebrow-less vader face, original force ghost intact and 'wesa free' gone. Vader fading away like yoda and obi-wan is not only a great touch on it's own, it's coincidentally been strengthened by the end of Rise of Skywalker.

If you're reading this, please just watch this edit. No longer do I sigh and switch my brain off when I near the end of a star wars marathon. This edit enhances a genuinely mediocre film into a conclusion worthy of a New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Granted, we all know that Adywan will present a superior edit when he returns from his righteous crusade to perfect this movie, but until that day, this will remain my go-to for this movie.

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