Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – The Spence Edit

Review by LeoneNut — November 21, 2007 @ 1:50 pm

Despite the criticisms of previous posters, I actually quite enjoyed this edit. Apart from some jarring music changes between cuts, I think he accomplished the almost impossible. Maybe someone could smooth over the cracks, and digitally alter the Luke and Leia scene so they are on the ground instead, but the story still seems to work without the ewoks. It makes the Imperials seem inadequate as a ground force on Endor, even though the Emperor mentions the trap for the rebels.
If I were to edit this myself, I would leave some Ewok action in place, and make them less cutesy and fun.
4/5

Review by Juk — May 21, 2008 @ 12:50 am

Though the video and audio is a bit lacking I quite liked the idea of the edit. Maybe removing all of the ewok scenes wasn’t the best idea as the story does make too many jumps and ruins the continuity, but all in all it’s a good concept. It’s not a 5 due to the technical issues, but the concept makes it better than a 3 so I gave it a 4 star. Definitely has potential!

Review by xaxa54 — November 24, 2008 @ 4:37 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by he-guy — December 1, 2008 @ 9:22 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by gaith1 — November 29, 2008 @ 9:48 am

The edit:
I’ve no doubt that this is a better cut than the theatrical. We’re off of Tatooine in 35 minutes, which improves the flow greatly. I didn’t really notice where the Ewok stuff had been toned down, but it worked.

Still – just my personal opinion – Jedi needs even more editing. Han has lots of corny lines, especially in the first half, which it would be well to cut. Vader says “give yourself to the Dark Side” way too often; a mere twenty-six times would suffice. And there’s lots of bits and pieces here and there – Yoda doesn’t have to say that Luke’s training is complete, for instance, and how could it be?

On the technical side, there were some jarring cuts, maybe six or so. Many were seamless, and the rest aren’t too bad, but they’re visible.

editing: 3 of 5,
entertainment: 3 of 5

Image quality:
Looked dvd-quality to me.
video quality: 5 of 5

Audio quality:
Again, there were some jarring audio/visual cuts. And the new ending, while cute for sure, sounds a bit rough. I know that SW dvds are tricky like that, but I must report the facts, especially in the OT’s final scene.
audio: 3.5 of 5

Overall (not an average):
I’m still waiting for a definitive Jedi, one that will, I hope, feature a new intro crawl and begin as the sail barge makes its journey, bringing the Tatooine sequence to an absolute minimum, and that will trim the general flab further. And I think that FEers should do a commentary whenever possible. :wink:
Still, this is a definite improvement over the theatrical. A hearty cheer to Spence for blazing a path to a better Ep. 6!
3.5