Star Wars - Episode I: Return of the Sith

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8.7 (9)
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9 reviews
 
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5-7 stars
 
0%
3-5 stars
 
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1-3 stars
 
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Overall rating
 
8.7
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0(2)
Audio Editing
 
9.0(2)
Visual Editing
 
9.5(2)
Narrative
 
7.0(2)
Enjoyment
 
8.9(9)
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(Updated: September 10, 2012)
Overall rating
 
9.3
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
Review by Neglify — October 11, 2011 @ 10:29 pm

First off, let me say that I haven’t watched many of the other Fan Edits of the prequel trilogy. I’ve seen The Phantom Edit and Shadows of the Old Republic. I say this so that it’s known what my points of reference are. When watching Return of the Sith I compared it to the original Episode One and what I could remember from Phantom Edit. I feel this gave me a fair view with no preconceived idea of how it should be.

Technical Quality: Video quality is perfect. Everything looked crisp. Audio is perfect. No discernible problems. 10/10

Editing Quality: Superb. No hard cuts. No jarring audio cuts. Scene transitions done very well. Overall flowed seamlessly. 10/10

Presentation: Pretty good. Nice main menu. Scene selection was good. Wish there could have been more to it, but it was totally fine. 9/10

Entertainment: Like pretty much everybody in the world, I hated Episode One. Boring as hell, terrible dialogue and acting. Epic fail. In my opinion it’s impossible to fix this movie and still make it a movie. You could cut it down to only a half hour and there would still be traces of bile that float to the top.

That being said… The majority of your cuts were well placed and did improve on it. The last time I watched TPM I just had it on as background noise and paid little attention. Your edit was able to hold my attention most of the way through. Twice I paused it to go dick around on the internet, but came back each time within a few minutes. After the halfway point I was glued to my seat and didn’t leave until it was done. There were still a few groan moments, but nothing compared to the original.

The Jar-Jar cuts were very nice. Almost down to the absolute minimum. Now he just happens to be along for the ride, and as you say, is kind of like C-3PO from Episode IV. Personally, I would have liked to have the “Yousa people gonna die” scene go as well, but this time it didn’t detract as much.

The Anakin cuts were good. A lot of his dumb lines are gone. Not all of them, but the most atrocious ones. Once he leaves home he shuts up and gets to work. Jake Lloyd was still annoying, but I guess the only way to fix that is to redub all his lines with a different actor.

The cutting a lot of the politics worked really well. Now it’s more focused on Qui-Gon and Anakin.

Most intriguing was your cutting of Sidious. When I first read that you cut him out I thought, “How’s that work?” Then watching it, I realized that with cutting him you make Darth Maul the primary (really the only) villain. Then with Yoda and Windu’s discussion at the end, the viewer questions who’s behind it all. That made me very interested in seeing your edits of Episodes II and III. I really want to know where this story is going and isn’t that the point of it all?

Entertainment: 7/10

Overall, I feel this is a worthy addition to the community. It may not appease those who are worn out with the prequels, but it should make the average Joe happy.

Overall Rating: 8/10

Well done.
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Overall rating
 
8.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
7.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
My first fan edit review!!! Having spent a lot of time editing The Phantom Menace myself (work in progress), I can really appreciate the technical difficulty of this very aggressive edit. The transitions were excellent between scenes, particularly the audio.

The good:
Overall it was a technically excellent edit. There were some transitions that were obvious, but overall they were seamless.
A very bold move to completely edit out the Gungan home world, something I hadn't considered doing, but it worked really well.
I really enjoyed the pod race sequence, which is ridiculously long in the original release. Your edit is seamless, well paced and the perfect duration.
You made an excellent job of making the Neimodians a more menacing threat.
I loved the absence of Sidious. I'm still not sure whether I prefer it to the original, but its a very interesting take on the film.
Excellent job on editing out all Battle Droid dialogue.
Superb final battle sequence.... no Jar Jar antics and your cut of Anakin destroying the droid control ship was excellent.

The Bad:
The cut is slightly too aggressive for my liking, and some parts of the film, particularly the opening 20 minutes, seem very rushed.
I didn't feel any added tension from your recut of the Tatooine sequences. I never felt that our heroes were in any more danger than the original film.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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