Revenge of the Sith by DominicCobb

DominicCobb's Revenge of the Sith edit is an excellent breath of fresh air, somehow, for a movie with well over 20 entries on the IFDb, The big and unique selling points are probably the color grade (ROTS has never looked better) and the re-scores (using OT/R1/unused ROTS stuff) and they really are quite spectacular, rest asssured, But there's an even bigger draw for me here, and that's the second act's structure.

My friends, Dom cracked the code.

The biggest issue I always have with ROTS edits - be it IFDb listed ones such as Hal9000's or L8wrtr's, or others such as NFBisms' - is that they shuffle things around in that middle there, either fundamentally altering story beats (Hal) or just going about it in such a way I find outright worse than what Lucas and co. came up with in '05. It took a long ass time (much longer than it did for AOTC) but Dom here finally presents something that doesn't take away from either the political motivation OR from the emotional motivation for Anakin's turn, instead really significantly enhancing both. They complement each other more naturally and it really accomplishes something I thought was impossible - to make Anakin's character better.

I love the original movie and could watch it any day of the week, and for that reason I'd given up on fan edits of it after none of the big or small ones did it for me. But Dom's here, for the most part, does. I won't say I agree with every cut but I get the reasoning behind all of them, and they're all sound. Dom's edit is a true step forward in ROTS fan editing and hopefully is already part of the canon of quintessential viewings for ROTS editors, SW fans, PT fans, or fan editing fans. Really great work. Definitely recommend.

I really enjoyed this cut of the film. I always liked Hal9000's takes on the Prequel Trilogy but there was always a small part of me that missed the Anakin/Padme scenes (cringe as they were), as they gave a more nuanced glimpse of Anakin's fall. Not only are they back in trimmed form (plus the earnestness, minus the cringe, IMP), but the restructure of the middle of the film really nails the gradual slope of Anakin's paranoia, desperation, and confusion, which Palpatine manipulates to his advantage.

I definitely agree with Hal9000's reasoning that the more nuanced motivations are at odds with the Original Trilogy's implication of how it went down, not to mention the problems with Padme dying and Leia's supposed memories of her mother (but maybe she meant Bail Organa's wife?). On the other hand, my preference is that the main story/emotional beats of a film play out more-or-less in the way the original director intended, and this is what we get here. The heaviest changes are the excisions of the Yoda/Sidious fight, and the Order 66 montage (both work to keep the film more focused on the main characters).

I particularly appreciated that the re-inserted scene of Obi-Wan and Yoda returning to the temple (taken out of Hal's edit) was re-inserted with edits to make the combat more defensive, rather than offensive (holding to OT sensibilities).

The OT-inspired video filter and music cues are used well and lean into the fact that the PT was made with the assumption that the OT had been seen first (no getting around that, despite Secior's best efforts). The video and audio are both top-notch.

I have nitpicks, but really, that's all they are. This is a focused cut of the film with inspired editing choices that make the film much stronger, easily rivaling Hal9000's. I absolutely love that the fan-editing community is building upon each other's inspiration. Who knows what the inevitable next cut will have in store?

This is an extremely good edit of ROTS, probably my favorite of the ones available (including my own!).

Firs thing that pops out is the look. The tweaked colors and film grain just make it feel more like Star Wars. The updated music and pacing also make it feel more in line with the classic Trilogy. Anakin's story plays out a bit more believably, though of course still isn't perfect.

This edit is full of smart choices and little improvements. There's no enormous major changes, but all these small things add up to the best version of this movie by quite a bit.

Highly recommended!

Revenge of the Sith for me has become a movie that's hard to love, but this edit has definitely rekindled some of my fondness for it. With the new grading, some rescores, and the re-arrangement of the narrative - Dom's edit finds a pretty fun presentation of this flawed story without gutting it of a heart.

I loved the narrative order here, and how the Padme/Anakin scenes were implemented. Other edits often cut much of that love-oriented underpinning in favor of minimizing "cringe" or focusing instead on the political subplot, but Dom opts to ground the plot more firmly in it. I think it works well. The opera scene is moved up, and the Jedi/Palpatine politics that alienate Anakin come after he's already introduced to the dark side's potential. The progression towards the dark feels more stewed on and organic this way. It still never coalesces into the perfectly realized story, but that's more of the original movie's fault than anything else. I've been able to be forgiving of it when edits like this are able to pull off a more engaging and cohesive presentation. (And I would know how messy ambition with this movie can be.) As it stands, everything here makes sense and feels much more properly set up than the theatrical. And it didn't have to sacrifice an emotional throughline to do so.

The rescores are a big part of making the movie feel fresh and exciting to watch again. The original trilogy cues during the opening sequence add a sense a swashbuckling and idealism to this world about to turn, and it's surprisingly effective in contrast to the bleakness of what comes next. When the melodrama of Mustafar is happening, it's cool to have the memory of romantic adventure more readily accessible. It sort of works to highlight how far things have fallen.

The Order 66 redux with the OT score is also beautifully done, and implemented under a philosophy I wish I had more of when approaching my own edit. Cutting the rest of the Jedi deaths was something I thought I would miss, but this edit shows how distracting it might be to the main characters' arcs. In similar vein as the "Saving Padme" orientation, I like the commitment to the personal grounding of this.

That all said, as far as elements that didn't quite work as well, the inclusion of some of the political deleted scenes here are at odds with that intention. Only a bit. I've always had a complicated relationship with these scenes. They add a lot of (perhaps necessary) context for the characters to act against and react to, but they involve a lot of other moving pieces that scale the story broader than our three leads. Luckily, Dom doesn't use all of them and they are placed far better than I've typically seen, but I can't help but want to move on from them quickly when they pop up. But they still do a lot of the pushing for Anakin towards Palpatine, so it's hard to say. I think the right choices were made for clarity, either way.

The regrade is neat, but I think it looks too blue. Very well done and at points what I remember the movie FEELING like as a younger lad, but I don't know, it didn't fully work for me. It felt modern, when so much of this aspired to "vintage."

Overall, I really dug it! I'm not embellishing when I say this rekindled a good bit of my love for this film. It had been hard for me to sit through as of late, but there was just enough here to carry me through to the changes that enhanced what was there. Awesome work!

Wow absolutely loved this edit and the pace! Great job!