Rogue One: The Battle of Scarif

This edit is without a doubt a triumph, and I would highly recommend it. The film sheds all the problematic parts of Rogue One, and makes the best part work as a one act story.

The audio and video quality are top notch, and the editing is of a professional level. There is not one bad cut in here. What impressed me the most was the audio editing. The re-purposed soundtrack from the original trilogy was extremely well integrated, and lifted the whole sequence to a much higher level. Having read the description, I feared an overuse of the most iconic Star Wars themes, but I should not have worried. The track selection is incredible, as is its implementation in the sound mix. This has clearly taken a lot of work, and it is without a doubt this edit's strongest feature. By a mile. It is also some of the best sound editing I've ever heard in a fan edit.

The narrative is what is to be expected. Rogue One was never strong on characters and themes. Instead of trying to fix this, this edit simply skips the character building by presenting the first two acts in the opening scroll. Surprisingly, this does work better. The third act was always the strong part of the film, but by presenting it on its own, the fatigue that I originally felt after sitting through the first two acts is avoided, and I could enjoy the battle scene much more. That being said, the problem with the original film does persist in this edit. Most of the enjoyment comes from the fact that this is Star Wars, and that it's about the Death Star plans, and because you know where the story is going. The battle itself remains devoid of any real caring for the characters, unlike in the original trilogy. But this can hardly be blamed on the editor. Truly, this is as good as Rogue One will ever get. Several small narrative issues arise because of the scenes that were cut from the beginning. Jyn's hand opens the vault, without any explanation as to why a rebel would be able to do this. Chirrut, now devoid of his connection to the force, is just a blind man, but he has perfect aim and can suddenly walk out in open fire without being hit. But these are small issues, and they did not temper my enjoyment while watching.

Overall, I was left highly impressed and very entertained. Eldusto84 has created the best version of Rogue One that I have seen so far. It is a brave choice to throw out more than half of the film, instead of fixing it, but it certainly pays off. It never was a good film, but now it stops trying to be a film, instead becoming an excellent intermezzo for any Star Wars marathon. But the best part, the part that gave me goosebumps, is the soundtrack alteration. It elevated the entire piece, and will make me watch it again in the future!

When I first saw rogue one I left feeling disappointed. I felt that the first half was weak but the final act was amazing, some of the best star wars content yet. This edit takes the best part of Rogue One and makes it feel like a pilot for a Star Wars tv series. The editing is amazing, it was hard to tell what was cut and where. The rescoring is flawless and visual quality is top notch. Check this edit out if you disliked rogue one or even loved it. Great edit will be replacing the main film on my shelf.

I enjoyed Rogue One when I first saw it, but after a second viewing and some thought I found it lower on my list than I initially believed.

I was intrigued when I first saw the trailer for this edit. Then, considering that it's just under an hour, I downloaded and watched it then and there. I loved it.

Considering how little I actually cared about the characters in Rogue One, I was glad to see this version focused more on the actual stealing of the Death Star plans, rather than it's bland character subplots. Though I was sad to see Chirrut Îmwe have less screen time, I consider it the lesser of two evils. I'm also amazed at the flawless implementation of music by John Williams into numerous segments of the film.

This edit takes a the worst and leaves the best, then makes it better. It picked the perfect place to start and gave us everything we need to know in a crawl. While I like the idea of Rogue One not having an opening crawl, I consider it very well used here, as a means to explain what is happening in the story and who is important (subjects covered in the scenes that were cut). If I had to choose between this and Rogue One, especially during a marathon, I would choose this.

So this take on R1 is a little love/hate scenario for me, personally.
Do i recommend this edit? For sure!

To explain myself a bit more in depth:
I was very fond of the theatrical cut of R1 even with its slow pace and some unnecessary "plot" points, so i thought: "how interesting is that, a cut only to take place in the last hour?" I´d had to adapt to this cut and see it as it is intended - a fast firework before a anh. Once i did, quite awesome.

Only let down was the audio as mentioned from other reviewers.