Review Detail
9.2 60 10
(Updated: August 25, 2012)
Enjoyment
9.0
Review of Shadow of the Sith
Watching this edit reminded me, forcefully, that TPM is rubbish. The cuts only serve to highlight how terrible the movie is.
But: it is no longer utterly crap, thanks to you, L8wrtr. Your skills have made it watchable.
I disagree with a couple of your choices (particularly the cringe-worthy virgin birth: Anakin is Jesus, but an Evil Jesus!), but overall you have done a sterling job. Very, very impressive.
If I HAVE to sit through TPM again, this is the version I will watch, particularly for the last 30minutes. That was some sublime editing of the four battles taking place!
Video:
I was watching on a relatively small LCD screen, but I didn’t notice any imperfections. Quality seemed great to me throughout. I didn/t notice the drop in quality that elbarto1 noticed. However, the subtitles looked blocky and semi-transparent (at least on VLC).
Sound: I was only getting 2.0 sound out of my 5.1 system, I thought it was supposed to be 5.1?. But the soundscape was generally very good, apart from some dialogue sounding rather ‘echoey’, and one sound drop-out (weesa going home)
Some notes I jotted down as I watched, hope some comments are helpful!
- Opening scroll: self-conscious reference to the Phantom Meance is poor, doesn’t fit well with the text, and takes you out of the movie before you’ve even begun!
- 5min: why not cut out the droidicars completely? Have them fight the droids outside the door because they have to, and then go to hangar scene. The other scenes add nothing of value and, as you said in the commentary, show the Jedi to be weak because they can't defeat two droids "because they have shields". Doh!
- 8:40 cut out JarJar’s uncertainty; the cut shows too much (different colour) “ just go straight from “can you take us there? to “yes” or whatever he says.
- 12:44 arrival of bongo or whatever it’s called you’ve just shown the army moving in to the city, flying around etc… but there’s no army in this shot, maybe move it?
- 23:50 please, please take out the Greedo comment. It is just poor, self-referential crap GL stuffed in.
- Consider cutting C3PO completely. It’s not unbelievable that he could make a robot, but why would a 6 year old make a PROTOCOL droid? Gaaah! C3PO adds nothing in this movie, and you’ve already cut most of him out.
- 28-29 min: the dinner scene. Wow-.Just wow. Awesome editing. Tone is great, all Jar Jar antics gone, dialogue makes sense and flows instead of cheesy. Amazing.
- (I also really like the new less wussy Federation, and the nonspeaking droids. Fantastic.)
- No, no, nooooo. I can’t believe you kept the Virgin Birth. Please reconsider! The Darth Plagious link is way too tenuous, never made any connection to virgin birth in Ep 3.
- Hooray! No midichlorians.
- Pod race excellently edited BUT the removal of the announcer makes it a little difficult to know what’s going on, and also deadens the race somewhat. The announcer gave it a ESPN sports feel that somehow worked. Maybe a little bit of announcer would have been helpful?
The film suddenly becomes a silent movie, no dialogue for about 5 minutes, and this makes the pod race seem even longer than in the original, even though you’ve cut it down.
- It’s a pity you kept in the prophecy, vergence in the force, will of the Force nonsense. (How can the Force have a will??)
- 1:05:50 (approx) sound dips out noticeably where you cut “Weesa going home!”
- Trim up the Gungun alliance scene a bit more don’t need Boss Nass’s answer, and the awful Yipee celebration, they’re going to WAR, not a trip to the seaside!
- 1:13:10 why leave in Q saying to Anakin “find a safe place and hide” and “Find cover” at around 1:14:00? just have him run to his ship after “get to your ships? Isn’t the PLAN that he will fly?
- The editing of the 4 battles; Gunguns, queen, Anakin in space and Darth Maul was superbly handled. It was an excellent piece of film, seamlessly edited, and exciting. 20 brilliant minutes. Well done!
- At the end of the commentary you say “Thank you very much” then a big sigh and a number of mouse clicks are heard. Consider cutting!
Most seems a bit negative – however most of the way through I was nodding my approval, and the comments above are tweaks rather than real flaws.
Overall:
I find this a difficult one to rate. As a movie I would rate it around a 6 (compared to the original a 3 or 4) but as a fanedit I would rate it 9/10. Excellent work.
Watching this edit reminded me, forcefully, that TPM is rubbish. The cuts only serve to highlight how terrible the movie is.
But: it is no longer utterly crap, thanks to you, L8wrtr. Your skills have made it watchable.
I disagree with a couple of your choices (particularly the cringe-worthy virgin birth: Anakin is Jesus, but an Evil Jesus!), but overall you have done a sterling job. Very, very impressive.
If I HAVE to sit through TPM again, this is the version I will watch, particularly for the last 30minutes. That was some sublime editing of the four battles taking place!
Video:
I was watching on a relatively small LCD screen, but I didn’t notice any imperfections. Quality seemed great to me throughout. I didn/t notice the drop in quality that elbarto1 noticed. However, the subtitles looked blocky and semi-transparent (at least on VLC).
Sound: I was only getting 2.0 sound out of my 5.1 system, I thought it was supposed to be 5.1?. But the soundscape was generally very good, apart from some dialogue sounding rather ‘echoey’, and one sound drop-out (weesa going home)
Some notes I jotted down as I watched, hope some comments are helpful!
- Opening scroll: self-conscious reference to the Phantom Meance is poor, doesn’t fit well with the text, and takes you out of the movie before you’ve even begun!
- 5min: why not cut out the droidicars completely? Have them fight the droids outside the door because they have to, and then go to hangar scene. The other scenes add nothing of value and, as you said in the commentary, show the Jedi to be weak because they can't defeat two droids "because they have shields". Doh!
- 8:40 cut out JarJar’s uncertainty; the cut shows too much (different colour) “ just go straight from “can you take us there? to “yes” or whatever he says.
- 12:44 arrival of bongo or whatever it’s called you’ve just shown the army moving in to the city, flying around etc… but there’s no army in this shot, maybe move it?
- 23:50 please, please take out the Greedo comment. It is just poor, self-referential crap GL stuffed in.
- Consider cutting C3PO completely. It’s not unbelievable that he could make a robot, but why would a 6 year old make a PROTOCOL droid? Gaaah! C3PO adds nothing in this movie, and you’ve already cut most of him out.
- 28-29 min: the dinner scene. Wow-.Just wow. Awesome editing. Tone is great, all Jar Jar antics gone, dialogue makes sense and flows instead of cheesy. Amazing.
- (I also really like the new less wussy Federation, and the nonspeaking droids. Fantastic.)
- No, no, nooooo. I can’t believe you kept the Virgin Birth. Please reconsider! The Darth Plagious link is way too tenuous, never made any connection to virgin birth in Ep 3.
- Hooray! No midichlorians.
- Pod race excellently edited BUT the removal of the announcer makes it a little difficult to know what’s going on, and also deadens the race somewhat. The announcer gave it a ESPN sports feel that somehow worked. Maybe a little bit of announcer would have been helpful?
The film suddenly becomes a silent movie, no dialogue for about 5 minutes, and this makes the pod race seem even longer than in the original, even though you’ve cut it down.
- It’s a pity you kept in the prophecy, vergence in the force, will of the Force nonsense. (How can the Force have a will??)
- 1:05:50 (approx) sound dips out noticeably where you cut “Weesa going home!”
- Trim up the Gungun alliance scene a bit more don’t need Boss Nass’s answer, and the awful Yipee celebration, they’re going to WAR, not a trip to the seaside!
- 1:13:10 why leave in Q saying to Anakin “find a safe place and hide” and “Find cover” at around 1:14:00? just have him run to his ship after “get to your ships? Isn’t the PLAN that he will fly?
- The editing of the 4 battles; Gunguns, queen, Anakin in space and Darth Maul was superbly handled. It was an excellent piece of film, seamlessly edited, and exciting. 20 brilliant minutes. Well done!
- At the end of the commentary you say “Thank you very much” then a big sigh and a number of mouse clicks are heard. Consider cutting!
Most seems a bit negative – however most of the way through I was nodding my approval, and the comments above are tweaks rather than real flaws.
Overall:
I find this a difficult one to rate. As a movie I would rate it around a 6 (compared to the original a 3 or 4) but as a fanedit I would rate it 9/10. Excellent work.
D