Star Wars - Episode I: Shadow of the Sith

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

I was enticed into watching this edit because of the 96 min run time, the use of the color-corrected Adywan version and the list of the edits (aka “cut-sheet”).

I agree with Stankpac, the opening title crawl was rushed, slow and a bit odd. However, with all the extensive edits and some slightly bold ideas, this movie does seem to move along at a fairly quick pace.

I, too, noticed the mix of hard audio cuts/edits and the fades were a bit too noticeable. There did seem to be a few places where the dialogue dropped to a lower volume, causing me to turn up my amp, then only to be assaulted by music or effects that were now too loud.

I watched this on a 55″ LED tv and the video looked fine; no better or worse than the original. The lists of edits that Stankpac noticed, I noticed as well. This edit is in need of a Version 2.

Okay, here’s where I usually depart from most reviewers of edits: I didn’t really care either way about the menu or the extras. For me, it is always about the edit itself. My opinion and subsequent review is never effected by menu or extras. Admittedly, I have made a comment or two about a menu, but only as a passing thought.

With all the issues that Stankpac has already mentioned, my few additional comments and because there are better Ep1 edits in existence already, I just wasn’t that impressed with this edit. If you haven’t watched an Ep1 edit in a while (or never have), then maybe this will be worth the time to D/L and watch.

**** In interest of full disclosure, I feel it is important to mention that I have reached my limit on SW Eps 1 thru 3 edits. I am not sure I can watch any more of them. ****

**** REVIEW UPDATE July 17, 2010****

Before I begin the update to my review, it is important to state that no one has asked, coerced or otherwise pressured me to update my previous review. The short history behind my update: I somehow managed to click on a low star rating when I completed my review. This, in turn, sparked some confusion and debate in the chat room and among a great many of the regular reviewers, admins etc. Typically, I am known for giving constructive reviews/explanations (whether my rating is high or low), so people were confused. I happened into the chat room while the discussion was taking place. After talking with Boon, elbarto1, Blueyoda and L8wrtr, I was able to get my star rating corrected and I thought I needed to go back and “review” my own review. Again, my relation with the editor had no or the other people l have already mentioned had no bearing on my decision to go back to this edit.

I have to admit, I am somewhat burnt out on on SW episode edits and my original review reflects that; even though I tried to ensure it did not. Also, I got a little lazy and just echoed things that Stankpac had written in his edit. I didn’t provide enough of my own information to make my review mine. So, after a great “date night” with my wife last night, I woke up with a re-charged attitude and while she still slept, decided to watch this edit again. This is the result …

As with my first viewing, it still seems to me that the opening crawl is slightly rushed, then slightly slow, then normal. I definitely liked the custom L8wrtr title. Things like this help in giving me the feel that I am watching something new/different. As did the custom credits, which I rarely watch; either in an original or edit. That feeling of watching something new/different and at the same time watching something familiar is one of the points of fan editing.

Yes, the battle droid audio edits are noticeable. Thankfully the “roger, roger” is gone (except for one spot), but the droids definitely are still acting out the dialogue. I can forgive this, because the “roger, roger” and other battle droid dialogue is grating.

As my original review, other than a couple of small audio edits (as previously mention by all the reviewers), there are no hard cuts/edits that I noticed, even the second time around. As far as my previously mentioned low dialogue, then high effects, it still seems some of that is there. It very well could be the home theater amp I am using. It has a volume correcting option on it that can be a bit testy.

The video quality is the same as my DVD. Looked as good as the original on my 55′ tv. I didn’t noticed any of the stuttering that Stankpac mentions in his review. I purposely stop at this point and watched several times. I am not sure that the color corrected version in use here would be “wow, that is really different” to the average viewer. However, there is no loss of video quality in this edit at all.

Now as I said before, this edit moves this mediocre movie along at a very good pace. As I said, the cut sheet really enticed me to watch this edit. There are some very bold edits here. And the trimmed down scenes (especially the pod race) works for me. I disagree with Stankpac in this respect. I found the announcer in the pod race to be childish and annoying, so was glad to see him/them go.

Finally, I originally said two things: that this edit needed a Version 2. I recant that with the second viewing. I also said that there are better edits of Ep1 than this. That’s not exactly what I meant to voice. Because I have watched so many SW Ep1-3 edits as of late, I think I was/am just a little saturated with these edits.

Here’s what I meant to convey:

if you liked the original Ep1 (the battle droids , the pod race, all the action [aka a showcase of ILM's cgi] and a few other things that are no longer present in this edit), then you will probably want to go to one of the other edits of Ep1. This is a different version than those.

“… in need of a Version 2″ – what I wanted to say – that all of the reviewers (and some brief PM discussions I have had), have mentioned/noticed the same issues that could be fixed. While these are mostly minor, a Version 2 would make this edit spectacular/premier.

As for a first time out edit, this is great effort and I for one would like to see L8wrtr move away from SW movies and try his hand at something else.

*** I just have never have warmed up to this movie (the original) and other than the FEs I have watched here, haven’t watched the original version on DVD since it was first released – other than to reference a scene for video quality or to verify a plot point. ***

It’s been a very long while since I’ve watched TPM. This was the first Star Wars film I saw in theaters when I was eight, so it holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Maybe that’s why I never viewed this, or any of the other prequels for that matter, as the steaming pile of poo others do. I tend not to drink the Kool-Aid, so I was never really interested in Star Wars fanedits beyond Adywan’s Revisted and TMBTM’s War of the Stars. I saw the cutlist for this, and decided why not? I was a bit hesitant to see so much cut, but I dove in to see how it turned out.

And it turned out really well.

Throughout the duration of the running time, I hardly noticed things that had been taken out. Generally, this happens for two reasons: the first being that you’ve seen the movie so many times (especially if you’re watching your own edit) that no matter what you’ll always notice the changes. The second reason is that there was an issue with the editing that made the cut noticeable. The former was the case most of the time watching this, while the latter occurred a few times as well. Since I want to heap some praise on this, I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way now.

The biggest time I noticed cuts were during scenes where audio was altered (yes, that was most of it. Bear with me). The most noticeable audio alteration was the removal of battle droid voices. While technically well done, the few instances where voices were cut the droids were still acting as though they were speaking, mainly in the Trade ship at the beginning and then later in the hangar. I was also slightly torn on the wipe from “It’s working!” to Maul’s ship arriving. It seemed rather sudden, but for story reasons, in removing midichlorians, it was necessary.

Okay, enough negativity. Now for the good stuff.

As I said, most of the fat has been trimmed off so well I didn’t even notice it was gone. Basically, everything that was cut. Perfect, except for what was noted above. And while I enjoyed the Greedo scene, its placement was odd. It’s supposed to take place after the podrace and, while it worked to get around the Sebulba subplot, it creates the question of “cheated at what? wtf is he talking about?” A small quibble that is soon forgotten at any rate. The following scene at the dinner table was very, very well edited. Another scene I hardly noticed had been altered. I could list everything that had been changed that I only noticed well after the fact, but I plan on going outside at some point.

Audio was great. No hard cuts (there was one fade during the intro of the podrace I’m unsure about. That may have been in the original version. I’ll check later, which means I won’t). I don’t have a 5.1 setup, but I’ll assume the mix was good. Video I’m torn on. I haven’t watched TPM on the new TV since it came into the house two years ago, so I can’t say if the quality was the same as the commercial DVD. It was very good, certainly not unwatchable. I suppose that’s on me to get a DL version and plonk for the discs. I haven’t yet listened to the commentary, so I can’t comment (see what I did there?) on it yet. But the thought counts, so yay!

All-in-all, this is my replacement of Episode I, hands down. Great effort, great editing choices, excellent execution.

8/10

L8wrtr inspired me to watch this edit due to a well-argued debate we engaged in, even though I vowed some time ago to not watch anymore star wars edits (at least not until some worth HD efforts). http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?2524-The-Two-Sides-of-Every-Movie-An-Essay-by-Gaith/page2

I accepted long ago that it is impossible to make this movie more enjoyable than painful to watch, and thus accepted the Phantom Edit as the definitive version. (Episodes 2 and 3 already have perfect fanedits made in my opinion so I don’t bother with those either.)

It has been so long since I have seen the original theatrical version of this movie that it is pointless to even compare to that. Instead I will compare to my old definitive version, The Phantom Edit, which is more relevant anyway considering most all of the TPM edits are essentially edits of that edit. As revolutionary as the Phantom Edit was, I do agree with many other people’s sentiments that it could have gone much further in its cuts.

Much to my pleasant surprise, L8wrtr, your edit is a tremendous overall improvement of the Phantom Edit. There are small little bits of comedy or drama that I personally feel add to the characters and movie’s charm, however given how much of Lucas’s efforts in this regard fail even in The Phantom Edit, I can see how an editor might overshoot the mark a bit regarding cutting the fluff. The story now moves faster with steady and deliberate pace. The only problem is that I still don’t care about any of the characters or what is happening. I pray for something new and exciting, but of course there isn’t anything new. The best I can hope for is less annoyance and a faster conclusion.

Ironically you almost managed to turn me to the dark side. As I was watching and comparing it to The Phantom Edit I started thinking about even deeper cuts that could be done to yours. I started toying with the idea of doing an edit of your edit of the Phantom Edit. Maybe there is a good hour-long episode yet to be discovered amongst this rubble? Maybe this 4th generation edit of mine might prove to be the magic edit everyone thought was impossible! It was about this time that the characters returned to Naboo. I sobered up.

This edit is a great overall improvement and now my definitive TPM edit, which is a great credit to your skill as an editor, especially when one considers those great editors that have come before you with lesser results. But the movie is still rubbish. At best this movie could be made to work as an average 2-part Clone Wars animated episode. The failures of the story go so far beyond a bit of bad dialogue. There are only a handful of scenes that work and even fewer characters that do, but this is no fault of yours. You took a plate-full of canned cat food and made it almost palatable for human consumption. But I am still eating cat food when I want a steak.

My respect for your edit comes from the many little changes and general pacing. Your biggest change to the story itself didn’t impress me, but it doesn’t make it much worse either. You shift the focus to Anakin being the one who saves the day at the end, which is a cool idea except that you do it by shifting the focus even more onto one of my least favorite scenes in the entire movie where Anakin flies into the hangar bay. (At least you fixed the auto-pilot debacle of him flying out of the Naboo hangar bay!) If a couple torpedoes in a hangar bay can blow up that huge ship, then some engineering company out there had better get ready for a massive law suit from the Trade Federation! (nevermind that the scene visually looks terrible). The much more plausible interesting way for our protagonists to win is the part you cut out with the queen impersonator creating a diversion and capturing the Viceroy. “Everything depends on capturing the Viceroy.” This makes sense to me. We have already established he is a bit cowardly. Capture him and he will cave, call off the attack, and sign a new trade agreement. There is not even a need to have the ship blow up other than for the cool effect. But then again, why is Anakin there at all! Why wouldn’t he be left on Corruscant. It is all absurd, but I digress.

The video quality is much improved over The Phantom Edit.

Biggest technical issue comes at 25:20 where you have a short scene that has a sound glitch followed by a lip synching problem for a few seconds. I also noticed a small sound glitch at 54:53.

Still virgin birth. Ugh.

Pod race much improved! Pacing felt about right, though I wouldn’t have minded you keeping a couple cutsie moments. My recommendations: one sandpeople shot (not at Anakin), Jabba, and the pitstop incident with the little droid that gets sucked through. Maybe the humpty dumpty dude stuck at the starting line simply because there is a shot later that it seems like you need of the pod racers zooming by him on one of their laps. Maybe I spaced out but it seemed like I only saw them cross the starting line once instead of twice for a 3-lap race.

It still seems like there is something missing from the pod race. I noticed for the first time that there is no music in the background. That should make the editing simpler and opens up some potential for some real creativity here that I have yet to see in an edit of the podrace. The whole thing still feels a little hoky and un-intense. Anakin has one too many mishaps and I have a hard time believing that he could ever catch up and win, no matter how awesome his pod racer may theoretically be.

Jar Jar handled well.

As somebody else mentioned. Still a random “roger roger” that is very out of place.

Great improvement to the Obi killing darth maul scene, but still horrible absurdly stupid.

I missed the “I will be watching your career with great interest” line. Presumably this was because you wanted to keep Palpatine’s identity more mysterious? If so I find it hard to believe that anybody watching would not comprehend by this point that there is something ‘insidious’ about this man (what horrible character names!).

Mixed feelings about cutting the celebration at end.

Love the new text crawl at the beginning of the movie. Always hated that the Phantom Editor used that as his place to put a political message.

Overall: Strong work! Still hate the movie but now this is my new official least hated version!
Video: 9/10
Audio:7/10
Technical and story editing: 8/10

I can't say this edit made The Phantom Menace a MUCH better Star Wars movie, but it was still fine. It didn't really add anything to the movie that made it feel any more Star Wars-y (apart from some of the pacing), but it certainly stripped away a lot of the really bad stuff.
Some of the editing is a bit clunky (even the opening STAR WARS title zooms out a bit messily), and while Jar Jar Binks had a lot of annoying lines trimmed out, it kind of reduced him to a character who just stood around not doing anything. There's a shot somewhere where the focus was on Jar Jar looking as if he were at the end of a comedic routine, but not doing anything or saying a word. It was kinda creepy. I think you should have cut or cropped some of the shots with Jar Jar out.
However, the stuff that was good was good. It got to the point well enough, and it made PM a more tolerable movie, though not much of a better one.