Star Wars - Episode I: Shadow of the Sith

I watched all of l8wrtr's prequel edits not long ago during a machete order marathon of Star Wars over a few days. Accompanied by the de-specialised editions by Harmy (which I also recommend).
At first I was a little worried reading the cutlist about some parts of this movie and the others that I was fond of, but mostly interested to see how far l8wrtr had come after been inspired as so many were by the infamous Phantom Edit.

To sum it up, I was blown away. Any doubts that I had about things I liked were quickly forgotten. It sweeps you up and thrusts you into the great story that was hiding within this movie and doesn't let go until all is said and done. Rather than casually trodding through odd places until something interesting albeit confusing happens.

Even the pod race, which I've always loved with its whacky deaths and Tusken Raider interferrence was perfect in its new form. Only a couple of deaths remain and they're the ones that keep just the right tone in the overall Star Wars universe. The raiders are gone but now I'm sitting here on the edge of my seat, watching with an intensity that I've never felt for the pod race. I don't miss 'em.

No more distractions, no more crap, just the inspired Star Wars universe that Gearge Lucas imagined in all his craziness. And I mean that as a complement, this is Lucas' brilliant dreams, fine tuned and honed to tireless perfection from the eyes of a keen fan, and it allows them to glisten and shine as great companion pieces to the original trilogy and even greatly entertaining movies in their own right.

What about this episode in particular?
Jar-Jar's a background character, no-one wants to watch something so unlikeable.
As mentioned the pod race is tense and thrilling.
Gungans are surprisingly stomach-able.
Neimoidians are just evil side characters with intentions undescribed, as opposed to unsure fools.
Young Anakin is very tolerable without removing the character completely from the story. (tricky to say the least)
Scientific explanations are gone, you can fill in the mystical implications with your imagination, as Star Wars should be.
The third act is compelling and character building, an excellent staging for the next episodes.

Only cristisicm (if you can call it such), deleted scenes look a little out of place, but only professionals with the source material could refine the visuals of these to 100% compatibility. And the benefit of having them over not, is fantastic.

I almost feel that there's next to no way to further improve on this edit. Unless you did more shooting, which we can't now, and that would no longer be an edit anyway.

It was so exciting to see what was made of this movie and very entertaining itself that I went on to watch the next two of l8wrtr's prequel edits in the same day. I think that really says something about these edits, as the last time I did a single day prequel marathon it was tiresome as I'm sure you understand.

Thank you l8wrtr!

Having not watched TPM for several years, this was a very refreshing way to reexperience it. The subtle changes to Anakin really improved his character and the movie. There's a lot going on in TPM, so I enjoyed the faster pace, and never felt bored. The podrace especially felt much more tense and enjoyable without the announcer or slapstick humor.

After really enjoying your edit of Episode 2 (and deciding to keep that as my definitive version) I thought I might as well check out your edit of Episode 1.
I gotta say I always liked the movie in general, but I felt that a lot of stuff simply didnt need to be in it and was actually keeping the movie from being as good/entertaining as it could have been.
Watching your version I was quite surprised at how much this movie was improved by simply deleting a few "ingredients".
Jar jar not being a total goofy is probably the biggest improvement, followed by the Gungans being much more graceful in general.
Next big thing on my list is having a lot of the unfunny dialog/comments of the battle droids removed. Makes them seem a lot more like an actual threat, instead of a total (unfunny) joke.
Without going too much into detail (and repeating whats already in your list of changes) I gotta say I really like this edit. Watched it about 8 times so far, and I´m slowly starting to forget a lot of the crap thats shown in the original version. I think I´ll keep this one as my definitive version of the movie, the version that should have been the official one. The regular version will simply serve as an extended cut.
There are only 2 things I am really missing and I think they shouldnt have been removed.
Number one would be Obi-Wan´s comment about it not having been their day of warm welcomes, before diving down to the Gungan city. I liked that comment and cant figure out why it was cut out.
Number two would be the Tusken Raider attack during the pod race.
Both scenes/comments keep on popping up in my head while watching the movie and I miss them somehow. Other than that I´m perfectly happy with this movie.
So thank you for all your efforts on trying (and achieving) to make this a much better movie that actually feels like a star wars movie!

Awesome!!! It may benefit from further polishing although seeing as the main improvement is the step down from the overly bright, overly clean appearance that separated prequeals from the originals Im not sure. Its got low techification effects to immitate the earlier production standards, and a grittier feeling to the shots, grainier maybe - I guess like the old school film used (no expert here) - a fuzzy filter. Ive got AVCHD streaming file viewed on VLC. Maybe a bluray grade MKV will be all improvement necessary.

Its been ages since I watched these as kind of fell out of love with the Star Wars universe after its loss of homogeneity, lacking a vital sense of continuity between the films. I believe this fan edit has done what needed to be done. Less appeal to the 'family friendly' crowd with lame humour; what I was calling Disneipifcation before I understood what that really meant..... Im new here and am yet to behold a salvation of the sequels. Good start on this one!!!

This edit is absolutely phenomenal - perhaps the best version of the film possible. We can all agree that The Phantom Menace leaves much to be desired, but watching l8wrtr's edit restored some of the joy from the original trilogy. So, what made this edit so great?

- Jar Jar is.... bearable? His presence is so limited, and all of his foolishness is removed. Now, he comes across as a competent, if a little odd, alien who comes from a clan of warriors. While he can still annoy us with his speech patterns and ridiculousness, he doesn't come close to ruining our experience.
- THE PACE. The film just keeps moving, and this movie needed a bit of a boost. I can't get over the fact that I was enjoying myself as the movie started, because all of the needlessness was gone.
- The villains. The Neimoidians felt like a part of the villainy this time around. I didn't realize how much they hurt the film, but when they are willful participants they increase the stakes of the movie.

Unfortunately, while there are many improvements, nothing can save the acting in this movie. It's just as dreadful as it always was, but this time... there's less of it.

Nobody can make The Phantom Menace as good as the originals, nor as good as what Disney releases now. l8wrtr sure does his darndest, though, and boy does it pay off.