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!

First let me set up the scene for you:
There's three of us taking this ride. Two of us have seen all of the films in their original forms. One of us has never seen a Star Wars film in their life. The original plan was to watch the original trilogy that's it. No fuss. Somewhere in the two weeks between watching episode 4 and 5, I read an article about what order is the best order to watch Star Wars. In that article I read an interesting perspective, you watch episode 4 and 5, and then watch episodes 1-3, before watching episode 6. That way episodes 1-3 acts a flashback for darth vader, there's some time to let the cliffhanger sink in from episode 5, you preserve all the reveals in episode 5 (including I AM YOUR FATHER) and you end on a happy conclusion in episode 6.

Here is the article for reference.
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/star-war...-wars-marathon

I thought this was a cool idea, I'm already having fun watching these movies with somebody who never watched them before and it's been at least 10 years since I've seen them myself. But there's no freaking way I'm watching the prequels in theatrical format, nope, not happening. So I do some research and lo and behold there's a dozen prequel edits. There were two that catched my interest the most Q2's and L8Wrtr's. Based off of the number of positive things I heard about L8Wrtr's that's the cut I went with (also accessibility was a factor). I was on the roll, after some convincing of the other Star Wars watchers (especially the one who had seen the prequels), we were on our way.

Coming to tonight, our first adventure into the prequel fanedits. And what an adventure it was. While the first time watcher only rated the film at about a 5 and a half to 6, he had no knowledge of how truly awful these films were. I thought it was tremendous how much better the film was. Seriously.

Technical Specs first:
Audio/Video Quality
Most of the audio video quality was superb, only one or two scenes where the video looked slightly grainy (I think it was the deleted scenes, which I didn't realize were deleted scenes). The audio quality was mostly excellent, I had my usual problem with the effects/soundtrack being way higher than the dialogue. 9/10

Video Editing/Audio Editing:
You would almost never have guessed that any changes were made. Some things come off slightly odd, narrative wise, but mostly it's all very well done. Totally digging the old school swipes and it made it feel consistent with the rest of the saga. 10/10

Narrative:
The story was way tighter and more importantly it mostly all made sense. It's very straightforward and I appreciated that very much. The politics are still politicky and need some focused concentration, but the gist of it is clear. The plan talked about by Padme before the climax lays out what should happen in the final act, but it goes by too fast that I had to reiterate it a couple of times to the rest of my crew watching with me. At times the movie seemed too fast paced for it's own good, but I don't know how you could have done it any better without leaving more crap in the movie.

Enjoyment:
WOW. I really enjoyed this movie. First of all, from the beginning, Shadow of the Sith is a badass title. The opening crawl is clear and concise, gets to the point of the movie right away without delving into too much politics.
Act 1:
The opening is a blast to watch with Qui-Gon and Obi Wan fighting their way out of the tough spot. Love that opening scene and it sets the pace masterfully. The scenes with the emperor pulling the strings makes it clear there's more at work here. Jar Jar is beautifully excised all his dumb stupid crap is gone, he looks slightly out of place just following around, but because he plays a role in the third act, it's impossible to excise him completely. The conversations are light and get to the point moving the plot along switfully. Act 1 is a blast and clearly has no problems.
Act 2:
It's in act 2 where the choppiness begins to take a toll as the whole movie feels like a chase picture. The Jedi's rush from the ambush to the Gungan City from which they rush to Naboo palace, which they rush away in an escape, which crash, which they rush to get back in the air, rush back to the senate, and rush back to Naboo. It starts to feel a little choppy, but really it's still worth it because the underlying problems are with the actors and the characters (especially Jake Lloyd and Natalie Portman who are both stiff as all hell). I think the dialgue and the chemistry between the two could have been sold better by more capable actors. Even "Are you an Angel" doesn't bother me nearly as much as the batshit crazy things the mother says and will allow her son to do. Nonetheless, she is probably overwhelmed by the situation for his birth and is thinking crazy shit about who he is altogether. Qui Gon and Palpatine shine pretty brightly in this picture, each one playing up their character. Qui Gon especially sets the stage for his kind old jedi act to utmost devotion to his belief in the child. Oh and thank goodness that Pod race is heavily cut, it feels much better playing out like a drag race near the end more than an endurance test. I wish you could have cut the rest of the racers all together really.

Act 3:
This is when the movie came together for me. I finally saw something that I never saw before thanks to this cut. And it's this: I love the dichotomy between Anakin and Luke in this move and Episode 4. The naive boy who leaves home with an elder stranger who he has just met, and more importantly that same boy saves the day, by making a shot when no other pilot could. For Luke, the force was a struggle, here it's Anakin uses it with such cavalier attitude. Nothing that good comes easy. Also reading the notes from L8wrtr makes this edit stronger, with nobody else saving the day, no decoy princess, no other crap. The situation is dire and it's saved by the boy that nobody believed in except for Qui Gon. Same with Kenobi and Luke, how much crap did Hans and Leia talk about before Luke jumped in that X-wing. Tons. 7/10

Some issues:
Now I understand a faneditor can't go back and reshoot scens and get rid of bad acting.. I understand that, but this movie is jumping from a 2 or a 3 to about a 7 and that's a big jump.

Nonetheless, the politicks sometimes gets a little unclear even if it is super streamlined, and the plan for the climax is really unclear with one scene to describe it. I definitely like the urgency of the whole situation especially on the escape from Tatooine but it does at times feel choppy. And as someone else pointed out, Anakin is told by Qui Gon to tell the ship to take off, but Obi Wan says the same thing a few minutes later. Also the reveal that Padme is the real princess and the princess is the double, is cool, but it's never used for any useful purpose. I understand it's necessary to cut to get the ending wanted here, and it's necessary to show for the Gungan alliance negotiation, but it just didn't fit right with no legitimate use for it.

In the end we had a great time watching this. And that's really what matters. Great job, and we're looking forward to the next two parts of your prequel trilogy for the next two weeks.

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!

Technical:

I'm new to the fanedit phenomenon and don't feel like my experience is such that I can comment on L8's technical expertise. All I can in this regard is that, with very rare exception, did any of the edits jump out to me and say "I'm a fan edit!" It could easily be confused with an actual studio release.

Enjoyment:

I prefer this version not only to the theatrical release, but to the famed phantom edit as well. While I would concede there are a few moments captured in the Phantom Edit that are missed, L8's pacing and storytelling is completely consistent.

Until something better comes along, which considering how high the bar was raised here I doubt will happen soon, this will be my go-to version of the movie.

Thank you!

STAR WARS EPISODE I: SHADOW OF THE SITH by L8WRTR

The Phantom Menace. What is there to say about the original 1999 prequel? Well, I would like to say that when I first saw it, I loved it. There were certain annoyances (ahem…Jar-Jar…ahem…Jake Lloyd), but I mean, I was pretty young, so I thought it was awesome. I don’t completely disagree with my less wise self, as there are some genuinely cool parts of the film. However, as I’ve gotten older, these annoyances have intensified. I can still watch the film and enjoy it, I just cringe a lot. One other annoyance has become more evident though, and that is the pointlessness of the story.

Unfortunately for L8wrtr, he’s only managed to intensify this fact. In this process of cutting the film down to the bare necessities, he’s dramatically increased the pacing of the film. While many might think this a good thing, it’s really detrimental. The original’s problems were conceptual. I re-watched it recently, and I noticed something I hadn’t really noticed before: it’s pacing is actually much better than I remember. For awhile I’ve been trying to pin down what makes TPM and Attack of the Clones different in badness. I’ve figured it out. TPM’s story is pointless, however, when shown with a 2+ hour runtime, there is time for the story and the world time to flesh out, which allows me to enjoy the movie as a self-contained little tale. AOTC’s story is kind of what TPM’s story should have been, but the movie still sucks because the pacing’s all screwed up.

So, sadly, by making the movie 1 1/2 hours, circulation has been cut off to the plot. The movie now feels like just a set up for the next movie, but it can’t really even function this way because, like I said, the story is pointless. This is the movie that starts the saga, it doesn’t feel right that it would be this short, faced paced adventure. Now I don’t really miss anything L8wrtr cut, but the movie doesn’t really work when its that short. I know many people will disagree with me, but its just how the movie feels when I watch it. The pacing is so quick that I feel like some of the sequences go by so fast that you’re almost questioning what happened. I like getting rid of Jar Jar’s banishment, but the whole scene with Boss Nass and Qui-Gon goes by so quickly that your left trying to figure what just happened after the scene is finished. One scene that really lags in my opinion is the pod race. Without the announcers, the opening is really quite uneventful. Speaking of things that are uneventful without voices, the battle droids. Also at the end of the film, when all hope is supposedly lost in the battle, the editing is so quick that the possibility that our heros might actually lose doesn’t even occur in the mind because, before you know, Anakin has just saved the day.

Something that I know people, including me, don’t like is the ending. Yes, no one really likes the celebration, I know I’ve hated it since I first saw it, but the ending as is in the edit is far too downbeat. Now, I saw in one of the forums someone said that they think the movie should end with the scene of Obi-Wan talking to Yoda. I didn’t like this idea the first time I heard it because I think the funeral scene is a good one. But it got me thinking, what if the funeral scene played first (sans Anakin and Kenobi dialogue) and then the Yoda and Kenobi scene is the final scene of the film? One other random edit suggestion that came to me while watching the movie is during the scene when Padme discusses the battle plan. As she goes over the different parts of the plan, there are cutaway shots to the other people listening. When she mentions the pilots, in the original film the cutaway shot is of Obi-Wan, but I think it would a good edit to make the shot of Ankin instead, showing that he’s taking interest in that particular part of plan, which makes his decision to join the battle later make all the more sense.

One technical problem I noticed was when Watto is first introduced, the subtitle starts and ends too soon.

Okay, rant done. I just felt I needed to explain the main flaw of the edit properly. Now, like I said before, none of the cuts are really missed, or noticeable. There were a few that I definitely noticed, but they were only because of my knowledge of the original film. The only really slightly almost sloppy editing came at the end during the final battle. The music was just all over the place, but I honestly don’t think there was much that could be done when so much was being cut out. Don’t get me wrong though, this is by no means a bad edit. I really enjoyed all the little plot points that have been changed. Making Anakin the hero was particularly ingenious. Also, the editing was superb in the scene where Obi-Wan kills Maul. I have to say one of my favorite parts of the edit was the opening crawl. To me, it was the perfect way to set up the film, and its what the original movie needed. It put emphasis on the real point of the movie (the sith have returned), which, in the original movie, felt like an unimportant sub-plot. It also reduced the complexity of the trade dispute because, honestly, we really didn’t need to know exactly why there was a blockade, especially considering less than 10 minutes into the film Darth Sidious says f*** it, and reveals that the whole thing was part of an invasion.

Anyways, I would give the original TPM a score of 6 out of 10. As a movie I would give Shadow of the Sith a 7 out of 10. Since I know that it wasn’t really L8wrtr’s fault that the movie still isn’t great, and that, for the most part, the editing is supreme, I give STAR WARS EPISODE I: SHADOW OF THE SITH 8/10.

EDIT (2/12/13): I just re-watched this edit, and wanted to give my (second) thoughts. Like I said in my review, when I first watched this edit, I had recently re-watched the original film. I think this negatively affected my opinion of the edit. I was, frankly, kind of tired of the movie, and wasn't paying too much attention to all of what this edit had to offer.

So here are my thoughts. Almost everything I said in my original review still stands, but more over-all feelings are more positive. I stand by the fact that the pacing of this edit, while good, leaves something to be desired. There's no breathing room. Things just keep happening. There's no introduction to the world of Star Wars. But this isn't quite L8wrtr's fault. What this edit gives us is one hell of an enjoyable movie, one that is without the Phantom Menace's cringe-worthy distractions. Everything that's in works, and is fun. Yes, is goes by too fast. Yes, the length isn't Star Warsy. But I blame George Lucas for that - for not giving us a meaty enough story. So no, the edit doesn't work as a standalone film, like the original film does. No, it also doesn't really work as opening to the saga. But it works as a good version of Episode I, that you can watch in order of release, Machete order, or really whenever you want (providing you understand the world). It's a great edit.