Star Wars - Episode I: Shadow of the Sith

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.

I've never been a great lover of the Star Wars prequels but when they the blu-ray box set became available the completest in me had to get all 6 movies. After watching them over the Christmas holidays it was torture watching these prequels and I wanted to replace them with fanedits and so I decided to take a look L8wrtr edit.

overall the edit is a vast improvement over the original, not only does this edit make Jar-Jar Binks watchable but even dare i say likable. the ending is extremely well done in stripping back the many different story elements and placing the focus on the fight scenes and Anakin. I've briefly listened to the commentary and was surprised by just how much was removed without me noticing.

I'm not a die hard star wars fan so one or two edit choices that were made I wouldn't have made as i feel thay effect the overall story. for instance it never bothered me that Anakin built C3-PO so this removal was noticeable when all of a sudden a droid is hanging around our main characters without him ever been introduced.

also i felt to much was removed from the pod race, with two laps to go they are 6 pods still competing then in a matter in minutes it's just between Anakin and Sebulba without ever seeing what happens to the other four competitors. i can understand the editors reason in wanting to remove the Wacky Races aspect to the pod-race but for me it just didn't feel right.

overall L8wrtr has made what i consider a bad film more tolerable but i'm still on the look out for the perfect Episode I fanedit. I'm giving this a 7/10

L8wrtr adds his list of names to those who have undertaken the Herculean task of trying to fix the Star Wars prequels. His cut is a nice quick edit that clocks in at around 90 minutes.

I was surprised to discover that I still wish he had cut *more.* It's not his fault; it's just how badly I react to the original film, I guess. I haven't seen a cut that ever went deep enough for me. Of course, any less running time, and it would no longer even be a feature. I suppose my ideal version of Phantom Menace would be roughly 30 minutes long!

None of this is a complaint at L8's ability to smoothly and effectively cut together the material. In terms of the audio/visual presentation, it's flawless. Hats off to L8 for taking on the challenge and doing an excellent job!

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.

*This rating was given before reviews were required*