Review Detail

This condensed version works quite well. Lots got cut out as would be expected distilling 3 movies down to a single 2 1/5 hour movie, but the edit achieved its objective. Lots of side plots and time spent on annoying slapstick are eliminated, instead focusing on the primary story arc: the Skywalker family saga.

A few niggles. The cold open felt a bit odd for a Star Wars film; I've spent since 1977 starting with the intro scroll, then starfield pan down entering the movie. The initial sequence felt a bit choppy. Also, I've grown accustomed to the now stereotypical wipe transitions, so a few transitions jumped out due to being different (fade to black, then fade back, iris wipe). As much as this was distilled down, the assassin chase through Coruscant seemed long.

That said, I like the recasting of how Anakin was located. While I miss the pod race, it's not needed for the overall arc and loses lots of time in extraneous side stuff. The new reason for finding him works well. It also eliminates the weird, creepy age difference between Anakin & Padme and his suddenly growing up while she didn't age so much. Now their story makes more sense and the creepy part is just due to Anakin's emotional issues.

While not a perfect edit for me, I am more than willing to overlook the little hiccups for the quicker-paced more focused telling of this story arc. It does seem like just one or maybe two movies worth of story (especially since almost all of TPM is gone and not missed), so this works well.