Star Wars: Abridged II - The Rebellion

While subject's prequel edit was a tight 3-in-1 that tackled the baseline of that trilogy, this was where the meat of the editor's overall saga starts to tenderise...and boy was it worth the heartache and hard work. This was such a great film to watch from start to finish.

I was bowled over by how darn COMPLETE it was, subject left breathing space for all of the pay offs, the themes all make sense, Luke's growth over a span of hours feels just as rewarding as spending three films with him going through this, his Jedi training and his youthful naivety is far more logically structured when they're paced back to back rather than months and months later like in the gap between A New Hope and Empire.

It also makes perfect sense for the Death Star to be in a continuous state of construction and not resemble it's'whole' self, it lends itself well to scenes from A New Hope where they're discussing the Death Star's vulnerabilities.

Han and Leia's love story is a real highlight, no longer feeling like we missed any information at the beginning of Empire, the romance is founded in the first act, goes through some teething in the second, and blossoms in the third.

I kicked myself recognising beats from Empire, and then seeing so many swerves with that narrative. It was just an epic sort of editing, really taking a uniquely innovative approach, Han escaping his carbonite fate entirely has rarely been a concept realised by other editors, with yours being amongst the first, and perhaps even the best at it so far unless I'm missing any.

The bridging of Luke heading to Dagobah and the battle over Hoth was smartly crafted, I like the idea of Luke involved in an X-Wing dogfight that doesn't require the Death Star trench, there's so little of them besides A New Hope.

I found no hard cuts, no quick cuts, no extra frames, nothing, the editing was of a very consistent and professional standard.

This is highly recommended, a rich, rewarding remix of a very familiar and cherished story. Subject has worked tirelessly on this edit and his progress has been one of my real privileges to experience. Without a doubt he's creating a very different kind of movie and has taken tremendous chances, this is an all new Star Wars experience.

This is STELLAR piece of creativity.

I have long contemplated this as a project myself, but Subjectzero nailed it by using material from Rogue One and welding together a narrative that has no noticeable gaps or holes. That is a feat in itseflf considering that half the underlying material has basically been evaporated!

I need to keep this spoiler free, but I will say there moments of genius in here.

The only reason I'm knocking a star off, again without spoilers, is there are a couple of narrative progressions which could benefit from a smoother approach, plus I would have preferred maybe Harmy's DeSpecialized as the source, but hey I'm nitpicking frankly...this is nevertheless incredible. There are moments gone which I did not even notice, until I found myself on my second viewing keeping an eye open for them and just being amazed at how deftly they were surgically excised with xero detriment to my enjoyment and engagement.

The finale especially is so well edited in audio and visuals that frankly, I could not believe how well it worked and how seamless the whole sequence was.

Couple that with improved Tarkin and Leia, and lots of little touches and add-ons, and frankly, this is a real treak and my "go to" version when I want to re-watch the original trilogy.

BRAVO Sir! I just can't knock that start off....

This is a fantastic distillation and re-imagining of the original trilogy films. The story is mostly the same, with some well considered alterations that work really well. I didn't really miss the chunks that were excised, and some of them being gone does really help the story along.

The story arcs of the main characters (including the Death Star) made sense and worked really well. Some of the supporting characters going almost missing surprisingly was not really missed. The way scenes were reordered and repurposed worked really well; if you didn't know where the clip was originally used you'd never know it was moved.

There were a few picky technical bits I didn't completely love. I also would have preferred Harmy's Despecialised version for the source, but using SE still worked--and was probably necessary to get the resolution. It also allowed consistency when more recent HD scenes were spliced in. The deviation from the typical Star Wars movie opening again threw me a bit, but that's just me being used to the scroll then starfield pan down open since 1977. I'm not completely in love with the updates to the Obi Wan/Vader duel. But that is all minor, subjective stuff.

The editor successfully managed to merge the three films into a cohesive narrative. And he was very smart in the way he reorganized the material, especially from TESB, to remove Han's capture. Because we know the original material, we can find small flaws, but I think it would be impossible to do better with what is available. Space battles are very exciting and worth mentioning.
The technical aspects are impeccable, both in image and sound.

Finally, it is an excellent edition, which, although it may not please purists, updates and brings a new look to the classic trilogy. I look forward to part 3 with a high expectation.

Congratulations to the Editor!

Do, or do not, there is no try! Well, damn it, Subjectzero did it!

Despite a few minor things, I quite enjoyed the edit. Combining 3 beloved movies, 4 if you count Rogue One, is not an easy task, but Sub manages to deliver a fresh take grown with. I appreciate the effort.