Star Wars - Episode I: Attack of the Federation

Review by Radi0n — September 18, 2010 @ 2:44 pm

**OVERVIEW**
The Good:
-No Jar-Jar ‘Tarzan’ yell when jumping in the lake.
-Sidious’ lowered voice and obscured face really strengthen his menacing, phantom-like threat over the Republic.
-The Gungan-city scene was handled perfectly! It still feels weird, because you know what the original was like, but it flowed so perfectly. Excellent job!
-Boss Nass’ tics have been completely removed.
-The Planet-core sequence wasn’t missed at all, although you have to admit the Sando Aqua monster was pretty awesome! :)
-No Jar-Jar stepping in poo, and no Jar-Jar bout with Sebulba. Another great cut.
-Anakin’s fight with Greedo was a great addition.
-Jar-Jar’s pod-test antics completely removed!

The Bad:
-Instead of completely removing Fodesinbeed Annodue (the two-headed announcer), he should have been trimmed down, at best.
The introductory scene to the pod-race now feels weird, as if everyone is greeting the crowd for no reason whatsoever.
-It makes no sense for the Tusken Raiders to shoot two podracers without any difficulty, only to miss several Jawa’s repeatedly.
-Anakin’s introduction to Obi-Wan, and the following scene between Anakin and Padmé, could have, and should have, been cut.
-Anakin’s scene with Amidala should have been cut. The smirk on Anakin’s face when he thanks Amidala is too much to bear.
-Again, this editor claims to have removed Anakin’s autopilot sequence, yet here as well, Anakin tells R2 to “override it”.
If there were no autopilot, what could he possibly override? This sequence seems to be overlooked by every single editor.

Annotations:
-Anakin’s ‘Angel crap’ dialogue could have been cut too, although it serves as a stepping stone to Anakin’s later feelings. So, okay, not too bad.
-Jar-Jar’s bumbling in Watto’s store couldn’t possibly have been left out, due to Qui-Gon’s “we’re leaving” bit, but again, no hard feelings there.
-The build-up to the original midichlorians could have been dropped altogether, although going from the pod-test scene to Darth Maul would have been too much of a good/evil contrast.
-Jabba the Hutt’s removal was spot on. This was another one of George Lucas’ “special cameo” appearances, and served no purpose whatsoever.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

VIDEO:
No technical flaws whatsoever.
Perfect editing

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

AUDIO:
No hard cuts, no mid-sentence cuts, no hard fadeouts, or anything of that kind.

Overall:
5 out of 5 stars

PRESENTATION:
Static menu with fanedit trailers of Episodes I, II and III.
The fanedit trailers were a nuisance, to be honest.
JasonN is a great faneditor, but should get help when it comes to creating Fanedit titles and trailer texts. “Every history has a past”? By definition, history is everything that took place in the past. It doesn’t make any sense. Furthermore, those lines kept being used in all three Episode trailers. It made everything fall apart. In my opinion, the films could use better titles than “Attack of the Federation”, “Twilight of the Republic” and “The Black Knight Rises”.

Overall:
2,5 out of 5 stars

IMPROVEMENT OVER THE ORIGINAL:
Even though it could do far better by removing all remarks listed under ‘The Bad’, it still deserves merit as the best Phantom Menace edit released so far. Jar-Jar’s antics have been severely reduced, Palpatine’s identity as Sidious has been hidden, as it should have been, and Boss Nass is no longer a spastic twit.

Overall:
4,5 out of 5 stars

FINAL SCORE: *** out of 5 stars

Adds up to a fanedit score of:
8,5 out of 10 stars
(Since I find this edit superior to The Phantom Edit, I gave it a solid 9 instead.)

Review by white43 — March 28, 2009 @ 4:08 am

“I have to date watched at least 4 edits of the PM. None of them ever seemed to come up to scratch – none of them simply went far enough. We all know the issues, but does Jason’s version finally achieve this?
Well, I can say – The Force is strong with this one!
Jason pretty much made public what he was doing with the film, so I knew what to expect somewhat.

Audio and Audio Edit
Sound was good, I detected no problems. Nice and clear. The audio edits were largely seemless.

Video and Video Edit
No issues. Nice clear pictures.

A couple times I did note what seemed to be a quick edits, but then, I’m looking for them and I know the film. They were however minor and didn’t bring me out of the film. The reviewer above states where a couple are.

I noted an error in a Watto subtitle. It’s where he’s telling Anakin and Padme that Qui-Gonn shouldn’t keep betting “I’ll being owning him soon.”

The edit.

Good
- Blacking out Sidious and deepening the voice is excellent. Makes him feel like a separate character. Jar Jar has been hacked down to an absolute minimum, I barely noticed him in this edit. He no longer irritates. Anakin is trimmed down and although he’s still fairly annoying, all his yippies and whoops are gone…bar one at the end of the battle……do we really need it?
- No underwater fish attacks, no podrace commentary, removal of most of Sebulba – excellent. Not missed and works very well.
- Boss, no ticks.
- Droids – no voices. This is very effective.
- Anakin deliberately piloting the ship, that has always been a good idea.

Stuff not so good….
- Captain Obvious still says too many things.
- A scene which I’ve never liked is when they all leave Tattooine. Anakin being cold, “I made this for you.”, “I don’t need this to remember you.” “I’ll always care for you…” etc etc. My god she’s only just met the kid. It turns out they care about each other so much he doesn’t see her for 10 years.
- Big celebration at the end! I thought you’d kill that one. It’s a horrible scene.

Conclusion
The pace of this film is spot on and it’s the first time I’ve watched TPM without it seeming to drag ass. I enjoyed this edit more than any other edit I’ve seen of the film. It felt liberating not to see all the crap that’s usually in it and actually enjoy it!

Tommy two thumbs up from me 9/10 (For the few technical errors and the reasons above)”

Review by pizzaguylol — June 27, 2009 @ 11:54 pm

My new definitive cut of TPM!

10/10

Review by pizzaguylol — August 29, 2010 @ 10:18 am

Watching this again over a year later, and I actually have to give it a 9/10. There’s still a few scenes I don’t like… like R2 being brought to the Queen, Jar-Jar’s jump into the lake, some other unnecessary dialogue… STILL my definitive cut. 9/10

Review by TMBTM — April 11, 2010 @ 2:49 pm

Some things that I don’t like still are in this cut. But this is a beautiful fanedit.
Good pace. Nice special effects on Sidious. Lots of work in this version… that push it above the other ones I’ve seen.
Great work.

Review by TV's Frink — April 3, 2010 @ 11:54 pm

This edit is easily my favorite of EP 1. The video, audio, and editing quality are all top notch. The big changes, such as obscuring the identity of Sidious, removing the battle droid dialogue, deleting the underwater sub sequences, changing the introduction of Anakin to Qui-Gon, and removing the podrace announcers all work great. But it’s the little changes that really made me smile.

Removing Nute’s double “what” at the beginning of the film. Changing Jar Jar’s line from “help would be hot” to “help would be nice.” Removing Padme’s strange “we are brave, your highness” line in the hangar. Changing Wald’s line to Greedo after his fight with Anakin, foreshadowing Greedo’s fate. Getting rid of Anakin’s double “very, very dangerous.” Cutting Wald and Kitster failing badly on a high five at the end of the podrace. Getting rid of Anakin’s weird “Wait, sir, I’m tired” line before Maul attacks. Removing the stupid looking/acting aliens in the Senate (especially the E.T.’s), Losing Obi-Wan’s silly “there’s an even bigger danger” line when they are planning the final attack. Deleting Padme’s nonsensical “they win this round” line.

I have seen many of these changes in one or two edits, but no one has hit such a high percentage of the removals I wanted in one edit. And a few (such as the Senate changes) I don’t recall seeing done by anyone else.

This was so close to perfect, though I had a few minor complaints, mostly involving a few additional Jar-Jar and Anakin lines I would have liked to see deleted, as well as some of the Jar-Jar action in the final battle. But overall, this is a fantastic edit, and the one I always recommend (or give) to others.

9/10