Star Wars: Downfall of The Old Republic

For what it's essentially accomplishing, it's a good edit but relies too heavily on things you should already know from previously seeing the prequels in full. I don't know if someone who never saw a Star Wars film would be able to follow it very well...but then again, I don't KNOW that because I can only look at this and think "there are key things missing". I'd really like to know what someone who has either never seen a Star Wars movie or has never seen the prequels would think about this edit.

Visually, the edit works for the most part, but the pacing of the cuts can be hectic at times where it moves from clip to clip rather quickly. The audio chops in the Episode 1 portion did get bad at times with audio cutting out from stereo to mono on occasion among other things. Nothing that ruins the film but it was noticeable...not much else outside of that though. I would say it's mostly competent.

The narrative overall is mostly the same story, just with a lot of the fat (and some of the meat) chopped out. Unfortunately, I think the narrative here suffers a bit from the brisk pace. Anakin and Padme never form an actual relationship before she just suddenly admits she loves him. Anakin's mom's death just kind of comes out of nowhere. I don't feel like Dooku was ever really given a back story to let us know he's not actually "evil", just misunderstood. And the transition between films is overly noticeable - as one person said, it feels like it was 'going to commercial' in a TV movie. It's little annoyances like those throughout that mar the narrative a little.

I did REALLY like the omission of the cloning of Jango Fett. It felt a lot better without it. That is one thing that has been kept in every other edit I've seen so far. While some have made it much more tolerable, I always thought it was stupid to have Jango be the source of the clones. It was clearly just Boba Fett fan service. This edit basically just makes it an army that was secretly forming for the soon-to-be emperor. That was a nifty plus for this edit.

Overall, the film consists of 20 minutes of Ep.1, about 45 minutes of Ep.2, and the remaining hour spent with Ep.3. Personally, I feel like Ep. 2 should have been a larger focus than 3. I think too much time is spent on 3 here.

All in all, this is a good attempt at making the trilogy into a single film, but moves a little too briskly for the scope of the story told here. We all know it's apparently possible to make it a 90 minute film from what we've heard about the Topher Grace cut, but I don't know if it's necessary to cut it that short (obviously I won't know until the Grace edit is ever seen).

I honestly feel like there's still a very good way to compile a single film from the 3, but I don't know if it's possible to make it sub 4 hours. As much as I hate to say it, I feel like there is a good 30+ minutes of essential story from Episode 1 that leads into Ep 2 (the strongest of the 3 in my opinion), and I feel like if maybe half of Ep 3 was chopped into Ep 2's tail end, it could be done. I look at HAL9000's Episode 2 edit as being the most perfect edit of the middle of this story so far, so all we need is to find someone to chop 1 & 3 up and sandwich them around HAL9000's Ep2 then we'd have a solid film... it'd be around 4 hours for sure, but at least would be worthy of the Star Wars moniker.

This edit is pretty awesome, I laughed pretty hard when phantom menace ended in 20 minutes (you must hate that movie) and I liked the removal of anything related to General Grievous (it worked shockingly well). The video quality was OK but I can't really tell because I watched an MP4 on my phone so I'll leave that at 8.

Visual Editing:

Pretty good all around except for a few very noticeable cuts, in the mustafar battle, Anakin and Obi-Wan do this extremely cheesy thing where they hold hands but then a second later they aren't anymore, the whole thing needs to be cut because it takes you out of the experience for a few moments. Later in that battle the end of it could have worked but it was edited roughly and is very obvious (also, there's never land at the bottom of a water/lava fall).

Audio Editing:

Pretty rough all around, battles were an absolute mess for the most part, music was freaking out and changing/rearranging all over the place and really drove me nuts! This might be one of your first edits but PLEASE fix this. It still passes though because the dialogue isn't shredded up. (although cutting mention of general grievous was a little awkward)

Narrative:

Works pretty well, mainly about obi-wan but sometimes cuts to anakin randomly, nothing terrible here (cutting clones actually makes a continuity error with the original trilogy jus' sayin')

Over all, I enjoyed it, it wasn't bad, has some unique cuts and is worth you while if you're on a Star Wars craze but nothing INSANE here.

This is a great edit. A bigger recut was needed just as an experiment if it could work or not and this looks like it very much can!

It condenses Sidious' plot of befriending a Jedi of great potential and overthrowing the Republic. By showing less and focusing on the manipulation, Anakin's turn to the darkside feels more realistic.

Thoughts from watching:

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Changes Not Noticed in Other Fan Edits:

No clone troopers - This is the biggest and best new edit that I haven't heard of being done before. An "army of the republic" could field a view battalions from people from Coruscant just fine. Since they aren't involved in the fight on Geonosis, their can be a time gap from after it is declared and they are organized and deployed.

No Kamino - Human clones were always a bad idea. Call the droids "clones" (since they are mass produced) and be done with it.

No Naboo return - Good to skip most of this but maybe keep some dialogue about Anakin's home and keep the reason why they leave and go to Tatooine (forget what it was from actual Ep 2).

No General Grievous - great to get rid of that goofy CGI waste of time.

Didn't notice a Padme death dream - Made his desire to protect Padme a little more out of the blue, but he does reference that he doesn't want her to die like his Mom which adds a bit more sense. Maybe if he talked more about his home and Mother the connection would be more clear.

Ending fight cut was great idea - maybe slow down the drop of the pier, it looks like too far of a jump if it is too far over the lavafall. Maybe a quick establishing shot of Obi wan looking from the shore. It was a little jarring at first.

Great end on Vader

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Great Changes in this Fan Edit Noticed in other Fan Edits:
No yoda saber usage - great
No Promised One Prophecy

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Great Changes in Other Fan Edits but not in This One (and should be):
Make Federation leaders look less stupid in Ep 1
No Rex Dinner
No Youngling scenes or references / No killing Jedi kids (make Jedi's not a creepy cult) (HAL 9000)
No Stupid conveyor belt scene (HAL 9000)
Palapatine evil face reveal instead of scaring (HAL 9000)
Padme doesn't die at the end but becomes Traumatized (HAL 9000), this fits better as Anakin's motives are more political and lines up with OT continuity as Leia remembers her mom.

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Great Changes in Other Fan Edits but not in This One (and maybe should be):
No Anakin loses saber
Dooku revealed earlier in Ep2 (who is this "Dooku" people are talking about problem)
No "Tyranus", just Dooku

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Changes Recommended that may not be in other Edits:

No Jedi super speed on board ship (they can't use it later during Maul fight)

Cut "only a Sith deals in absolutes", self contradictory statement, Jedi should be smarter.

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Enlisted soldiers killing Jedi? - works if a select group of dark side disciples assigned to escort the Jedi but thousands attacking the temple right away is less believable.

Just show Vader marching into temple. Cut mass combat in the temple, Anakin killing kids, and Organa landing at temple.

A large force surrounding the temple and arresting Jedi would make the News pretty fast. You can assume most of the army force attacking the temple believe they are there to secure the site and arrest the Jedi (who are secretly executed later). But Anakin is there killing any Jedi that resist. Since many Jedi are off world, including their leadership, they are vulnerable.

Maybe cut mention of "see smoke from here".

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Love Story with Padme:

Cut the "I love you" out of nowhere in Ep2 before arena - just keep the hug at the end of Ep2

Cut marriage at end of Ep2. With the same Anakin hair it appears like it happens right away. Just start relationship after Ep 3 and it is more obvious a few years have past and we can assume their relationship started in Ep 2 but they didn't get married the next day.

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Queen to Senator Padmé Amidala Solution

Make Padme a military Lieutenant in Ep 1, who enters politics by the time of Ep 2.

Cut "queen Adamala" from Gunray on ship - start with "hello your highness"
Cut Sidious hologram saying "queen Amadala" - start with "will we find controlling her will not be difficult"

Cut out "your highness" when referencing her in the strategy planning section. Portman first appears in field explaining the attack plan. "your highness" is used twice here.

Cut reference to "time to sign treaty you highness." Just say "your little insurrection has come to an end". Cut "this one is a decoy"

Those are the only 5-6 times she is referenced as royalty in the edit, fix those and it will be as if Naboo has a child queen and a different elected senator, which actually makes sense.

You could even add to the opening text crawl that says "Before Adamala entered the Senate..."

*may contain spoilers*

As you can see from other reviews, as well as discussions at the forum, opinions about certain elements of this edit vary. As the one who approved this edit, I figure I would take a minute to mention a few specifics and why certain things didn't hold me back from passing it.

- Complete removal of Anakin from TPM was brilliant. Of course, it wouldn't have worked if it was an edit of just TPM, but in this case, no problem. When AOTC starts, we just figure 'oh, Obi-Wan took an apprentice. Padme knew him for years and hadn't seen him in a while.' I think the early scenes in the elevator and meeting with Padme, because it provides a quick way to establish their potential 'wink wink, nudge nudge' relationship without the horrible sap of the butt monster picnic, and not so little info that you'd think 'where did this come from?' later on.
- The whole Senator/Queen thing is just another part of the whole political mess of the movies and I don't see how anyone would care what position she had. She's a V.I.P. 'nuff said.
- There could've been a '10 years later' or whatever title card added between movies, but that has been done before and I didn't think it was necessary. Most people who would watch this have seen the movies multiple times already and don't need their hands held. (but don't try telling George that!)
- I will agree that to a certain extent, Qui-Gonn is underdeveloped and his death doesn't mean as much. But then, I think about what has been excised and...there just isn't a ton of development anyway! I would like to see Qui-Gonn more, as Neeson was one of the good things about TPM, but I don't know how much could be put back in that wouldn't involve scenes that are rightfully cut. Therefore, his amount of screen time is pretty decent. *shrug*
- No Kamino! How 'bout that?
- The way the Obi-Wan/Vader fight ended was so cool! It shortened it in a brilliant manner. I hope other editors borrow this idea. ;)
- The ending has no "noooooooooooo!"? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! (pronounced 'yeez')

At the end of the day, is this a perfect edit? No, but there is plenty to enjoy, with some brilliant editing choices, as mentioned. (I'm ahppy with this one, but if H.S.F. wants to implement some of the suggestions others have made for a possible future version, I would look forward to that one too.) With the absolute plethora of PT edits out there, it's nice to see another one with some genuinely fresh ideas, not just another 'no Jar Jar' one. I didn't have problems with continuity, partially because I knew the stories and filled in any gaps, partially because I hate politics, and partly because...well, let's be honest, they're just not the most interesting characters, especially Padme. (maybe that's just me) Overall, little hiccups are bound to happen when you make a mega-edit, but there's nothing that really bothered me.

Recommended, especially to those who know the stories already.

This edit was ambitious, but due to some amateurish editing and continuity errors brought on by the editing, this edit suffers. If you wish you can PM me and I can point out things that need to be fixed seeing as how the edit had tons of potential. As for good things: I love how you used TPM as a monologue though you should have used the scene when Yoda makes Obi-Wan a Jedi Knight and gives him permission to train Anakin so that when we see him in later we are not confused as to who he is. The scene in which Palpatine revealed himself to Anakin was masterfully crafted and went along with what you were trying to do with Anakin (Until you had the Padme/Vader scene on Mustafar in which he says "I am becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of. To protect you" and he also says "I won't lose you the way I lost my mother"). The way you ended the Obi-Wan vs Vader duel was kind of awesome and I haven't seen that in another fan edit. Kudos for that. The way you had Vader put at the suit is something no other fan editor has done yet and it was masterfully done. Like I said don't hesitate to PM me because I would like to help you in making this fan edit the best it possibly can.