Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith [Special Edition]

Review by amatar — August 29, 2010 @ 11:21 pm

Well, I just finished watching this movie, so I will write myself a li’l review for you.

I am basing this review on the DL DVD version.

I am a huge fan of JasonN’s version of this movie, but I thought I’d DL this just to see if the movie could be improved even more (Episode III is, as everyone seems to think, the best of the PT).

TECHNICAL

WONDERFUL quality! The picture was as crisp as any DVD I’ve seen (I watched it on a 19″ CRT, which I believe have far superior pictures to LCDs). The sound was great (admittedly on my 2.0 PC speakers) with nary a strange cut to be found. Incredibly smooth with and balanced, with no effects or dialogue getting drowning out or intruding on each other at any point.

I noticed but one semi-hard cut in the movie when Obi and Anakin were going to meet with the Chancellor after they “landed” the crippled cruiser, and there was one transition effect I wasn’t terribly fond of (what would make me laugh is if it were an original Lucas transition and I just THOUGHT it was Stankpac’s lol), but these are minor niggles and in no way took me out of the movie.

Overall, the Picture Quality and the sound quality were top notch! – 10/10 Great job!!!

EDITING

Amazing choices overall :) I will go into the detail of the ones that really stood out to me at the time…I wish I had a pen to write them down, because I can’t remember them all lol

THE GOOD

– The buzz droids are gone!!
– The entire first battle was greatly reduced in time…this made it feel MUCH more like Episode IV. Episode IV was a very hurried movie at it”s start.
– Anakin just lops off Dooku’s head without any prompting…I kind of liked a bit of the prompting, but it makes no real difference to the movie and
doesn’t detract from the movie at all (kind of makes Anakin seem like a bastard too lol)
– No dumb-assed R2 slapstick (which I hated with a burning passion)…very smoothly taken out.
– Adding in Droidekas coming in through the door instead of R2 flying through.
– The Boga scenes were trimmed. I really did not mind at all that there were some of his calls in there. It made it seem like a real creature to me.
– No “duh” moment when Obi separates Grevious’s chest armour!
– Adding in the “Birth of the Rebellion” scene really adds to the movie.
– No balcony scene!
– Windu’s fight with Sidious is improved in EVERY way…and the jedi masters don’t go out like a bunch of pussies lol
– The fight between Yoda and Sidious is gone. I didn’t miss it one bit.
– There is no hesitation with Anakin lopping off Windu’s hand.
– No “What have I done?” from Anakin (I liked his lack of remorse. Much more convincing)
– No Wookie battle or cheezy Tarzan scream…all the cuts involving Kashyyk here were for the better.
– Anakin does not turn to the camera with the stupid tear in his eye.
– I absolutely LOVED when Obi looks at the dead Younglings, says “Who could have done this?” and then the movie cuts immediately to Anakin
killing the Separatist leaders…well done!!!
– The lightsaber battle was great!! It is pretty much the same as JasonN’s, which I loved (and I’m glad for the loss of the lightsaber twirling and force
push things…these were stupid, unrealistic – even for Star Wars – and meant as nothing but very lousy-tasting eye candy).
– No Emperor on Mustafar scene. This scene was comprised of entirely weak camera angles and I never liked it.
– Amildala dies as a result of Anakin choking her. No more is heard after she is choked.
* Did you lower the emphasis of Anakin’s voice when he says “MY empire”???? It didn’t seem as annoying as it did before somehow.
– No horrible “Birth of Vader” Scene (I hate it for reasons I previously posted)
– No Vader and Emperor watching the Death Star under construction. I liked the scene in the first place, but it is not missed AT ALL.
– The ending is crisp and concise. Great choices.
– There are more, but I have a family I have to pay attention to and I don’t have the days it would require to write them all down lol

THE “MEH”

– I liked the Grevious/Anakin banter…cheezy, yes, but I like it lol and now it’s gone — Personal Opinion –
– Took out “Another happy landing.” I liked that too –Personal Opinion –
– Obi’s battle with Grevious was oddly silent.
– I would have ended Vader’s Birth at “Yes, my Master.” — Personal Opinion –
– Nothing else that I can remember.

As you can see, the good far, far outweighs the bad in this edit. I really wish Ian MacDermot’s acting would have been better after his battle with Windu, and that Obi actually HAD watched the Younglings get killed on the security vid (which he says he did, but was never shown for some weird reason…Lucas dropped the ball on that one)

Overall editing – 9.5/10 (just due to my personal choices)

I have now watched JasonN’s and Stankpac’s versions of the film, and, overall I think Stankpac’s version is a tiny bit better. I watched the Phantom Editor’s version of Episode II and the movie was completely ruined before it started (because of the opening crawl) and I was forced to delete it from my hard drive. I will keep yous and JasonN’s versions of this movie just for different viewing experiences in the future because they are both great edits.

Your edits to the STORY were perfect! I actually felt bad for Anakin by the end of it, which is a far cry to wishing he had fallen off the edge of a building at the BEGINNING of the movie lol. I hope you come out of your Prequel Trilogy burnout soon, because would kill to see your edits of Episode s I and II!!!

Overall, I give your edit a hugely enthusiastic 10/10. I have my minor niggles, but they are inconsequential in the overall picture. Keep up the wonderful work!!!

I recently revisited the prequels to see if I could find versions that would at least make me want to acknowledge more than the OT. While these movies have always been pretty terrible to me, I always believed AotC was the only one beyond saving. After watching a few of the more highly rated versions of Ep3, this is my favorite. There are things I prefer in other versions (most of it has to do with deeper cuts), but overall this one has the best edits IMO. I know some prefer these movies to stay closer to the typical two hour length of most SW movies, but I much prefer the deeper cuts. And, as I said, I think a few more things could be cut. Mostly little trims, but one thing, in particular, occurred to me. Has anyone ever tried to edit the Order 66 scene to remove Yoda's use of the lightsaber? I would prefer a PT that does not have Yoda even owning a lightsaber. My thought would be to edit his reactions to the other Jedi slayings so it is obvious he knows he needs to get out of there. Utilize the footage of the Wookies carrying him off and remove the troopers ever even approaching him. I would NOT, however, acknowledge that one of the wookies is Chewbacca. This is a small quibble though. One other thing I noticed is I would have left in the Emperor on Mustafar. It seems a little abrupt that all of the sudden Anakin is being brought to Coruscant by the Emperor.I'm not sure if you can use the Emperor on the senate platform sensing Anakin is in trouble without running into trouble with the removed Sidious/Yoda duel (which I'm very glad to see gone). Overall this is my favorite. I suspect it isn't getting as much attention as other edits due to it not being available in HD. I would love to see a version 3.3 with just a few more tweaks and in HD. Nice work!

This edit is my cannon for Episode III, I wasnt a fan with any of the prequals but ROTS was just ok, this edit now makes it very watchable.

I tend to overlook non HD edits but this is well worth a watch and introduces newer generations to the original trilogy saga very well, it even includes an alternate opening from the cartoon Clone Wars as one of the extras!. You can actually forget about Episodes I & II as they really not needed to understand whats going on with this film.

Some of the cuts are a bit sharp but the best thing is that theres ALOT of cuts to really bring down the runtime, less IS better when approaching an edit for this film, and lets be honest do we really need to watch ANY prequals in shiny HD ?

Review from 29 October 2010

Superb, Stankpac, superb. Watched it last night an *really enjoyed* it! Yes, a prequel film, that I enjoyed! Superb editing decisions throughout. Well done.
Technically, most cuts were seamless. There were a couple of times that I thought “hmm, that was a bit abrupt” (when someone opened their mouth to say something, and then we cut away) – but very few noticeable cuts.
Deleted scenes were brilliant – showed Anakins and Padmes separate lives, pulling them in different directions, which made the ending inevitable.
I would have liked slightly more exposition from Palpatine, working on Anakins fears – but, in the end, not entirely necessary (although for a non-SW audience, perhaps necessary?).
I may have more comments when I watch it again, but now I would say it is a *huge* improvement over the original film.

Technical editing 9/9.5 out of 10
Story editing 10/10
Menu 5/10 Menu is fantastic, brilliantly presented, but utterly ruined by the menu movie of Yoda dancing with the troopers. Totally ruins the mood of the film immediately. :-(
Overall film: I rate Ep3 about a 5 or 6, so this edit would be a 7 or 8 as a standalone movie release.

But this is fanedit.org, not imdb, so I’ll give a final rating on the fanedit, not the movie.

9 out of 10 (docked a point for the menu and a couple of obvious cuts – I’ll list them when I watch it again)
SUPERB!

Review by DominicCobb — November 29, 2011 @ 2:54 am

STAR WARS EPISODE III: SPECIAL EDITION by STANKPAC

Overall an enjoyable edit. The pace was fast and got right to the point. I enjoyed the shortened opening, though there were a few obvious cuts. I personally think that the editing was far too severe. I feel much of the epic storytelling is lost here. It doesn’t feel like a Star Wars film any more. Therefor, I give STAR WARS EPISODE III: SPECIAL EDITION 8/10