Star Wars: Episode I - Cloak Of Deception

Pros: This edit takes a moderate approach, leaving the TPM story basically intact. The editing quality is overall pretty good, though a couple of the added SD scenes are glaring reminders that this is a fan edit.

Cons: In general, the cuts made it harder for me to care about the story. Cuts to the opening chapter in particular make it hard to get attached to the Jedi so that I found myself indifferent to the outcome of the lightsaber fight at the end. I've always felt the pod race is long and boring, but because the build-up to this shorter pod race was so quick, it was hard to get emotionally invested. The added music felt a bit manipulative to me because the story didn't move me.

I specifically didn't click the yes/no on recommending this edit because it mostly still follows the same plotline as the original film. While it chopped out a lot of the fat, it's essentially still the same movie. It's just as much uninteresting filler as it was before, just with less annoyances. I suppose that's a good thing, but still doesn't make for a good movie / narrative.

That being said, the editing was seamless. I honestly didn't even notice it was edited...that's both a good and bad thing: Good because it says a lot for the edit and editor, but bad because I didn't feel like I was watching a new film. Honestly, that's really what the films needs but I don't think that's necessarily the editor's fault. After seeing The Lone Gungan edit, I can't go back to the original narrative at all. I feel like the only way to truly "fix" TPM is just to forgo it altogether, and chop it down to like a 30 minute intro to a good edit of the 2nd film.

Anyways, this is probably the best edit I've seen of the original narrative. Take that as you may. If you like the original narrative, this edit may be for you. This edit is technically very sound.

Ok. So this is really really weird for me to review.

First let me start off with some back story on myself.

I was born in 1991 and grew up on Star Wars. I think I watched Star Wars and Empire about a billion times (My dad didn't have Jedi oddly enough) and would always get the toys and books and things like that. So in 1999 when a new Star Wars film was coming out I completely flipped out! I remember watching it for the first time and loving it to death. I don't know what it was, but I thought it was just a treat to watch. I swear I must have wore my old tape down to near nothing as many times as I've watched it.

Sooooooo. I was very surprised to find a few years later that everyone hated it. I didn't understand why and defended it like it was my child or something. Even years later and after seeing it again when released in 3D, I just loved The Phantom Menace!

So I was very very curious to see what Hal could do to change for the better a film that my childhood self adored. Well Hal, you did one thing for me. You opened my eyes and made me realize the only real reason that I enjoy watching this film.

Pure childhood nostalgia.

-End painfully long back story-

SO! I should start by saying that the video quality was top notch! Everything looked crisp and clear and even the added scenes looked just fine. There were no obvious cuts and everything fit together seamlessly.

Audio was fantastic as well. I really liked the added music to the podrace, but I still can't decide if I like the new music over the silent tension of the original.

I like how taking out the Gungan city in the beginning really made the opening flow better and help you to understand what exactly Qui-Gon and Obi Wan were doing.
Losing the droid dialogue to make them seem more intimidating was a fantastic choice as well!
And all the cheesy/weird dialogue really helped to make the film more coherent.

But at the end of the day I feel like stripping away all of Episode I's goofy antics and fluff really showed me how hollow and frankly terrible this movie really is. It was a drudge to watch, and this is no way due to your edit! Its just that now that the nostalgia goggles are off I realized that there is zero character development and nothing that really keeps you on the edge of your seat. Its like the whole film was made as a spectacle film meant to be viewed with eyes open and ears shut. Its like the film was just a bunch of random scenes mashed together with a cool lightsaber fight at the end with Star Wars slapped onto it.

So at the end of the day I feel this is most definitely the go-to version of Episode I for me, but all the fantastic edits in the world can't really make this a good film. Just a watchable more coherent one.
Props to Hal9000! Fantastic job!

While I admire the ambition to rework TPM so significantly, sadly I don't think this works very well.

Quite a lot of times, the rhythm and pacing of the editing is off with scenes feeling rushed or jumpy.
Some edits make little narrative sense (Jar Jar tagging along for no reason and Gungans appearing out of nowhere via jarring (pun intended) voice over, which must be the only use of it in SW outside of Force voices, being the worst offenders I think). Others, while trying to get at something interesting, just feel chaotic (the final battle).
Music editing also needed more work between the newly created transitions as cues often sound just faded at random points with no regards to phrasing.

That said, I counted ca. 20 smaller trims that work very well and would certainly find their place in a perfect edit.
I just don't think it's technically possible to fulfill the ambitions of this edit with materials available commercially to fans and not throw the whole rhythm of the edit off.

I've watched a bunch of edits of this film in the vain hope that it can be made into a good film, but alas, I have come to the realisation that some bad movies just cannot be made into good movies no matter much is cut and changed.
In saying that, the editing that has gone into this is top notch and it is well done, it just isn't for me and I don't think I'll ever watch this movie again in any format, edited or not.