Star Wars: Episode I - Cloak Of Deception

This is absolutely an improvement over the original. I did not miss any of the removed content. That said, it's hard to convert a bad movie into a great movie. So this ends up being more like a "not bad" movie.

I am just recently getting into fan-edits, and I've heard about the infamous Hal9000 cuts for years. Now I'm a full blown fan edit fiend. The way that the story is recut to improve upon various aspects, but especially the Jar Jar Binks narrative, totally changes the way the movie flows. I don't think I rolled my eyes even once. I couldn't be more impressed with the cut. I personally watch the Star Wars saga every few months, and have been doing so since I was a kid. Blows my mind to see it and feel it so differently. Phenomenal job.

I gave this all 10's, but keep in mind I am considering what was available to work with, as I do in all of my reviews. Hal9000 did a fantastic job with this. I found this very enjoyable. It is now my go to version of Ep I.

The pacing at the start was a bit weird. but I didn't miss any of the underwater scenes or Jar Jar's antics. Definitely an improvement over the theatrical cut.

Overall, this is a good fan edit, in my opinion. First off, I don’t know why, but the graphical quality looks so much better in this so I’m giving visual editing a 10/10. It makes things look so much better. Secondly, I must say I am glad that the annoying Jar Jar parts are out of here, just like most reviewers say. Before I get into the negatives, which there are not a lot, I do wanna say that this fan edit in general makes the movie SO MUCH BETTER.

The negatives are few but the thing I don’t like the most is the less time in the movie. I do like not having the underwater scene but nonetheless, too many scenes, especially in the first third of the movie before Tatooine feel super quick and fast paced. The pacing feels off at the beginning which really lowered my enjoyment and had to hurt the narrative a little.

Other than the weird pacing, the fan film was great and definitely an improvement on the Phantom Menace. I plan on watching HAL9000’s Episodes II and III and making reviews. So far, so good.