Star Wars: Episode I - Cloak Of Deception

First of all I wanna say thank you to Hal9000 for making this edit. I watched version 4.1 of this edit. The visual/audio editing is seamless and perfect throughout the movie, I have nothing to criticize on that front for sure! Great job, you work really well :)

I have to say, after watching this edit, I think this movie really is unsalvageable. It's riddled with exposition, plot contrivances, and cheesy scenes no matter what you do with it. This is a brilliant effort though, and renders at least 50% of the movie somewhat decent.

I disagree wholeheartedly with any changes to the podrace. I think the way the podrace is presented in the original cut, bar the annoying "yippees!" being thrown around, is perfect as it is and shouldn't be changed. In this cut, the lack of build-up/anticipation at the beginning of the podrace kinda makes it start too soon (much is riding on this race), and end too soon as well. We are brought to the arena, boom the podrace starts, and then it's over too quickly as well since some of the victory shots have been cut too. Overall, I think the podrace should be brought back to its default state bar the "yippees!"

A lot is cut in favor of making this a better movie, but it creates a movie that's just too fast-paced as a result. We're being thrown around from place to place without any time to breath, at least most of the time. Generally, it works, but it's still too fast.

Qui-Gon's character really feels like he's dumb in this. Not sure if it was the same way in the original movie but he comes out as very selfish in this one, and kind of being the cause of some of their problems because of his stubbornness. Much of his "warm father-figure" dialogue to Anakin has been removed (some for very good reasons :P), but that leaves him a bit cold and short-sighted. Don't know if that was intended.

The deleted scenes were overall inserted well enough, although the one with Padme and the Speeder really stood out like a sore thumb to me. It feels pointless.

Anakin as a character feels MUCH better in this movie than the original, I really felt like his arc and motivations worked. His mother came out as pretty stupid though, since most of her scenes in the house have been cut. She kinda just "goes with it", and it doesn't really work in my opinion.

Anyway, I have to say that hal9000 did a good job, all things considered, his editing skills are top-notch, it's just the movie I think that doesn't really work on a very basic level!

Still, recommended because it's shorter than the original :)

Editing was excellent. never really noticed the editing. Loved the trimmed down, streamlined version. much more exciting, much more tolerable and coherent- it was much easier to understand the political plotlines going on than in the original. I appreciated that so much of the awful dialogue was scrapped, particularly by you know who, but also appreciated the abbreviated pod race and other scenes. I did missed the big fish, but get that it took away from the plot. Ultimately, I think this was about as good as could be hoped for. so much potential in a movie that underutilized its actors in favor of special effects. not ready to write this in as my definitive edition, as i'd like to see a couple of the other edits, but so far- it's #1.

Additional Edits on my Wish List:
* changing Jar Jar binks voice to some tough sounding alien voice w/ subtitles. also love that I heard that some edits made him into a bad-ass.
* do the same thing- insert an alien sounding language- for the "Asian" Trade Federation leaders.
* edit out Anakin asking padme, "are you an angel?"
* edit out old woman saying "storm is coming"
* edit out Anakin declaring, "mom, i'm home!"
* edit out R2D2's "award ceremony"
* edited out Soboba sabotaging Anakin's pod racer. it feels contrived- why would he feel threatened by him and furthermore, I think it would have been just as or more tense if it was understood that Anakin whipped it up to have ready for the race, and did not have time to fully complete it, thus- weakened parts (much like the bicycle malfunction in "Breaking Away"- if anyone's seen that movie)

This is a masterful edit and in my humble opinion the definitive TPM edit. I used to believe seciors Revisited edit was the best, but after showing it to my wife, who hadn't seen the movie in years, she remarked that it seemed too rushed, like a mere summary of events rather than the actual movie. I think seciors TPM suffers from feeling too much like an edit, and in the end, 85 minutes is just too short for a Star Wars movie, which are usually closer to the two hour mark. Either you embrace the PT or you don't, and so I think a philosophy more like HAL9000's is in order. The point isn't to race through the movie in order to get it over with, but to make it as enjoyable of an experience as possible. In this regard I think HAL9000 succeeds. I think the most important task for a faneditor working on TPM is to cut out the excessively annoying and childish elements while also removing much of the tedious political dialogue. Not only do these not fit well together in the same movie, but neither are interesting to your average movie goer. Other than that, tighten up the pacing a little bit without leaving too much on the cutting-room floor, and you've actually got a decent movie (yes, I like this movie now and think it deserves its rightful place in the Star Wars canon). I like that we get a fair amount of Jar Jar, but that he has been toned down a great deal. If this had been the Jar Jar we got in the theater, I don't think anybody would have complained.

My only gripe is the removal of Jabba the Hut from the pod race. I support the removal of most of the cameos, but Jabba's appearance here actually makes enough sense to merit it. After all, the pod races seem to be a pretty big deal on Tattooine.

This is one of my first Fan Edits, but I must say I was blown away by how much the cuts made to this movie changed it from one of my least favorites, to actually being fun to watch. I really enjoyed the less childish Anakin (still the cringe worthy "are you an angel" bit, but you can only do so much I guess), and Jar Jar was much more tolerable, although still a little too derpy for my tastes. I saw nothing in the sound or visual departments that seemed out of place, and every edit seemed to fit well.

I still want to watch l8wrtr's and Q2's prequel trilogies before I decide which is my favorite overall, but I can definitely say that this is a solid replacement for the original film, and a joy to watch. Thank you for taking your time to do this!

HAL9000 gives us a bit of a "best of" hybrid fanedit, in that he utilizes what he felt were the best changes made by previous faneditors (including his own set of edits years ago). Most Episode 1 edits are around 90 minutes, and some may say that's "too short for a Star Wars movie". If you're in that camp, this one should be right up your alley, as it's a nice and trim 1 hour 45 minutes. Everybody has their own fixed ideas about what should be left on the cutting room floor in terms of the prequels, but HAL has managed to bring a nice balance here. Not my absolute favorite Phantom Menace fanedit, but by no means a bad edit. Bonus points for audio commentary.