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 really enjoyed watching this edit, didn't hate the episode I original as all others because it was the first movie I saw and I entered the star wars universe through this movie.
But this edit removes some of the childish and annoying things and makes the movie flow more gentle across without removing the story.
This is my favorite way of watching episode I as of now.

The weakest of the Prequels, HAL9000 elevates this movie from frustrating to acceptable. Other Prequel fanedits cut more, but for my taste HAL9000 cuts better: these are the only edits I've found which reduce the run time without feeling truncated.
Editing is outstanding. Subtitles are a welcome addition.
Does this make the Prequels a great story? Nope. Does this make a *better* story? Yes! HAL9000's Prequel trilogy is the only one you need.

I have never been a big fan of the Phantom Menace. I always found it boring and obnoxious. Hal9000 manages to make it a decent movie for me. With Jar Jar toned down, the character of Anakin improved and political confusion removed, this now makes for a fun and fast paced flick. I really appreciate Hal's approach here. Most people would just cut out literally everything that displeases them but every edit/cut that Hal made was to make for a better film. An example of this is with Jar Jar. Most faneditors wish to remove basically everything that comes out of his mouth. This results in an issue, which is that Jar Jar becomes some random character who for some reason is following everyone around. Hal masterfully refines his character to be an actually likable character who ends up wanting to truly help the cause. All in all, this is a wonderful piece of work which never feels like a fan edit and improves immensely upon it's source material.

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 :)