Star Wars: Episode I - Cloak Of Deception

I'll just recycle my review of Hal9000's Episode II edit since I watched them back-to-back and found them to be equally impressive and enjoyable.

At last, I can finally enjoy the prequels! Years after giving up hope of finding prequel edits that I could really enjoy, Hal9000's Episode I edit has done it!

I watched so many fanedits of Episodes I & II that left me wishing I could get my time refunded (nothing against the faneditors, just the material). I recently realized I had been taking the wrong approach by looking for an edit that removed all of the elements that I disliked, as edits that took that approach never seemed to have enough material left to craft what felt like a full film. Hal9000's edit is more reserved cut-wise and seems to try to include as much as possible to give the film enough content and weight to flow smoothly and feel like a complete film. Somehow Hal9000 was able to include much more of the film than I would have though possible while still (mostly) avoiding the frequent criticisms of the film like bad writing, acting, attempts at humor, etc. and the quality of the edit is top-notch.

There were at most a couple of instances where I felt like a transition wasn't quite flawless, either visually or audibly, but it may just have been a result of knowing the original too well or watching too many fanedits. Regardless, they were the most minor of issues, and I can't even recall which scenes were involved because I was just so surprised by how much I was enjoying myself watching this film!

Hal9000 has elevated this film to a place I never though possible: a worthy companion to the original trilogy!

Star Wars: Episode I - Cloak of Deception is a commendable improvement of a very flawed film.
Admittedly it has been about a year since I watched The Phantom Menace, and while I definitely recognized some scenes that were cut, there may have been other scenes that were cut that I missed. The scenes that I know for a fact were cut were executed flawlessly and seamlessly, so props to Hal for that.
I will say though, if I have any criticism, it was that there was one particular scene added to the film, a short deleted scene, that I feel could've stayed out as it makes Darth Maul's espionage skills seem rather lacking.
Overall this was a very enjoyable cut of the film that I feel drastically improves some of the flaws of the original, which I while I don't hate, was never my favorite by any means.

This actually makes Phantom Menace... good? Certainly stronger than the theatrical versions of any post-OT SW film except possibly Rogue One. There's a bit of unevenness with volume levels, but other than that, my only complaint is that there's *still* a bit too much of Jar Jar, and of Jake Lloyd's awful acting (though it may be difficult to remove much more), and it would be very easy to remove the idiotic force-speed scene in the opening scene on the CIS flagship (a force ability that is used once and *never again* and completely undoes most of the suspenseful moments in the... idk, entire franchise galaxy?).

If for no other reason than the *genuinely good* podrace, I strongly recommend giving this a shot, even if you, like myself, have no affection or nostalgia for the original cut of TPM.

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.

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.