Star Wars: Episode I - Cloak Of Deception

I watched HAL's Ep I last night, expecting an improvement on L8wrtr's because other reviewers have compared the two and come to that conclusion. Not so IMO.

JarJar Binks and his silliness is in there a lot more than in L8wrtr's. So minus there. I liked that L8wrtr added the Anakin fight scene. HAL added the atrocious deleted scene "Padme gives Anakin a blankie on Tatooine" instead. Bad unfinished visual effect and doesn't add up for the narrative, IMO.

HAL eliminating the entire Gungan city sequence works flawlessly so I like that better than L8wrtr who kept some of it in.

While an interesting idea, I think John Williams' original score for the race works better than the editor using the trench run music from Ep IV.

Visually the movie looks great (at 20GB it better) and the editing is good. It is better than the theatrical release.

But L8wrtr's version is better and my go-to version at this point, for this movie. I will still check out HAL's Ep II and III.

The currently best edit of the new trilogy. I hated the original version so much as I love this edit. I've been waiting for this version all these years. Thank you HAL 9000.

Pretty good edit. Personally, I prefer Seciors' Return of the Sith, but this is still one of the best Star Wars edits.

The Audio/ -Video quality was good, so was the editing. The story was of course MUCH better than the original, which is expected. Personally, I found Jar Jar still kinda annoying. Even though the original was far too annoying than this.

I definitely enjoyed this and I recommend it to any SW fan. While, like I said, I prefer Seciors', this is still a great fanedit.

Ok, where to begin. I like many other children of the seventies i grew up on star wars. Then we waited years for a continuation and got prequels. Then we had to watch in horror as all was lost from our childhoods with Lucas intent on drafting terrible scripts, with dreadful direction coupled with actors - Lloyd & Christensen, who couldn't act!!

**Rant over**

Hal9000 has done what i considered impossible - make me like and enjoy ep 1. I read the prior reviews, considered other versions but liked the points made that the pacing was about spot on. The thought of a rushed edit was not for me, so i watched with an open mind and about half way through realised i hadn't made my tea. Oh my god i actually felt connected and sympathetic towards Anakin and thought Hals version nailed it. Jar Jar? Unobtrusive yet he almost ground the film in his 'everyman' role - being swept up in some grand adventure.

I'm blown away and frankly chuffed that i can actually watch TPM without forwarding to certain scenes or watching the clock - amazing work.

Criticisms - none. The pod race was awesome and i loved the new mix of music which i felt fitted and linked it soooo nicely to the original trilogy. The AV was perfect, the cuts were seamless and and i really liked the insertions of alternate scenes - very clever and illuminating.

10/10 for the lot - i owe Hal9000 a pint :)

After watching some of the other Prequel edits around (with L8Wrtr's being among my favorites), I decided to give this edit a chance. I wanted to see what else could be done to make TPM a better film. The pacing for this edit is really well balanced. Like others have said some of these edits are pretty seamless (even to the point where I had to check the checklist to see what had been edited). Solid job.

I'd recommend this edit for sure.