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.

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.

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.

Showed to my friends as their first exposure to fan edits. They were really impressed.

I was shocked to find myself liking Anakin, his mom (maybe she feels better now that her son isn't annoying), and even Jar Jar. This edit did a great job of fixing these characters.

The only issues my friends had were:
1: Jedi super speed should be removed from the start since Obi Wan fails to use it later when it would have really helped.
2: Scene with kid showing up to tow the Pod Racer looks like unfinished effects and felt out of place.
3: Friend noticed one cut when the combat was going on outside in the city with the droids.

One friend had seen Ep1 last year and was noticing dialogue bits removed and found it much smoother. I asked him if he noticed a large piece missing but he didn't notice the Gungan city missing until 2/3rds of the way through, "guess it was really important... ;) "

The other friend still felt Ep1 was pointless in that not much happens (Sidious gets a bit more power). But with the Anakin changes it is a much better intro to his character, he feels more like a main character.

I had to decide between this, seciors, and L8wrtr Star Wars edits. If anyone else is considering this, here was my reasoning:

Removing Sidious is good idea but I feared it would be too jarring to my friends. This edit does not do that.

This edit removed the idea of the "too old to train" and removed younglings. This is a great edit to make the Jedi not a creepy cult. Also when they talk about fear in this edit you get a sense that it is unreasonable fear / obsessiveness and not just that caring about your family that is wrong.
This edit changed the ending so destroying the drone ship was important.

HAL 9000 has finished edits of Ep2 and Ep3, so that is a benefit of having a continuation of the same ideas.

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!