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.

Other than the original Phantom Edit, this is the first TPM edit I've watched...and I dug it!

Started strong and finished strong. The middle was hit/miss for me. There were certainly parts cut that I would've liked to remain and parts that remained that I would've liked to go...but I imagine that's how it is with any fan edit of a movie you're a fan of. I definitely missed the trip to Otoh Gunga though it was interesting to see an attempt at making the Jedi appear to know where they were going.

My favorite edit (decision and execution) was Anakin intentionally taking a ship to join the fight. I don't know if that concept originated with this edit (as there are so many) but it was just brilliant!

On to watch your versions of Episodes II & III...

I've watched a bunch of edits of this film in the vain hope that it can be made into a good film, but alas, I have come to the realisation that some bad movies just cannot be made into good movies no matter much is cut and changed.
In saying that, the editing that has gone into this is top notch and it is well done, it just isn't for me and I don't think I'll ever watch this movie again in any format, edited or not.

I specifically didn't click the yes/no on recommending this edit because it mostly still follows the same plotline as the original film. While it chopped out a lot of the fat, it's essentially still the same movie. It's just as much uninteresting filler as it was before, just with less annoyances. I suppose that's a good thing, but still doesn't make for a good movie / narrative.

That being said, the editing was seamless. I honestly didn't even notice it was edited...that's both a good and bad thing: Good because it says a lot for the edit and editor, but bad because I didn't feel like I was watching a new film. Honestly, that's really what the films needs but I don't think that's necessarily the editor's fault. After seeing The Lone Gungan edit, I can't go back to the original narrative at all. I feel like the only way to truly "fix" TPM is just to forgo it altogether, and chop it down to like a 30 minute intro to a good edit of the 2nd film.

Anyways, this is probably the best edit I've seen of the original narrative. Take that as you may. If you like the original narrative, this edit may be for you. This edit is technically very sound.

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.