Review Detail

Recently I recommended the originalo Star Wars trilogy to a friend who had never seen them, and I sat down to watch the prequels again to see if they warranted a recommendation as well. I was surprised that they were even worse than I remembered them.

Years ago I saw an SD version of TPM by "The Phantom Editor". I thought that it was an intriguing concept, but the low res quality of it put me off and I never really dug any deeper. Last month I dug out that copy of "The Phantom Edit", but was again disappointed. I decided to look for an HD copy, and that's when I stumbled onto FanEdit.org.

Seciors was the first fan edit that I watched here, and he hooked me immediately. The relentless pace of his editing is incredible... this edit makes TPM not only watchable, but actually enjoyable. Almost every transition is flawlessly executed, and I agree with pretty much every trim he made. Jar Jar no longer annoys me in this cut, and I never once felt myself rolling my eyes.

Since watching Seciors Episode I, I think that I've watched three of the other highly rated edits as well. As much as I like them, I keep coming back to Seciors as my favourite. There are really too many good things to say about this cut to list out. What sets him apart in my opinion are his bold editing choices. He's the only one that I've seen that chose to remove Darth Sidious altogether, which really paid off in my opinion. I love not only his editing out the "Chosen One" subplot, but also his clever editing of that entire discussion with Shmi. His restructuring of the final battles come to a much more satisfying conclusion. This edit actually feels like a Star Wars movie.

I only have two suggestions that would make this edit flawless, and both deal with transitions in the last act. The audio transition after Queen Amidala says "everything depends on it" needs tweaking, but that's probably because you couldn't separate her dialogue from the musical queue. I'm not sure what can be done about this, but if you could somehow clean it up the transition would be flawless.

The other suggestion is the end of the "Master and Apprentice" segment. If you could just find a way to extend the beat on Qui-Gon's funeral pyre, the transition would feel more natural. As it was, the transition felt a little abrupt. Again, not sure how this could be achieved with the footage available.

I don't want to sound negative. Seciors edits of Episode I and II have restored my faith in the prequels. If I thought his Episode I edits were bold, wait until you get to Episode II. Who else would have thought to put the end of the movie at the beginning? I can't begin to tell you how brilliant and inspired decision that was.

What I really want to know is, are you working on an edit of Episode III? I hope so, because I'd love to see what you do with it, and I'd love a proper ending to my favourite series of fan edits! My only request is not to add the footage from "The Other Boleyn Girl" that some chose to use. The colour pallets of the two movies couldn't be more different, and although the idea is a good one, the execution is too jarring.

Please do Episode III!