Star Wars - Episode I: Return of the Sith: Revisited Edition

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!

This is a great example of fanediting, and it eliminates just about everything that can be eliminated while still retaining what is important. Some people claim that the cutting down of the dialogue hurts the characterization, especially of Qui Gon, however, I feel like 90% of the problems with this movie is that the character talk to much, especially Qui Gon. He does not feel like a Jedi Master, but a crotchety old man who gets upset and snippy every time someone questions his "great wisdom". This edit manages to jetison most of that, so in my book it improves the character tremendously. I stand by my opinion, how ever, that the Jedi of this era are not to be liked are are to look like fools too wrapped up in their own self-righteousness that they can't even see the obvious degeneration of the galaxy happening all around them.

That said, the editing itself was solid, although a few bits seemed a little out of focus. Not talking about the inserted scenes either. It may have been the sources, or maybe it was on my side as I had ran it through Handbrake to put it in H.265 format for storage. Not 100% certain, but my other movies have not had that issue after the same treatment, so just tossing it out there in case it is something in the files themselves. I did not detract for it, as I was uncertain of the origin.

All in all a great version of this movie, and so far my favorite that I have watched.

Last year I attempted to make my own edit of the Star Wars prequels, albeit with limited skill and very basic software. I eventually disregarded my own efforts and began a search for a more professional edit, eventually settling on Q2’s ‘Fall of the Jedi’ trilogy, which was very skilfully edited. However, what Seciors has done here is a lot closer to what I originally imagined for my own edit.

Despite the fact that I hold Q2’s work in high regard, I struggled with a couple of the bigger editing choices – mainly the concept of an un-named background extra destroying the Federation ship at the end of the movie. On the other hand, I agree with all of Secior’s major choices here.

Additionally, the re-integration of up-rezzed versions of my favourite deleted scenes (Greedo, farewell to Jira) and very clever removal of Jar Jar from a couple of scenes (balcony fall, Anakin/Padme heart-to-heart) brought a smile to my face! Although, there is a (slight and unavoidable) noticeable difference in picture quality between the up-rezzed deleted scenes and the rest of the movie.

I really appreciate the fact that a number of the less desirable characters (Jar Jar, C-3PO, etc) are minimised, rather than eliminated. I’ve seen a number of edits which have attempted to remove them completely from the movie, with varying degrees of success. Instead, Seciors has managed to reduce (rather than remove) their impact on the movie, whilst still allowing them have a proper introduction and moment to shine.

The only character who falls foul of the editing process is Boss Nass. With the removal of the underwater city scene and editing of his initial conversation with Padme, he fails to get a proper introduction. Instead, he unceremoniously pops up from nowhere. But this is a minor issue, and is not enough to pull me out of the movie.

The overall effect of this edit is to provide a much faster paced version of the movie, with a more comprehensible story (no more taxes, treaties, midichlorians, etc) and understandable villain (the Federation). At the same time, Seciors has managed to improve on the mystery of the Sith, by removing Sidious and the unsubtle hints that Palpatine is the master dark lord - including the horrendous close-up during Qui Gon’s pyre scene.

All-in-all, this is my favourite edit of TPM and is now my ‘go to’ version. I’m greatly looking forward to Seciors’s take on RotS!

NOTE: This review is based on a pre-release MKV version of the edit that Seciors kindly made available to me prior to its official release. I believe the only difference between the two was an issue that was resolved with the surround sound.

My ratings pretty much some up my review. The edits great and it is the Star Wars Saga intro that we deserved :) Great Job!

I'll not rehash what many other people have said. I noticed a few audio hiccups here and there, but nothing too major. The biggest payoffs were the removal of Sideous, the Obi-Wan / Darth Maul fight considerably tightened up, and renaming the Federation. Success on all counts. Well done, sir.