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

There is a lot to love about this edit. As you can see from the runtime, the cuts are deep. This changes the pacing from the dull slog of the theatrical release to a real roller coaster ride. It moved a little fast for my taste, but then again, that was probably necessary to successfully remove so much of what I hated about Ep I: midichlorians, virgin birth, the chosen one, Captain Obvious (Ric Olie), bantha poodoo, Boss 'Bbbbbbbbbbbbb' Nass and Jar Jar's stupidity.

Removing Darth Sidious was a good move. It largely worked but unfortunately left Darth Maul without motivation. Keeping at least part of Sidious and Maul's 'At last we will have our revenge' scene would have established a nemesis for Qui Gon and a Sith counterpoint to the Jedi's mission, while adding a lingering dread to the story. It would also have balanced Maul's later appearances in the film and provided a coda to Yoda's final scene where he notes 'Always two there are'. But I liked how you kept (and added) scenes with the probe droid searching Mos Espa for the queen. Its menacing black shape floating through the streets helped restore the tension lost by removing Sidious and foreshadowed Qui Gon's later encounters with the Sith.

The pod race edits were miraculous. Thanks for excising the two-headed announcer, but leaving the Tusken Raiders and Aurra Sing cameos. I would have preferred limiting Jabba to his introduction and race announcement. Spitting at the gong and sleeping at the end of the race were useless comic relief. It makes him look like a loser instead of a ruthless, tyrannical gangster.

The final battle between Sith and Jedi also worked really well. The pacing was smooth and consistent. Leaving Qui Gon's meditation with Maul pacing outside the shield broke up the action enough to build tension without destroying its flow.

I wish the space battle at the Droid Control ship lasted a little longer (but with less of Captain Obvious - 'It's one of ours!', 'That's the enemy!', 'I'm breathing air!') However, you did a great job transforming Anakin from a stowaway pushing random buttons into a pilot in command of his ship. Most of his cockpit scenes and dialog from the Theatrical release were useless, but a lot of them would have been fine without his dialog. For example, 'Spinning's a good trick' is ridiculous, but watching him fly the starfighter (without talking) and execute barrel rolls to avoid laser fire only confirms his flying skills and force instincts.

A few of the visual cuts in the edit were jarring, but for the most part, they contributed to the roller coaster pacing. However, the audio was seamless. Seciors did a fantastic job syncing his new edits with the score.

Overall, this is one of the more enjoyable Episode I fanedits I've seen, and I enjoyed this version of Episode I as much as any fan of the OT can. Nice 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.

Masterful. Absolutely masterful. Seciors has made some deep cuts to this movie (which is exactly what TPM needed) and has pulled it off seamlessly. The Phantom Menace is finally a fun, engaging, and dare I say exciting movie. This is the movie we all wanted back in 1999, and seciors has delivered the perfect introduction to the following two prequels. I recommend Q2's Episode II and L8wrtr's Episode III, btw. Q2 and seciors don't allude to the fact that Palpatine is Darth Sidious whatsoever (spoiler alert?). In fact, that's what I like about Q2 and seciors; they don't spell everything out for you and insult your intelligence. Thus, it is in L8wrtr's Episode III, beginning with the opera scene, that you begin to feel a sense of dread as you start to realize what's really going on. These three edits together succeed in keeping the viewer in the dark for as long as the main protagonists are (although it's hard to say whether we really would have been fooled since we've all seen these movies before). Together, seciors, Q2, and L8wrtr have rescued the PT by cutting out the bloat and adding some much needed subtlety and nuance to these films. However, seciors has demonstrated exceptional skill in ascertaining when less is undoubtedly more. Bravo.

Finally...A version of TPM that I actually enjoyed and I mean, I actually really enjoyed this.

I noted the kinda quick runtime of just under 85 mins and I was a bit dubious as to whether this would feel rushed. It doesn't.

Perhaps because the editing is spot on, there's nothing boring and ultimately is was (boringly)directed by George Lucas - this feels like a totally fresh film to me. When compared to the likes of Transformers or Man of Steel or even Avengers...this feels engaging, but never OTT.

I think the removal of Sidious in this edit is genius. I was also very impressed with the removal of Gungan City and going through..the planet core. Even Jar Jar didn't annoy me. He said what he needed to say and it felt like what he was saying was important to understand the later plot.

Relegating the Trade Federation to simply a separatist Federation works spectacularly well. The pod race felt like such great fun now - not too short or too long.

I was really keen to see the end battle and once again, this really impressed. All that stupidity is gone.

Technically, it was utterly seemless and I noticed not one single thing out of place. So I've given this 10/10 in all aspects. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Talk about taking a turd and turning it into a diamond....wow.

The Phantom Menace is without a doubt the biggest disappointment in film history and probably always will be. It's unsurprising that it inspires so many to try to correct it's myriad of flaws by re-editing the dross in to some kind of coherent film.

So it's a delight to watch this reconstruction by seciors, a real treat from the magnificent opening crawl. You can't immediately help feeling a bit sad too at the thought of what could have been.

Rather than just shorten the film, seciors has made some brave but excellent, common-sense decisions about the plot that massively improve it. Dropping the 'Trade' from 'Trade Federation' is a stroke of genius, simplifying things by depicting them as a group of rebellious planets (which will no doubt fit in nicely with subsequent edits of the remaining two prequels).

Other narrative decisions shine through as well. Retaining the mystery of the Force by ejecting the bizarre 'Medichlorian' and 'Chosen One' sub-plots works brilliantly. There are other changes to characters story arcs, such as Palpatine's (Ian McDiarmid) which I won't talk about for fear of spoilers (see 'criticisms / spoilers' below) - but every decision is pretty much spot-on.

The film is finally brought in to some kind of focus and characters get the screen time they deserve according to their role in the story. The idiotic Jar Jar Binks is relegated to a minor character, whose presence while still not making any sense no longer gets in the way of the film's progression. Long and drawn out chats about treaties and trade disputes are dumped in the bin where they belong.

All of this means that the story Lucas must have had originally, about a central wise Jedi trying to stop the Republic from falling apart, starts to tantalizingly come through. There is now a central character - Qui Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) is now without doubt the films main protagonist, something comically missing from the original. Whether he's a memorable protagonist or even an effective one is still debatable, although that's something even a Fan Edit as good as this will struggle to remedy.

In summary, Return of the Sith is the first time I've watched The Phantom Menace and actually enjoyed it. Sure, some of the enjoyment no doubt came from the wide-eyed appreciation of it all actually making some sort of sense and not ever getting boring (and incredible feat), but there's no doubt as well that seciors has somehow managed to put together a coherent film that can actually be watched in it's own right, and for that I'm very grateful.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM / SPOILERS

* The title 'Return of the Sith' is an excellent one and is completely believable in the Star Wars canon. How excited would we all have been if that was the original title? There's one problem - the Sith played a small role (in the case of Darth Maul an unforgivably small one) in the original. With 'Darth Sideous' removed completely this title only actually refers to one character (however excellent) that suddenly appears fleetingly midway in the film and then at the end.

There's two possible solutions - include the conversation between Sideous and Darth Maul at the beginning ("at last we will have revenge") and maybe some of Sideous talking to the Federation through the film (even if it's just the part where Sideous says he's sending Maul - "Now there are two of them!" is actually one of the better lines in the film).

Otherwise we never actually know who Darth Maul is (even his name), why he's tracking the Jedi and why he confronts them in a fight to the death. In Star Wars films, characters have light sabre fights for massively important reasons in the plot. He's clearly on a mission that presents a lot of danger to his life and at the end he obviously hates the Jedi and they're his priority (he doesn't try and kill the Queen on sight for example). Why?

Otherwise, call the movie what it is, especially now in this re-edit; 'The Battle for Naboo' or something. We all wish the film was about the return of the Sith, but it isn't unfortunately. The title and excellent cover-art refer to a film that we wish we'd had, not the one we were presented with no matter how it's re-edited.

* The pod race is much more enjoyable now. Anakin's crossing the line in victory all feels a bit rushed though; it's a very important emotional part of the film whether we like it or not, and maybe the pacing could be looked at to emphasize that moment more.

* The re-cutting of the ending, going between the Naboo fighters attacking the Control Ship and the light-sabre fight on the planet, feels a bit jagged at times. Obi Wan now has to wait too long for the force field to go at one stage and the ships jumping from leaving the hangar to approaching the control ship is jarring. Finally, I can understand drastically cutting down the Naboo battle scenes to eliminate the hideous slapstick elements, but this again feels a little rushed.

* The running time of the film at 1hr 25min makes everything go by very, very quickly. In the case of this film, that's probably no bad thing. But maybe there's times to pause for breath, or elongate certain scenes as I've suggested above, to produce a running time maybe ten minutes longer that will feel even more natural and better paced.

I must emphasize though - this edit is fantastic.