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

Pros:
- Less of the Gungans. Less of JarJar. Less of the bad CGi overall.
- No more cringy "Yippie" or "Oops" from Anakin. Less bad voice acting overall.
- No Midichlorians! This makes the Force way more like the Original Trilogy.
- More in tone with the OT in terms of humor and droid antics.

Cons:
- The added "deleted scenes" are SD/Low Quality. They do add greatly to the story though!
- The final battle vs Darth Maul is re-cut/changed. The battle itself was the best part of The Phantom Menace.

Conclusion:
THE BEST WAY to watch Episode 1 The Phantom Menace hands down! This edit cuts down nearly all the bad stuff from the original movie. It is and stays the Phantom Menace. You can't change that, but this edit comes as close to perfection for the movie from 1999. If this is your first time seeing TPM, or even if it's your 1000th time, i highly recommend this Edit. It's the best version of the movie. Most people tend to skip TPM on re-watching Star Wars. I say no more! Next time you watch Star Wars, do yourself a favor and watch this!

A bit of background: I watch all the Star Wars movies once or twice yearly. This time and for the first time I began with The Force Awakens and went from the Rise of Skywalker to the Phantom Menace because I knew from the experience how bad it's to go to the new trilogy after The Return of the Jedi. Just finished watching the Episode I: Return of the Sith and oh boy how good it felt.

Now, I have watched this fanedit once or twice before many years ago and while it was good it never felt quite as good as it did this time. Other than the Podracing sequence it improves the original in every way. The pacing is very good and including some of the deleted scenes adds a nice flavor. The fanedit simply makes Phantom Menace into a very entertaining Star Wars movie.

For me, watching this after the sequel trilogy it's easy to say that Phantom Menace (at least through a good fanedit) is a better movie than any of the sequel trilogy movies. The Force Awakens is still good but it feels pointless to watch it because the trilogy itself is a wreck.

For my part, this revisionist take on Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace might be the best version of the film. Right from the new opening crawl, we immediately understand the setting, the stakes, and the players. The recut film moves at a breakneck pace to the point it's occasionally jarring. It's hard to argue with the results, though. With any *other* movie, I'd say this was a problem...but the Phantom Menace really benefits from the adrenaline shot that seciors has given it here. We are on Tatooine by the 15-minute mark!

Almost all the bloat is gone. Most of the best parts are retained and trimmed/recut in places. All the worst parts are cut out where possible. The story beats are light, succinct, and comprehensible on first viewing. Better, seciors' excision of *any* exposition regarding the true mastermind introduces an element of mystery for first-time Star Wars viewers; who was behind the mysterious Sith warrior and why was he assisting the Federation? Something to pay out through subsequent films, of course!

Some debatable decisions: cutting out talk of Anakin's parentage and certainly the 'chosen one' prophecy, but only debatable due to possible continuity issues between different versions of the prequel films. A few deleted scenes are added but one's placement is a little out of context. I think it still works, though.

My opinion is that Hal9000's Phantom Menace fan edit is the best version of the film in the same way that Chris Hartwell's Hobbit edits are the best version of The Hobbit: as a halfway point for theatrical purists. For me though...after my viewing of seciors' edit, it made me wonder if more drastic surgery was *always* required to make this film 'good'.

I had a great time watching 'Return of the Sith'. That's probably the highest praise I can ever give *any* version of The Phantom Menace. Highly Recommended.

Edit: Have watched it again and increased the Narrative score again to a 10 from a 9. Although I never thought of Jar Jar as particularly distracting, I noticed that a side effect of removing most of Jar Jar's scenes/lines means there is no longer any ambiguity on who the main character is (definitely Qui-Gon in this edit). This makes his death at the end of the film a sort of narrative subversion that plays out across the remaining films; really hammers the tragic tone as the Prequels continue (if only he had lived, Anakin wouldn't have turned!). Of course, one can say that this had always been there--but the editing choices here just seem to bring it to focus in a way I had never noticed when watching the film before.

This edit is a treasure. Not to say that I'd put it on the level of 'The Godfather' or anything--just for what it is, it is as close to the best that it can be.

Edit 2:
One last thing I noticed about Jar Jar's dialogue excision. Again, thought Hal9000's approach to editing him to be reasonable (Jar Jar the Everyman stays, Jar Jar the Clown goes)--however, removing most of his dialogue here in Ep. 1 tracks with the *actual* reduced amount of dialogue he has within the next two films. So, oddly enough, it results in a more consistent experience.

I'm a newbie to to fanedit thing. In fact, a month ago I had never watched or even heard of it. But since then I have become addicted and look forward to watching movies I sadly could not previously enjoy, become a movie I will watch time and again.

This was the second fanedit I ever watched. When I first saw the Star Wars prequels I did not hate them to the degree many did, at least the basic dark, tragic storyline. But man did Lucas mess it up in execution. Much like Episode VI, he tried to be too cute. As we all know, Jar Jar made it intolerable so I love that edit. The Annakin kid was annoying at times, but you've managed to tone back his cockiness and dumb one liners. He is stud Jedi material after all, so he has to be confident.

I'm not much of a technical guy, but the video and sound was excellent as far as my humble system is concerned. The edits were not detectable, particularly since I did not remember the movie much. Maybe there was once or twice it was clear something was chopped, but really minimal.

In summary, you've done about all can be done with this movie. I disagree in terms of Star Wars does not do politics - an understanding of it lends more to the series, so I would prefer that material not be removed. The "8" for enjoyment represents the highest rating in this case, because I don't think any edit can completely overcome the shortcomings. Nice job!

Way better than the original by far and the best edit I have seen of Episode 1 until now. I particularly enjoyed the fast pace of the first 15 minutes and the edit of the end battle.

I do find that the music sometimes cut abruptly (but I understand how hard it is to make the music fit sometimes), but the only negative point I have is that even though most of the Gungans/Nemoidians scenes were cut (a must in any respectable Episode 1 edit) the original voice acting was left intact.

Some other editors have just replaced the voices of Jar Jar and company with alien languages and added subtitles: removing the horrible voices and thus allowing the editor to make the aliens more threatening and badass.

But all in all, great work! I can't wait to show that to my brother during our Star Wars Marathon before we watch Episode VII in theater.