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

This is my favorite Episode I edit by far. Seciors has managed to achieve that delicate balance of improving the pacing greatly without making the movie feel rushed. Also, technically the editing is superb. Everything fits together seamlessly and it really does seem like an original movie, not an edit!

Plot points that were improved: Hiding Palpatine's identity which helps put more of the focus on Darth Maul which is never a bad thing, also no midichlorians and no virgin birth.

In the end this movie achieves what the original missed, a fun fast paced adventure that hints at plot twists and dark turns up ahead without actually giving it away.

(I apologize for making so much of this review about myself, but I just didn't know how else to get my point across.)

I was huge Star Wars fan as a kid, but when The Phantom Menace came out, it was "just another movie". Maybe I was a little disappointed, but it was no big deal to me. I think I only saw it twice. Once when it was in theatres and again when it was on TV for the first time. All I ever saw of it since were the Red Letter Media reviews, which I think are brillant.

After watching SECIORS' fanedit, I thought I needed to see the original again though, so I'd be able to actually judge what he did. In doing so I realized, that I loved all of SECIORS' editing choices and that he did an impressive and flawless job in reducing the film to its core. I also realized that most of the hate TPM is getting nowadays is totally justified. What a godawful movie the original is.

Although I always considered myself a movie geek, it was only over the past ten years that I started focusing on things like storytelling, character arcs, character motivations, pacing, expositional dialogue, directorial choices, etc. I believe TPM fails on all accounts. (I also feel like even stating that I'm aware of the fact, that there is nothing that hasn't been said about TPM, is a cliché.) In my opinion the movie doesn't even work, if you look at it as a film purely aimed at kids, due to all the political crap, the pseudo-philosophical nonsense and the overlong action sequences.

Having said that, I think this is exactly why SECIORS' edit succeeds. Halfway through his version I stopped overanalyzing everything and just let my seven-year-old self take over, and looked at it on a scene by scene basis, enjoying the spectacle, just like I saw Return of the Jedi for the first time. (I loved the Ewoks, for chrissake!)

SECIORS turned a bloated mess into the entertaining and easily digestable kid's movie Lucas probably wanted it to be in the first place. My initial thoughts were, that this edit must be every parent's dream come true. Finally parents can watch TPM in less than 90 minutes and without having their ADD kids go bonkers before the third act starts. I actually suggested calling it "The Parent's Edit", but SECIORS decided against it. Whatever!

:-)

I don't know too much about the technical side of video editing, so I'll give it all 10's there, since I didn't see or hear any flaws. I also thought the narrative worked perfectly fine, despite the fact, that 50 minutes (!) were cut.

I'm torn when it comes to enjoyment though. I didn't really enjoy the movie, I enjoyed figuring out the amount of work and thought that was put into this edit. I think this is the best version possible, although I probably should check out some of the other TPM fanedits to properly comment on that. Unfortunately I can't do that right now. It's just not physically possible, at least within the next couple of months. I'm still recovering, you know?

:-)

On a sidenote: I think the obsession faneditors have with TPM is fascinating and I'd love to read you guys discuss this topic in the forums. This is going to sound brutal, I'm afraid, but I think even the best edit is just damage control. Like …, you can get Daft Punk or Moby or Four Tet or whoever to remix Rebecca Black's Friday, but it's still an embarrassingly bad song, and listening to the remixes is something you do out of curiousity, because you respect the DJs, but it's still rather unlikely, that you'll put it on your playlist, no matter how impressive their work is. Right?

Right?!

Again: I loved SECIORS work. If I had kids, THIS is the version I'd want them to see. I just think the original movie is beyond salvageable.

(EDITED: Now, that's what I call a great poster!)

This is now up there with L8WRTR's trilogy. Very impressive. In fact, though I prefer his episode II to yours, I'd say you've got the better episode I. Just so well paced. It made for an easy, entertaining watch that I didn't begin to zone out of. Even with the best Episode I edits, I often have a hard time keeping my mind on the movie for the duration. You have managed to keep my interest focused squarely on the movie.

The obscuring of Palpatine's true identity was a choice I thought I might have a problem with going in, but it turned out to be an improvement. Still not sure why people have a problem with the "Darth" title, it's used all over the expanded universe, hardly exclusive to the prequels.

Cutting out the entire visit to the Gungan city was bold, and brilliant. It wasn't missed at all. I think you've handled Jar Jar as well as can be done, without perhaps altering his voice in a manner similar to JMB's deepening of Katie Holmes' voice in the Batman Begins Dark Cut. Anything to make him sound less like a Jamaican Elmo.

I personally feel Qui-Gon Jinn's funeral makes for a better ending point than the parade, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of this remarkable edit. You should be very proud of what you've achieved with this. You've made Star Wars Episode I a movie I can watch all the way through and actually enjoy. Thank you!

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.

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.