Star Wars: Episode I - The Ancient Lore

I very much enjoyed this edit. That isn't to say that it's without its problems. Without going into details (as it's actually possible to spoil this edit), I felt that the musical choices made didn't always work and it certainly sacrifices invisibility for the story. While some of the more jarring edits did take me out of the film, it wasn't enough to keep me from both enjoying and recommending this edit. And to conclude this review let me just say this to the editor, "It could have taken her two minutes to find the blanket." Thank you.

I really loved this edit. Though I have a soft spot to The Phantom Menace, and I prefer some things in the original over The Ancient Lore, TAL is a vast improvement over the original.

I want to talk about the few negatives before I delve into the positives. I’d have to agree with courtlyhades that I wasn’t very fond of all the musical changes. I especially didn’t like the heavy use of Across the Stars. Some references are okay, but it got to the point of replacing Anakin’s Theme which is way more fitting, and the love theme being used for scenes without there being romance was weird.

Technically speaking, at the beginning the pan down after the crawl stutters and skips frames which should be fixed, I remember Obi-Wan’s “We haven’t much time” being out of sync; Count Dooku’s hologram at the beginning of the movie is pretty hard to hear; the Neomoidian subtitles misspell “boycott” as “boycotte”, and I couldn’t make out what Padme says at the end of the ship scene. I think it was “Miss your mother” but its use is very abrupt and odd. Finally I noticed Qui-Gon’s purple lightsaber in the desert looked really fat. But otherwise, I didn’t notice any other technical issue.

Narratively speaking, I loved the changes and additions made; they really made the experience better! I especially loved the added depth to the Neomoidians. Who’d have thought Nute Gunray of all people would be ruthless and threatening, but also sympathetic? I would love to learn more about this guy’s past. The new additions to Darth Maul with the fan film, subtitles, and unused trailer dialogue about fear, Maul becomes even more of an effective villain.

The ultimate fight of oppressive technology vs mother nature, freedom and independence vs corrupt bureaucracy and fascism, has never been so relatable and engaging. Thumbs way up!

When it comes to watching Episode I I've personally avoided watching it for so long I barely remember the film and as such also avoided the many fanedits over the years for fears of bring back those bad memories. As its been so long I finally gave in and watched Andreas edit and I'm glad I did.

What drew me to this edit was the reimagining of the narrative and using other source material to expand on much needed character development while omitting offensive scenes throughout some examples *SPOILERS* like expanding on the trade federations backstory to strengthen their motives, allowing the villains more screen time to give a sense of peril and also better introducing Dookus character to the storyline and reintroducing Jar-Jars as a member of the Jedis original crew sent from corusent. Is this film perfect? no. can the few issues be fixed? yes, quite easily.

The main issues are really only technical ones like Mauls sabre changing orange in some scenes, although you get the narrotive point better with Dookus hologram throughout it still looks out of place in some scenes eg Jedi council scene @ 00:56:23 and some clunky subtitles one example of this is during the original films opening scenes on the trade federations ship which is now shown later in the film when Qui-Gons using his sabre to melt the bridges blast doors these are the new lines:

Nute Gunray: "close the blast doors... Were you born stupid?"
Rune: "this guy just wont give up!"
Nute Gunray: "shut up, your encouraging him" – encouraging? Should read something more like "shut up, stop admiring them!

Also something out of place is the heavy metal rift first heard at Tattooine when entering Mos Espa and the Maul scenes which brings you out of the Starwars film. Lastly Qui-Gons close up death scene @ 01:27:56 repeats itself but not sure if its intentional though.

Overall a very good edit from Andreas and a definite improvement over the theatrical, looking forward to the improvements version 2 of the Ancient Lore will bring.

Congrats on winning November 2018 Favorite Edit!

Now, time for my thoughts...

It is a refreshing way to watch TPM. Less annoyance from you know who. Changing the lines is an improvement, but my only main issue with this edit is the music, the music cues don't all flow with the scenes; they make me think of the other movies when I'm suppose to think of this movie.

I do recommend others to see this edit, other viewers might enjoy it more than I do.

A refreshing take on Episode I, yet still needs more work.
I really enjoyed watching the new narrative unfold, and think the it is a better story for EP1. The work done with the source material is wonderful, and most offensive and annoying lines were trimmed away. I also like the changes made to the soundtrack and the idea of adding materials from fan films.
However... There is an obvious and jarring drop in quality when using the video from the fan film, which I hope is fixed in V2. Additionally, there were a few lines of new dialogue (in the subtitles) that felt out of place, especially between 1:07:13-1:08:13. Moreover, there are a few out-of-place cuts throughout the edit (such as at 56:23, or at 1:07:13).
All-in-all, I recommend watching this edit. It tells a new and compelling story by using the existing materials, and is enjoyable.