Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace (Lone Gungan Edition)
Updated
User reviews
8 reviews
Overall rating
8.2
Audio/Video Quality
7.0(4)
Audio Editing
8.7(3)
Visual Editing
9.0(3)
Narrative
8.7(3)
Enjoyment
7.8(8)
8 results - showing 1 - 5
Ordering
(Updated: September 10, 2012)
Enjoyment
9.0
Review by CK1 — April 5, 2011 @ 5:06 am
I just finished “The Phantom Menace: Lone Gungan Edition” and am happy to be the first to comment. I understand if people haven’t quite worked up the motivation to watch yet another Episode 1 edit, but I would encourage them to do so.
I feel that Yads is too modest about the extent of his cutlist, and I’m more than happy to brag up this edit. First of all, I have seen several of the episode 1 edits out there in search of something worthy of being labeled as a Star Wars movie: I think I just found it.
- Your redubbing of the audio and captions for Jar Jar and the Nemodians worked perfectly. The Nemodians are no longer bumbling puppets but are competent antagonists for the film. Your new captions help make their presence in the movie and their relationship to Sidious make sense! Likewise, you turned Jar Jar into an actual character rather than an abomination. He has a small role, but it doesn’t feel like he has been excised. Nothing is missed; he has a part in the film and plays it well. That alone makes this worth watching.
- Your retooling of the film made for a much faster paced story, and this is by far the best version of the podrace that I have seen. About halfway through the edit, you find yourself thinking, “Holy crap, I’m actually interested in what’s happening!” A new experience for episode 1, in my opinion.
- Your decision to completely remove all other Gungans was very bold, and it played out perfectly. Any flack given for Boss Nass being present at the end won’t fly, as there are several no-name characters hanging out at Quigon’s funeral, and he looks nothing like Jar Jar.
- The lack of C-3PO took out needless fluff that broke down pacing and believability of the original, and he was not missed at all.
- You’re treatment of the battle droids was very good. Why Lucas ever thought people would program battle droids to be worthless cowards I’ll never know; thankfully you’ve cleared this up completely.
- Having the freed pilots immediately attack the Federation made the escape from Naboo much more interesting and even suspenseful. It’s amazing how true the old saying ‘less is more’ rings true for your entire edit.
- Having Anikan stay in the cockpit, only helping out by destroying the droidekas, was an incredible improvement. Having the culminating action only divided between the lightsaber battle and the attempt to capture the Viceroy played out far better than the original.
In way of critique, I have only a few things which kept this from being the perfect Ep. 1 edit.
- First, the audio didn’t quite line up during the majority of the movie. Whether this was a technical problem on my end or the result of a bummer download, I’m not sure.
- While you’re idea of adding scenes of suffering/scared civilians on Naboo was very good, I’m afraid it just didn’t play out for me. The clothing they wear is too familiar (baseball caps and plaid button ups) and felt out of place. Also, there was a problem with spacial recognition – I couldn’t tell where they were supposed to be in relation to the attacking army. Great idea, but difficult for obvious reasons. That being said, your rearrangement of the invasion was excellent, and made it feel like a world completely overwhelmed by force, with little ability to fight back. That alone created sympathy for the Naboo folk.
- Two other things you could remove to make this edit perfect: Drop Anikan’s mom’s mention of the virgin birth. Save that for the Lord Jesus and let Anikan be the product of a drifter if need be. No need to mention it. Just don’t have Quigon ask about the father and jump in to her asking ‘Can you help him?’ Also, drop the midichlorian talk and this just became the perfect Episode 1 edit.
If anyone is on the fence about checking this one out, do yourself a favor and download it. It’s a small file, and downloads quickly. See if you agree that this is one of the best (if not the best) Episode 1 edit out there. [Yes, I've seen the Phantom Edit, which is wonderful, but it doesn't go far enough in its cuts as he couldn't have known that Lucas would fail to make any of that garbage make sense in the next two]. Even if my small suggestions remain in the film, I look forward to adding the DVD version of this to my collection and using the original as a coaster.
I just finished “The Phantom Menace: Lone Gungan Edition” and am happy to be the first to comment. I understand if people haven’t quite worked up the motivation to watch yet another Episode 1 edit, but I would encourage them to do so.
I feel that Yads is too modest about the extent of his cutlist, and I’m more than happy to brag up this edit. First of all, I have seen several of the episode 1 edits out there in search of something worthy of being labeled as a Star Wars movie: I think I just found it.
- Your redubbing of the audio and captions for Jar Jar and the Nemodians worked perfectly. The Nemodians are no longer bumbling puppets but are competent antagonists for the film. Your new captions help make their presence in the movie and their relationship to Sidious make sense! Likewise, you turned Jar Jar into an actual character rather than an abomination. He has a small role, but it doesn’t feel like he has been excised. Nothing is missed; he has a part in the film and plays it well. That alone makes this worth watching.
- Your retooling of the film made for a much faster paced story, and this is by far the best version of the podrace that I have seen. About halfway through the edit, you find yourself thinking, “Holy crap, I’m actually interested in what’s happening!” A new experience for episode 1, in my opinion.
- Your decision to completely remove all other Gungans was very bold, and it played out perfectly. Any flack given for Boss Nass being present at the end won’t fly, as there are several no-name characters hanging out at Quigon’s funeral, and he looks nothing like Jar Jar.
- The lack of C-3PO took out needless fluff that broke down pacing and believability of the original, and he was not missed at all.
- You’re treatment of the battle droids was very good. Why Lucas ever thought people would program battle droids to be worthless cowards I’ll never know; thankfully you’ve cleared this up completely.
- Having the freed pilots immediately attack the Federation made the escape from Naboo much more interesting and even suspenseful. It’s amazing how true the old saying ‘less is more’ rings true for your entire edit.
- Having Anikan stay in the cockpit, only helping out by destroying the droidekas, was an incredible improvement. Having the culminating action only divided between the lightsaber battle and the attempt to capture the Viceroy played out far better than the original.
In way of critique, I have only a few things which kept this from being the perfect Ep. 1 edit.
- First, the audio didn’t quite line up during the majority of the movie. Whether this was a technical problem on my end or the result of a bummer download, I’m not sure.
- While you’re idea of adding scenes of suffering/scared civilians on Naboo was very good, I’m afraid it just didn’t play out for me. The clothing they wear is too familiar (baseball caps and plaid button ups) and felt out of place. Also, there was a problem with spacial recognition – I couldn’t tell where they were supposed to be in relation to the attacking army. Great idea, but difficult for obvious reasons. That being said, your rearrangement of the invasion was excellent, and made it feel like a world completely overwhelmed by force, with little ability to fight back. That alone created sympathy for the Naboo folk.
- Two other things you could remove to make this edit perfect: Drop Anikan’s mom’s mention of the virgin birth. Save that for the Lord Jesus and let Anikan be the product of a drifter if need be. No need to mention it. Just don’t have Quigon ask about the father and jump in to her asking ‘Can you help him?’ Also, drop the midichlorian talk and this just became the perfect Episode 1 edit.
If anyone is on the fence about checking this one out, do yourself a favor and download it. It’s a small file, and downloads quickly. See if you agree that this is one of the best (if not the best) Episode 1 edit out there. [Yes, I've seen the Phantom Edit, which is wonderful, but it doesn't go far enough in its cuts as he couldn't have known that Lucas would fail to make any of that garbage make sense in the next two]. Even if my small suggestions remain in the film, I look forward to adding the DVD version of this to my collection and using the original as a coaster.
C
Overall rating
9.0
Audio/Video Quality
8.0
Audio Editing
8.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
I just had the pleasure of watching this fan edit of Episode I. Having watched many many fan edits (Besides the obvious Phantom edit, I've seen Seciors, ADigitalMan's, Hal9000, and Q2's. I even started to edit my own many years ago) I finally found what I think is hands-down the best Episode I edit there is. Period. It took a steaming pile of bantha poodoo, and turned it into a a real Star Wars movie.
How you ask? Where to start?! First, by redubbing the audio and changing subtitles Yads has both turned the trade federation into an evil menacing threat and Jar Jar into an only-cares-for himself cool character. Infact, I even LIKED the guy, and a few times I even laughed out loud (instead of groaning in agony).
Second, the edits. I always felt that the Gungans added nothing to the story or the plot, and th movie flows much better without them. I also really love all the cuts around Anakin, and how quickly the plot moved forward.
Third, the order in which scenes are brought in the movie are brilliant. I never even thought to do some of the things that he does. The original TPM final battles took place simultaneously over 4 areas, and it was just too much! By eliminating one of them, and moving one of them forward it balanced out the action and pace of the movie.
I could go on... but watch it.
As for my rating -- I deducted some points for the quality of the audio and video. This is not really a fault of Yads, as ripping our audio and inserting new (and better) background music is impossible to achieve with out some sort of residual artifacts. But since the overall music and dubbing was much cooler, I only knocked off a couple of points. Narrative and Enjoyment 10/10.
How you ask? Where to start?! First, by redubbing the audio and changing subtitles Yads has both turned the trade federation into an evil menacing threat and Jar Jar into an only-cares-for himself cool character. Infact, I even LIKED the guy, and a few times I even laughed out loud (instead of groaning in agony).
Second, the edits. I always felt that the Gungans added nothing to the story or the plot, and th movie flows much better without them. I also really love all the cuts around Anakin, and how quickly the plot moved forward.
Third, the order in which scenes are brought in the movie are brilliant. I never even thought to do some of the things that he does. The original TPM final battles took place simultaneously over 4 areas, and it was just too much! By eliminating one of them, and moving one of them forward it balanced out the action and pace of the movie.
I could go on... but watch it.
As for my rating -- I deducted some points for the quality of the audio and video. This is not really a fault of Yads, as ripping our audio and inserting new (and better) background music is impossible to achieve with out some sort of residual artifacts. But since the overall music and dubbing was much cooler, I only knocked off a couple of points. Narrative and Enjoyment 10/10.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
I
(Updated: October 05, 2013)
Overall rating
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
7.0
Enjoyment
7.0
Notable fan fixes usually get quite good reviews on here, but I've not found most prequel fan edits to really be good enough. Streamlining, trimming, minor changes or only cuts, that is what they mostly consist of. So I was expecting it again here. But the number of changes here just exceed any version of the phantom menace I have seen yet. The visual editing was without any noticable errors, but the musical editing was phenomenal. It was great to hear those old musical cues again. They single handedly saved a bunch of scenes for me. This is really the first time I was surprised at the amount of changes, and the quality of the production, in a fan edit.
Now, the reason I didn't give the narrative or enjoyment a higher score has nothing to do with the effort of the editor, but the abysmal state of the original movie. And having seen the movie already a few times didn't help either, and certainly stops me from being emotionally invested barring some really big changes to the flow of the story, and the story itself.
One of the biggest flaws structure wise in phantom for me, is how little it is connected to the two other films. Lucas apparently wanted to do a kind of stand alone story, like a new hope. To blow up the evil thing at the end and then have some kind of happy ending. But simply trying to do something like before does not guarantee anything. The problem goes hand in hand with the all too present yet all too broken narrative of naboo. So much of the film is focused on trying to save naboo and yet we have no reason to care, and it has no connection to anything else in the film. The gungans are silly, and the naboo are dull. That is, in the original version. Obviously in this one only the naboo remain. But because of the way the original movie was set up, there is no real tension or drama between two opposing forces. The neimodians stay on their ships and take over the planet with their silly droids, then comes tatooine, and then the naboo go back to the planet and remove them. That's really all there is. With a new hope there was a real feeling of desperation concerning the rebellion. Inspired by real life revolutionary and rebellious movements, we get that sense that the rebellion is the underdog. But not here.
Sad to say, I didn't feel like this edit improved that narrative "oomph" enough for me, because of the weak source material. I suppose I'm just demanding of movie narratives. It's still the best edit of the movie I have seen yet however. It basically takes out all of the really insulting factors. The biggest help in this is the fact that with new subtitles, the neimodians are less scared and weak, and more in control and far more evil. Instead of telling a silly droid to process the queen, he orders them imprisoned. And in his little chat with the "invasion guy" he orders his top people shot. That's the kind of grittyness the original trilogy had, and the new ones missed.
If I were ever to make a fan edit, I would surely ask to use this version as a basis for mine.
Personally I think that with some improvements, this movie could be on the level of what we expect for TPM: Revisited.
What I thought was missing or odd:
-A new opening crawl would be nice.
-Jar jar is the gaurdian of the forest? Not a problem for the story, but odd. Personally I'd just have him tag along with qui-gon because of the life debt and leave it at that.
-The Terminator Salvation shot was quite obvious.
-Not removing sidious downplays the neimodians and loses the mystery surrounding him and palpatine.
Some suggestions and ideas of my own I would implement myself if I could:
-Remove the trade part of trade federation. To tie it into the sequels, make them the beginnings of the
seperatists. The Federation was evil, yes. But I feel that that change is only bolstering a weak part of the movie (these stand-alone villains) Personally I would say that it is more imperative to tie this movie to the sequals.
-Perhaps one could even latch onto a crazy idea of mine, and have the Federation as the good guys and the jedi council and republic as the villains! Not entirely, but a certain moral grey story. Check it: Qui-Gon Gin makes bad decisions all the time, right? And what is he responsible for? The training of vader. Of course he couldn't see that specifically, but he was arrogant about it. The sith? EXTINCT for a millenia. Not in apparant hiding or weakened. Extinct. In a world like that were the only force users are jedi, what would balancing the force mean? But no, Qui-Gon and even the council are oblivious to that. That arrogance could be played up to give us a morally grey story. It could be about Count Dooku and the seperatists being outmatched by the influence and power of the galaxy's regime. Like the rebellion that follows, only this time they lose. It would add to the death of Dooku in part 3. The Federation could be attacking Naboo (replaced here with Alderaan) as a political statement, a desperate effort to fight the regime of the republic. But I'm rambling right now, and this is more of an overal trilogy idea.
Overall, great edit, great work!
Now, the reason I didn't give the narrative or enjoyment a higher score has nothing to do with the effort of the editor, but the abysmal state of the original movie. And having seen the movie already a few times didn't help either, and certainly stops me from being emotionally invested barring some really big changes to the flow of the story, and the story itself.
One of the biggest flaws structure wise in phantom for me, is how little it is connected to the two other films. Lucas apparently wanted to do a kind of stand alone story, like a new hope. To blow up the evil thing at the end and then have some kind of happy ending. But simply trying to do something like before does not guarantee anything. The problem goes hand in hand with the all too present yet all too broken narrative of naboo. So much of the film is focused on trying to save naboo and yet we have no reason to care, and it has no connection to anything else in the film. The gungans are silly, and the naboo are dull. That is, in the original version. Obviously in this one only the naboo remain. But because of the way the original movie was set up, there is no real tension or drama between two opposing forces. The neimodians stay on their ships and take over the planet with their silly droids, then comes tatooine, and then the naboo go back to the planet and remove them. That's really all there is. With a new hope there was a real feeling of desperation concerning the rebellion. Inspired by real life revolutionary and rebellious movements, we get that sense that the rebellion is the underdog. But not here.
Sad to say, I didn't feel like this edit improved that narrative "oomph" enough for me, because of the weak source material. I suppose I'm just demanding of movie narratives. It's still the best edit of the movie I have seen yet however. It basically takes out all of the really insulting factors. The biggest help in this is the fact that with new subtitles, the neimodians are less scared and weak, and more in control and far more evil. Instead of telling a silly droid to process the queen, he orders them imprisoned. And in his little chat with the "invasion guy" he orders his top people shot. That's the kind of grittyness the original trilogy had, and the new ones missed.
If I were ever to make a fan edit, I would surely ask to use this version as a basis for mine.
Personally I think that with some improvements, this movie could be on the level of what we expect for TPM: Revisited.
What I thought was missing or odd:
-A new opening crawl would be nice.
-Jar jar is the gaurdian of the forest? Not a problem for the story, but odd. Personally I'd just have him tag along with qui-gon because of the life debt and leave it at that.
-The Terminator Salvation shot was quite obvious.
-Not removing sidious downplays the neimodians and loses the mystery surrounding him and palpatine.
Some suggestions and ideas of my own I would implement myself if I could:
-Remove the trade part of trade federation. To tie it into the sequels, make them the beginnings of the
seperatists. The Federation was evil, yes. But I feel that that change is only bolstering a weak part of the movie (these stand-alone villains) Personally I would say that it is more imperative to tie this movie to the sequals.
-Perhaps one could even latch onto a crazy idea of mine, and have the Federation as the good guys and the jedi council and republic as the villains! Not entirely, but a certain moral grey story. Check it: Qui-Gon Gin makes bad decisions all the time, right? And what is he responsible for? The training of vader. Of course he couldn't see that specifically, but he was arrogant about it. The sith? EXTINCT for a millenia. Not in apparant hiding or weakened. Extinct. In a world like that were the only force users are jedi, what would balancing the force mean? But no, Qui-Gon and even the council are oblivious to that. That arrogance could be played up to give us a morally grey story. It could be about Count Dooku and the seperatists being outmatched by the influence and power of the galaxy's regime. Like the rebellion that follows, only this time they lose. It would add to the death of Dooku in part 3. The Federation could be attacking Naboo (replaced here with Alderaan) as a political statement, a desperate effort to fight the regime of the republic. But I'm rambling right now, and this is more of an overal trilogy idea.
Overall, great edit, great work!
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
A
(Updated: September 10, 2012)
Enjoyment
8.0
Review by js1210 — October 6, 2011 @ 5:19 am
*This rating was given before reviews were required*
*This rating was given before reviews were required*
J
(Updated: September 10, 2012)
Enjoyment
8.0
Review by HyperDown — September 24, 2011 @ 6:44 pm
I really, REALLY liked how you handled Jar-Jar in this edit, nice job! All edits should aspire to this same treatment.
I also liked the slightly different story arc, it was a pleasant surprise.
I do feel that you could have removed more scenes from Tatooine (trim down the pod race, reduce Anikan’s lines a bit). Leaving in a few scenes from the opening act would also be good (how the heck did those Jedi get down to the planet?). I also missed some of the \oooh, ahhh!\ scenery and spacecraft shots which you cut.
Overall, great job!
Oh, and I watched the Version 2 of this edit; which has corrected all the sound issues; and I thought video quality was absolutely fine.
I really, REALLY liked how you handled Jar-Jar in this edit, nice job! All edits should aspire to this same treatment.
I also liked the slightly different story arc, it was a pleasant surprise.
I do feel that you could have removed more scenes from Tatooine (trim down the pod race, reduce Anikan’s lines a bit). Leaving in a few scenes from the opening act would also be good (how the heck did those Jedi get down to the planet?). I also missed some of the \oooh, ahhh!\ scenery and spacecraft shots which you cut.
Overall, great job!
Oh, and I watched the Version 2 of this edit; which has corrected all the sound issues; and I thought video quality was absolutely fine.
H