Review Detail

8.0 45 10
(Updated: September 10, 2012)
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Review by L8wrtr — December 23, 2011 @ 8:43 pm

The most fanedited movie of them all gets a completely new approach.

At the time of this writing, The Ridiculous Menace is the 16th fanedit of The Phantom Menace that is listed on FE. It is certainly not going to be the last either. But it is the most unique of them all. Where other edits seek to create something better than the original, something that makes it more ‘Star Wars’ in tone, feel and narrative, this edit says “Yippee!!!” and to hell with that.

This edit will not be for everyone. Audiophiles who demand clear and unambiguous sound will cringe at the sometimes choppy dialog with stray and unrelated background elements. If your brain cannot accept this audio aspect, then sadly I have to recommend skipping this. And that’s a shame because this edit stands out as one of the most unique, bold, and entertaining fanedits around. In the pantheon of spectacular Star Wars fanedits, for me this edit has its place up there with The War of the Stars, and A New Hope Revisited.

About the edit itself. What makes this edit a both a joy as well as an amazing achievement is that it is not simply a collection of cheap gags and isolated laughs, strung together against the backdrop of The Phantom Menace. While there certainly are numerous individual jokes, gags and meme-insertions, the true accomplishment of this edit is that Frink has created several new sub-plots and redefined most of the characters. Like a master comedian, Frink consistently introduces something funny, something that by itself is entertaining and funny. Then he builds on it, re-uses the core of the joke, adds to it and then punctuates it later in the edit, where the final joke is not possible or nearly as funny without the build-up beforehand.

To be fair, I do not love everything about this edit. There are some jokes which, like a Saturday Night Live sketch from the 90s, go on far too long. In particular the Pod Race and Senate sequences both come to mind. The jokes in them are good, but the pacing is long and too repetitive, causing the pacing to slow way down. However those hiccups are very few, and even with the slowed down pace, remain funny and entertaining.

As I said before, in the world of Star Wars fanedits, this has a place as one of my absolute favorites. Completely original, bold, ridiculous.

Overall, I cannot recommend this edit enough. The only thing holding it back from a perfect score are the pacing issues. This get’s a 9 out of 10 Yippees!!!!
Report this review Was this review helpful? 0 0

Comments