Star Wars Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side - An Attack of the Clones Fanedit by DsqrD Studio

I am so very torn on this. First off, a huge round of applause for DDS (Editor) for this cut. I love it. I don't think I'll ever go back to the theatrical (sorry, bluray). This is pretty much everything I want from Episode II. Those deleted scenes give new life to the film by giving new life to the Ani/Padme romance. And he manages NOT to butcher the original intent of Lucas. One could argue that comes with the territory of fan editing, but, I don't know... there's just something about messing too much with Star Wars. For some reason (personal thing) I just find them better off NOT fussed with too much. But I really do believe that DDS has found that perfect balance of improving by adding AND taking away... without taking away TOO much. Anakin is still the same character... just more identifiable. The romance is still classic Romeo and Juliet with all of its young adult craziness and cringe... just endearing now instead of tiresome.

This brings me to why I'm torn about the edit. I took one point off of a perfect score... even though I REALLY wanted to give it a 10/10. My hope is that DDS might go back and make two tiny tweaks that are stopping this behemoth of a fan edit from being absolutely stellar. So, before I get to my criticisms, I just want to say in plain english: I LOVE this edit and it is my FAVORITE presentation of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Also, a HUGE hats off to his efforts on restoring and upscaling the deleted scenes. I have seen others try and incorporate these same scenes to much less success in terms of them feeling seamless. Absolutely amazing wizardry.

Okay, on to the small things that broke my heart lol.

1. Musical transitions - (Timeline marks 32:31 & 50:44) Across the Stars is such a beautiful, iconic, and recognizable theme. And in these two transitions the musical fade out occurs BEFORE the chord finishes, interrupting the musical flow of the film. The audience is WAITING painfully for that theme to terminate its melodic and romantic voice... but we cut ABRUPTLY away from it. It is jarring and feels a bit like cinematic blue balls (pardon the crude analogy). The abruptness of it SCREAMS that something unnatural has occurred and pulls the viewer RIGHT out of this amazing experience that has been crafted. DDS has rescued the romance of this film... and then... with these TOO abrupt transitions... proceeds to shake it roughly as it is trying to be delicate. The ONLY reason I am so hard on this... is because of how much I love the edit. I want this to be my official go to, the one I show my kids when they are old enough, but these musical ouchies are just very painful.

2. - (Timeline mark - 52:45) I personally prefer Anakin having the nightmare about Shmi and not implying any kind of sexual foray between the two yet, but that's just down to my taste. The editor made a creative decision and I respect that entirely. That being said, there is a choice here I cannot figure out. We cut to Anakin standing in meditation looking out at the sunrise... and we hear a disconnected Anakin voice say: "We could keep it a secret." This is immediately followed by Shmi's pained voice that Anakin is perceiving, and then we go to Padme talking about Anakin's dream the night before. I have no idea what I am supposed to be getting from this. Is Anakin talking to Padme from the balcony while she's in the room saying, "We could keep it a secret"? Is he remembering Shmi's pained voice from his nightmare? Is he, RIGHT then, hearing her again? My brain just cannot put these pieces together within the time I'm given to do so and with the information I am being presented. I know this wasn't the intent, but it almost feels like Anakin's disembodied line and his mom's screams are somehow supposed to be connected... and it feels very weird. This one moment feels like a tiny little mustache on a massive and beautiful Mona Lisa. At the very least, I am hoping that DDS can help me understand the intention here. But honestly, I would love him the go back and just take a look at this moment from the audience's perspective and consider making a change that streamlines this scene. Even something as simple as taking the "We could keep it a secret" line out would immensely help the whole thing.

I hope none of this comes across as disrespectful. It is in no way intended to be. I love this edit and I really respect the vision of DDS. These are two little places where I strongly feel this work could be improved significantly.

Cheers to the editor. I cannot wait to see what you tackle next.

While the original movie's world building and deeper theming are worth a watch, the rest of Attack of the Clones has always made it very tedious for me to sit through. From the insufferable whining of Anakin, the uncomfortable romance shoehorned in, the convenience of a Clone army appearing out of thin air just when the Republic needs it, I could count on one hand the the number of times I had sat through the theatrical cut. Then, I came across DsqrDStudio and his wonderful edits while browsing Revenge of the Sith content. Deleted scenes have always been a fascinating subject for me, and the promise of glimpsing these alternate story beats, cleaned up to match the rest of the film, as well as restructuring the story to address my gripes with the original hooked me.
I could not recommend Shroud of the Darkside enough. The angle of Anakin and Padme's love story is made far more convincing with her thinking she would have settled down by this stage in her life, her family's prodding, and Anakin being portrayed as much more level-headed and mature. When he snaps and slaughters the Sand People like animals, it is made far more suspenseful, as a confused young man that has always bottled his emotions suddenly finds that bottle full and breaking.
This will be my preferred method of viewing Attack of the Clones going forward. Already, I have watched it three times since November 2023. Once with my younger brother who grew up unabashedly loving the Prequels and the 3D Clone Wars cartoon, once by myself for drafting this review, and then once more at a holiday gathering with family friends and EU aficionados. The result has been unanimous praise each time.
While it could be argued that no work deserves a perfect 10, the audio, soundmixing, scripting, and retention of Anakin's line about sand elevate this work to the highest score in my eyes. I eagerly await the next viewing of this fan edit, as I know there will be and additional ones after.

Wow, this edit is night and day to the original, it's like watching an entirely different film—one that's actually good... one that's actually *Star Wars*. I've been watching these films my whole life and I never could have imagined having Attack of the Clones move me, emotionally, in the way that this edit manages to do. When I reached the point where Anakin confesses his dark deeds to Padme, I actually teared up. I was that invested in him, in them.

There are places where the audio volume bounces around a bit--some of this is just mixing between cut footage, but a few points seemed off without any reason, possibly to cover musical cues. Listening on a full speaker setup made these jumps in volume a little jarring, but only once or twice.

The battle sequence at the end drags a bit, and there are still issues with the source material that can't quite be solved. My partner found it frustrating that the Jedi just went along with this sudden clone army that appears: "Why are they agreeing to use it and lead it?" And they also found it annoying that all the Jedi just show up on Geonosis to get themselves shot. These are not things that can be corrected by the edit, they're pretty endemic to the source.

Despite these quibbles, however, this feels like the film we all wanted. It's pure gold. Highly recommend.

I've always found episode 2 unwatchable and the work DsqrD put into this made it quite enjoyable. The middle of the film is bumpy narratively but knowing the theatrical its night and day.

I agree with everything the previous reviewers said about keeping the plot points and sequences intact but slight trims here and there to reduce the cringe. I like the droid factory and arena sequence (something other edits have removed completely) so I was happy to see those scenes left in. My favourite part of AotC is the mystery vibe as Obi Wan is tracking down Kamino. The deleted scene with the jedi temple identification droids is very much welcome, since it is referred to later when Dex says "those droids only focus on 'symbols" . The subtitles regarding Syfo-Dias are a brilliant idea, since this aspect is left up to the imagination in the official version. George Lucas meant to come back to this thread in RotS, but it didnt make the cut, and viewers were left without a solid explanation (As an aside, I think it would pack quite an emotional punch if Yoda and Obi Wan found out during/shortly after Order 66 that the clones were ordered by Dooku, posing as Sifo-Dyas, who himself was ordered by Sidious. They would come to the realization they had been fooled all along, and didnt know it).

Anyways, I was following along with the cutlist as I was watching the edit, and paid close attention to the VFX shots to try and catch what the editor did. I can say that even when paying specific attention to these shots, nothing looks weird and I did not notice it had been edited at all. This edit is definitely one of the better AotC edits, and I will be paying attention to DsqrDStudio's future edits for sure.