Star Wars: Episode II - The Approaching Storm

Though I consider Labyrinth of Evil to be the best movie in Hal9000's prequel trilogy, I consider this to be his greatest achievement with the prequels. Attack of the Clones is by and far, my least favorite Star Wars movie. It dissapoints basically throughout the entire runtime. At least the Phantom Menace had Qui-Gon, the pod race, and Duel of the Fates. But boy oh boy did Hal improve the hell out of this film. First things first, the BEST thing about his edit is how much he improves the character of Anakin. No longer is he a whiny and unlikable protagonist. In The Approaching Storm Anakin is a honorable and compassionate person who you come to care for. The relationship between him and Obi-Wan is improved a ton. Hal accomplishes this by trimming all the bickering between the two. And the romance is soooooo much better. I can't say enough how much better it is. It used to be so cringeworthy but with the addition of some deleted scenes, the removal of entire scenes, and narrative restructuring, the romance is now believable and well executed. Everything just works so much better in this version of the film. I give this fanedit the HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

This is another masterful edit and like HAL9000's TPM, the definitive edit of AotC. What I like best about it is that it ruthlessly cuts out Anakin's whininess, which is absolutely necessary because what the PT failed to do, but needed to do, was make Anakin look like a badass (rather than a baby), but who struggled to deal with loss (again, not a baby). Since the PT is ultimately about Anakin being lured to the dark side, and this edit does the best job of not making Anakin look like a sniveling little weenie, that makes The Approaching Storm the superior effort.

I used to like Q2's edit of Ep. II the best, but in the end, I think he's a little too liberal with his cuts. I also don't agree with the over all philosophy behind his edits. However, I am torn on who handled Anakin and Padme's romance better. Q2 saved their first kiss until near the end, whereas HAL9000 had them kiss somewhere in the middle. I think Q2's approach is believable, even preferable, given that Anakin, as a Jedi, is forbidden from having a romantic relationship with her, so they would only give in when they believed they are about to die. The placement of HAL9000's kiss is also awkward, and it's immediately obvious that filters have been used to make it look like nighttime.

Some other nitpicks is that I know that casual fans of Star Wars generally like it when Yoda uses his lightsaber, and I don't know why hardcore fans have a problem with it. Yes, I've heard the reasons, but Yoda is a Jedi, which means he owns and knows how to wield a lightsaber. It only makes sense that he would use it from time to time, so what's the problem here? I also think Obi Wan's fight with Jango Fett with some of the kicks, etc., looks silly and could have used a trim. Other than that, this is a great edit.

I convinced my friends to watch a Star Wars marathon with me and then spent a lot of time determining the edits we'd watch. I decided on Machete Order, with Harmy's DeSpecialized Editions for the Original Trilogy and Hal 9000's edits of Episodes II and III.

Within the first 5 minutes of Episode II, they were clapping and enjoying themselves far more than they thought they would. With a runtime of 1 hour and 48 minutes, this may not seem like a lot gets cut or changed until you watch it. Many one-liners, awkward phrasings, and too-long conversations get cut in half and put back together seamlessly or just plain left out.

Some highlights: Jar Jar and some other bit characters have massively reduced roles. Obi Wan's investigation that leads him to the clones is less clunky because there are fewer steps along the way. Anakin and Padme's relationship is basically a highlights reel, but it plays out so much better than the original; the wedding at the end of the movie is touching. Anakin and Padme's confrontation of Dooku is straightforward and there is no bizarre machine shop scene where R2D2 flies all over the place.

The edit: Seamless. Music and audio played over everything just fine - no choppy bits anywhere. Visuals were great as well, with some clever filters to fix up colors in many areas. Some good side-wipes were used to eliminate certain characters from scenes, these sorts of edits were only noticeable if you're familiar with the original cut.

One issue: The scene at the end of the movie with Dooku and Palpatine was left in. Our group tends to like the theory that Dooku became a separatist because he discovered the truth about Palpatine and doesn't know who he can trust on the council, so that scene burst our bubble.

I loved it, and would eagerly watch it again.

His whining gone, Anakin is now a talented, albeit hasty, young Jedi. It is appropriate that Anakin no longer tells Padmé he slaughtered Tusken Raiders, which she should have been unable accept. The packing scene surprised me. Hal removed the awkwardness and changed it into a conversation between two adults.

It is great to see Padmé try to negotiate with the Separatists. She is a powerful politician, vehemently against the creation of an army, it only follows that she would try to solve things peacefully.

Reinstating deleted scenes vastly improves the story. Unfortunately, the transitions from the film to the deleted scenes are a bit jarring. This is no fault of the editor, but it still distracts from the story.

There are a few things I would have done differently. It is hard for me to part with Yoda and Dooku’s lightsaber duel, and there are many minor trims to dialogue I would have included. However, Hal’s cuts, especially those involving Anakin, out-value my disagreements.

Overall, I really enjoyed this edit. It adds new depth to the film, and fixes Anakin and Padmé’s love story. When we watched AOTC, we used to skip all the painful “love” scenes between Anakin and Padmé. Thanks to Hal, now we don’t have to.

This is a pretty stellar edit. It feels so much more like a Star Wars film - not perfect, but I think as good as it's going to get unless someone comes along to fix the spotty CGI in the 2nd half of the film. I would put this edit about on par with RotJ in general.

I have to say that the use of deleted footage was a pretty big plus here. It's odd that some of this necessary material was ever cut. There are lots of gaps in logic that these scenes help fill in (at least with this edit, not so sure about the original film but probably there too).

As strange as it is to hear myself say it: Anakin and Padme's relationship growth actually feels much more natural, even if Ani is still a little creepy. It's still very "movie"-like but it doesn't feel strange and awkward like in the original.

I also never thought I'd feel better about not seeing Yoda jumping around like a maniac since it was one of the most memorable parts from when I saw it in the theater, but I can honestly say it's so much more fitting without it. It keeps Yoda the Yoda we all know: little and mysteriously powerful with THE force, rather than just powerful with "force" (and speed).

I only found one noticeable editing issue with continuity and that involves when Anakin and Padme get caught and brought before Dooku. They landed in the exhaust shaft but never actually seem to get captured before simply being put on trial. It's a strange omission I don't recall from the original. Not sure what's missing here but it seems some sort of transition is lacking.

Other than that, I think the only thing that would make this edit better is if key parts of Ep1 were integrated into this as a bit of an opening, followed by a "10 years later" and just eliminating the entirety of Ep.1's independent existence.

Now let's see how Ep 3 turned out in HAL's hands...