Star Wars: Episode II - The Approaching Storm

A belated review for an epic edit. After watching this version, I realized the potential of fan edits and it made me an immediate fan. I was blown away. This took the movie from a 5/10 to a solid 8. You saved the star wars prequels for me.

Hal9000 has managed to take the weakest of the prequels and chipped away enough of the dead weight to make something that really works so much better.

I"m almost entirely onboard with this edit, with just a couple notable exceptions.
Firstly, all edits should take a cue from TM2YC's and use the Portuguese language track for Jar Jar, then resub him.

The trims to the beginning scenes are all solid choices and really help the characterizations, although I've always found Padme's line to Anakin "It makes me UNCOMFORTABLE!!" to be far too aggressive and biting. Part of the reason the romance struggles to be believable in this is because Portman isn't projecting much chemistry with Christensen. She's constantly pushing him away in an aggressive manner, and her soft eyes at him aren't half as believable as when Fisher made eyes at Ford. It's not only Anakin's reactions that need trimming in this, it's Padme's, too.

Also in the beginning, a couple small trims that I would prefer to leave in to help set up the development of the story:
-some of the rare non-cringey banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin when OW says if he practiced his swordplay as much as his wordplay he "would rival Master Yoda". I assume this was taken out because Yoda doesn't use a lightsaber in this edit (which I would also keep in) but this early hint helps to set up that Yoda is a badass.
-Anakin's "nice guy" questioning of the bounty hunter is weird. I'd swap this for his angry line right after that was deleted: "Tell us!" Helps to show how overly-attached to Padme he is and how this is too personal for him and bringing up negative feelings. Dum dum de dum...

The trims to the Dexter's Diner scene are good and work really well. That said, it always seemed silly to me that Obi-Wan is going to this random cook to get obscure info. Like, where does he know this cook from even?? Instead, there are two deleted scenes that I really wish were included here. Replace Dexter with Obi-Wan getting the dart tested at the Jedi Archives. Again, use the Portuguese language track for the droids, then resub it so that they give the information Dexter did (another fanedit did this, I forgot whose.) After that, there's a longer scene in the Archives with the librarian, who has a nice little part explaining Dooku's backstory a bit. This is really important to making his character not seem like such a generic villain role, which he still does here. I also rather like the Yoda and the Younglings scene with the exposition that Obi-Wan can't find a planet, because without it he suddenly just shows up in Kamino.

The alternate deleted scene where Obi-Wan expresses concern for Anakin to Mace Windu is good. But I think it's important to keep in the bit where he says Anakin's skills have made him arrogant. It's not too harsh a criticism, and it's information the audience needs to feel like the Jedi are not idiots who don't know what's going on with Anakin.

The scene with the new Queen of Naboo and her council is unfortunately deleted here. The ending of the scene has more cringey antagonism between Anakin and Padme, and that should be trimmed. But this is an important tie to some of the supporting cast from the previous film, and it helps the audience start to grasp how there can be a new "Queen". And I know some people want to imagine it's possible to take the politics out of the prequels, but this is a brief yet important setup for the "Seeds of the Rebellion" subplot of the next film. It explains who all these "Separatists" are and helps lay out where Padme falls in this. All vital stuff for both plot and character.

From this point on, the whole center of the film is GOLD. The restructuring of the romance is best-possible-scenario, leaving us with a gradual progression that feels like two young people in a heightened, romantic situation and just giving in to it. Obi Wan's quest to the cloners and Geonosis flows well, and all the deletions and omissions along the way cut out the parts that are too-much-Tell, not-enough-Show. I do miss the confession scene with Anakin after the Tusken Raider camp. It has parts that definitely need to be trimmed, but I think it's helpful to see him struggling emotionally because he's not acting like a Jedi and he knows it, but he's not emotionally equipped to deal with this. It also helps continue to sell the bonding between him and Padme. The few scenes that have that and also ones that have good Christensen acting and where he's sympathetic really need to be kept in as much as possible.

-I like that the conveyor scene is left in here, and just trimmed to remove the slapstick antics of R2 and 3PO. Blessedly, they're left out of the rest of this film, ending on a line that seems almost planned "If they'd wanted our help, they would've asked for it." Way to know your role, 3PO! Another solid deleted scene added in here for both Padme doing politics and Dooku being more than a stock villain, love it.

-The final love confession before the arena still doesn't quite work for me. It's a nice effort but I think the lines can be moved and trimmed to be even more natural. (Wrote about it in my Fanedit Ideas page.)

-I'm good with all the cuts and trims up until the end of the film, the lightsaber fight. The flailing, screaming Jedi extras need some trimming. There's a really great edit after that actually: it always bothered me that Anakin does a superhuman leap across the room to block Dooku from striking Obi Wan. That's now fixed to be believable. On the other hand, you've just gotta go with the Yoda fight. Each prequel needs an epic lightsaber battle at the end, a tradition started by the first one (or arguably, by The Empire Strikes Back). Without Yoda breaking out the saber, the ending here just feels pretty limp, sorry to say. I know some other fanedits have tried just making trims to the Yoda battle, and I think that's the way to go.

It should go without saying that the technical skill in putting this edit together is unimpeachable, and it's just a matter of whether the cuts serve to better the story or not. The audio is great (no small feat with all the scoring on a Star Wars film) and the cuts are as clean as a lightsaber through a battle droid. Overall, it's a great edit, one that reinvigorated my enjoyment for this film. I'd tweak a few things, but I can't say that I'm dissatisfied if this is as good as it ever gets.

Really great edit! Only problems I have are the obvious audio cut after the first kiss between Anakin and Padme, and the deleted scenes introduce quality dips. My go-to version of this film!

Not much else to say that hasn't already been said. Arguably the worst Star Wars movie has been improved to the point you wouldn't feel awkward recommending it to anyone.

Among the edit's achievements: the three worst scenes are cut out of the movie entirely, the improved opening scenes flow more naturally, the pacing has been improved, and the Anakin/Padme romance actually works now. I have a few nitpicks but taking it on its own merits, well...it's really quite remarkable.

This edit transformed the original film--one that I would describe as 'so-bad-it's-good'--into a movie I'd now say is 'pretty good'.