Star Wars - Episode III: Dark Force Rising

DVD was great quality. Editing was smooth but some of the audio felt unbalanced at times. It could have been my 2.0 setup, sometimes the sound would drop down dramatically and then back up like as if the music was cut from the front channels abruptly but kept in the rear.

This was a pretty excellent Episode 3 edit. Only complaint I have is that the first half felt off narratively, it’s mainly a problem of the source movie though.

Emperor reveal was remarkable. That scene is now canon for me. I have officially forgotten how it happened in the theatrical.

A/V Quality - 9
Editing - 10 visual, 8 audio
Narrative - 9
Enjoyment - 9 (original is 6)

Recommended drink: Irish Coffee

Review by MHBroly — September 19, 2011 @ 8:43 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by Diamond Wan — March 6, 2011 @ 10:24 am

Hats off to Kerr- this is an amazing Episode 3 fanedit. Amazing that at 88 minutes in length, it did not feel like a chop-up hack of the original! I have been planning an Episode 3 edit in my head for some time, and Kerr’s edit has a very close feel to what I am planning, and I have to admit, he added several concepts that I may “borrow”.

Quick list of things I loved: Along with all of the usuals that accompany any Episode 3 fanedit (balcony scene removal, less Anakin whining, etc), the opening battle sequence moves at a strong pace and gets to the point, Grievious has been retooled to be far more sinister (and his hacking cough is almost all gone!), the deleted scenes add extra texture as to how Palpitine works Anakin against the senate/Jedi, Anakin’s fall is far more believable, the Obi/Aniakin fight is nicely condensed, (but I still can’t stand those damn floating discs), Padme’s death and the ending works far better.

Wish list: Wish the audio was Dolby Digital 5.1 as opposed to Dolby Surround. Also, the video quality was passable, but barely. Was very obvious that this is at least two generations away from the original DVD quality (The original Ep 3 DVD has the sharpest and best picture of the Prequel Trilogy).

Conclusion: There were a few moments I would remove from this edit, and a few moments I would add back in, but for now, this stands as my “best of” Episode 3 edits, and sits alongside L8wtrs Episode One, and my edit of Episode 2 – It is nice to actually enjoy the Prequel trilogy again – thank you.

Review by Diamond Wan — March 7, 2011 @ 1:19 am

I forgot to mention perhaps my favorite part of Kerrs edit in my previous review – How he handled Palpitine becoming “Prune Face” is a standout – although I eagerly await Bob Garcia’s digital handywork on this scene which looks to top Kerrs excellent editing and digital lighting work.

Overall 9/10

Review by TMBTM — January 6, 2011 @ 1:18 am

Damn, Kerr really knows what storytelling means! This is a SW prequel and this is almost a good movie too, incredible! The pace is just perfect. Maybe some scenes felt a bit short to me, and 86 minutes is not exactly "Star Wars canon", but well, in this case less is more and it shows!

Kerr managed to cut every redundancy possible and so certain scenes that were boring in the original are now interesting because the audience learns something new. All the cringe inducing lines and scenes have vanished. Some lines have been reorganized to make the characters sound like they are actualy talking to each others and not reading George's corny dialogue. Oh, and the useless "catch me if you can" boring first 30 minutes of the original movie are now a real ride!

There already were some good edits of this movie, but this cut is the best SW prequel I've seen to date. Only the very short lenght, that does not feel like a SW movie, and some audio cuts (not bad, but just a bit obvious at times) prevent me to rate it the maximum. But it is a very, VERY solid 9/10. A must see IMO.

Review by Ripplin — December 25, 2010 @ 12:58 am

Just finished and I would say that for now, this is my preferred version of Ep. III. It really is streamlined, cutting out so much unnecessariness, and is easy to understand. The audio and video quality is top notch as well. There are some further audio cuts I would make (some fixable, some only partially so but preferrable to the audio as-is) and remove a few lines and such here and there (some one-liners, and…he left in the Tarzan yell?!), but overall, the choices made were very good. As mentioned above, the transformation scene is interesting, too. Overall, I loved how quickly things got going and remained that way, but the scenes that needed length (some solemn, like Anakin and Padme pondering on their balconies) remained as well and helped the story elements.

Overall, I’m giving this a 9/10. Great effort!