Star Wars: Episode III - Labyrinth Of Evil

Edit (7/11/2019): I have changed my score because Hal9000 has released an "alternate ending" cut of his edit that retains Padme's death. This essentially fixes my main gripe I had with it. Thank you, Hal. This is a phenomenal edit.

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Whereas I believe HAL9000's TPM and AotC are the definitive go-to edits of the PT, somehow he really dropped the ball on RotS, and his final effort doesn't even come close to what L8wrtr accomplished with the same material.

The biggest problem is that this edit is where HAL9000's philosophy of maintaining continuity with the OT really fails him. The whole edit is overall inferior to L8wrtr's, but most of the problems occur at the end. Leia mentions in passing in RotJ that she retains memories of her mother from when she was young. Thus, HAL9000 bends over backwards to make it so Padme lives, and he literally breaks the movie in the process, going so far as to add footage from an entirely different movie (The Other Boleyn Girl). Unfortunately, even the few seconds or so that he uses is completely jarring because the respective films look and feel nothing alike. Also, in the theatrical release of RotS, and illustrated even better in L8wrtr's edit, Anakin joins the dark side to prevent Padme from dying, yet his descent is what ultimately leads to her death. This powerful irony is completely lost in HAL9000's edit. I'm sorry, but an enjoyable film experience is more important than continuity in this case. In the end this is George Lucas' movie, not ours. Making nips and tucks is one thing, but changing the overall plot of the story is not the job of an editor.

HAL9000's edit also includes Vader's "NOOOO!!!!!!" at the end and him throwing a hissy fit, whereas L8wrtr's scene is much more graceful and subdued...perfect, really. The original ending of RotS had a bloated ending and didn't know when to quit, and HAL9000 kept too many of these elements. On the other hand, after the climax in L8wrtr's edit, he ties things up nice and quick.

HAL9000's effort is noble but misguided. It is an okay edit, but there is nothing it does that L8wrtr's doesn't do better. Perhaps the problem is that with L8wrtr's edit of RotS, there really isn't much room for improvement, whereas with the other two prequel films, there was still a lot that needed fixing. I wish I could say that HAL9000's three PT edits constituted the definitive trilogy, but I can't. I recommend watching HAL9000's edits of episodes I and II, and L8wrtr's edit of episode III if you want the optimal experience watching the PT.

This edit gets a 4.0 largely for breaking the movie, which I find unforgivable, although there are a few niggling problems with cuts not being as seamless as they could be.

EDIT: I feel like I need to say more to defend why I gave this edit such a low score. Perhaps the fundamental problem is that the editor's efforts come from a place of contempt, not love. HAL9000 has said on the forums: "I think the prequels would be utterly forgettable were they not Star Wars films. They're obligatory more than anything else." I feel completely differently. I love the PT. I love the pre-empire universe created by it. I love The Clone Wars TV series. I would take Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan over Luke, Leia, and Han any day (yes, you read right). I was a teenager when the PT came out, and warts and all, I'm willing to embrace it as the Star Wars of my generation. I hope HAL9000 comes to realize that his efforts are important, not just to those who value the original trilogy, but to those who treasure the prequel trilogy as well. That's why I think breaking RotS in service of RotJ is such a travesty. RotJ is still good regardless of whether or not Luke and Leia's mom dies in childbirth. The challenge RotS faces is that everyone knows how it ends...Anakin ultimately turns to the dark side. So George Lucas re-indroduces the element of surprise by injecting a dose of irony in that Anakin inadvertently causes the very thing he's trying to prevent, i.e., Padme's death. I like Anakin because he's actually George Lucas' most nuanced character (despite giving him terrible dialogue at times). He's a good guy, but he can't endure loss, which runs contrary to his Jedi training. He loses his mother--yes, she DIES--and he vows not to let it happen again. He's so determined not to lose Padme, that she actually DIES AT HIS HANDS as a consequence of his efforts. This irony is so fundamental to the story--GL starts to set it up in AotC in fact--that I can't believe HAL9000 would do this. Sheer contempt, it seems.

So here's my review on the third prequel in HAL9000's series.

I have watched Stankpac' version a few years ago and more recently L8wrtr's. So I tend to compare these two against each other.

HAL keeps the buzz droids sequence from the beginning of the movie. L8wrtr eliminates it and I think it works better. Get to Grievous ship already. HAL keeps Dooku's exchange with Anakin about fear and anger. It's a nice parallel to Ep VI with Luke and the Emperor. Missing in L8wrtr's version but it does flow faster, IMO. Overall, in comparing these two edits side-by-side, it appears to me that L8wrtr is more ruthless in deleting one-liners than HAL is.

Here is one of the most egregious examples of that: HAL keeps the "Hold me Anakin, like you did on Naboo, when all we had was our love." This atrocious line is in HAL's version and not in L8wrtr's and to be honest, that alone is major minus points for me for this edit.

This version is improved from the theatrical release, no doubt.

The biggest thing L8wrtr did for me was something really cool with Anakin's and Obi-Wan's fight at the very end, and it worked very well and my eyes popped open when I saw his solution. No "high-ground" chatter and it made complete sense in terms of action and what these characters would do. Obi-Wan jumps from the floating device on to land and Anakin's jumps a second later after him and Obi-Wan cuts him up. Effin' brilliant.

HAL made an interesting creative choice in having Padme survive and use footage from Natalie Portman from another movie, crying and holding a baby. So that is brilliant in terms of undoing Lucas' destroying continuity in SW VI. But my question as a viewer was: Padme just allows the kids to be separated? Dramatically that seems off, I think in a movie you wouldn't skip the scene where that drama unfolds.

So based on what I saw in L8wrtr's edit of that moment, his is my go-to version for Ep III.

There are singular moments in this fanedit which I like better than the same singular moment in L8wrtr's version, for example, HAL has Obi-Wan cut off one of Grievous' hands right off the bat and it worked well. But overall, there are more noticeable edits that I think work better in L8wrtr's Dawn of the Empire than what HAL chose. I suspect he may be more attached to the original prequels than either me or L8wrtr, based on how old he was when watching the prequels when they first came out and being familiar with them before the original trilogy (I assume).

So to summarize: Ep I: L8wrtr, Ep II HAL9000, Ep III L8wrtr.

These are the versions I will show friends from now on who want to see Star Wars for the first time. Or whenever I rewatch them.

My previous favorite edit of Revenge of the Sith was L8wrtr's Dawn of the Empire. I did have some problems with it, like Chewbacca was still there, Padme dies unlike her daughter's memories, C-3PO doesn't have his memory wiped and it isn't explained why only Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Yoda are able to use the force ghost technique. Despite the universe shrinking and the continuity errors though, overall it was the best edit of ROTS.

But now, Labyrinth of Evil has taken over the title of best edit of Episode III. Why?

The Audio/Video quality is great, so is the editing. The narrative was similar to Dawn of the Empire (that's what I like about this) but better. And of course, MUCH better than the original. The only problems I had were,

1) The removal of the Yoda/Palpatine fight. The fight has a point. When he warns Luke “Do not underestimate the power of the Emperor”, he is speaking from experience. When he goes to Dagobah to hide without the fight people would say "Why doesn't he stop the Emperor?" When he does and fails, he goes into exile. Many people complain that Yoda having a lightsaber contradicts and destroys his character, and they argue that Yoda represented a character that someone didn't need to be physically strong but strong in the heart to be powerful as shown in the Empire Strikes Back, which is correct. And according to them Yoda having a lightsaber destroys his character because of this. But think about it this way; the lightsaber is no laser sword used with physical strength, the lightsaber is a force weapon used by force wielders. The stronger you are in the force the better you use the lightsaber as well.

Did you play the Knights of the Old Republic games? Well in the second one your Master, Kreia, talks to one of your other companions, Atton, and says "Take the greatest Jedi Knight, strip away the Force, and what remains? They rely on it, depend on it more than they know. Watch as one tries to wield a blaster or a lightsaber, and you will see nothing more than a woman, or a man. A child."

We can easily ignore the blaster part because Jedi don't use blasters anyway, except only on dire situations like at the end of Obi-Wan vs Greavous, which also ends with Obi-Wan saying "So uncivilized." But the important part is the lightsaber part. This time it's the opposite. Other than Jedi and Sith, people are never able to use lightsabers properly, why not? Because you need the Force in order to use the lightsaber, which proves that a lightsaber is more than just a laser sword. That is why in my opinion there is nothing wrong with Yoda having a lightsaber.

2) "NOOOOOOOOOOO"

Ugh. It's still there! I couldn't believe it. The most laughable moment in the prequels that isn't meant to be laughable.

That being said, I prefer the removal of the fight and "NOOOOO" over the continuity issues (Padmé's death, C-3PO, force ghosts) and universe shrinking (CHEWBACCA!!!).

Thanks, HAL9000 for giving us all a go-to Episode III.

All right. This is very different from Hal's TPM and AotC edits, because instead of just trimming the fat, he also changes the plot quite heavily. And that's why I'm not much of a fan of this one.

The fundamental change to the plot is that in Hal's version, Anakin's main motivation to turn to the dark side is political, while love for his wife is secondary. If you think this would improve the movie, then you'll love this version, as V5 is an impressive technical accomplishment in fanediting. If you're like me, however, and think that this fundamental change weakens the plot, then this is probably not the version you're looking for.

Interesting to notice that the way this edit's structured is how Lucas first structured the movie, but feedback from people he previewed the picture to made him change his mind and make Anakin's love for Padmé the primary thing to turn him to the dark side.

Regarding the new ending: it fixes a gigantic plot hole - that Leia remembers her mother - by having Padmé survive! Technically seamless, it strengthens the six movie saga, but weakens the prequel trilogy as a trilogy in a way: it takes away the tragic irony of Vader doing everything he can to save his wife only for him to be the one to kill her, in the awesomely edited ending of the original film.

Besides the fundamental creative difference I have with the editor in regards to the plot, this is another very good edit by Hal taking away most of the stupidity and cheesiness and crafting a much more enjoyable experience in that regard from the original film. Palpatine's incredibly cheesy moments during his fight with Windu/when Anakin turns are highlights. Still, I think he takes away a tad too much from this one.

More enjoyable than I anticipated, much more enjoyable.
Sleek, fast moving edit, almost breathless many ways.
This really harks back to the earliest SW releases, which echoed old Republic serials.
Great execution on HAL 9000’s part.

Video editing appeared seamless to my eyes.
(Note: In the opening crawl, GENERAL GRIEVOUS was in all-caps.)
Try not to be a nitpicker. If I had noticed awkward chops I would mention them.
None that I could see.

Regarding audio editing, at one point, some of the dialogue between Palpatine and Anakin went slightly out of sync for me. To be honest, that could have been my doing.
I got the 720 mp4, and for whatever reason, it would not fit onto an 8.5 DVD. I tweaked the file through Handbrake (sorry, I know this potentially irritates editors). So the brief sync problem could have stemmed from modifying.

Aside from Christensen's wobbly performance, I always liked this installment.
Not really certain what HAL did, but Christensen seemed more villainous here.
His limited acting skills, I viewed through this edit as flawed arrogance.
I I I was a jucier portrayal after Attack Clones.
Again, I credit Hal for cranking the pace - truncating lulls - so I did not have time to focus on out-of-character miscues or muddled narrative.
Really fine edit here. Cannot praise it enough.
I realize this franchise suffers over-saturation, yet I hope more members check out Labyrinth Of Evil.
Well worth the effort.