Star Wars: Episode III - Labyrinth Of Evil

This is a very good edit of a fairly good movie. That's how I'd sum up my thoughts. Revenge of the Sith is easily the best Star Wars prequel, but it is not without its faults. Minor faults (but major annoyances) are the overabundance of CGI and bad dialogue. Fan edits can't really fix the first (not yet at least), but they can certainly remedy the second. Hal9000 does that with this edit, which is, of course, a big plus. Already the film is better. But the movie has major faults too, ones not as easily fixed.

So I'm willing to forgive Hal if I'm torn on whether or not he's fixed Anakin's fall to the dark side. (Before I get to much into it let me say Hal's handling of everything else in this edit is exemplary, so I won't talk about that stuff.) Anakin's fall as presented in the theatrical film is clearly flawed. Is he really seduced by the dark side, or does he just want to save Padme? Does he really believe the Jedi are evil, or does he just want to save Padme? Does he actually have any reason to turn to the dark side besides saving Padme?

Hal9000 has a smart way to answer yes to that last question. By playing down the Padme dying in childbirth angle, it definitely feels like Anakin has some ulterior motivation for turning to the dark side, with the Padme thing being more of a subtle push to bring him over the edge. But what is that ulterior motivation? We suppose it's because the Jedi are tricksters and keeping Anakin out of everything. Whether or not there's enough here to support that, I'm not sure. Hal does the best he can with what he's got (we all know it's really Lucas to blame for this). Ultimately, either way, it's clear that Anakin has turned to the dark side because he has become disillusioned with the Order, so nice work by Hal for that.

He accomplished what he set out to do in regards to the Anakin debacle, so in that case I'd say Hal has done a great job. There's a nagging part of me that says L8wrtr did this better, but I'm not sure if that's true. To be honest, I'm getting kind of tired of these movies (which is why I've spent most of this review on a digression of sorts). The more I critique the less I enjoy it seems. So even if Anakin's fall didn't totally work for me this time around, I know it did when I viewed this edit's work print the first time around, and I wouldn't be surprised if it worked for me the next time I watch this. Even if it doesn't, the other aspects of this edit are enough for me to say this has become my go-to Episode III. Thanks Hal9000, for making my preferred prequel trilogy!

Damn...This edit is the kitties titties. With the exception of the "NOOOOO" everything I liked was still in the film, both video and audio cuts were seamless, and this is almost worthy of the OT in terms of quality. Loved what you did with the opera scene and the duel with Mace and Anakin's turn was far better. If you make a version 1.1 or something I think you should remove the dialogue from the scene where he is put in the suit, but still keep the nice shot of him rising with "Birth of the twins/Padme's Fate" in the background. Ideally I would make it the last shot, but that is just personal preference.

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.

The HAL 9000 prequel trilogy was my first dip into Star Wars fan edits so all this was very new to me and I didn't know what to expect. I spent quite some time looking over other popular fan edits and it seemed to me that Hals have been the most well received so I decided to give them a try. I ended up watching all 3 prequels with my best friend and I must say this was the most enjoyable of the bunch! (Its also 7am as of writing this so sorry if my wording isn't perfect.)

I never really had much of a problem with Episode III but was open to anything that could improve it and was looking forward to viewing this edit the most. I was thoroughly impressed at what I watched, but I have some small nit picks of my own.

The editing was seamless and very VERY well done! I mean, top notch work from Hal. Some deleted and added scenes were a little obvious if you've viewed the film many times before, but its nothing that will break immersion.

Audio was top notch as well! No syncing issues or any distortion. A very clean and clear audio mix.

I feel like taking away some of the "fluff" that was in the original to illustrate Anakins move to the dark side was a great idea as it showed much more of an internal struggle rather than an external force pushing him. Absolutely loved him killing Dooku on his own rather than being told to among other more subtle changes.
The editing of the final battle between Vader and Obi Wan was even better than before! Gone are the pointless cuts of dialogue and lightsaber flailing and with it comes one smooth, flawlessly edited epic duel! (Though my roommate wanted me to mention he missed the force struggle part)
Also the added Qui-Gon and Dagobah scenes were FANTASTIC!

I only really have a problem with two things. One was the removal of the "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" line. I feel this way because I could really feel the emotional weight in Ewan McGreggors delivery of the line. Like in his mind, that is the moment he realized that Anakin Skywalker was dead and there was no going back. (I also use the line a lot when messing with friends, so its one of those cemented in my head Star Wars lines)

And two has to do with Padme surviving. I really like how it fits into the cannon and changes the Emperors statement to Vader into a lie that further illustrates his deceit, but the addition of the scene from The Other Boleyn Girl really stands out from the rest of the film. Its not a terrible edit by any means and I really like the idea of working in a scene from another movie, but its just so obviously not from a Star Wars movie that I can't help but be bothered by it.

Overall this was a fantastic edit and I highly HIGHLY recommend it. To me, this will be my go-to cut of Episode III! If in the future you make another cut with my suggestions in mind then I'd go out and buy a bluray burner and slap this thing on my shelf!

As I continue my search for the prefect prequel edits, I was happy to come across this excellent effort by Hal 9000.

Hal cuts down a great deal of the movie, which is very welcome. In my experience, I've never seen an edit that I thought cut too much. His reshuffling of scenes and his use of a deleted scene is quite effective.

Although I wouldn't make this choice myself, I love Hal's gutsy use of a scene from a different Natalie Portman movie to imply that Padme lived and raised Leia. I understand that his goal was to make the lines in RotJ make sense, about Leia remembering her mother but Luke not remembering her. Unfortunately, there's no explanation as to why Padme would raise Leia but abandon Luke. Mind you, no explanation is possible with the available footage. The script would have to be rewritten from scratch to accommodate this, so what could any editor do? So, again, even though I wouldn't do it myself, I'm glad that such an edit exists, both for the uniqueness of it and for those who choose it as the way to fix the PT's inconsistencies with the OT.

The video and sound quality are excellent, and the editing is seamless. I can see why this edit ranks so highly among Star Wars edits. It's definitely one of the best of the bunch!