Star Wars: Episode III - Labyrinth Of Evil

My first time seeing this, along with the other prequels, since the first viewing in theatres. Somehow it seems like the same movie (major plot points and characters are intact) while nevertheless feeling vastly improved in terms of tone, story and characterization. Hal9000 is a master and has utterly redeemed this trilogy, while keeping his handiwork nearly invisible. A difficult balance, but it looks effortless.

Well, it's been a long search for the perfect edit for ROTS. I'm now with Hal9000's indefinitely. There is so much that is so right here that I forgive the moments I'd take out, myself.....ROTS is a tough one to edit and please everyone, and some of the other attempts I've seen at editing this film try way too hard, others not hardly at all. This one finds a comfortable ground with familiar edits while at the same time delivering one of THE whopping masterstrokes of fanediting that I've ever seen.

Incidentally, I like pairing this film with L8wrtr's TPM and AOTC edits. That's my current "go-to" trilogy unless some mindbending new edit comes out.

The good:
***Of course, the economy of the edit takes out the corn and the silliness, and what's not to like there? There are a LOT of small cuts, but they all work and if you're not familiar with ROTS you'll not know they're gone. My personal favorite? The eternal dismissal of Obi-Wan's "...for DEMOCRACY!!!!!!" I remember laughing out loud in the theater when he said that.
***The 2nd-boldest move of the movie is the face-off between Windu and Palpatine. That's another scene with some got-to-go GL silliness ("HE'S the traitor, arrrrgghhh!") I get EXACTLY what Hal was going for here, and it does indeed work. It does sound odd, but I like the guts Hal had to try and realize the vision. That scene had far too much filler, dialogue, and needless suspense for my taste in its original form. Now we get right down to it.
***The focus on politics being Anakin's primary motivation for the turn works very, very well. I thought the Padme thing was always way too obvious and predictable, but with politics at the forefront his change becomes far more realistic and believable. Certainly politics has put people on weird sides of one another, especially during wartime. Padme's element is delightfully downplayed, to the point that when Palpatine says that line ("...save your WIFE from certain death") it has a huge impact, because we're so focused on the politics it makes Anakin's one dream seem trite, but then suddenly very important. Especially when Palpatine reads Anakin's trouble a little too accurately. Later on, when Anakin leaves Padme in the dust after the chokehold and rambles on to Obi-Wan about this and that, it fits right in with the Padme motivation being minimal against the power he craves. When Vader asks the Emperor post-surgery about Padme, it fits even better with the minimized arc - in other words, he feels guilty as hell.
***Padme as one of the instigators of the rebellion? Giddy-up! Why Lucas chose to delete this subplot is mystifying, but makes sense here in light with the above political motivations.

The hmmmmm.....(all minor nitpicks)
***OK, there are some lines that could still be easily excised. One of the most self-rightesouly laughable moments in the entire PT is Padme's "thunderous applause" bit. Spare us, please!
***Also, not the fault of our intrepid editor, but shouldn't 3PO's line be "I feel so.....USELESS?" Not "helpless"? Anyways, Hal, since you boldly dubbed the droid at the end, how about that line? I bet Anthony Daniels would do it for scale ;) That said, I love the battle droid voice removal. Now we have to tackle the entirety of the Clone Wars...
***I think it's OK to have more Wookies, and Yoda's interaction w/ Chewbacca definitely helps set the table for ANH and Obi-Wan "randomly" finding Chewbacca at the bar.
***Showing Obi-Wan sneaking onto Padme's ship in the closer shot works as in the original cut....there's no need for a surprise reveal.
***I wouldn't mind a little more dialogue to imply Obi-Wan's fate on Tatooine. While this would be tricky to edit around Padme's now non-demise, I liked that interaction.

and....the balls-out bold:
***That footage of Padme alive and cradling her infant daughter is amazing and I was bowled over at the audacity of the decision. It works even without the motivation being the plot hole fix from ROTJ. I like how so much is implied and the myth driven by images, not dialogue, in the film's final moments. Hal using his own voice for the mid-wife droid - again, bold and a hopeful sign of things to come with our wonderful editors and their tasteful decision-making. That finale, again, with Padme, is beautiful stuff. And...isn't it telling how Natalie Portman suddenly becomes a great actress when out fo the hands of GL?

Lots to admire overall in the cut. Lots of attempts have been made at ROTS, but I'm very pleased to have this one as my go-to. Again, quibbles are nitpicks, as the overall arc of the film is extremely powerful (especially when viewed after the Clone Wars).

This is where the fun begins. For various reasons I never thought Hal‘s Labyrinth of Evil would be the right fit for me but mainly because I already love Episode III as it is. The quality of his other edits (which even made me love TLJ!) convinced me otherwise though. And I‘m really glad I gave this a try.
 
Pro:
 
- Technically perfect like all of his edits. 1080p without compromises, a stable bitrate and DTS (not just DD!) sound. Not even the upscaled deleted scenes give away that this is a fan edit. Impressive work.
- Removal of Palpatine's antics during the fight on the Invisible Hand and during the battle with Windu. His ridiculous facial expressions and weird stabbing moves take away a lot of seriousness, now they're gone for good.
- Greatly trimming the elevator scenes and therefore the final exposure of the Super Battle Droids to ridiculousness.
- Reducing R2D2's familiarity with Obi-Wan. When I was younger it never presented a problem to me but as I grew older it bothered me more and more.
- Removal of various lines of bad dialogue throughout the movie but never cutting away too much and drastically changing the film (except that one line I mention below in the con section).
- Making Grievous' character less all over the place. He's a coward now. That's it.
- Removal of the "High ground" dialogue. In the German dub I grew up with, the line isn't quite as literal as it is in the original version. It's more like "I outclass you". So it never bothered me. But when I started watching Original versions only a few years ago I first recognized why the line is considered bad. Hal presents the best version of it by removing it entirely.
- Keeping/reinstating Obi-Wan bemoaning the fall of the Chosen One. This would've been a no-go for me as it's one my favorite scenes and one that makes me cry 10/10 times. So. much. pain.
- Replacing Vader's infamous "Noooo" with the Russian dub which is more of an anguished scream. No explanation needed.
 
Neutral:
 
- Removal of Sidious vs. Yoda. I always thought the removal of this fight would be a no-go for me. The fight itself is quite alright but what I do love is it's symbolism. George Lucas is just very good at this kind of stuff. But even I have to admit that not interrupting the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan only adds to the intensity. So even if the removal worked surprisingly well for me I'd still prefer to have it included (and maybe again just ridded from Palpatine's antics).
- Padme not dying. The plothole her death presented for the OT was never a problem for me to start with as I always thought of it as Leia remembering her mother through the force or something like that. It also isn't on the pro side because I love the tragic irony of Anakin/Vader doing everything to save her only to ultimately being the one who causes her demise. But it is extremely well done!
- Palpatine's transition from normal looking fella to monster face is a bit abrupt although the scene still works surprisingly well.
- „I AM the senate!“ is gone. I always liked this line but that was before the dark times. Before the memes.
- You can still see Obi-Wan falling on mats when he falls over the ledge in his fight with Grievous. This is nitpicky tho.
 
Con:
 
- Trimming the second part of Obi-Wan's line "Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, TO DEMOCRACY!". I just love the emotional delivery. Unfortunately it was cut. Please consider putting it back in for an eventual V6.1 or V7.


While this won‘t become my replacement for the theatrical cut of Episode III like The Approaching Storm did it will become my Special Edition. It never breaks saga continuity and can thefore become my „so you‘ve decided to watch the special edition“ edition.

Thank you for the amazing work.

The concluding movie in Hal's revamped prequel trilogy really packs a punch. I don't think it's as polished as his episode 2 edit, but this was a damn banger of a conclusion to a trilogy of edits which somehow conjured up some goodwill in me towards these movies.

In my reviews of the previous edits I said that these were more conservative edits in the sense that they kept the same continuity as the original movies and that they shouldn't really contradict any of the currently existing expanded universe/legends material. Basically, they're not radical edits. While that is still true, I've since devised a more accurate description, one that will need a bit of a tangent to explain.

A new hope's rough cut was disastrous. Lots of completely useless, slow scenes with agonizing dialogue, some terrible effects, and awful pacing. It's not hard to compare it to the prequels, really. But, in a pleasant twist of fate, the editors of that film took Lucas' beast and crafted a masterpiece, and now all these awful scenes are merely a curiosity to gawk at. Cringworthy dialogue was trimmed, scenes were rearranged to allow a satisfying flow of information, and the plot was tightened and even enhanced (fun fact: the plot point where the death star was preparing to imminently attack the rebel base during the battle of yavin was completely invented by the editors, and is only implied through edited-in visuals and off-screen voices). It's amazing what a job they did.

This is what Hal's edits feel like. They don't feel like radical alterations that are the products of years of hindsight, fan backlash and other fanedits. They, of course, are exactly that, but they don't FEEL like it. They feel like the original editors had all the footage in front of them and, free of Lucas' control, they took an objective, unobstructed view at what the movies were and improved them as far as humanly possible in an even and smooth way. They aren't looking to satisfy fans or an expanded universe or a higher up, it's just an earnest effort to make treasure from trash.

Anyway, on to the actual review. As i said in the intro, i prefer the episode 2 edit, because that just felt like a fun romp through the galaxy without any glaring distractions. This edit is more technically impressive, but it does have a few holes. It might be a byproduct of the original movie being too ambitious; instead of just a fun adventure story, it was trying to be a dark character study and political drama, without being written or acted well enough to pull it off. The structure is too heavily embedded in these genres to make it truly feel like another great star wars story, but hal polishes it to the best of his ability, not as a star wars story, but the best possible episode 3 that it can be.

Anakin's motivations are simultaneously my biggest problem and the greatest achievement of this edit. The political side of his motivations are so spot on it hurts. The jedi counsel is both just but also does some questionable things; their treatment of Anakin is sometimes justified but also sometimes unreasonable. Palpatine is kind of obviously evil but nevertheless it is believable that his promises would tempt Anakin. Anakin's political fall to the dark side is very believable, gradual and well paced. My problem with it is the other side of his motivations; his love for his wife. While it's true that the political elements of this edit are actually pretty engaging, in a stark contrast Padme's impending death is not emphasized enough.
The biggest problem with the original movie is that Anakin goes from a good jedi to child-murderer pretty much overnight and that's even less believable with all the emphasis that the movie puts on Padme's imminent death, but this edit goes too far in the other direction. Palpatine constantly tempts Anakin with the power to save his wife, but with a single brief nightmare scene early in the movie I had long forgotten that Padme dying was ever a consideration, and I was so invested in the drama with the Jedi counsel that to spend so much time talking about Padme felt kind of irrelevant. I feel that some of the Padme dying stuff could have been reinstated to make the narrative better, because in order to remove that plotline too much good stuff would have to be removed, if it was even possible.

As for a lesser problem, C3P0 and R2D2's role was trimmed too much. I hate their inclusion in this trilogy, but I kept thinking how odd it was that they were in this movie, because it wasn't adequately explained. 3po and r2 removal was executed very well in the previous edits, but it was in this edit that I just couldn't parse why they were here and what their role in the movie was. Even if it was just for arbitrary reasons or nostalgia reasons, some of these scenes should have been retained for narrative clarity. This might just be a personal thing though, so your mileage may vary.

As with Hal's other edits, this is paced beautifully, never getting boring, never going too fast; it's a dream. Like with his episode 2 edit, trimming so many bad scenes and bits of dialogue elevate the rest of the movie. The opera house scene, the scene of anakin finding out padme was pregnant, the scene of anakin just silently thinking in the jedi chambers; there are so many wonderful scenes paced so beautifully that this movie just about achieves that same phenomenon that the original trilogy achieves where all the weird bits of shoddy acting practically fall into the background unnoticed because the whole experience is so smooth and seamless.

If there was a singe thing that I could switch back to the original version of is Padme's death. I'm in the camp that thinks that padme should have died rather than lived. While editing wise, it's integrated seamlessly, I really believe that the dramatic irony of Anakin killing the one he set out to save is far more beneficial to the movie than a single plot hole with a small bit of dialogue from the OT. In fact, this new ending brings up an even bigger and more distracting plothole; why did luke get seperated from padme when she was perfectly fine to raise leia on Alderaan? I get that they were seperated for safety during order 66 but if she was going to keep one then why not just stay with them both on a remote planet or send both away? The whole point of separating with family is so that even if they find one of you the others would live, and keeping leia kind of destroys the purpose of that. Again, ymmv on how annoyed you are by this but it's at least just as big plot hole as her dying.

Even if this review was filled with complaints, they really are just nitpiks of a fantastic edit. I only prefer episode 2 more because that was a simple star wars adventure without any huge narrative holes or weird genre/style changes in it in the first place. With a more complex narrative comes more complex problems, but Hal manages not only to make a good movie from a bad one, but makes it good through it's own style and merits, rather than bending it into something it isn't. Good on you Hal, I can now watch the prequels without the existential dread of this series never being good again.

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.

By the end of Episode III, everyone was stunned. It's so much better than the original release.

Some highlights: Padme has things to do! Her character doesn't just sit around waiting for Anakin to show up while she slowly gets pregnant. And the seeds for the rebellion in the Original Trilogy are sown, which greatly improves continuity. The lead-up to Anakin's turn to the dark side felt much more realistic with less of the prophecy being referenced. His battle with Obi Wan on Mustafar had less flips and jumps and called to mind Luke's lightsaber fighting style. Honestly, the last half of this movie far outshines the first half, as Hal 9000 does everything in his power to get the trilogy on track with a compelling end to the series and lead-in to the next, including sourcing dubs and scenes from other movies.

I have the same thing to say about this technical side as I did with Hal 9000's edit of Episode II: 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 actions from scenes, these sorts of edits were only noticeable if you're familiar with the original cut.

Some notes: One of my friends cried during Padme's passionate appeal to Anakin - their relationship and his frustration are much more believable. Geminigod reviewed that "I have the high ground" was left in - that phrase is actually not in this edit, perhaps this is a newer version that I'm watching.

Some odd things: When Yoda's earlier fight scene was so skillfully done to remove lightsaber shenanigans, why include the later scene where he uses the lightsaber to defend himself after Order 66? The Darth Vader suit reveal should have been cut shorter; as is, that particular scene feels overwrought and out of place for Star Wars.

Absolutely recommend watching this, especially when seeking continuity with the Original Trilogy. These edited prequels are fantastic for marathons, and the emotional payoff when Luke is forced to confront Darth Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi is amazing now that we've seen a great version of Anakin's turn to the dark side.