Star Wars Episode IX: The Final Order

I've now watched a handful of edits of this film. And, sadly, I think I'm at the point where I'm ready to concede that, like the prequels, this just can't be fixed to my satisfaction. This is in no way a criticism of Spence's work. I'm not an editor, but I didn't notice any real issues. He makes some definite improvements and I prefer the direction he take--trying to keep it in line with TLJ--to other edits that seem to more embrace the idea that bloodline is what the Force is all about, Unfortunately, the edit doesn't go far enough for me. To be fair, at this point I'm watching this movie with an eye towards how much could be changed without creating massive narrative issues and I'm not sure much more COULD have been done. Hence my coming to terms with the fact this movie can't be fixed. As it stands I think this edit has some unique ideas that could be merged with other editors' ideas to create something tolerable, if not satisfying. Spence's edit is certainly that for me as it at least de-emphasized some of the more egregious issues, if not eliminated them. It's a well polished turd, but for me still a turd.

Disclaimer: I've seen the theatrical cut once and Hal's edit once, so I am not crazy familiar with the material. Frankly, the editing felt botched in the theatrical, so if I mistake that for something done by Spence... please accept my apologies.

QUALITY

I opted for the highest quality version available. Visual quality looks good, but softer than I feel it should be for the file size. It's not on par with Hal9000's cut.

Audio sounds decent, but a bit brittle at points.


VISUAL EDITING

Just a couple of things:

10:17 - is this quick visual cut in the original? it threw me
10:28 - this shot is too quick and the sudden change in colour tone (time of day?) felt a little off.
30:03 - cut seems a bit quick


AUDIO EDITING

Unfortunately, there's a rather jarring problem with the presentation of the surround track. It has nothing coming out of the centre channel 90% of the time and then occasionally something will suddenly sound from that speaker, which betrays fanedited elements. The first instance this becomes noticeable is at 6:45 when there is an added bit of dialogue from Palpatine. It is much quieter as well, in spite of coming out of my centre speaker, which i always have up 2db louder than the rest of the system.

I didn't really want to watch the whole film with a bunch of cuts sticking out that Spence didn't intend, so I chose to mix down the surround to stereo for most of my viewing, else I think my list of audio stuff would have been longer. (For the record, I did also drop the file into my NLE to look at the waveforms and check that this wasn't some random issue on my end. )

So, mixed down to stereo, the film generally flows nicely. There's nothing abrupt as such, but there are a few moments where I can hear something off:

9:10 - sounds like two scores are clashing
11:01 - noticeable audio transition
11:39 - noticeable audio transition
12:27 - the way the sounds shifts here feels unnatural
15:12 - something sounds off with the music here
30:04 - remnant of score that's not from previous scene is audible
1:16:30-37 - noticeable transitions between scores

So it's mostly in the early portion of the film, which probably isn't much of a surprise, as that (perceivably) had the most extreme amount of work done. I did also notice a couple of moments where the sound was a bit thinner, probably due to having to clean up the dialogue and rebuild the sound somewhat. But this came across fairly well, all things considered, and wasn't jarring. An example would be during Palpatine's communication with Pryde; in this particular instance, I'd maybe suggest adding some more room ambiance. As it stands, we only hear music and dialogue.

From my stereo experience I would give this an 8, but since the edit only includes a surround sound option and this does not come across well on a surround setup, I've put it at 7.


NARRATIVE

Personally, I feel like this film is such a colossal fail in the realm of storytelling that you're just really limited in terms of what you can fix. That's not to say there isn't anything that can be done, it's just that the entire central premise of the film is so flawed that no matter how many changes are made, I don't think I'm able to invest in this film properly. Hal and co's fixing of the pacing and the colour grading made such a difference for me, but the base script just has so little of value that I could go either way on various other story changes.

That being said, Spence does make some admirable edits here. Most of what I appreciated came in some tweaks to visions or extended moments. I think what was done with Rey's climactic moment was particularly effective.

I don't really see how the choice to cut stuff relating to Snoke helps tie this in better with the other films. But anywho, I generally have no strong personal feelings on the choices made. Spence doesn't create any new narrative issues as far as I can tell, with just a few exceptions:

The transition into Leia's death at 10:28: I actually saw this clip in isolation when it was shared as a preview and thought it worked really nicely, but the way it sits here felt really rushed and out of the blue to me. (to be clear, I'm talking about the context the scene sits in, not the scene itself). Aside from that though, Leia's absence really doesn't have any negative impact on the plot.

The Emporer's presence is already a pretty poorly foreshadowed plot element, as it stands, and the exposition in the crawl was what little we got. Since Spence has cut that people are already aware of the Emperor from the crawl, we now only have one brief scene where the rebellion concludes he is back and it feels pretty poorly developed as a result. Then again, if Spence has plans to give a chunk of foreshadowing for this in a TLJ edit, maybe this criticism is void.

I also think there is the odd bit here or there that feels rushed, but I didn't note anything specific down because I honestly wasn't sure if this was an original error (the theatrical is SO choppy). One moment I did recall being a bit off, which I can see from the cut list was tampered with, is the reaction to the spy.


ENJOYMENT

Hal9000's edit is used as a base for this, and he did a wonderful job in terms of regrading and just allowing everything to be significantly better paced. That alone makes the film an enjoyable watch for me in spite of still generally not being a fan.

Spence's cut is also enjoyable and he does a fairly solid job of executing his own preferences. I do think he stewards some really nice moments here, but for me, since I don't have any super-strong preferences on the narrative, it then comes down to technical execution. Hal's cut is of higher visual and audio quality and there's hardly anything in it that betrays to me that it was fanedited, so that still remains the preferred watch for me, even though I do think Spence adds some nice touches.

That's not to put down Spence's work here and I'm sure it will be a hit for most people. I also know Spence plans on a version 2, so who knows what's in the future :)

Better.... it's better, that's what I can say.

The quality of the edits is top notch. A lot of the decisions made worked out for the better. Killing off Leia early on allowed the characters to be more independent, and enriches characters arcs like Poe's need to be the leader or, more importantly, the rivalry between Rey and Kylo. There is now more of a push and pull between them, Rey being pulled to the dark while Kylo is pulled into the light, and no Leia means this conflict is allowed to play out with their choices as opposed to others coming in to make the choices for them. The removal of Rey's parentage is cleverly done, using the vision of her taking the throne as the way Kylo tries to get to her. Bonus points for removing goofier elements like the Dark Rey scene or "Empress Palpatine," plus the addition of Palpatine's message to the beginning so we're up to speed. The Final Order feels more like a proper sequel to the previous movies now, and if this was released in theaters there'd be significantly less conflict about it (to put it mildly). It is better than what we had.

However, "better" doesn't translate to greatness, at least in my eyes. Even with these quality of life improvements, and believe me Spence outdid themselves on that front this isn't on them, I can't really bring myself to enjoy this movie. Finn isn't given anything to do, Rose being left to the sidelines, the fake out deaths, the Final Order fleet, Palpatine, that ending... these issues still permeate the film and hold it back immensely. There's still a reactionary vibe to the film that doesn't do it for me. Again, this is not the fault of the editor, who did the best they could and made a significantly more competent, even compelling, movie out of Rise of Skywalker. The Final Order gets a recommendation for me, if only because of how even these smaller changes help the movie immensely.

Sweeet Christmas! If I ever decide to rewatch the Sequel Trilogy, I'm ending it with this instead of popping in the Disney version. Managing to continue the story of Rey a nobody vs. "Congrats... You're a Palpatine!"

I applaud you, Spence! BRAVA! BRAVA!

I HIGHLY recommend this!

Like a bad steak, this was super well done. The pacing was great, and the story flowed better. The flashbacks had more emotional resonance and the Rey No Name aspect was handled really well. Made what was a "meh" experience with the original into an enjoyable time that felt like there was actual finality instead of shoe horned fan service.