Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker: Anti-Cringe-Cut

After watching this edit of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," I am pleased to say that many of the issues I had with the original film were addressed.

First and foremost, Palpatine's resurrection was completely removed, and the film's focus was shifted to the conflict between Kylo Ren and Rey. This change allowed for a more cohesive and focused narrative, without the need for convoluted explanations for Palpatine's survival.

Additionally, the forced kiss between Rey and Kylo Ren was removed, which felt out of place and unnecessary in the original film.

The fan edit also removed some of the more confusing and poorly explained Force powers, such as healing and Force teleportation. This helped to simplify the film's narrative and made the use of the Force more consistent with previous films in the franchise.

Furthermore, the fan edit gave Finn and Poe Dameron more screen time and a greater role in the film's plot. These characters were underused and mishandled in the original film, so it was refreshing to see them given more attention and development in the fan edit.

Finally, the fan edit improved the pacing and flow of the film's plot, making it feel more cohesive and satisfying. The loose ends from the previous two films were tied up in a way that felt organic and satisfying, without the rushed and disjointed feeling of the original film.

Overall, the fan edit of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" addressed many of the issues I had with the original film, resulting in a more focused, cohesive, and satisfying viewing experience.

The anti-cringe cut is certainly a much more enjoyable edition of the film than its source. The story flows considerably better and makes much more sense. Cringe is, of course, a relative term, so whether this edit has eliminated all of the cringe will be a matter of personal taste. I like a lot of the decisions made with the edit. The opening is particularly strong. Some choices don't work quite as well as you'd want, but that's often the nature of fan editing, one is limited by the source material. Removing Leia from the film works great, having her corpse just hanging around under a blanket at the resistance base for no reason does not. Luke being alive is... Well, obviously that was part of the point for the editor, but personally I don't think it makes a lot of sense for the story of this film. Luke's absence is explained as him being on a quest, but considering the peril being faced, I end up feeling like surely his quest can't be more important than the return of the sith. If, like me, you haven't watched the anti-cringe cut of TLJ and come into this movie with Luke dead, his absence works much better. In the scenes he does appear in, efforts have been made to make him not transparent and glowing, but they are not always successful. Minor issues though. Overall this is a very solid version of the movie and worth the time to watch.

After seeing TLJ in theaters I had no hope for this film and it still managed to be worse than my expectations. Whereas I would say theatrical TLJ was a worse individual movie, I would say TRoS was worse for Star Wars as a whole.

This edit does a valiant job of salvaging whatever could be saved from the abomination of its original plot. I watched this edit under the perspective of "The Crucible Canon" https://boards.theforce.net/threads/the-crucible-canon-merging-eu-and-new-canon-as-smoothly-as-possible.50053287/ and while I still think this is a bad film, I didn't end up furious after watching it.

A/V Quality: Perfect to my eyes, didn't notice anything there which gives this area a 10.

Visual Editing: While this area was still on the good side of things, I would recommend a Version 2 at some point with some touchups. As far as scene transition and the like go I'd give that a 10, however as Don made some much needed fixes to the narrative he was forced to add in some additional effects that are passable, but not perfect yet at an 8/10. Kylo's ship addition isn't extremely noticeable and I don't think a first time or casual viewer would notice, but it is slightly jarring when you do notice it. There's some room for improvement there. Regarding the Luke being alive fixes, I don't think it is at a believable level yet. However, from my perspective as I watched these scenes it seemed to me like Luke was still channeling an illusion to Rey, even on the island. If it is too difficult to make it look like he is actually there, I think keeping a ghostly but colored figure like he is currently in the edit might be the move if you run with that idea and touchup with that. Finally, regarding Kylo's death, when he stands up for his final scene you can see his stabbed area, but no flesh wound. Adding a simple mask and trace of the wound using footage from the theatrical version would be nice. Did a quick concept here: https://imgur.com/a/HReJkpB

Audio Editing: Some slight audio bugs could be hammered out but overall very good here, 9/10.

Narrative: This movie's plot is such a mess that I do not think it can be redeemed, at least until deleted scenes come out (if Disney ever allows it...). While much improved over the original, this movie still suffers from the plot moving at light speed. I cannot catch a breath in this film, and with the needed cuts to the major cringe in theatrical it makes this movie fly even faster. I loved the changes to Rey's storyline, but would take it even farther with Rey not taking the Skywalker name. She is, and always should be... Just Rey. And there are edits I've seen that do keep that intact. In this edit, it is slightly confusing why Palpatine is so interested in Rey, especially as a child in regards to the storyline of her parents. It's possible to explain this in the current cut, but something else needs to be in here for it to entirely make sense. I have also seen cuts that make Rey accidentally kill her own parents on the ship when she was a child which I think works better in showing her dark side temptations. Finally, I did love the Lando reveal a lot in this cut, but it was a little confusing as to whose body was under the tarp there. I didn't hear anyone say it was Leia, and if it was... TRoS is a year after TLJ so why is her body still under a tarp in the jungle? Overall, the narrative was good, and I'd even say it was believable as a plot, though the original content is so flawed I am working under that understanding. Oh, I would also highly suggest adding the "Force Ghost" edit from John into the next version of this, but I don't know if another version is even worth it without deleted scenes. Luke passing after helping Rey is fantastic too!

Enjoyment: Whereas I would've originally gave TRoS a 1/10 in the theater version, I would score the TRoS Anti-Cringe cut as a 6/10 film, which earns an 8/10 performance for this edit. Again, watching this edit under "The Crucible Canon" perspective that is linked above changes my perspective with this movie. TLJ had more cringe whereas TRoS had more terrible plot points, so I think this movie is harder to flip as well as you did with TLJ. It was A LOT better than theatrical and I do think it is a watchable film now, but one that could benefit greatly from a Version 2 with some fixes listed above.

TLDR;
A good edit and what I'd watch at this point. Improved over theatrical considering Luke isn't dead and the cringe and pure nonsense is gone so I'm not eye-rolling for 2 hours.. Could use a little touchup on audio in a few places, and needs a Version 2 on some video effects before being a passable "theatrical" version. Could use help from deleted scenes (if they ever come) and some small narrative adjustments.

As I mentioned during my review of ep. VIII, I was not able to bring myself to watch the source material and the same goes for ep. IX. So I will not be able to offer a true comparison to the theatrical release. But given the non-canonical woke mess Disney produced I hope this won’t be held against me.

For me this was the most cringe out of the sequel trilogy and I’m not sure if that’s because Don Kamillo did such a great job when cutting cringe from ep. VIII or if this movie was just that much worse, because Metacritic would have me believe that this was the slightly less reviled film when compared to it’s predesessor.

Two things that had me cringe hard were the use of tread-speeders when sand-speeders were already a thing how many decades ago in a galaxy far far away? This is going to take quite a bit of work in CGI or a well trained AI to replace. So I was kind of surprised Don Kamillo left these in.

I was also shocked that he left the “broken death star” debris. This totally broke any sense of immersion into the story for me and reminded me again that Jar Jar Abrams had zero love for Star Wars. I didn’t expect all the shots filmed inside the debris to be cut. Just the line where Rey says “Death Star”. That way we could just assume it was some random imperial ruins.

There is still too much wrong with the film that I’m not really sure any amount of editing can fix. I live in hope that one day in the not to distant future someone empowered by AI and a clear creative vision can give us a sequel trilogy finale that could more easily pass for cannon.

Until then, this is probably the definitive way to watch this film. I can’t say I got through unscathed, but I’m sure this cut spared me a lot of pain and suffering over the original. Only a Sith could weaponize Star Wars into a post modern propaganda machine. So it is indeed the work of a Jedi to correct history and salvage the timeline. Gracias Don Kamillo and may the force be with you!

I wasn't expecting much. I mean the originals are such utter rubbish.

I was delightfully surprised. I actually watched TRoS anti-cringe first as I couldn't bare to believe a good cut of TLJ can exist. But TRoS was so well done that I went back and watched TLJ too.

Together these movies do so much better than a "best of what's left." They actually salvage the movies. No need to retcon anything in TRoS because it's not there in the first place. Nothing stupid in TRoS anymore... 'cept the bare minimum Emperor.

I'd love to see version 2+ of these as I still think there's more that can be done to improve.

Top work! I've actually put these in my Star Wars collection to show my daughter, who will now never have to go through the pain of the theatrical releases.