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

After watching DonKamillo's The Last Jedi edit I was super excited to see how more changes could be made with TROS. It's a fantastic effort with lots of great cuts. Admittedly, you're stuck with whatever footage you have and with limited visual adjustments possible.

Overall it's really great and WAYYYYY better than what we got in theaters. Leia stays dead since his TLJ edit, Luke is alive but on Ach To, and some of the fan service is really cut down. I love how Lando just shows up at the end because why would be be around earlier? There's a better arc for Kylo/Ben and he doesn't show up AT ALL vs. The Emperor-- and it works! My biggest joy was how DonKamillo made Palpatine spread a message throughout the galaxy, indicating his return, and Poe's line about SOMEHOW he returned is gone. Sheesh.

I do still have some issues but they're actually pretty minor. Changing Luke from being a Force ghost to still alive was tough and the visual isn't 100% convincing. Also Leia's lightsaber was changed to yellow in the flashbacks (cool idea!) but at the end battle its blue with the repaired Anakin one made yellow. A visual mistake but one this Star Wars geek noticed right away. I would have made a few more edits myself-- removing Rose completely, erase a few pointless lines and jokes, and adjusting some visuals. But overall this is a great job and my definitive version.

Rise of Skywalker is a film of many choices, that's as true to the final official product as it has proven for many faneditors. This one, put together by the maverick anti-cringer DonKamillo, makes the kind of choices that we need a lot of with this: bold ones.

The narrative is altered to remove moments that seem more random in placement and execution, leaving 3-PO without his memory shows a costly side to the quest. Kylo no longer being a lousy (Adam) driver in the desert gives his entrance a much grander sense of menace, where as you were left kind of thinking he was an idiot when he arrived on the scene.

Rey no longer being related to Palpatine yet still have his power kind of goes unexplained, unless we're meant to take the 'diad' line as the explanation, I also feel the footage kind of lets down the line Rey crosses when she kills Kylo and Luke is very relaxed and forgiving. That cannot be helped, and Kylo's send-off with Han actually works far better in this cut as a moment of passage rather than a plot device to necessitate a random change of heart to further the plot along. It is my choice for the best edited scene of this movie.

I would have preferred if Rey had died defeating The Emperor, as somewhat of a karmic 'price' paid for killing Kylo, and the film should have ended with Luke looking out at the suns on the island from Last Jedi. Maybe you could have inserted a force ghost of Leia from the end of 'Rise' in that scene. Just a thought.

Overall, while it doesn't 'rise' to the same heights as the tour de force that was The Last Jedi anti-cringe cut, this is still a solid and superior cut to the official release that ended the sequel trilogy on a rather drab note.

This edit can't save Episode IX as it is broken beyond repair but if you are looking for a somewhat enjoyable movie I feel like that's the best you can do with the sequels. This is the only version that I will be watching in the future.

Great job all around, really enjoyed the edit!

Very enjoyable, Delivered on its promise and removed, the elements holding it back.
A huge improvement, on the source material. Helping to make the series very watchable again.
Thank you.