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

Many of the changes helped but others were a miss for me. Moving the reveal of Chewbacca's survival was effective. And many of the removals helped streamline the narrative (like the Poe backstory and Zori's reduced role). While the thought of removing the wayfinder is good, the execution makes the visit to Endor not satisfyingly explainable. Taking Kylo/Ben out of the fight with the Emperor sounds like a great idea but cuts the legs out of the whole point of how the Emperor could be defeated this time - that it takes the power of the Force dyad. Definitely enjoyable, but the source material really makes this cut less than its potential.

Wow this edit really blew me away! I was watching this movie in it's cinematic edit and I really did NOT like it at all. But this edit is trully wonderful, what a gift from DonKamillo! Thank you so much for making this movie watchable and actually feel the emotions that were intended in the original cut. For every scene where I thought I sensed some contradiction, another scene was either explaining it (Ren standing up with the healed wound and having this wonderful conclusion scene with Han) or was easy for me to find a logical insertion (in a Star Wars sense) into the franchise or at least the sequel canon (for instance Luke being "alive" for me was not an issue since since often enough he had this holo look on him PLUS Ren having this memory or feeling or vision of his father, so why would Ray not have this with Luke as well? It's only her having "contact" with him anyway).
So many incredible chioces wer made, so many cringy scenes were cut, so much more sense and meaning was given to the narrative. No Leia, no horses, no back and forth of the story like in the original cut (where it truly felt like it was written by a whole committee and directed any another committee of directors). This actually makes sense and feels like this is was "subversion" can be in a positive way since there still are unexpected things happening without interrupting the actual flow of the story or ripping the watcher out of the emotional investment.
Great edit ! Just some very very minor audio glitch that I realized between 1.12 and 1.17 with Ray facing Palpatine, the music seems fragmented a bit. Although this is forgivable, it would be fantastic if this could be "repaired" somehow to create an otherwise almost perfect edit for me and definitely go to version of the movie :)

This was a fascinating edit. Having to stick to the decisions made in the previous edit created my biggest issues with this edit... Luke. I'm impressed with what was done, but sadly it's not enough. A new viewer would simply wonder why Luke looked funny and glowy. It's a shame that Lucasfilm gave us no deleted scenes to resource from because the ideas here are sound.

I never minded the Indiana Jones in a Star Wars movie moments, but I admit it works better without it.

My favorite aspect is the treatment/bookend to Kylo in this. That single piece of editing was worth the entire watch. Such a powerful idea, and it simply worked.

Don's editing of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker even gave me some ideas to tinker with on my own.

Like the previous entry, it's totally worth a look. It's edits like this that make this community so much fun!

I was not a huge fan of the original ROS as I felt, though entertaining, was an overblown, pandering, hyper mess. I could not wait for a fanedit. I have seen a few but none had the nerve to use bigger scissors to cut this mess down. Thank you DonKamillo for making an aggressive stab at this. So much dreck has been cut away, motivations changed and unnecessary subplots cut that I just did not miss. I highly recommend this along with his The Last Jedi for a unique perspective on these very flawed films.

I agree with most of the reviews I have seen and the editor cannot fix everything without access to outtakes and alternate footage so I cut him some slack. To me this edit succeeds on all counts. Thank you for another winner.

This was GREAT! I didn't realize how truly bloated TROS actually was, until seeing how much of it didn't really add anything at all. I thought the editor did a wonderful job of creating a streamlined story that both made sense and pushed the action forward. To be honest, it felt like a really well done hour long tv show that flew by. When watching the theatrical TROS, there was only one moment that made me emotional, and that was when Luke raised the X-wing, I could not figure out why I was emotional over that. My wife then said, "it's the music, the music is Yoda's music and you liked that part as a kid". There were several parts in this edit that had me tear up at the end. It was really quite perfect in the ways that actually count.
I think I could see and visualize the connective tissue that the editor wished he had to work with. There are scenes and call backs that I could imagine a scene added that would have full fleshed out the vision, but the editor only had so much to work with. AND WORK WONDERS HE DID.
the final battle is pretty much flawless, if someone had not seen the theatrical TROS final battle, I don't think they would be able to figure out that this was not the way it was intended to go. So many things just made so much more sense. I also liked that certain things and characters were left in, from a narrative standpoint they made sense. Seeing Babu Frik and Poe's relationship was really cool. I also didn't mind Rose, it made sense that she would be included in some way. Everyone just made sense. The amount of time they were given, where they came in at, and I especially liked seeing how much "fluff" was just removed all together. There were alot of scenes and characters and go-nowhere plot points that needed cut.
All in all, I cannot praise this edit enough. If you are a big Star Wars fan and enjoy fan edits, go out of your way to see this one. It takes the story in exciting, emotional, and fulfilling directions that are both surprising and engaging.
Thanks so much Don, awesome job my friend, truly awesome.