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

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.

This movie takes a confusing theatrical cut and turns it into a confusing edit, but in a different way. When I watched the original I kind of rolled with it. It has a few moments and a lot of meh. This edit doesn't really fix anything, it just moves the pieces around. Frankly, the whole Kylo Ren arch is the best part of this specific movie, and the way it's handled in the edit, with Rey killing him on the Death Star because of a distraction, is very, very anti-climatic. If I had my way I'd have a version with Kylo both turning AND surviving. Yeah, I'll leave others to wonder how to deal with that sucker. But I just hate that every dark-sider that turns needs to be killed off. I mean, where's the upside in turning to the Jedi's, then? If my prize is dying, might as well ride it out with the dark side.

I did enjoy watching the Rey scene with Palpatine as an alternative ending, but I think I prefer the ending with Kylo Ren in it. In any case, this move is pretty messy and pushes the good will of the audience. The edit, unfortunately, is unable to fix it properly. To summarize, I like the little edits that make the movie more watchable -still no Lea!-, but the big edit is where my biggest beef lies.

I'm just coming off the review for "The Last Jedi" as I watched both of these edits back to back. With the hurdles and hoops the editor had to jump through to make a cohesive story and bring it back to feeling like Star Wars again is something to be applauded. I understand some limitations with Luke on this one, and while it was a bit jarring I can't knock the editors on that as they had no hand in the filming aspect. Again this is the only version of the movie I'll watch from now on. I would really like to see this editor make an edit of "The Force Awakens" to see how they could weave the entire Sequel Trilogy together without any of the unneeded fluff.

I really enjoyed this over the original. This is what I consider my favorite changes:

The whole scene with Kylo and the Emperor (moved to my Definitive ACC of TLJ). (This was awesome and really completed the ACC of TLJ).
Luke is still alive (much better way to end this character)
Wayfinder be gone (Stupid! Glad this is gone)
Lando is introduced much later (This made his introduction so much cooler)
Kylo dies on the Death Star (Much better way to redeem/kill his character)
Rey does not die after her battle with the Emperor

Nice touches:
Light-speed skipping cut
The Emperor's broadcast is heard at the beginning of the movie
There's no force healing
No magic coin to get into Star Destroyers (sooooo dumb)
There's no hidden mechanism in the dagger (glad this is gone)
Rey has not magically learned how to steer skimmers through storms (I enjoyed this entire part of the move from the time they land to the time Rey leaves, including all characters and death of Kylo)
Instead of Leia calling out to Kylo on the Death Star, Luke is
There's no ground invasion (aka horses on a space ship) in the battle of Exagol (This was stupid)

Things that I felt empty on:
Hux goes away (I wanted his character to have closure, but I don't think there was much material to work with here)
Knights of Ren (Small loose end)

Things that I was okay with, but could use some improvements:
The transparent look of Luke :(

Overall this cut along with the DACC of TLJ are really good. I enjoy watching these now.