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.

I'll give credit where it's due. Like TLJ ACC, it's a massive step up in quality from the original, which (like many) I utterly despised. And I give major props to the editor for trying some ambitious changes to the original. Unfortunately, in some cases, it seems like the editor's reach may have exceeded their grasp.

First things first, the technical for the most part is top notch, and most of the edits are seamless as they were in the first fanedit. But there are some issues that stand out. The Kylo Ren parked fighter looks totally unconvincing, especially since the black smoke is still rising right behind it. The flashback to Luke and Rey's discussion when Kylo is dying is a really good idea, but the sound clashes with the sound in the present scene. I think a silent flashback to the same scene, possibly supplemented with other scenes of them connecting in TLJ, would have achieved the same effect and fit more naturally. Speaking of, it's still painfully apparent that Luke is a Force Ghost during his talk with Rey, and the edits of him coming to talk to Rey stick out like a sore thumb for how unconvincing it is; in fairness, that's mostly because the editing for the most part is really high quality, but even so it just feels unnatural.

As far as the movie watching experience, it was okay. Granted, again, that's a huge improvement from "I wanna throw a copy of this movie into the sun". It had a fast pace that cut out all of the pointless scenes and allowed it to be really entertaining for the most part. I actually wound up enjoying the character interactions between the main trio far more in this edit. Unlike the first two movies, this edit allowed them to actually shine not just as individuals, but also as a team the same way Luke, Han and Leia did.. It really felt like they were the close friends/found family the movie was insisting they were, and made their "curtain call" after the final battle far more satisfying. Also, Kylo Ren's new death is a massive change that works in the edit's favor, and I love that it forgoes the painfully predictable route of him getting a last minute redemption, and instead shows him finally letting go of his anger and finding peace in death.

With that said, the story is dragged down by things that simply don't make sense. The first is Palpatine being the ultimate villain; it never should have happened, it makes absolutely no sense, and it takes away the feeling of victory of the end. After all, if he came back once, who's to say he won't come back again? Granted, this is in no way the editor's fault, and there's really no way around it short of a full reshoot. And moving the reveal to the end of TLJ does at least help make it seem a bit more natural part of the story. However, there are other story decisions the editor made that also don't make sense.

The biggest is Luke hunting for Exegol/Palpatine. He's leaving notes on his search for Rey, but where is he leaving these notes? They said his trail went cold on that desert planet, but then it turns out he's just hanging out on Ahch-To for some reason? Why is his X-Wing all of a sudden in the water if he's been searching for Exegol across the galaxy? And then when Rey shows up, she now knows the way to Exegol, so did Luke figure it out? If he did, why didn't he tell the Resistance? And if he doesn't, how did Rey figure it out? It can't be from Ren's fighter since she just destroyed it. Then there's Leia's body being kept since her death. I get the idea is she becomes one with the Force when Luke does, and it is a nice moment, but since she died in TLJ ACC, has the Resistance just spent months or a year carrying her body around everywhere until it just ups and vanishes? Also, why does Luke die at the end? In the TLJ it seems at least he died from the exertion of projecting himself, here he just up and dies as soon as the Emperor does. Like "Well, my work is done, guess I'll die now." It would have made a lot more sense if the reason he stayed behind was to channel all of his power into Rey, which would also help explain why she's channeling all of the Jedi, and the exertion of that was what killed Luke.

I still enjoyed the edit. In the end, this edit, along with TFA and TLJ ACC, does form a decent trilogy with a far more focused story arc than the "canon" sequel trilogy. It highlights the strength of the story and its characters. It's clear a lot of work went into these edits, and for the most part they work rather well.

(Quick words of note, this review will contain some spoilers for both The Rise of Skywalker and this edit. If you somehow have not watched either the original movie or this cut? I'd recommend doing so right now. Also this is a summarized version of a much longer review I made on originaltrilogy.com. If you would like to read the full review? Please follow the link here: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/FanEdit-Reviews-Post-Your-Reviews-Here/id/74322/page/9#1483342)

I felt like this was a necessity. I watched the Anti-Cringe Cut of The Last Jedi so it only made sense to also watch and review the Anti-Cringe Cut of The Rise of Skywalker, especially since it bills itself as a sequel to that edit instead of what I find is the norm for edits which is that they're designed to where you can watch it without watching the previous edit but watching the previous edit could enhance the viewing. Now quick thoughts on the previous cut, it really wasn't that great. It had some really cool ideas and moments and a lot of ambition but it suffered greatly from over-ambition resulting in very awkwardly done cuts, choices that put strict adherence to certain franchise "laws" over the story and characters and various decisions that resulted in more plotholes and contrivances than what was present in the source. That being said, that easily could be changed or improved upon in a sequel and since certain edits have resulted in these two being companion pieces to one another? I thought I might as well look at this.

And to give my general thoughts, this was... unfortunately a mixed bag. That being said, I’ll give it credit and state this is much better than the Anti-Cringe Cut of The Last Jedi, that it shows a ton of potential and that it makes a lot of choices that build off of that cut in ways that makes me soften my view of it at least in terms of when I look at these as two parts of a larger whole. There’s a lot of really impressive editing here that streamlines plenty of scenes in ways that don't disrupt anything, one particular edit involves altering Luke to where he looks more alive which is done so startlingly well with so few seams that it makes me really wish to see more editors take a crack at this concept and refine it and some of the scenes on their own bring really striking visuals like Ben fading with Han, the multiple Reys screaming as Palpatine steals her life-force and the image of Rey accepting the darkness in her by constructing a red lightsaber, making her one of the first Jedi I think to do so at least in this new canon. The movie also does a good job of maintaining most of the character arcs of our main trio.

However, it also has a ton of glaring negatives that really bring it down like the TLJ cut from editing choices resulting in wonky all over the place cuts that screw up the pacing and wind up calling attention to how it would’ve been better to just leave certain aspects stock for the sake of having the story flow more naturally such as what happens with Ben being taken out of the picture early which results in so much of Rey's fight with Palpatine feeling rushed, certain ideas just being either way too ambitious like cutting Rey's Force Jump to slice Kylo's TIE which results in quite possibly one of the worst instances of a PNG being edited over footage I've ever seen or it's not conveyed properly like with how it cuts out Kylo telling Rey she's a Palpatine to remove the connection but it doesn't remove the line about her having his power and it doesn't remove Kylo explaining that they're a dyad in the Force which in turn results in me feeling rather lost without the change list about if Rey was still a Palpatine in this or not. There are also a great deal of odd audio glitches and jumps and in one instance, the change of making Leia's blade yellow is not only incredibly noticeable but in the Exegol sequences the wrong saber gets colored yellow.

I applaud the attempts made to change things up more drastically than certain edits and unlike the previous, I will grant it that I didn’t end this viewing feeling kind of angry due to certain decisions made but overall? While it has tons of great ideas and I don’t feel like my time was wasted? This is far from being the ideal edit of this movie and I’m probably not going to be rewatching this ever again unless I can think up a good reason to. I do applaud DonKamillo for his efforts though and I hope he keeps on making more edits and that those who enjoy this edit keep enjoying it and that those who haven't seen it are willing to give it a try.

Oh boy...Star Wars prequels and now the sequels. The eternal debate/fight. Well, at least for the prequels we have a ton of fan edits, plus the Lucas' versions, so it's really hard not to find your cup of tea. Which means prequels are already saved. The sequels on the other hand, mainly episodes 8+9, have a long way to go, very few fanedit choices.

Before my review for this, I should state my brief opinion on the original so you know where I'm coming from. It had stuff I hated, stuff I was bored about and some stuff I enjoyed. My overall enjoyment was like a 3-4. I saw it once in cinema and never looked back. Before watching this I tried HAL's "Ascendant", which was a "restructure" type edit, but it didn't work for me, I needed an aggressive edit. Enter DonKamillo!

Technical wise, having also seen the Episode 8 Anti-Cringe, I was a bit dissapointed. In general the audio and visual edit was good, but as the movie progressed, especially at the section with Palpatine, the jump cuts where all over the place. And it was unnecessary, because the editor could have avoided all that if he had just left Kylo alone and not force-cut him.

More specifically, the scenes below are the ones that stood out a lot:
- Cutting Ray jumping above Kylo's ship at the desert. I mean, why? Is it better to see the ship crashed for no reason at the next scene?
- The sound of the lightsabers in Kylo's quarters where they "mind fight" with Rey. I read the reasoning behind this, but no. It was super weird.
- When Rey goes to the fallen Death Star by sea and Jannah said I'll take you there. Well, we just suddenly see Jannah and Finn at the fight for no apparent reason. In the theatrical cut we know Rey left by herself, but here they left all together, yet Rey is all alone and Jannah and Finn pop up before the duel.
- After Kylo gets the map and says "Look at yourself", the sound is almost cut off for like a second.
- I found the flashback dialogue between Luke and Rey after she stabs Kylo, a bit forced and unnecessary.
- One of my biggest problems, the fadeout of Han and Ben. I mean, that's how we end the arc of this character? A fadeout? That was a big no for me, which connects it to my next point.
- The whole ending scene that had to do with Palpatine, was "full" of jumpcuts and generally changes that where pretty obvious. Something that could have being avoided by keeping Ben there.
- And lastly, something that I mentioned also in Episode 8 Anti-Cringe, the green light in Luke's saber. You could tell it was added. I obviously understand the reasons behind it, but since I could tell, I wouldn't mind the other color.

Overall, I still suggest this version to anyone who wants an aggressive edit of Episode 9, Don's is the only one. I just hope the editor will revisit it to smooth some things out and change others. For me it will be my go to version, but that is because I don't have a choice and it's a shame not to watch the final film of the saga in a future marathon.

Thank you DonKamillo, thanks to anyone who read my review and may the force be with you!

P.S. I copy pasted some of my text from my review of the Episode 8 Anti-Cringe, because it applied here also.

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.