Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise Of Skywalker: Ascendant

So I have a very complicated relationship with Rise of Skywalker. When I first watched it, after hating the first 20 minutes of the movie, I actually really enjoyed it and had a blast watching it in theaters despite having tons of problems with the movie, but as time went on those issues started to annoy me more and more. When it came out on Blu-Ray, I watched it again and while I still enjoyed watching it in the moment, mere hours after I finished watching it I started to dislike it a lot. The last time I rewatched the movie in its entirety was when I tried to make my own fan edit of the movie, and that was when my hatred for Rise of Skywalker was cemented. Since then, around 2 years ago, not only have I been unable to watch Rise of Skywalker I have become unable to watch even the first 2 of the sequel trilogy despite really enjoying Force Awakens and adoring The Last Jedi. I’ve been interested in a few edits of Rise of Skywalker, and also a few 3-in-1 edits of the sequel trilogy, but I could never bring myself to watch them. However this year several things have reinvigorated my interest in Star Wars, and I really wanted to be able to enjoy the sequel trilogy again. I’ve been debating whether or not to try an edit of Rise of Skywalker for some time and there have been a few I’ve been interested in, but I thought that if any edit would be able to fix the film it would be Rise of Skywalker Ascendant, and since version 4 has been completed I decided to start here. I know that’s kind of a long preamble before actually reviewing the edit, but I really needed to write it so I could fully give my thoughts on the edit itself.

Despite making some of the best Star Wars edits out there, I wasn’t sure that even Hal9000 would be able to salvage the movie but I knew that if anyone could it would be him. Still, I was very nervous before watching the edit, and thankfully I had no need to be hesitant. I can gladly say the film has been almost completely salvaged for me. The edit isn’t significantly shorter than the theatrical edition, only around 4 minutes, but despite that, the film works way better. There’s been so many awful lines and cringy moments cut, such as “Somehow Palpatine returned”, “They Fly Now” and the line about the Holdo maneuver, and a ton of little additions to the film that massively improve the film, such as some added lines of dialogue for the Knights of Ren, and a few AI line replacements, and they’re almost all completely seamless. In fact, I believe that if you showed this edit to someone who’d never seen the film before they wouldn’t even be able to notice that this is a fan edit. I watched the Rey Nobody version of the edit, which is slightly shorter than the regular cut, 4 minutes shorter, and before watching it I didn’t realize how much I hated her being a Palpatine, and that so many of my issues with the movie stemmed from that choice. I thought I was OK with her being a Palpatine, that her arc still worked really well, and that it was mostly other things that made me so dissatisfied with the film, but now I can never go back to watching the theatrical edit, or any edit of the film where Rey remains a Palpatine for that matter.

Now for the technical aspects of the review, I didn’t notice any issues with the video, I watched the 30-gig 1080P version of the movie and it looked really good I didn’t notice any issues. The video editing is also pretty much flawless I didn’t notice any cuts. Audio editing is also nearly flawless, there were 2 or 3 AI line replacements that I could tell weren’t in the original cut, and the audio during the duel between Rey and Kylo Ren on Endor sounded like it was peaking a bit, but other than that nothing of note was out of place.

However, nothing is perfect and there were still some things that I’m not a fan of that remain in the movie. Some of these are nearly impossible to change, such as the Chewie fake-out death and Rose barely being in the movie, and there were some minor issues I still had with certain lines of dialogue and character moments that could be changed but weren’t, such as Poe flirting with Zori Bliss, and the Lando and Jannah scene, although these I excuse as being down to personal preference. I’m also still not a fan of the final scenes on Tatooine, although the additions to the scene in this edit make me no longer wish it wasn’t in the film.

Also like I said before I watched the Rey Nobody edit which so drastically improves the film that I can no longer watch any edit where Rey remains a Palpatine. Now when I finish the movie I’m no longer thinking about all of the problems and issues that drag it down, I’m thinking about how much better the movie is and how it’s now a film I can enjoy with little reservation. I cannot thank Hal900 and the very many collaborators who helped with the edit as it has now not only replaced the original version of the movie, which to be fair isn’t that hard given how awful I find the theatrical cut is. While I still have my issues with the film, and it’s still my least favorite of the trilogy, this edit has completely salvaged the movie and now the entire sequel trilogy for me. I can finally watch all 3 movies in the sequel trilogy without dreading getting to the ending, and I can't wait to do so.

As always, Hal brings the best. Not his most ambitious cut, but it still manages to improve upon the original and actually create a fun watch. I still had plenty of plot questioning after viewing, but in the moment I actually had a fun time and didn't roll my eyes too much. There were some really brilliant moments here, love the inclusion of the group to the final tatooine visit.

Fantastic edit with some brilliant additions and tweaks... This is top-tier artistry at its finest.

While it's probably to fix Rise of Skywalker, no matter how much effort is put in, I think these edits are the closes anyone's able to get. For the record, I had watched the Rey Nobody version of this edit

The edit gets rid of alot of the weird moments from the original and you can tell that alot of effort went into making sure events play out, still make sense, and aren't jarring to watch. I love the smaller changes like the addition of new shots, created specifically for this edit, and other details that don't change how the events of the film play out but just enhance them. I get that I'm being really vague but I really don't want to spoil anything and want you to experience it all for yourself.

Fantastic edit that has passion and effort dripping from every surface. The best way to watch the Rise of Skywalker, hands down!

Finished up our SW re-watch with this one (1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9).

HAL has once again done amazing work. The cuts are seamless; I usually noticed that things were missing after they were done, and would never have known that they were missing in the first place if I hadn't seen the theatrical cut. There's amazing work here, including the addition of a few lines from the Knights of Ren that give them a bit more of a presence. And the new closing shot looks amazing.

HAL has whittled out parts of the narrative that just don't work, as usual. Unfortunately, I happened to watch a negative review of RoS on YouTube just before watching this, so I was aware that even more could have been cut to improve the movie, and the cuts wouldn't have affected anything going forward. Of course HAL didn't see the same review, so he wasn't working based on that, but nonetheless I couldn't help but notice that more could have indeed been cut. (Ironically, what the film really needs is *added* scenes that explain things better, enhance characterization, and improve the pacing. But since Disney has yet to release a 4-hour cut of the movie, HAL did the best he could with what's available, adding a few shots here and there and slowing down the frenetic opening scene as much as possible.)

I loved:
--The shots of the Palpatine clones in the tank at the beginning.
--The moving of Palpatine's broadcast out of Fortnite and into a Rebel briefing scene.
--The removal of the mention that R2 can just automatically restore Threepio's memory, making his sacrifice more noble.
--Moving some sound clips of Palpatine into scenes with Kylo and Rey so that they appear to be hearing him.
--Moving the otherwise pointless cameo of the Ewoks into the earlier Endor scene.

I'm also impressed that he worked in cues for "Duel of the Fates" and the droids' theme from Ep. I, although I admit I didn't catch them during the actual viewing.

To sum up, it's difficult to come up with a really good movie out of what's available for RoS. But HAL did his usual expert job, and until or unless Disney gives editors more footage to work with, this is reasonably the best edit one can hope for, to have a satisfying end to a SW viewing marathon.