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

This is about as good as this movie can get without drastically altering the story. There's a few things that I personally may have removed and/or kept, but overall this is an incredibly functional movie. This may not sound like much, but the original was an incomprehensible, maddening mess. The fact that I could watch this and enjoy it is amazing.

The small changes are what matter here. lengthening some establishing shots, re-ordering a few things. Adding in the Kylo Ren force ghost, the new take on "Rey Skywalker" and the new final shot. These are all things that the movie should've done to begin with.

I still don't love this movie, and there are story choices in it I'll never like or understand. But it is the movie it is, and it is canon, which means we are stuck with it for better or worse. Hal has made it not only tolerable, but enjoyable. It's certainly the worst ST film, but it's far from the disgrace it was on release. Great job!

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.

I enjoyed the 'Rise of Skywalker' ride at the cinema but on re-viewings the flaws inevitably become all too clear. I don't even blame J. J. Abrams, he had the thankless task of simultaneously following on from what he setup in his first film, clearing up the mess left by 'The Last Jedi' which had essentially chucked the first film away (like a lightsaber), pleasing fans of TLJ, pleasing haters of TLJ, retconning Rey's backstory from TFA and TLJ because fans didn't like it, starting again with a vague blank slate and wrapping up a three film trilogy all in 2-ish hours. He knows how to make something that looks, feels, sounds, tastes and smells like vintage OG Star Wars but the script is a convoluted, exhausting mess, chasing it's own tail from one pointless plot point to another. Still, there are some real moments of emotion and drama in there which work. e.g. Luke finally lifting his X-Wing and scary zombie Palpatine.

HAL 9000's 'Ascendant' fanedit doesn't dramatically trim the plot but does make tons of little tweaks to make moments play better. None of which you'd ever know about, had this been presented to you as the official finished professional product. Every one of the edits to the video and audio (and story) is 100% seamless. I'd recommend this to people who want a better version of RoS (one to replace their official copy) but not to people who are seeking a comprehensively different version. The new ending is fantastic, again not radically different but so much better, with a bit more finesse and FX work. Congratulations and thanks to the many people that seem to have contributed many ideas and FX fixes to this version. Thanks HAL 9000.

The Rise of Skywalker was a disappointing and flawed film. The knee jerk reaction to try and “fix” the flaws fans had with its predecessor created an uneven and disappointing finale. While no fan edit can fully fix the final film, Hal and co. have done a tremendous job is salvaging it.

So do I recommend this edit? Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

This edit packs a serious punch and will be my definitive edition for the foreseeable future. No noticeable audio or picture problems, no editing issues I could spot, and the pacing of this cut is very good. If you think TROS is unfixable definitely give this edit a try. It's 1000x better than the theatrical cut.

The only thing I wish we saw more of were more force ghosts at the end. Considering “a thousand generations of Jedi” now live within Rey, it would have been nice to see some other ghosts of Jedi we saw in the prequels. But that’s nitpicking, and one can only work with the footage they have.

A well earned 10 out of 10.

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