Review Detail

9.6 31 10
(Updated: September 23, 2016)
Overall rating
 
9.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
7.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I must say, I wasn't sure the idea behind this edit would work (saw a video, thought it looked great), but I can safely say that it does work!

So, first, the technical qualities of the edit. Visual is top of the line. Perfect. Well done!

Audio, however, has a few problems. Most notably, throughout the movie the volume is very uneven. Both my buddy and I noticed this, and we compared it with the original and I don't know what happened but the volume swings a lot in intensity. I don't suppose that was intended so this is an issue.

Also, as everybody pointed out, Finn's line "It's the First Order, they've done it" makes little to no sense in context. Removing it entirely wouldn't hurt the movie at all. Just cut to him coming up and saying "Where's Rey?" after everybody reacts, or cut to someone else after he says "It's the First Order" and leave it at that (no "they've done it"). Maybe a Han reaction shot/someone else?

However, I just LOVE how this edit gets rid of the god-awful reactions shots in the original to the planets exploding. It's completely impossible for anyone to witness such an explosion from across the galaxy, even within the same solar system planets can be hours away at light speed, so this edit works wonders within that context. I love the Han/Starkiller firing, I love the insertion of the speech, the modified Kylo Ren+Snoke scenes, everything works!

It also reduces one parallel with A New Hope so there's that.

The ending though doesn't work in the original (it's too quick, tonal problems gallore too), and it still doesn't work in this one. Not much we can do because there aren't really more available scenes, it's just a rushed movie problem.

I enjoyed watching this quite a lot, and the narrative stands improved. Some issues (mainly audio) remain, but if those are fixed, this could definitely replace TFA for me.

User Review

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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