Review Detail

I don't have a whole lot to add that everybody else has not already said. The "Anti-Cringe Cut" of TLJ is one of the more interesting versions of that accursed film and probably the most invasive edit to-date (I don't mean that as criticism). It sets out to fix the most cited problems of that movie, cutting out a lot of the out-of-place humor and the insulting "subversions" and editing out all of the fat, effectively shifting the entire narrative of the film. Without Canto Bight and the Holdo/Poe slap fight, this version of the film focuses entirely on the Luke/Rey/Ren relationship. The edit states that this is its intention and it's impressive at how successful it is at that.

The biggest narrative flaw I can ascribe to this edit is that, because of its extensive cuts, the pacing is a little off and so is the narrative cohesion of the movie. Moving from the Resistance, to Luke and Rey and back to the Resistance for the climax is fairly jarring and it does feel like things are cut out (because, you know, they are). It's not DonKamillo's fault, it's a given with every fanedit of any film that these problems will appear, because there's limited material to work with. You can't fix what's fundamentally broken, you can just patch it as best as you can. This is probably why, much as I dislike TLJ in its entirety, I probably favor Hal9000's less extensive edit just a tiny bit more.

Having said that, the Anti-Cringe Cut succeeds in what it sets out to do and if you're looking for a version of the movie in which Luke somewhat resembles his old self, all of the Codebreaker fluff is removed and Holdo doesn't try to burn her bra on Poe's head, this is a well-done and enjoyable version of the movie.