Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: Anti-Cringe-Cut

Best Version out there!

I really enjoyed this! Keep up the good work! A+++

Much more interesting story with this cut

(Note: The original review has been edited for the sake of being more abbreviated and less... absurdly harsh. If you want to read the original review in full? Please check out the following link: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/FanEdit-Reviews-Post-Your-Reviews-Here/id/74322/page/9#1482781.)

So this is gonna be interesting. This is not my first trek into the world of Star Wars for fan-edits but it's my first trek into this for a movie I actually really love. Yes let's get this out of the way right now, I love The Last Jedi. It's my second favorite Star Wars movie of all time nestled neatly right by ESB. For a movie I was so terrified was going to turn out awfully when I first went into it back in 2017? I left that theater with nothing but love in my heart for it. It has a few problems certainly but those hardly are an issue for me as someone who loves this to death. So with that in mind, I'm not looking at this Anti-Cringe Cut from the perspective of a fan who hates this movie and wants to see what a fan-edit can do to improve upon it but rather I wanted to view this from the perspective of an unabashed lover and defender of TLJ who is wanting to see if this will just be a good movie and decide for myself if seeing this in theaters I would've been satisfied..

And overall? I'm sorry to say but this edit really didn't do it for me. It's not without its positives though and I do want to run through those now. For one the ways in which the movie is streamlined are usually handled with a great deal of care and a lot of the times surprisingly seamless. In particular I'm quite fond of the trims done to the opening battle and some of the transitions are handled very well like the screen-wipe going from Poe saying "Not what I expected." to Ahch-To. Thinking back to it, I really liked the integration of the deleted scene with Luke's third lesson as well as an extra scene with Finn and Poe, the action was very nicely preserved but trimmed in the right ways usually. There's plenty I really like here.

But there are massive issues at play that keep me from truly enjoying this. I feel like there are a good portion of ideas that are overly ambitious that the movie just does not provide enough for and as a result there are scenes where the intentions are truly admirable but in practice could've done with either reworking or just being kept stock. There are various edits that result in clunky audio cuts, jump-cuts that disrupt the flow of the movie and in one case misses the mark on an emotional beat due to a very unfitting music choice, the ending just completely derails the message and emotional moment in favor of setting up an unnecessary cliffhanger and in one case? I get the modus operandi behind the change but due to what movie it is and the timing and how it's executed it just comes across more icky than it does enjoyable which I'll admit in my original review played a part in why I was so harsh and that was overall uncalled for

That being said? This really wasn't the edit for me though I do wish DonKamillo nothing but the best on his many other endeavors. There is clear talent on display here that with more refining could lead to some truly amazing work. I also say I can see why people really liked this cut and I hope more people do check it out. They might find it's up their alley.

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. I hated it. My overall enjoyment was like a 2. I saw it once in cinema, then saw a few analysis videos on youtube and never looked back. So I knew that I needed an aggressive edit and not a "restructure" one like those for Episode 7. Enter DonKamillo aaand another editor, not listed here for some reason, Clark Zuckerberg. To be honest, first I watched Clark's edit, The Fallen Knight, and I really liked it. The problem was he didn't have an Episode 9 edit and Don's edit contradicted Clark's a lot in terms of continuity, plus, Don's was the only aggressive Episode 9 edit I could find. I tried HAL's "Ascendant" but it didn't work for me, I guess I needed an aggressive edit for 9 too.

Thankfully, I liked this one also. It had some great ideas, like the ending, which created an excellent cliffhanger, or more scenes of Luke training Rey, which Clark's version didn't have much of. Also a couple of joke reductions, I always appreciate those. Now, the two major changes, Leia's death here and Luke's survival are a bit tricky. Clark kept the original outcomes and because he did it very very nicely, I was happy with it. On the other hand, by keeping Leia alive, she must die with that silly way in episode 9, which is a problem. So either you kill her in space or because she reached out to Ben. And then, there is of course the issue with the fight of Rey and Kylo at the sea, where you can't bypass the fact that someone reached to Kylo and distracted him. That can only be done by Luke or Leia. So you see what's happening here and the choices the editors must make. For me, personally, since a lot of changes need to be made in order for Luke to reach Kylo, and let's face it, Leia's death is a very brief scene which you can just "forget about it", I would prefer if Don had kept the original script and worked based on that in his episode 9. But that's me and I won't substract any points for that, in order to be fair.

Technical-wise, audio and visual edits were very good, except where noted below. And overall, definitely better than Episode 9 Anti-Cringe editing.

Now to some more specific points that were not that good:
- Cutting Snoke calling Hux at the beginning.
- Rey giving the lightsaber to Luke and then he gives it back? It was weird..I preferred Clark's version where he made it look like Luke drops it to the ground.
- Keeping those ridiculous scenes where the First Order is chasing the rebellion with a barrage of no-point-shooting. Again, Clark's version corrected this.
- An obvious jump cut, where Luke comes to save the day at the end, but since there is no Leia, there is a cut of their scene.
- Some added flashbacks I thought they where a bit forced (pun intended).
- Finally, though I appreciate the "purism" behind the gesture of the specific change, the green light on Luke saber was a bit obvious and too much.

All in all, in a perfect world I would have preferred an edit that is a mix of Clark's and Don's versions or I would be an editor and do it myself! Hehe..Anyway, I definitely suggest this edit, especially to anyone who wants an aggressive edit of Episode 9, Don's is the only one, so for continuity reasons alone, the "Anti-Cringe-Cuts" become your go to versions! I just hope the editor will revisit them to smooth some things out or even change others.

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