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

[Disclaimer: this review no longer reflects my tastes whatsoever]

A solid edit of TLJ that makes it a lot less unlikable to me.

I enjoyed the narrative changes (mainly regarding Luke), but did feel that some things were cut inconsistently, which detracted from the rest of the narrative. Also unfortunate that this edit isn't able to be watched in succession with The Rise of Skywalker. I also felt that some of the editing of what was deemed "cringe" dialogue screwed with the audio at some points, and messed with the pacing as conversations appeared to end or escalate too quickly.

If you're not a fan of TLJ for the reasons outlined in this edit, you'll probably be more satisfied with it this way. But, I don't think this will become my "definitive" way to watch the film, although it is very close to how I would imagine it.

Let’s just say that to me, TLJ is the worst Star Wars movie ever and that I don’t consider it even a Star Wars movie.
With that said, this edit is better than the theatrical cut, but that was so bad it’d be hard not to.
So I’ll go with what a liked and disliked about this edit.

Good:

- Luke lived
- Casino, Finn Rose gone
- most of Holdo Poe gone
- Leia dies in space

Bad
- without the casino scenes the movie is a complete bore as it focuses on Rey/Kylo/Luke etc too much and barely anything happens at all.
Again this is Rian’s fault and not the edit.

I plan never to watch any version of this movie ever again.

While I do like this like this edit, I don't think it's my ideal edit of the film.

The audio quality is somewhat mixed. A lot of the times it's good, but whenever something like an explosion happens the music and other sfx are blown out and the audio gets distorted. At some points, voices are really quiet. This mostly happens with side characters that only have a line or two. For example, when the girl in the command center says, "We have enough fuel for just one jump." and, in the same scene, the Ackbar like character has a line that is just barley audible. There are other instances after this scene where this happens but they are few and far between.

The Poe/Holdo subplot edit is good. The added deleted scenes between the Luke/Rey and the fish nun, Finn and Poe on the bridge, and Luke mourning Han are scenes that should've been apart of the theatrical cut. A lot of smaller cuts did feel noticeable but that's probably because I'm flirting with my own TLJ edit and I know this film a bit too well. I know Canto Bight is a point of contention among fans but I think it and the original Poe/Holdo subplot should be left in. Not because they were particular amazing, it's just without them this film just feels kind of anemic. I thought viewing an edit with them removed will change my mind it only really reaffirmed it. The Luke/Rey and Kylo/Snoke plots are really good already so it's not too bad. I didn't really like Luke's force vision. Maybe I'm misinterpreting it, but we already know Luke knows Rey may turn to the dark side. Why would he need to be reminded by Yoda to stand down? Hell even if he didn't know why would he need to be reminded to stand down at all? I think the theatrical cut worked fine and this extra bit was not needed. I probably dislike this edit the most. Leia's death felt off too. I think a different music track being played here could've helped sell it. The cut directly to Luke in the Falcon just made it feel less authentic. But also with the limited footage it would be a hard sell to begin with. I think just keeping the piano bit that plays originally when Leia as floating space, then trasnitioning to Luke in the Falcon while it still plays would work better.

The removal of Canto Bight, the edited Poe/Holdo subplot, and Leia actually dying have a kind of domino effect the rest of the film. Especially the ending. The ending feels incomplete. Finn is gone most of the movie and then he's just on Canto Bight all the sudden (in a First Order get up no less). Then when the resistance is on the Falcon it just feels abrupt. This is the "domino effect" as this scene kind of has to be abrupt because Leia can't be their because technically she's dead. I think changing the music that plays here to something more somber could help with selling this as the music is trumphant when it doesn't really feel that triumphant. The track worked in the orginal because of Leia's bit about "We have everything we need." but the most triumphant thing about this scene now is the glow of the kaiber crystal (if you can catch it). Maybe instead of having it be revealed at the end that Luke is infact alive, intercut with the Falcon and Luke getting up and looking towards the sunset. You can show that Rey's smile is because she knows Luke is okay or something like that and just use the music from the Luke death scene. Not sure how well this would work, but it's an idea.

It will be interesting to see how episode 9 turns out and if DonKamillo will do an edit of it. If I end up enjoying that, I think I'll enjoy the Anti-Cringe Cut more.

A damn good improvement on the theatrical cut which I thought was frankly terrible. I can honestly say I didn't cringe once which I suppose is mission accomplished. I thought the narrative changes were rather well handled, especially considering just how much was cut, and it's certainly better off for it.

The audio and visual quality is generally good but considering the file size, I thought the image would be a bit sharper. There were a couple points where it looked a bit lower res to me but I do tend to sit quite close at my desk so take that for what you will. However, it is plenty watchable.

Biggest complaint would be what adabisi mentioned about the 5.1 audio where it sticks to the left channel. It was quite distracting so I tried switching back and forth with Stereo which unfortunately wasn't much better with a noticeably narrow soundstage.

Overall I would definitely recommend giving this a watch! It's about as good a version we're going to get.

So, I'm finally getting around to leaving a review...

This edit is great! It is way more enjoyable than the theatrical cut. Killing Leia off was a ballsy move. The green lightsaber at the end when Luke fights Kylo Ren feels a bit off because you can see that it is Anakin's lightsaber instead of the green one that Luke had in ROTJ. That's my only complaint. Very enjoyable and worth the watch. Hopefully when Episode IX comes out you'll edit that one too, so that Leia's death can remain in fanedit continuity