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

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.

I'm not a fan of TLJ, to say the very least. Still, the idea of a fan edit intrigued me. This version does remove a lot of stupid crap, but sadly there is still some that remains. This isn't the fault of the editor though, it's the source material. For example, the vast majority of Luke on Craggy Island was poorly written and made little sense to me. I'm glad the whole casino subplot was removed, it was garbage and didn't flow with the rest of the film. What remains in this version of Rose is still too much for me, what an awful character she is. The fact that she's acknowledged by name even once makes me cringe. I didn't miss the Leia pretending she's Supergirl scene at all, as it is an abomination. Leia has the power to cheat death but can do nothing to save the lives of her fellow rebels as they're systematically blown up one ship after another?!? The third act is a bit clunky continuity wise, but again one can only do so much with the source material. All in all, this is much better than the theatrical cut, and I give you a ton of credit for trying to make the film more watchable.

I hated The Last Jedi. The whole thing was a mess. I was hoping for a fanedit that fixed it and this is it. I loved all the narrative choices - the movie is improved tenfold. It does get a little clunky during the final battle, but the editor did a good job with what he had. The only additional thing I was hoping for was a removal of Hologram Luke, but you can't have it all.

I was happy to see it had a 5.1 audio track, but there are a lot of issues with it. There are about a half dozen spots where the dialogue randomly jumps into the front left and rear left channels for no apparent reason. It's too bad, because it really takes you out of the experience.

That said, it's not a fatal flaw this easily replaces the original for me. Recommended for anyone who was disappointed with the original.

Let me start by saying, for me, any edit of TLJ must exclude Canto Bight. So this edit works for me, but obviously will not work for anyone who wants the Canto Bight sideplot. Overall this is a good edit and it comes close to my imagined perfect cut. But there are a few things I had trouble with and I'll list them below.

- The lightsaber exchange just didn’t work for me. I think I’d be happier with the toss.

- The cut between Luke with the fish and the beacon didn’t work for me.

- I don’t like the half truth Luke tells Rey in the temple by the reflecting pool. I’d rather the whole story be omitted with just Luke saying it was too late to save Ben.

- I’m not sure of the reason for the clip of the future Rey/Kylo interaction during the Rey/Luke fight. If you can explain why that's there I'd appreciate it. But it felt odd and unnecessary to me.

- The sound was off at the end of the Luke/Kylo standoff. I had to convert the file using Handbrake to be able to play on my AppleTV. So if this sound sync issue is a result of that, let me know and I'll amend my rating.

- The only big thing I miss is the final Luke/Leia scene.

- Of course, Leia dying on camera and Luke surviving could have serious continuity issues. This is a narrative issue, in my opinion, and is what really makes it hard for me to get with this edit.

Overall, the edit works and shows that there’s a good movie in there. Unfortunately, I feel like too much continuity is lost with the overall trilogy (I'm assuming). It’s not far off from my perfect edit, but it has some deal breakers for me. Between this and the Fallen Knight edit, I think I may be able to piece together my ideal version. I didn't hate TLJ and so far I've seen some edits that make it enjoyable. It's still not a great movie, but if you can live with the continuity issues, this is a vast improvement over the theatrical.

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.