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

I wasn't expecting much. I mean the originals are such utter rubbish.

I was delightfully surprised. I actually watched TRoS anti-cringe first as I couldn't bare to believe a good cut of TLJ can exist. But TRoS was so well done that I went back and watched TLJ too.

Together these movies do so much better than a "best of what's left." They actually salvage the movies. No need to retcon anything in TRoS because it's not there in the first place. Nothing stupid in TLJ anymore... 'cept the bare minimum Holdo.

I'd love to see version 2+ of these as I still think there's more that can be done to improve.

Top work! I've actually put these in my Star Wars collection to show my daughter, who will now never have to go through the pain of the theatrical releases.

Firstly, I just want to start off by saying, muchísimas gracias Don Kamillo. I didn’t think anything could ever make these travesties watchable for me much less enjoyable. I’m afraid I cannot offer a fair comparison since I have never watched the original source material nor do I wish to. So whatever score I offer for the cut is compared to a D.N.F. of the original.

Besides the fact that the film was highly enjoyable and felt very Star Wars for something so far from cannon. There was nothing really negative quality-wise which stood out to give away that it was a fan edit. Perhaps the part at the end when Kylo confronts Darth Sidious. The audio sounded totally spliced together. I don’t know what the original line was but I assume it was so bad this this desperate attempt on behalf of the editor to spare me from some terrible dialogue was justified. Thank you. I will deduct only one point from sound.

I will be deducting one point from enjoyment for Porg. I’m sure you minimised his appearance, however he still managed to get in the way. Literally and figuratively. Aside from that Holdo did not offend me too much. She just reminded me a bit of a female Tim Cook. I have a feeling you spared me some suffering there, perhaps some insufferable Disney Woke cringe that I shall never know and although I don’t know what it was, thank you!

This is my current definitive way to watch the film and I look forwards to any updates you make in the future. Keep up the great work and may the force be with you!

WAOW !
I'm blown away by how much DonKamillo was able to salvage this god-awful movie !
I absolutely hated the movie the first (and only) time I saw it in theater. It made me both angry and very depressed. During this screening, I was already hoping to see a fanedited version of it, and boy, did DonKamillo delivered !

Not only did I not feel any hate nor sadness during the screening, but I found myself actually appreciating scenes I completely rejected during the theater screening.


[*** Spoilery review from now on ***]


For example, I was able to appreciate the scene with Yoda burning the tree and giving his (great!) advice to Luke about failure being the best teacher. Very true !
And I was now enough into the movie to realize that Rey actually stole the Ancient Jedi Books before leaving the island, since we briefly see them aboard the Falcon at the very end of the movie. So when Luke was about to burn down the temple-tree, Yoda actually prevented him to find out that the books where missing, allowing Luke to completely let go about his feelings of failure and grief, helping him reconnect with the Force and his true destiny, and also allowing Rey to acquire the knowledge she seeks to further her training and the skills she needs to build a new lightsaber from the pieces of Anakin's weapon. MIND. BLOWN.

Thank you so much DonKamillo for making me see the good (and, as time, great) ideas contained in the original movie. I would NEVER have guessed writing this one day !

Obviously, thank you so much for editing out all the cringe-worthy moments, like most of the porgs, the retarded humor, Canto Bight and all the ridiculous side plots, mutiny, love triangles and all. Some moronic things still remains, like the hyperspace destruction of the First Order fleet (if it's possible, it negates all of the previous space battle's logic), the tracking through hyperspace, the death of Snoke, and the fact that the fleet should have immediately split into multiple direction via escape pods through hyperspace, the First Order would never have been able to track them all down and it would have given them time to regroup and find new allies, and Leia, Ackbar and co would still be alive. But I digress.

The death of Leia was exactly what I wish the movie went with. When I first saw the movie in theater, I thought "wow, this is ballsy and profoundly moving, and brutally mirrors Carrie Fisher's real life passing..." but as I was thinking that, I watch in horror the stupid superman-like resurrection in space, the infamous "Leia Poppins" and it was the end of my hope for this movie.
Thank you again, DonKamillo, for making my wish come true.

This version is now my go-to / full Disney denial version !

Of course, making Luke a more coherent character was a central point to make, and DonKamillo aced it ! Not only does he give back the lightsaber to Rey and apologizes, but he did not try to kill Kylo ! He doesn't F-ing milk these aliens and most of all : he doesn't die of exhaustion !

I absolutely loved that Luke has now his ROTJ green lightsaber while fighting Kylo Ren !
To nitpick, you could crop the shots in order to exclude the Anakin hilt, that way it would be more believable that he uses is ROTJ weapon, since in the wide shots the hilt is barely visible. Please make this small adjustment and the edit would be 100% perfect, in my humble opinion.

Also, great job about the sound edit, making the commander saying that Leia and Ackbar died. Well done !
I put 9/10 for audio editing because some small problems where audible, most noticeably when Luke said "where is Han ?", the sound feels completely off and out of place. In fact, it's only on the surround track, his line is only on the left speakers.

I could go on and review the movie scene by scene, there is so much to say ! I'll just say that all the changes listed on the "changes" page are beautifully done and totally justified. The movie is now more serious, more in the "war" tone, as opposed to the "silly Disney/Marvel humor" tone that they went with.

There is one "problem" though, with your edit : now that all the stupid cringe-worthy stuffs are out of the picture, it's even more blatantly apparent that ALL THE SCENES of this movie are rehash from The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi ! (0_0)
All of them !!! It's even worth than in The Force Awakens !
Snoke is the Palpatine-like character, with no backstory (like the Emperor in the OT), the Falcon flying scenes on Crait are reminiscent of the asteroid field and the inside of the Second Death Star, and I could go on about every little aspect of this film (the red guards, the redemption story, the battle of Hoth, and on and on.... I swear I could almost hear the imperials chanting "Grond ! Grond !" while the laser-battering-ram approaches. I know, I know, wrong universe ^_^).

The prequels were shit, but Lucas actually tried something original. Here, it's even more evident that Disney have no idea how to treat the saga and are going for the safest, "money-making-est" road : just rehash everything from the Original Trilogy, acknowledge the Prequels and sprinkle it with moronic fan service, Marvel Humor and puberty/sexual overtone between Rey and Ben ("touching" themselves for the first time through the Force, popping their projection-cherry, and Snoke lustfully grinning behind the scene... F-ing creepy shit, Ryan !).

Thank you also DonKamillo for editing out that stupid ring with the "hidden" Rebel symbol, and the Star Wars Kid with his broomstick... ("heavy sigh")

The Fox logo and fanfare is also greatly missing, and you could do without the "the anti-cringe-cut" in the crawl, as it is redundant with the Culombia-anti-cringe logo, and does a disservice to your great work by needlessly adding an extradiegetic mention into an exposition device.

The Dark Side anus-by-the-shore-in-the-ground scene is still pointless and badly done. Zero interest. But I get why it still has to be there.

Now we understand that the more Kylo becomes strong in the Force, the more Rey becomes strong. We can imagine that Rey really is a nobody, that her parents are unimportant, but that she also is the Force that has Awoken, to counter the rising force of Kylo Ren (as the Force allegedly created Anakin in George's Prequels in order to bring balance to the Force : being as many Sith as there are Jedi, as Yoda said that the prophecy may have been misinterpreted).

It's not far-fetch to imagine that Snoke was "allowed by the Force" to rise to a significant amount of power to balance the immense power of Luke Skywalker. MAN !! You reignited my passion for this saga ! That's no small deed and you deserve all the hats-off you can get !

The explanation flashbacks about what happen that famous night with Kylo Ren and Luke are impressive ! We now understand both of their point of view, and the reality of what happen is on par with both characters. Very well done !!

Thank you very much for this amazing amount of work, time and effort you put into realizing this great edit !
I will shortly had it to my Blu-Ray collection !

HUGE Star Wars fan here. Like many, after seeing TLJ in theaters I was devastated. I had so much hype for that film after what I thought was a decent theatrical TFA, but to me the theatrical TLJ is nothing sh0rt of an abomination and pure disrespect to the Star Wars I knew and loved. This movie destroyed whatever I liked about 7 and took away 99% of my hype for 9.

But this edit... This changed EVERYTHING. I watched this edit under the perspective of "The Crucible Canon" https://boards.theforce.net/threads/the-crucible-canon-merging-eu-and-new-canon-as-smoothly-as-possible.50053287/ and I was blown away by how much I enjoyed this film now. Thank you, DonKamillo, for making a cut that (no lie) brought a tear to my eye just to see Luke handled in a more respectful way.

A/V Quality: Perfect to my eyes, didn't notice anything there which gives this area a 10.

Visual Editing: I didn't see anything jarring here either. This is an easy 10, especially due to the Luke lightsaber change.

Audio Editing: I noticed some slight audio drops in a few scenes (especially when Luke has Rey "reach out" and she goes to the Dark Side, his lines are very quiet after that), but nothing too frequent.

Narrative: If it was possible to give this higher than a 10 I would do it in a heartbeat. Somehow Don took something I swore I'd never watch again into a story that... dare I say it, I actually enjoyed? You'd be amazed how much trimming out the fat from this movie helps this story (and there was A LOT of fat). No more cringe-y lines, no "your mom" jokes, no obnoxious Rose, no forced real world political messaging, NO MORE MURDEROUS LUKE. I can't say enough about how much this narrative is improved. Not only are the indigestible portions out, there are incredible new ideas in. Instead of a whiny, depressed, hermit, Luke now seems like just a very old, tired, and disappointed man with decades of burdens who finds his spark one last time to save the galaxy again. THIS is the Luke I grew up with. Having him survive truly brought a tear to my eye, and I said "Luke is back" with a smile on my face. Something I NEVER thought I'd say in regards to the ST.

Enjoyment: Whereas I would've originally gave TLJ a 1/10 in the theater version, I would score the TLJ Anti-Cringe cut an 8.5/10 film, which earns a 10/10 performance for this edit. Again, watching this edit under "The Crucible Canon" perspective that is linked above changed everything about my experience with this movie. I am actually excited to watch TRoS now (Anti-Cringe version, of course).

TLDR;
Near perfect and my go-to version of this movie now. Improved an unbelievable amount over the original, especially in terms of the Luke story and removing the insufferable scenes. Could use a little touchup on audio in a few places. Easily the best TLJ edit I have ever seen.

DomKamillo managed to polish a turd. What was once an unpalatable experience now feels like a proper Star Wars narrative. The edit lives up to its name, and even had some unexpected touching moments. Bravo!