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