Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: Legendary

Been a long time since I watched the original and this is the first fan-edit I've seen.

The pacing is leagues better. Distracting tone-shifting humor and repetitive exposition has been trimmed and makes for much smoother scenes.

The excised sections of Canto Bight does absolute wonders, amazing how much more tolerable that section of the movies is. Do not miss it at all, almost forgot that it should have happened. You're more invested in the immediate action and forget that there was this whole slog about back-story and saving animals. Didn't feel too brief for me.

I'm not sure why the slave boy is still at the end. Where'd he get the ring? Is he oppressed? Is the New Order the reason he's oppressed? Where is he located, is it somewhere that the New Order is causing problems? There's no context for that scene. It also just bothers me that he's so clean. Those slave children just look like L.A. child actors to me.

Editing is very tasteful and a lot of the fixes are effective in their simplicity. I think the poppasketti music cue for the lightsaber toss is inspired and the removal of Roses' line after her crash introduces enough ambiguity that you don't know WHY she's being contradictory to her values rather than knowing the reason and it not making sense.

I did not like Finn and Roses' meeting scene in the original and this is better but it does feel a little odd. I looked at the change list and saw that the "breathe" line was re-instated but I'm not sure why. I saw this cold, didn't read the change-list or any forum discussions before and that popped out at me as un-warranted for him to say. She doesn't get excited enough for that to make sense, the shot really holds on him like it's a big joke but there was not much of a set-up.

I could do without Leia flying. It doesn't make me angry like it does with some, but it just strikes me as a bit silly. It doesn't look very convincing and it's not staged or directed in a way that feels powerful to me. Like, I have some problems with the hyperspace jump kamikaze scene on a story level but I can't deny the visual power. It's arresting, but I can't say the same for Leia flying.

Ultimately, the movie doesn't get better for me on a fundamental level. There's things that make sense to me even less than they did the first time. I more and more don't really understand what this movie is about or what Rian Johnson is actually trying to say. I get to the end of the movie and have so many questions about what this really adds to the discussion of myth in popular culture. It's subervise in ways that seem to really only work for people that already agree with its perspective, Johnson doesn't really use much rhetoric. There's not a lot of writing or filmmaking that's being used to help along people that aren't on board. I'm all for subversion, but you got to be a little more deft with your tools when you're working in pulp.

I'm not sure I'm really interested in a more radical edit, though. I have things I'd prefer to be changed but they wouldn't make my overall opinion of the base movie different. I think HAL9000 makes this just about as polished as it can be. A wonderful piece of editing and much easier of a watch.

Watched the 720 mp4 and it looked great, a very good encode for its size.

I already made a review but I had to do a new one for V2. I know this is an unpopular opinion but I enjoyed the Last Jedi, and this edit just makes me like it even more. This should have been the cut of the film Rian Johnson went with, and after watching the edit you can't really go back to the original.

PROS: I loved the incorporation of the deleted scenes especially with Luke.
The commentary track is really fun to listen to and shows that Hal has a really deep understanding of Last Jedi and Star Wars as a whole.
Loved the placement of the Yoda scene.
Loved Snoke's death in this edit.
Improved pacing and great reduction of Canto Bight Sequence.
Cheesiness is greatly cut from the film.
NO MORE CARETAKERS!

CONS: Luke throwing the lightsaber bit has been done much better in other edits. (It's still a joke)
Comedy could have been reduced a bit more.
It's not as fun to watch as other radical edits in that it maybe changes too little.

Great Edit that serves more as just a better cut of the movie rather than a Fun Fanedit.

While this didn't fix everything i definetly liked it better than the orignal

Hal9000's The Last Jedi: Legendary is an excellent edit that addresses many issues with which fans of the series took umbrage. For fans of his work on the prequel trilogy and his The Force Awakens: Restructured, I would highly recommend this version of the movie.

The criticisms I have of this edit are ones which many other fans will probably enjoy. For instance, the Canto Bight sequence is perhaps truncated to the point of pointlessness, which many would argue is Hal's point in the cuts, but, for myself, it makes Finn and Rose's capture and escape pass by far too fast. Their sudden appearance in a ship with DJ was a little jarring for me. I enjoyed the caretakers, though they are not missed in this edit.

The thing that perhaps stuck out the most is the constant visual compression noise present in the video, a problem which Hal has addressed himself in the originaltrilogy forums. (I watched the DVD version, so I cannot speak to the quality of the Blu-Ray.)

Overall, a great alternative to the theatrical release for anyone who only had minor qualms with the movie, such as myself. (I actually think this may be the strongest entry in the saga since Empire.)

Exquisite work as always. I fully recommend this edit to any detractors of the original film. HAL9000 really showcases his mastery of video and audio editing. A must have for Fanedit collector's.