Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: Rekindled

Rekindled deserves more reviews (praise), because it is currently the definitive TLJ fanedit.

Poppasketti's edit actually restored some of my faith in Rian Johnson as a director. A good faneditor should have a degree of respect for the source material he’s working with, and that's what we see here. Rather than fight against the director's vision, he brings added clarity to it.

I became interested in fanedits after learning about the work that had been done by various faneditors on the prequel trilogy, such as L8wrtr, Q2, Hal9000, seciors, and now Octorox. It has taken many years, but I believe we finally have a trilogy of good, at times great, films. In many ways I believe it has been a collaborative effort, That said, I didn’t think the sequel trilogy was as capable of being redeemed by a good edit, but poppasketti has shown that The Last Jedi is actually quite a good film when you apply a lot of polish.

I watched the edit twice, once by myself and once with my wife, who is a casual Star Wars fan. We both liked the Poe/Hux call exactly as poppasketti has done it. Star Wars should not be completely devoid of humor after all. On the other hand, cutting out Leia Poppins, Canto Bight, the showdown with Phasma, and the Rose Tico kiss, etc., is exactly what this film needed.

Humor has always been an essential part of Star Wars, and I think it’s fine as long as it’s not in excess. Rather, I think the far bigger problem the The Last Jedi has is the level of cynicism that Rian Johnson brought to it. Holdo is especially problematic. The movie tries to set up a character arc for Poe where he needs to learn...what? To blindly submit to authority? However, we can't ignore the fact that it was actually Holdo’s poor leadership that caused things to unravel in the first place. Poe is an established character from the previous film that is both charismatic and likeable. Holdo, on the other hand, comes out of nowhere to cut him down to size, because he's a man, I guess. I find the story involving Poe, Holdo, Finn, and Rose deeply unsatisfying. The message is confusing and heavy-handed. There is still more work to be done here.

I believe the faneditor who fixes Holdo will have fixed this entire movie. Portraying her as being as misguided in her actions as the others might be a workable fix, i.e., show how truly lost and desperate everyone--including Holdo--is without Leia (and Luke). Failure and disappointment are indeed core themes that Johnson wanted to include in this film, so why spare Holdo from that? (Her act of self-sacrifice could serve as a sort of redemption for her as well.) That way, the situation appears even more dire before Luke shows up to buy them some much needed time. As it stands, Holdo's positive portrayal seems very agenda driven to me, i.e., the wise purple-haired feminist who saves the day. Conversely, taking away some of her luster might serve to cast Poe in a better light--a character we actually care about.

I think this is a great fanedit overall. Nevertheless, I think keeping broomboy is problematic for a number of reasons. Why didn’t Rey (who is apparently the most powerful Jedi of all time without putting in any effort) realize she was force sensitive until she was an adult, yet broomboy just somehow happens to know? Like all the Canto Bight scenes in general, Broomboy just comes across as a little too...Disney.

Truthfully, I don’t think we’ll get the definitive TLJ edit until after Rise of Skywalker releases (poppasketti believes Broomboy may factor into TRoS, which is partly why he kept him in). Until then, this edit of TLJ is canon for me, so thanks to poppasketti. I know film/fan editing is arduous work.

First thing, I mostly dislike every aspect of the original film except the ship battle in the beginning and the final climax between Luke and Kylo. Said that it's really hard for me to give high ratings to this movie whatever how good the edit can be. Overall, it's a pretty solid edit.

If you enjoyed the theatrical version (still having some remarks), this is the best edit you could imagine. It vastly improves the original and the excised length (12 min) is wisely chosen. Some audio changes like Luke's throwing the lightsaber or BB8 antics are seamless executed. The 3 deleted scenes added clearly supports the narrative.

However, for my taste, a more ambitious cut list (Canto Bight, Poe's mutiny, Fin and Rose infiltration in Snoke's ship) should have been required to rise up my enjoyment. In that regard, I strongly recommend "The Fallen Knight" edit by Zuckerberg.

In conclusion, here the faneditor shows fine editing skills and makes SW:TLJ far more enjoyable than the theatrical cut. This edit is a must for SW fans!

We have to go back to the 17th of December, 2015 when a not even 20 year old boy sat in a theatre at midnight, crying through the entire title crawl of The Force Awakens 'cause he loves Star Wars since he was 6 years old but never thought he‘d see the premiere of a Star Wars Episode at the theatre. And boy oh boy, did this boy love that movie.

Two years went by and it was the 14th of December, 2017 - again at midnight. I was hyped like only a few times before in my life. And maybe that was the ultimate reason for the utter and bitter devastation that followed. How I hated that movie. How I hated everyone that defended it.

Fast forward again two years. After seeing The Rise of Skywalker I decided to give TLJ another go. It had been the only Star Wars movie I‘ve only ever watched once. I couldn‘t get myself to and I didn‘t want to watch the movie in it‘s original form again. So I‘ve searched for a fanedit and found „The Fallen Knight“ which doesn‘t change the movie from the ground up but removes most of the shenanigans that bothered me so much and left me with a version of the film I neither love or hate. Instead it left me like Luke at the end of his life: in peace.

I was beginning to wonder if there could be even more done with the source material. So next time around I went with DonKamillos "Definitive Anti-Cringe-Cut". The first and second act are perfect. Seemless editing and a narrative which made me really enjoy this film.

Because hidden under all the unanswered questions/unsatisfying answers (Who are the Knights of Ren?, Who is Snoke?, Who are Rey‘s parents?), all the dumb humour ('Yo Mamma' jokes, porgs and the mighty Luke sucking space milk from an alien tiddy), all the aimless storylines (Finn/Rose/Rey love triangle, Canto Bright, DJ, Captain Phasma) and all the other mischiefs (CARRIE f*cking POPPINS and Luke tossing away the lightsaber after THE most anticipated cliffhanger ever) lies an amazing movie after all!

Unfortunately the Definitive Anti-Cringe-Cut had some choices made for the last half hour which change the story in such a major way that it even effects the continuity of the next film so this can't be the replacement I'm looking for. It just wasn‘t for me.

So, The Fallen Knight made me not hate it anymore, the Anti-Cringe-Cut made me like it and Hal’s TLJ: Legendary made me love it. Perfect video and audio quality/editing (visually TLJ has always been an impressing film) and 100% improved storytelling by getting rid of all disctracting things (which there too many of to name them all).
Only things I didn't like that are still in the Legendary edit: the shot of Luke drinking milk, Carrie Poppins and Rose saving Finn.

Gladly TLJ: Rekindled by poppasketti builds up on that edit and fixes all of my remaining problems with the film. It totally holds up by video/audio quality/editing (really amazing work!) and has become my definitive go-to version ever since. It holds it‘s very well deserved place on my Blu-Ray shelf for fanedits.

Thank you so much for your really great and hard work!

If anyone is interested my shelf consists of:

Episode I: The Phantom Menace ‚Faster, More Intense‘ by octorox

Episode II: The Approaching Storm by Hal9000

Episode III: Labyrinth of Evil (Alternate Ending) by Hal9000 (still have to watch Revenge of the Sith 'Another Happy Sanding' by octorox)

Episode IV: Project 4k77 by TeamNegative1 and Despecialized v2.7 by Harmy

Episode V: Despecialized v2.0 by Harmy

Episode VI: Project 4k83 by Team Negative1 and Despecialized v2.5 by Harmy

Episode VII: The Force Awakens Restructured by Hal9000

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Rekindled by poppasketti

Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker Ascendant by Hal9000

Rogue One: Hal’s Rogue One edit (a half-assed version of DigMod’s) by Hal9000

Solo: The Coaxium Heist by DigModiFicaTion

First of all, I want to say that I have not watched many TLJ fan edits. However, I have watched this one, and the notorious Ivan Ortega Fan Fix. So this review is from two perspectives; compared to the Ortega edit, and the original film.

I watched the Rekindled earlier this week. Wow, I actually really enjoyed the movie. Albeit, the plot is still a low speed space chase, and no amount of editing could change that. This edit really did feel more like a Star Wars movie. I was way more engaged, not constantly being removed from the film from a terrible joke, or awkward scene. All in all, just so much better.

I had read some of the fixes prior to watching and loved what I read, but was concerned how a few scenes would play out.

saber toss- the change in music, while keeping the saber toss actually, surprisingly worked well. I was shocked how it gave the saber toss weight, it served as a visual cue to us viewers that Luke has changed his perspective on the Jedi, and keeping us in that moment. Instead of laughing at an antic, we are now in the same boat as Rey, saying, wait.... why did he throw his light saber, what is going on.

Leia Spacewalk - this worked well. In the notes it said inspired by Ivan Ortega version. However, I feel this version on rekindled, is much better than Ivan's.

Speaking of Ivan Ortega... lets just say that Mr. Ortega has not been very well received by the OriginalTrilogy.com community, and some of that may be justified. His edit just released, and I viewed it as soon as possible. While some of his ideas for story telling were good, honestly i would rate A/V quality, Visual & Audio Editing at 3/10. For me, there is no need to watch that edit, when something like Rekindled is available. However, he did add a lot of original material: Voice acting, and additional scenes, but since they are not PERFECT, they really stick out to me and took me out of the movie a bit too much.

Back to Poppasketti, dude, great job. This is definitely my definitive version of the film. Very hard to tell you are watching a fan edit (which is top priority for me) and it improved the original so much! Thank you!

When the Last Jedi came out it pretty much killed my love for Star Wars. Poppasketti's fanedit Rekindled did just that, it rekindled my love and passion for this franchise. Who knew changing a few things could do that? He made filet mignon out of cat food.

I absolutely loved how he handled the Finn and Rose side-quest and battle on Crait. What about Leia's space adventure? It never happened! The lightsabre toss is still there but it seemed more serious this time around due to a musical change.

As much as I enjoyed this, there were still a few changes I would like to see if a second version comes out.

1. Poe's line of not recongizing Holden. She's second in charge and has a reputation. How does he not know what she looks like? That would be like a soldier in the army not knowing who the Vice President was.

2. I would remove the entire Yoda scene. He destroys thousand years old texts and then makes a mockery of the entire belief system. It feels too much like a dig at Star Wars fans and religion.

3. In Luke and Leia's scene he tells her he can't save Ben. She says she knows her son is gone. Then he says no one is ever truly gone. Cut that line and go straight to him holding her hand. He contradicts himself.

4. At the end Leia says today the rebellion is reborn but Luke said the exact same thing like 2 minutes earlier. I would leave Luke's talk with Kylo but cut Leia's line.

5. The ghost dice really bother me. I would either have them not disappear or not be shown at all.

That's my wish list of changes but this version really is great. I highly recommend it and look forward to any future edits he makes of this or other movies.