Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: Rekindled

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

I really enjoyed this edit. I've been apathetic towards TLJ over the years. There have been things I liked and things that I didn't about this movie. I really enjoyed the effort that this edit makes to foreshadow Rey's heritage and makes hints of Palpatine returning in TROS, which felt so out of left field when it happened originally. I also totally agree with the decision to remove Leia Poppins.

I never hated The Last Jedi, like a lot of people did, but it did have it 's flaws. Leia's space walk and Canto Bight were the biggest issues to me, along with some smaller things. This edit does a great job of cleaning a lot of that up. It is flawless! Fantastic work! This is now my go-to version.

This is really as perfect as fan editing gets. Superb job here from HAL, poppasketti, and the contributors on OT. I already liked The Last Jedi, and this edit improves the film so much more. From the removal of Leia Poppins to the VFX work to the sand speeder scene, the Phasma scene, and the added shuttle scene, this is a definitive cut. Every artistic choice of poppasketti is made through the eyes of a talented film editor and works well. Note: this review is of the non-Palpatine version.

Oh my god, I could not believe this was possible, but poppasketti's Rekindled edit made me love this movie. It was really hard to watch it in the cinema and I tried watching it again in the form of the other edits. I don't want to take anything away from the hard work of other editors on this movie, I respect their passion and their work but only this one was able to repair the movie for me. This was the only edit I could watch through and actually care about. I don't know what was exactly the reason for it, but that's the whole magic, isn't it? :)
As close as this movie is to truly be a stinker, as fragile any edit is on still revealing the potential stink behind it, only this edit was able to make me forget it, it lays like a force hologram over the original version, making it finally appear worthy of being star wars!