Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: Rekindled

The pendulum has swung when it comes to TLJ for me. I have liked it, hated it, respected it, and now I love it, every second of it.

For a while this was my go-to, but now whenever I watch it there are things I miss. For example, poppasketti took out the Canto Bight segment which, while a very sound decision tonally and in terms of pacing, I think it compromises the movie a bit, thematically, and it's not a leap I'm willing to make. I love the prequels so I don't really mind the tonal shift - I think the camp is most welcome. But there's obviously a lot of good in the edit.

The change to Finn's suicide run is most welcome, as is the trimmed SNL phone call at the beginning of the movie, and many other little cuts throughout, It's still a superb edit and technically impeccable, I might even make a hybrid between this and the theatrical. But at this point in my life I love the movie too much and think this edit unfortunately takes too much away. I would, however, still recommend this to anyone that isn't completely happy with the original movie,

I usually watch fanedits of movies when I think the movie had something interesting in it, but it had too many flaws. TLJ was a prime candidate for me. I'm in the minority who actually liked this movie. It's got new stuff, new ideas, it expands on the previous movies while examines and even subverts a lot of SW ideas in good ways. Still, it had a lot of flaws for me. And I'm not talking about the usual SW fan gripes; it's the silly humour or Johnson's compulsion to subvert expectations.
I wish I could watch the other fanedits to compare them, but for now this is enough and I can say poppasketti made an excellent job. Again, I already like the uncut version, but poppasketti made it even better, and I'd recommend this version for a first viewer. The best reason for this is that I cannot even tell what's been cut or changed except for 5 prominent (and good) examples. Every other change is therefore seamlessly made and are good choices.
The length is more bareable this way, with cutting the blighted (haha) Canto Bight plot. It feels a little abrupt how quickly they leave the planet, and maybe there were a few dialogues there that were thematically relevant, but overall I'm glad it's shortened. Finn's and Phasma's confrontation is also cut, after which our heroes' escape is again abrupt, but it's good for the pacing (also, remember that the ship has just been torn in half, so there's supposed to be a sense of urgency).
The other two examples are massive upgrades: Luke's saber toss is almost dramatic with this music choice (Ryan, must you subvert everything?), and I was surprised how seamlessly Finn's sacrifice was changed - now it actually works and we don't have to suffer Rose's bullshit explanation.
And a bonus: I knew from the description that Kylo's hinting was cut, but I was still surprised to see how effective it was.
Most of the silly jokes are also cut, although the ones still in there are difficult to cut (like when Rey mistakes a blade of grass with the Force). Still, I like how this editor "retained the lighthearted spirit."
Johnson has a few other choices that I don't agree with, but those can't be fixed by faneditors. Overall, I really like Rekindled as it improves TLJ greatly.

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!

Pros:
- Added deleted scenes do the movie good.
- No Leia Poppins!
- Great fight scenes are as good as ever.
- Canto Bight is cut short. No "horses". No kids. Just in and out.

Cons:
- Some altered/cut scenes don't work quite as well as the editor would have wanted.
- The Canto Bight "side plot" is still a part of this movie.
- Luke is left as in the original TLJ. A coward. Regressing from his ROTJ self.
- Holdo... Rose... the new characters altogether. Ugh!

Conclusion:
Without taking anything away from the editor, The Last Jedi is a bad Star Wars movie. It almost can't be saved, or at minimum, be made better. This editor did really good. He made TLJ viewable. That doesn't mean it's a major improvement, but it's a start. The movie still plays out like the original does. The First Order finds The Resistance, chases them across the galaxy to a remote planet and wipes all of them out but one ship. The casino is still a part of this movie, no matter how much I dislike it. Luke still acts like a coward, Snoke is still a let down, and last but not least, this movie ruined my faith in Disney's Star Wars. In my eyes, this movie is about as good/slightly better than Episode 1... but unlike episode 1, a fan edit seemingly can't save it for me. If anything, I think "The Fallen Knight" might be the best version of this movie. Even if that version cuts it down like Anakin did those younglings. Unless Rise of Skywalker makes the side plot from this movie pay off, there is no reason to ever see it again. All you would need is Rey's story. And the mentioned TFK version provides just that. The choice is yours!

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.