Star Wars: Heir to the Force

Overall, a very strong edit of a film I wanted to love in the theater. I might have named it 'deAbrams cut' because the fluff, the comedy is gone. What remains is a tight narrative that strengthens the 'evil' portion of the story. The delayed Kylo reveal worked for me, your mileage may vary. Tempering some of his childish rage and evening out the fight with Rey also bold and favorable, IMO. As with most fanedits, some loss of context is unavoidable and for those with several watches under their belt. Nothing jarring, but some jumps leave you wondering what, if anything, was lost. Some VERY solid audio changes add a lot of great color and tone to what was previously quite flat. Definitely worth a watch

This is the first fanedit of Force Awakens I've seen and I got to tell you it's a very good one in almost every way.

To me the original Force Awakens was a really good movie but it had its flaws. After Rogue One was released these flaws stood out more as the movie had a "competitor" now, superior almost in every way (IMHO). DigModiFicaTion went far to fix most of the flaws.

Much of the silly humor is gone now. Unfortunately though some bits I actually liked were gone too like "You're cold". Many might disagree with me but I thought it was very funny, although not very Han Solo-ish (if you compare to original movies). Overall the editor did good job cutting the excessive humor.

Finn as a character is now much more likable. He's not that goofy any longer which is a major improvement. In the original version it seemed the actor/character was trying way too hard which bothered me. Poe is better as well, although the editor lowered his ace pilot status in one particular battle which I thought didn't work out that well. IMO he's supposed to be an ace, hero pilot and should get a heroic score (which is gone now as well) when blowing bad guys out of the sky.

Now, the biggest change is the portration of Kylo Ren. Very good job on this one! The original Kylo Ren wasn't badly portraited. To me he was just a different kind of a bad guy but DigModiFicaTion made him more mature and simply a better villain. The tantrum is gone and him removing the mask only in front of Han Solo simply works better.

R2D2 was handled ok. Not much to say about that.

I was afraid the ending wouldn't work as I loved the original island ending, but to my surprisement it worked out well. A very nice ending indeed. I might still like the original more but this was a very good ending as well. The hologram was a nice addition. Now the pirates and the monster... see, I have already forgotten their names because I always skip that part. I think the editor did some adjustments there which is nice but I personally would have find a way to cut the whole scene, it's just THAT bad.

Overall the editor has done first class job. I might disagree on some changes or cut out some extra dialogue or parts but this fanedit pleases me and I like this more than the original movie. The visual and audio editing was top notch work as well. I can only recommend this one to everyone!

(Sorry for a long review.)

Like other reviewers I watched this in the cinema and came away feeling somewhat betrayed. While nothing can ever make these films canonical, this cut has at least made this particular entry more watchable.

Not much could be done about the unremarkable characters, those cringy angled shots of boring Rey towering over a cowardly Fin. The safe narrative which echoes a New Hope is still there but less blatant . But this is a review of the edit, not the source material and until AI improves to the point we can more easily replace entire characters and render new scenes, this is close to as good as it will come for now.

I will reserve a perfect 10/10 score, not because this does not deserve it, but to leave room to see what Don Kamillo may pull off with a definitive Anti-Cringe cut. There is still some cringe I would like to see liberated. Perhaps AI could one day be trained to replace Rey with Nausicaä? This movie has now gone from mediocre Woke Wars to a semi-decent Star Wars FanFiction. The cut is worthy of praise.

It did everything it set out to do to a superb degree of polish and exceeded the original in every way. It is currently my definitive way of experiencing this first entry into the sequel trilogy. Expressing sincere thanks to DigModiFicaTion, may the force be with you!

To start with, my brief thoughts on the original TFA. I loved it! Say what you will about all the "member berries" and the copy paste script from Episode IV, all correct obviously, but I loved it. I'm talking about an enjoyment factor 9. So, for me to see a fanedit of this, it had to bring something special to the table, besides just trimming scenes. From what I saw, there where two takes on the narrative side of things. Moving the destruction of the planets to coincide with Han Solo's death (spoiler alert) and this, delaying Kylo's parentage and face reveal. Both had me really intrigued, but I went first with the planet thingy, mostly because I was carried away by the fans that preferred this over Kylo's take. So, I saw HAL's edit first, but I realized I did not like that version of storyline, even though it was flawlessly edited. I've also written a review for HAL's version, so you can check my reasoning there.

Now moving on to this version. Well, DigiModiFicaTion worked his magic once again! This is the 4th piece of work I'm watching from this editor, and I haven't only seen his Star Wars projects, so I knew I was in for, at least, excellent quality stuff. Indeed, on the audio visual editing side of things everything was almost perfect! I say almost, because the scene where Kylo interrogates Rey, is kind of weird, because all the scenes with his mask off are edited out. So I was feeling throughout the scene that something was tampered with. Not a huge deal and I'm guessing nothing else could be done, but it should be mentioned.

On the narrative side of things, oh boy, did this work for me!! Making the reveal of Kylo happening at the end, made so much sense! And it was also the way that it was done by the editor! You get the first piece of info when Kylo says at Vader's mask, "Grandfather", so you know he is either the son of Leia or Luke's. But since he is a wannabe sith, something that also leans towards that with other pieces of info later in the movie, you think it is definitely Luke's son. You get the definitive answer at the very end, with Han. Also removing the lashing out parts of Kylo made him truly more menacing and less "teenage-y". Generally, if someone had watched this as a first viewing of the TFA, it would have elevated the film. for that person, a lot!

Other trimmed scenes, throughout the movie, were also very welcome, with the exception of the following:
- At the beginning, cutting the line from Poe telling Finn "You need a pilot", was, I believe, a mistake. Not because the joke was good, that's an editor's preference, but exactly because it was meant to be a joke, the actor who plays Finn oversells the line "because it's the right thing to do". Now that the response from Poe is cut, it just seems as bad acting and not because Finn meant what he said. I was really suprised with this cut.
- Another cut that was unnecessary, was Poe recognising his jacket on Finn. I mean, it really is his jacket and he gives it to Finn, why was it so wrong, so it had to be cut?
- At the part where Kylo hears the bad news about the escape, the editor cutted the lashing out, with the lightsaber, part. That was great, but I felt the force chocking, could be left in. I mean, all the sith have done it numerous times, for less reasons than hearing bad news. So it wouldn't be out of place, with the general idea of the edit, if it was left in.
- My only "negative" comment with the overall Kylo's parentage idea here, is that in a very short time, Kylo senses and mentions Han Solo twice. I think it would have worked better, with the overall leading the audience towards Luke being the father, if Kylo mentions Han only when he enters the Millennium Falcon.
- Moving towards the end, I don't think removing the info about R2 shutting down since Luke's disappearance, works better. Because since we have no knowledge about R2 and we just see him at the end with the map, there no reason he wouldn't inform Leia and the others that he has the missing piece. Now he just looks like a jerk. Not that I agree with R2 shutting down, but since he has this crucial, small part in the movie, we can live with having a brief mention about his shutting down shenanigan.
- Lastly, I really don't understand why there should be no Luke scene at the end. I mean, it is a great cliffhanger, even now. Would you remove the cliffhanger from Empire Strikes Back, just because you know how that went in the sequel?

Be that as it may, the Kylo parentage and face reaveal thing, still outweighs the negatives I mentioned and I can safely say that this will be my go-to version of the film. I just wish there where subtitles, but I understand how tedious and long work that would be.

So, I definitely recommend this to anyone, even if you liked the original a lot. It will be your go-to version and you will wonder why on earth this wasn't done in the original!

Thank you DigiModiFicaTion, thanks to anyone who read my review and may the force be with you!

The suspense of the identity of Kylo Ren was a great idea and it was beautiful edited
removing most of the humor was in my opinion a great choice
I really like this edit its defiantly better then the original
I highly recommend watching this version