Star Wars: Heir to the Force

It's been awhile since I watched this so I can't give a lot of details, but I wanted to go back and give it the high rating it deserves. When I watched The Force Awakens the first or maybe second time, it occurred to me that it would've been more impactful for Kylo to remove his helmet with Han. I was hoping a fan edit would deliver on this and lo and behold it happened. The hologram Snoke is also well done.

For the hologram Snoke and the delayed Kylo reveal alone, Digmod gets high marks for this edit. Both of these elements make TFA/HTTF feel much more of-a-piece with the overall saga (I genuinely thought Snoke was a giant on first viewing!). There's plenty of poorly written plot elements that are unfixable, but in terms of visuals and core narrative, this is a huge leap forward.

In terms of structure, I still prefer Hal9000's cut in terms of moving the destruction of the Republic to the climax of the film, casting the entire film in a more doomed, darker light that sets up the sublime nightmare that is The Last Jedi. However, Digmod's cuts/tweaks are simultaneously more subtle and more profound in terms of the overall film. In my perfect world, a hybrid could be made between these two versions, but until then I'm happy to keep both on my shelf and flip a coin as to which one I'll pop in during a rewatch.

HUGE Star Wars fan here. After seeing TFA in theaters I was not overly impressed, but didn't hate it either. A very safe and simple story, but I thought it was a decent launching pad for the rest of the trilogy. After 8 & 9 I grew to despise 7 as much as those two since I didn't feel any payoff as the trilogy went on.

I have watched a few other fan edits of 7 looking for something I can stomach, and this is it. Pairing this film edit with the DonKamillo Anti-Cringe movies to follow actually makes this movie a good watch.

A/V Quality: Perfect to my eyes, didn't notice anything there which gives that area a 10.

Visual Editing: I didn't see anything jarring here either. This is an easy 10, especially due to the Kylo helmet fixes which added a LOT to this movie.

Audio Editing: This would be an area I'd knock down, but only by a little by giving it 9. I think the added Kylo helmet scenes were slightly noticeably different than the original voice effect. I praise the effort and the idea and still am very glad it was included, but in a future version I'd try to refine the effects on Kylo's voice in those few scenes. Aside from that, maybe a few uncomfortable audio spikes but I honestly couldn't say whether or not the original film was like that as well.

Narrative: Vastly improved over the original narrative. Trimming the Rathtar scene works incredibly well, and overall cutting a few of the more cringe-y lines helps the tone overall. The main improvement is definitely the way Kylo was handled though. No longer a petulant child, he is now a menacing figure up until the very end when you see him crack. Kylo was actually pretty terrifying and this edit has a darker tone which helps its narrative a lot. I'd give the narrative a 9 as I have seen edits of moving around the Hosnian Prime destruction to later in the film which I think really works, but the soundtrack additions in this edit do help that scene over the original as well.

Enjoyment: Whereas I would've originally gave TFA a 7/10 in the theater version (before seeing 8 & 9), I would give HttF an 8/10, which earns a 9/10 performance for this edit.

TLDR;
Near perfect and my go-to version of this movie now. Vastly improved over the original, especially in terms of the Kylo story and removing some of the insufferable lines. Could use a little touchup on audio in a few places and perhaps even go farther with the narrative overhaul. Easily the best TFA edit I have ever seen.

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!

This was already a great movie but changing elements really helps take the "this is a Star Wars movie" schtick out of the equation, well done!