Star Wars: Shadows of the Old Republic

Review by xGrind — March 18, 2010 @ 12:58 pm

Fast forwarding through Star Wars.

I am not a huge fan of the prequels, but I also do not have a big problem with them. It is just that I hardly ever watch them. I have not watched version 1 of this fanedit, but it seemed to be such a daring and interesting approach that I gave it a try (thanks to the AVI for the small file size).
Thing is, while not done badly it never managed to build up an atmosphere. Best example is the Darth Maul fight that I remember to be the best part of Phantom Menace. Interrupted by other scenes and without proper introduction to build up the tension it was totally flat. In fact: everything was meaningless and flat.
I don’t know if too much was cut, or if it was just not compressed correctly, because I am not an editor, but as it is I found it a rushed new version of Star Wars that totally fails to generate an atmosphere. Characters are no properly introduced, plots have no beginning. It is all as if watching a few scenes from here and there. Confusing and as that boring.
Still the cut is very daring and I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to put it together like this. Makes me feel sorry for the editor to be the first one to comment, but when I just did a scan through Jason’s previous works it seems he is used to these responses.

Tech: I had huge problems with the audio, to be more specific: the score. While there are no abrupt cuts, the music changes drastically between scenes, which just adds to the fast-forwarding atmosphere that I mentioned before. Again I am not an expert – and it is probably a truly tough thing to do, but other fanedits I have watched (by TMBTM or CBB for example) did never have these issues.

My advise to others: don’t bother.