Review Detail
9.9 39 10
Overall rating
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Just the other day, I was saying to my stepson how I enjoyed Adywan's first effort, but I felt somewhat wistful about the fact that the task of completing the other films has been such a grand effort that he'll probably never be able to finish any more of them.
I could not be more happy to be wrong! After 9 years, Adywan's latest is upon us, and it does not disappoint.
In my review of the original, I noted that the changes were so small that I couldn't even notice them until I actually looked at his edit list and was blown away at the amount of effort put into it. Once again, that statement holds true. I just felt like I was watching "The Empire Strikes Back" with no changes, even though he's painstakingly restored this film, even reshooting certain elements himself in a few cases to make sure that viewers have the best possible experience.
Last time, Adywan somewhat controversially snuck in a couple of prequel elements to better tie the film series together as a whole (specifically, adding a battle droid on the Jawas' ship, and adding the "Anakin vs Obi-Wan" music for the Vader/Ben duel). Those were probably my favorite moments in that edit, but he got a lot of controversy for doing that, and later had to release a "Purist" edition. This time, Adywan has avoided any prequel elements altogether; even though I miss those little touches, he went for probably the wisest route -- a choice that may make this edit even more beloved than his last one.
I was glad to see that Ian McDiarmid's Emperor is still in place -- a change put in with Lucas' own Special Editions -- but that his looks were somehow made to resemble his appearance more from "Return of the Jedi" than "Revenge of the Sith," and that the scene was recut to match the original script instead of the Special Edition changes. (In the SE script, the Emperor reveals to Vader for the first time that his son is alive, and Vader is astonished -- even though he's already been openly and vocally pursuing "young Skywalker" for half the film up to that point! Now the conversation makes sense again.)
A few commenters have noted that Yoda has some different expressions in some scenes, but I honestly didn't even notice.
Thanks to Adywan and his team for delivering such a great gift to the Star Wars and fan editing community!
I could not be more happy to be wrong! After 9 years, Adywan's latest is upon us, and it does not disappoint.
In my review of the original, I noted that the changes were so small that I couldn't even notice them until I actually looked at his edit list and was blown away at the amount of effort put into it. Once again, that statement holds true. I just felt like I was watching "The Empire Strikes Back" with no changes, even though he's painstakingly restored this film, even reshooting certain elements himself in a few cases to make sure that viewers have the best possible experience.
Last time, Adywan somewhat controversially snuck in a couple of prequel elements to better tie the film series together as a whole (specifically, adding a battle droid on the Jawas' ship, and adding the "Anakin vs Obi-Wan" music for the Vader/Ben duel). Those were probably my favorite moments in that edit, but he got a lot of controversy for doing that, and later had to release a "Purist" edition. This time, Adywan has avoided any prequel elements altogether; even though I miss those little touches, he went for probably the wisest route -- a choice that may make this edit even more beloved than his last one.
I was glad to see that Ian McDiarmid's Emperor is still in place -- a change put in with Lucas' own Special Editions -- but that his looks were somehow made to resemble his appearance more from "Return of the Jedi" than "Revenge of the Sith," and that the scene was recut to match the original script instead of the Special Edition changes. (In the SE script, the Emperor reveals to Vader for the first time that his son is alive, and Vader is astonished -- even though he's already been openly and vocally pursuing "young Skywalker" for half the film up to that point! Now the conversation makes sense again.)
A few commenters have noted that Yoda has some different expressions in some scenes, but I honestly didn't even notice.
Thanks to Adywan and his team for delivering such a great gift to the Star Wars and fan editing community!
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
T