Star Wars: The Last Skywalker Awakens

I come at this from the angle of somebody who enjoys The Force Awakens a lot, thinks The Las Jedi is one of the best films in the whole series, and found Rise of Skywalker very disappointing, with some interesting elements. Overall, the trilogy feels very separate from each other, each movie having it's own vibe and story that doesn't necessarily gel with what came before or what comes after. This isn't meant entirely as a negative, as I believe a lot of interesting things come up in each film, but overall they don't work in harmony with each other the way you would expect a trilogy to.

What bbghost has done here is take all of the elements from this disjointed trilogy that work alongside each other, remove what didn't, then amplify what is kept to work in concert with each other. It's definitely a more coherent way to digest the main story of the sequel trilogy.

Overall, the cuts are clean, audio is solid (only 2.0 stereo though. I don't take a point off for that, but it's worth mentioning). there's a few spots where I felt things were maybe moving a little too fast due to what was cut, but that's hard to help, especially in the Rise of Skywalker section. Video quality is excellent across the board.

Generally, this is a great way to watch it, especially if you aren't a huge fan of some of the diversions in The Last Jedi. As a fan of that movie, I miss what was cut, but I would still highly recommend this edit.

Bbghost takes on the monumental task of melding three very distinct, very flawed films. The result is something surprisingly special. By stripping down the ST to just a story about two individuals and their ying-yang relationship, bbghost is able to present a character driven epilogue to the OT.

I'm someone who emotionally connected with some of the more mythic character arcs of the ST, conceptually. Ben is someone who feels shackled by his identity. Rey is someone who is in search of identity. Unfortunately, this dual narrative was complicated by haphazard plotting and fan service (especially in the third film). The biggest problem in this edit is still that third film. That strong character focus is still jarringly swept aside in favor of a out there plot. Bbghost does do a great job in making that transition feel less jarring here though. The focus is on the characters. Overall, probably my favorite way to view three movies that I'm very conflicted about.

I come at these 3 movies in a slightly split manner. I enjoyed all 3 more on first viewing more than the subsequent fermentation latterly allowed as the issues with each grew in my mind and the lack of a clear objective binding the three became clear...(then again, I'm not certain LUCAS imagined using the death Twice himself either).

I especially loved the chaos that The Last Jedi drew into the journey, so having that unwound and then the retrofit of SKYWALKER, never sat well. So how does this two part epic fair?

bbghost has managed to eliminate many (but not all) of the conundrms, dead ends and spurious elements into what is unquestionably a far more enjoyable re-telling of the final trilogy....technically there is little to fault here (and as noted no deductions for Stereo only).

There are some very well executed and ambitious elements to this work, and putting aside any personal taste issues as a previewer, I found myself checking the originals over and over to remind myself of what had been altered or eliminated.

Inevitably, there remains a episodic feel to the overall narrative, and in fact it may ot really be possible to tie these together without putting it all in a blender....however, I certainly will not be watching the theatricals again, and this will be my go to version (for now).

Visual quality and editing is superb throughout, and despite a few tell-tale hints at edits in places (not enough to distract or mark down) none of i got in the way of enjoyment (scored a 9 whereas theatrical would have been an 8....or 7.5 for ep 9). I can't in all fairness knock down narrative since bbghost is actually improving that mess...hence 9 rather than 8 for theatricals.

Definite improvement and Highly recommended indeed.

Great Edit!
The sequels are a mess if you really think about them and are not made to watch all three in one or two sittings right after each other. But this edit made it possible and the story more cohesive. The main characters Rey, Poe, Finn and Kylo get their best sides shown. I even Like Finn now after seeing this edit! The bond between them all got me more invested in their journey together. And I was even smiling during some jokes that are left in there.

The hints of Palpatine in this edit is a little too subtle I think. You get it in visions before TROS which is nice, but I expected a little more to really bind all the movies together. Of course still better than the original which had no hints of palpatine!

The edit is divided in two parts, That made the TLJ part feel really slow because after the end of VII there is 1h of runtime. Sorry but I had to take a break when it felt right. The breaks might have happened when the originals ended. Still worked though!

This edit is FAST, EMOTIONAL and EPIC. My go to edit for sure!
flawless editing and cohesive story!
The quality is great! But I only give 9s or 10s to 4k and/or surround sound these days.

About three-fourths of the way through my watch, I realized what I really wanted to see was 'The Last Jedi Awakens', as the first two films worked a heck of a lot better together than Rise of Skywalker did. I *loved* the edits done to The First Awakens and The Last Jedi segments, but nothing changed my mind: there's no getting around the avalanche of head-scratcher 'story-telling' decisions made in ROS, no matter the thoughtfulness of the excisions made by the platoon of fan-editors behind it. Nevertheless, this two-parter works pretty well considering the limitations of what it had to do.

Consider my 'Enjoyment' score a 8/10 for the TFA and TLJ combination, but a -1 for ROS.

But regarding what I loved, just to mention a few: the removal of the superweapon subplot, the addition of the Han Solo dice scene, the Luke Skywalker Han Solo grief scene, the removal of the useless Canto Bight sequence, and the removal of the wheel-spinning Poe Dameron/Admiral Holdo subplot. Distractions/redundancies removed, it was easier to see more of the vibe the original filmmakers were going for.

The video and audio editing really helps bring out the beauty of the films. Whatever flaws the ST has, at least the films always look good and sound good. Not much that can be done to smooth the transition between TLJ and ROS, but the attempt here is inspired.

If you enjoyed Rise of Skywalker and the first two films as well, you'll really like this edit.