Review Detail

Bottom line: This is the best fanedit for The Phantom Menace I've seen. I've seen Phantom Editor's, Q2's, and l8wrtr’s. Octoroxx's is the smoothest, least "fanedit-y" edit available for this film, in my opinion. I started watching Hal9000's but was put off by the title change in the opening crawl.

More comments: As I've gotten older and married, and have a son with a second on the way, my enjoyment of the prequel trilogy has matured from childlike wonder, to sophomoric criticism, back to childlike wonder. Lucas wasn't trying to make Vertigo (another movie I love). He was making a prequel to his adventure story magnum opus. And it was, and is, for children (and, in my opinion, for their fathers). As well done as Octoroxx's edit is, it still cuts too much for me. Music sounds unavoidably chopped. Rearranged and heavily cut scenes sometimes appear abrupt or odd (throne room capture of the Viceroy). I now know that I may never see a fanedit I'll enjoy more than the retail DVD version of The Phantom Menace. And that's OK! If you want to try a fanedit of The Phantom Menace, this is the one. Well done Octoroxx. It was your relative editing conservatism that made this edit my favorite, even though I just like the original film too much.