Review Detail

Enjoyment - I think my biggest problem with this edit is that it feels like a job half done. It has the potential to be great, but it stops just short of that. The opening presents us with something that implies we are in for a real treat, something that is radically different to the original movie: we have a very retro opening crawl, deleted scenes of Luke with his friends, witty subtitles for R2-D2 and excessive gore as rebels and storm troopers get shot (which I loved!). Unfortunately, as the film goes on, R2-D2 subtitles become less frequent, the changes become less inspired and the blood/gore we were previously exposed to is pretty much non-existent (bar the odd effect here and there). Things do pick up again in the last act though, and TMBTM introduces a fun and unexpected twist which I won't spoil for those who haven't watched it. But in essence, it basically felt like I was watching a slightly trimmed version of A New Hope, book-ended with a genius opening and climax. Love the beginning, love the ending, but the middle felt a bit dry.

Audio/video quality - Ironically, I'm marking this down one point because of a scene that looked good - and by that I mean bad. This is a grindhouse edit, and so the entire film is meant to be laden with poor audio/visual quality and awkward cuts. However, despite most of the film being consistently grainy and crackly, the reunion between Biggs and Luke at the Rebel base looks completely fine. Well, not good as such, but certainly not grindhouse. It's the only scene in the entire edit that isn't covered in film grain and it just stands out in a really weird way.

Visual editing – one point off for the above reason.

Audio editing – generally excellent, except for the noticeable changes in Darth Vader's voice. I didn't think that all of the altered dialogue really worked, but I imagine this is a hard thing to make fit.

Narrative - was fine. Nothing confusing. The twist possibly could have been executed a bit better, but this is a minor qualm. At the end of the day, the only people watching this will be people who know Star Wars. The aim was to create an alternative experience, and for the most part that is what this is.

Overall, a fun edit and well worth a watch despite its flaws. The highlights for me were the subtitles on R2-D2 and the excessive gore, so it was a shame these were inconsistent. The Neil Young Cantina scene was genius. The "address me as Lord Vader" moment followed by Tarkin doing doing so was brilliant. I also cracked up after Obi-Wan dropped the f-bomb when talking about Mos-Eisley.

Anyway, good work, TMBTM. I'd love for you to consider revisiting this and turning things up to 11, but in the meantime I look forward to watching The War of The Stars II.