War of the Stars: A New Hope Grindhoused

I got to hear Obi-Wan Kenobi call Mos Eisley a f---ing s---hole! I recommend this edit!

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.

This is what a fan edit should be. It's the polar opposite of Adywan's A New Hope. For everyone who has seen Star Wars WAY too much and want to see something very new with the film this is the edit for you. There was some stuff I thought was too cheesy but that was easily overpowered by the new stuff and great ideas. All of John Williams music has been taken out and replaced with lame 70's tunes which is surprisingly very awesome. Also the new effects that are added every time Vader uses the force is nothing short of brilliant. I can't wait to watch the next one.

the edit has some laugh out loud moments especially when luke discovers his auntie and unkle are dead, steering out into sunset their faces appear and with the accompanying music added makes it a great comedy moment. what i loved about that scene was that it played it straight and works better than the forced humour. r-2 is the star of the edit with his added subtitles it was a shame he didn't have more lines as there are alot of times he talks but with no titles. the bar scene alone is worth the download i thought it was a shame the scene turned black and white before we entered the bar. vaders new force powers also add to the edit along with the new music added, seeing han and chewey running to a 70′s music back drop brought another laugh out loud moment.

overall it’s a relief to see someone do a star wars fanedit different to the many that have been made before.

January 23, 2012 @ 9:36 pm

I was looking forward to watching this one since it had such great reviews. Unfortunately, it was a little bit of a letdown. There were parts that were brilliant and other parts that just weren’t.

Technical quality -10/10 –it’s supposed to be poor-ish video quality, so I can’t really comment on this section. All the downgrading of the video was done well though, so I’ll give it a 10.

Editing -9/10 – of course some of the editing was supposed to be sloppy. The added blood was pretty funny and some of the editing decisions were just amazing and pulled off very well. The music was too loud in a couple parts though.

Presentation – 10/10 – loved the menu and cover art.

Entertainment – 7/10 – let me start with what I liked. There were some parts that were just incredible – the cantina scene, the added music, Vader’s glowing red eyes, the deleted scenes, the Troops sequence (so amazing!), Owen and Beru on the twin suns, and best of all, the Death Star scene and ending with Jabba. These were the highlights, but there were other parts that weren’t so good. Half the time I just felt like I was watching the original, except with downgraded video quality. In order for this edit to really, really work, even more things would have to be changed to give it a completely different feel. Also, I didn’t really care for the R2-D2 subtitles.

Overall – 7/10