Review Detail
9.3 44 10
(Updated: September 01, 2012)
Enjoyment
8.0
I came to this edit with some serious reservations I can’t lie about that. Out of all of the Star Wars prequel trilogy this film is in my opinion by far the worst. The story is cluttered and convoluted, the acting is stiff and often painful, the action is often plodding and tedious, the writing horrendous, and worst of all transgressions the movie is just plain overlong and boring. And of course the godawful goofy humor of The Phantom Menace is magnified here and prevalent through out. What’s happening in this movie is massively important to the story as a whole, yet everything feels like filler and padding and by about the one and a half hour mark with just under an hour to go the film begins, in my opinion, to become a serious chore to get through. So needless to say polishing this turd, with some admittedly interesting ideas going on beneath all the problems, would be a hard task for any editor…And one I think L8wrtr proved he was up to with this edit.
Before I get into anything about the film itself I’ll talk just briefly about the video and audio quality. It’s in my opinion about as good as it gets. I noticed no discernible difference between the quality of this edit and my standard DVD of the original film. The picture was crisp and flowed smoothly, and I noticed no audio problems at all. There may be some minor details and flaws that I missed while watching, I’m the first to admit that the technical aspects are not something I’m always the most observant of, but to my eye and ear everything was in place.
Now the film itself. What L8′s done here is nothing short of spectacular in my opinion. Others have mentioned it so I’m not breaking any new ground when I say that it’s truly mind blowing that one can remove so much of this movie and still have a well paced, coherent narrative. The amazement is only increased when one realizes just how much more coherent and well told the narrative actually is without all the excised material. The story as told now is fast paced, interesting, exciting, and best of all fun to watch unfold, with some clever and subtle additions sprinkled in – most specifically in regards to the Kenobi/Kamino plotline – to ensure that things make sense. A big improvement on that ground alone.
But it’s the character work that really shines here for me. I finally like the characters, and believe the journey they take in this movie. Anakin in the original film is whiny, arrogant, and very very annoying. Worst of all his leering and undisguised lust over Padme is creepy at best. That’s not helped by Padme’s inexplicable refusal of her feelings, constantly leading Anakin on only to pull back at the last minute…I am not sure why Lucas felt it was necessary to make their romance so chaste in this film. Perhaps he felt he needed to hit audiences on the head with the “forbidden” nature of it all. The result simply made the romance entirely unbelievable. Instead L8 gives us a blossoming romance that grows, for both parties, as the film goes on lending weight and credibility to the whole thing that wasn’t there before and thus providing a much more satisfactory experience. Now and then it doesn’t work as well as I would have liked, unfortunately, especially the moment on Naboo with the two of them in Padme’s chambers. It’s there because it has to be but with the cuts made it’s now so brief that it becomes jarring. An obvious edit, unfortunately, instead of a seamless one. But given how well the rest of it now works I’m willing to overlook that minor flaw.
AS for Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi, I was glad to see their constant bickering and sniping at each other gone. It’s subtly done and goes very far in letting me like the characters, as they now seem to like each other.
The numerous positives of this edit I could go on all day about, but that’s not helpful, that’s just slobbering all over a film. Praise without criticism is not constructive and with that in mind I want to focus on some of the negatives now. Unfortunately this movie is still this movie. No matter how much you fix it it still has it’s problems that can’t be solved. The work done on the factory sequence, and those who have seen the movie will know what I’m talking about, is nothing short of fantastic…but in the end the sequence is still inherently stupid and there’s no getting around that. And personally I thought the continuity problem of Anakin suddenly being without lightsaber without explanation was a little jarring in that it called attention to the editing. I was suddenly painfully aware that there were things missing. I will admit though this may be the best you could ever do with the sequence, as it really can’t be removed, and I commend that.
One of my biggest problems is the transitional sequence from the lightsaber duel with Dooku to Padme on the ground being roused by the soldier. That is an absolutely atrocious sequence, and in my opinion should have just been outright removed. I tested it today and it is possible. Yes Padme seems to appear later out of nowhere when her ship reaches the hanger as Dooku is making his escape, but I personally would have preferred that minor hiccup to the massive hiccup that is that scene.
Another moment, just as personal preference, that I would have liked to see removed was the Jango/Kenobi dogfight in the asteroid field. I’ve always hated it. Here it’s much quicker and done in a jiffy, without Bobba’s obnoxious “Get him dad! Get him! FIIIIRE!” nonsense and that made it much more enjoyable to a certain extent. But for my money action should always be in service of the story, and there was no reason for that dogfight to exist other than to have a cool F/X sequence, and for that reason I would have liked to have seen it excised entirely.
In conclusion, this edit is not without some minor flaws but is nonetheless an incredibly enjoyable version of the film, well paced, and smart and subtle with it’s editing. Clearly L8wrtr understands the importance of pace and narrative very well, and his edits highlight that fact to great effect. He has taken a film which is in it’s original form an exercise in excess and tedium and makes it a fast and tightly edited adventure without any pretensions about what exactly it is. Kudos to L8wrtr for the obvious work he put into this, as it’s now most definitely my default version of the film easily replacing the original and becoming my personal official edition.
8 out of 10 stars.
Before I get into anything about the film itself I’ll talk just briefly about the video and audio quality. It’s in my opinion about as good as it gets. I noticed no discernible difference between the quality of this edit and my standard DVD of the original film. The picture was crisp and flowed smoothly, and I noticed no audio problems at all. There may be some minor details and flaws that I missed while watching, I’m the first to admit that the technical aspects are not something I’m always the most observant of, but to my eye and ear everything was in place.
Now the film itself. What L8′s done here is nothing short of spectacular in my opinion. Others have mentioned it so I’m not breaking any new ground when I say that it’s truly mind blowing that one can remove so much of this movie and still have a well paced, coherent narrative. The amazement is only increased when one realizes just how much more coherent and well told the narrative actually is without all the excised material. The story as told now is fast paced, interesting, exciting, and best of all fun to watch unfold, with some clever and subtle additions sprinkled in – most specifically in regards to the Kenobi/Kamino plotline – to ensure that things make sense. A big improvement on that ground alone.
But it’s the character work that really shines here for me. I finally like the characters, and believe the journey they take in this movie. Anakin in the original film is whiny, arrogant, and very very annoying. Worst of all his leering and undisguised lust over Padme is creepy at best. That’s not helped by Padme’s inexplicable refusal of her feelings, constantly leading Anakin on only to pull back at the last minute…I am not sure why Lucas felt it was necessary to make their romance so chaste in this film. Perhaps he felt he needed to hit audiences on the head with the “forbidden” nature of it all. The result simply made the romance entirely unbelievable. Instead L8 gives us a blossoming romance that grows, for both parties, as the film goes on lending weight and credibility to the whole thing that wasn’t there before and thus providing a much more satisfactory experience. Now and then it doesn’t work as well as I would have liked, unfortunately, especially the moment on Naboo with the two of them in Padme’s chambers. It’s there because it has to be but with the cuts made it’s now so brief that it becomes jarring. An obvious edit, unfortunately, instead of a seamless one. But given how well the rest of it now works I’m willing to overlook that minor flaw.
AS for Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi, I was glad to see their constant bickering and sniping at each other gone. It’s subtly done and goes very far in letting me like the characters, as they now seem to like each other.
The numerous positives of this edit I could go on all day about, but that’s not helpful, that’s just slobbering all over a film. Praise without criticism is not constructive and with that in mind I want to focus on some of the negatives now. Unfortunately this movie is still this movie. No matter how much you fix it it still has it’s problems that can’t be solved. The work done on the factory sequence, and those who have seen the movie will know what I’m talking about, is nothing short of fantastic…but in the end the sequence is still inherently stupid and there’s no getting around that. And personally I thought the continuity problem of Anakin suddenly being without lightsaber without explanation was a little jarring in that it called attention to the editing. I was suddenly painfully aware that there were things missing. I will admit though this may be the best you could ever do with the sequence, as it really can’t be removed, and I commend that.
One of my biggest problems is the transitional sequence from the lightsaber duel with Dooku to Padme on the ground being roused by the soldier. That is an absolutely atrocious sequence, and in my opinion should have just been outright removed. I tested it today and it is possible. Yes Padme seems to appear later out of nowhere when her ship reaches the hanger as Dooku is making his escape, but I personally would have preferred that minor hiccup to the massive hiccup that is that scene.
Another moment, just as personal preference, that I would have liked to see removed was the Jango/Kenobi dogfight in the asteroid field. I’ve always hated it. Here it’s much quicker and done in a jiffy, without Bobba’s obnoxious “Get him dad! Get him! FIIIIRE!” nonsense and that made it much more enjoyable to a certain extent. But for my money action should always be in service of the story, and there was no reason for that dogfight to exist other than to have a cool F/X sequence, and for that reason I would have liked to have seen it excised entirely.
In conclusion, this edit is not without some minor flaws but is nonetheless an incredibly enjoyable version of the film, well paced, and smart and subtle with it’s editing. Clearly L8wrtr understands the importance of pace and narrative very well, and his edits highlight that fact to great effect. He has taken a film which is in it’s original form an exercise in excess and tedium and makes it a fast and tightly edited adventure without any pretensions about what exactly it is. Kudos to L8wrtr for the obvious work he put into this, as it’s now most definitely my default version of the film easily replacing the original and becoming my personal official edition.
8 out of 10 stars.
W