Star Wars - Episode II: The Republic Divided

I never liked the Star wars prequels, because they are too crowded with scenes and dialogue and story that it all seems dense and rushed. The original trilogy succeeded because it had a focused story of the rebellion to tell with a limited number of protagonists.

That allowed these movies to breath and its characters to develop roots and the magic could materialise. We followed a young Skywalker to the stars and becoming a Jedi.

Lucas tried something similar with Anakin but it didn’t really pay off because the focus was lost with the myriad of things happening and because he started with a child, having to change the actor for the next installments.

With your fanedits you obviously tried to bring some focus to the new trilogy by trimming all the unnecessary dialogue, characters and scenes and to try to make it an Anakin-story.

In this you greatly succeeded, although Star wars I was a bit too short and rushed in your edit, it still was superior. As an edit star wars II is imho even better, although the underlining movie was worse.

You improved the love-story, and that’s really what the second part is about.

I would have cut the fire-scene as well as it makes it look like they would have intercourse which would not fit well with later scenes.

Some criticize the dialogue before the arena, that Padme’s love-confession feels cheesy. I disagree and think that dialogue was important and fitting as Padme thought that they would die in that arena and wanted to make sure that Anakin knows that she loves him.

In the arena I felt the fight against these monsters was too short and inconclusive in your edit, Anakin gets that animal to ride on and the others jump on and that’s it.

With the exception of that everything else seemed spot-on, even your decision to minimise the slaughter of these sand-people by removing certain scenes like Yoda’s vision. That way Anakin’s tilt towards the dark side is not yet conclusive, although it removed a memorable acting-moment.

The movie was the weakest of the new three and so no fanedit can save this movie fully but your attempt probably did the best possible.

Original movie: 6/10 Your edit turns it into a 7.5/10. The edit itself gets a 8.5/10.

Thank you very much for your edit.

As I had expected, I enjoyed L8′s version of Attack of the Clones much more that his take on the Phantom Menace. Where I felt the later, while improved greatly, moved along too quickly; this one felt natural and most importantly, and where L8 succeeded beyond my expectations, was to make me believe in the love story between Anakin and Padme.

Episode 2 for me is even more unbearable to watch than episode 1. The bad parts just make me want to stop the movie or skip the chapter where in episode 1 I’ll simply cringe and wait for the next scene. Some of the material in Episode 2 is so stupid and nonsensical that overall I’m tempted to say it’s the worse movie of the saga.

Thankfully, L8 had more to work with here than in Phantom Menace. Some of his editing choices were extremely bold but work extremely well. Whereas in Phantom Menace he basically trimmed the fat and the stupidity to create a leaner, meaner experience, here he was able to do that as well but also to play with the structure of the movie.

Where he most improved scenes that I previously found painful to watch, like the Zam chase scene, the droid factory and the arena battle; he did so in such a natural way that they now flow as if the movie had originally been edited that way. There is no feeling whatsoever that you are watching a fanedit. Gone is excessively long battles and CGI sequences, completely gone is 3P0 from the arena, gone is flying R2. He has actually managed the feat of turning some of these sequences that I hated most into some of my favorite parts of Attack of the Clones (his handling of the droid factory sequence is nothing short of brilliant). But most importantly and as I have stated, he managed to sell me the love story and considering it’s the movie’s heart, he has turned this movie around as my go to version.

Overall, I was surprised beyond my expectations at what L8 managed to achieve with the Republic Divided. I can’t wait to see his take on Episode 3.

Original rating for Attack of the Clones: 5/10
The Republic Divided rating: 8/10

I just watched the Single Layer cut of this edit, the Duel Layer is currently downloading. I’m on a bit of a mission at the moment to find a good Episode II, or at least enough good edits that I can Frankenstein my own definitive edit together. As a result, this is the 4th time I’ve watched Attack of the Clones (including the original) in the last week!

While l8wrtr’s cut of Phantom Menace is superb, on first viewing I wasn’t as impressed with The Republic Divided. Today was my second viewing, and given my current exposure to the film I can say I had definitely under-rate it. This is by far the best edit that I have seen.

- As with Shadow of the Sith, the dialogue is trimmed, tweaked and improved throughout the entire film.
- Anakin is relatively likable and sympathetic, and his relationship feels very natural.
- The action scenes have been cut down significantly, which adds to their drama.

Basically, the whole film is improved. However, I do feel this edit is held back by a few cuts/lack of cuts, which I will briefly mention:

The speeder chase -
While this is generally improved, I think it’s a real problem that the massive freefalling scenes are left in. This is the first action piece of the film, it sets the tone, and the way Lucas filmed it was as a cartoon. How are we ever expected to see Anakin and Obi Wan as realistic or endangered characters when we watch them plummet literally hundreds of feet, act like its nothing, and land completely unharmed. Having Obi Wan dangle so high in the air is thrilling enough, and for both of them to fall/leap even 10 foot when they’re that high up is pretty impressive. L8wrtr’s edits do a great job at grounding the prequels in reality, but this is a significant and universe-establishing scene where reality is forgotten. Others have cut the falling to much smaller distances (Spence for example), I wish l8wrtr would do something similar here.

Obi Wan –
This is really just a personal preference (well, most of these criticisms are) but I personally miss how much Obi Wan is cut from the film. I think Ewan McGreggor is the best thing about Attack of the Clones (he’s perhaps even better here than Liam Neeson was in Phantom Menace). While I understand that it’s hard to keep his scenes in, and many dislike things like the diner scene – I think it’s a good scene once you cut all the American droid-waitress’s dialogue! – cutting so much of Obi Wan out of both Shadow of the Sith and The Republic Divided doesn’t leave him with much of a character in the prequels.

Anakin/Padme -
As I say, these scenes are generally excellent. While I dislike Anakin’s pro-fascism speech (I don’t see Darth Vader as even remotely politically motivated, so see little need for foreshadowing in Anakin’s personality) I can see why it’s kept in. Btw, the family scene is exceptional and I really like the trims l8wrtr has made here too. Keeping Artoo playing with the children is a nice touch, this whole section of the film perfectly contrasts Padme’s upbringing with Anakin’s. But, as others have mentioned, the fireplace scene is really quite jarring, and I think it should either be developed or removed entirely.

Palpatine/Anakin –
I would prefer it if this scene ended after Palpatine tells Anakin with training he will be invincible, although I understand the inclusion of Anakin being ‘the most powerful of all the jedi’ fits in with the controversial decision to keep the prophecy in the prequels.

Assassination attempt/Newt Gunray -
Here is one of the biggest ways I think Attack of the Clones can be improved, and I’ve yet to see anybody incorporate it. Padme is voting against the Army, which Dooku/Sidius need approved. She then survives an assassination attempt. The most logical conclusion here is that Dooku/Sidius is behind it, the motivation for the attempt is revealed in the final scene: Sidius needs the war to start. L8wrtr hinted that this is where the edit was going to lead with his opening crawl, which established Padme as an influential senator leading the senate to vote against the creation of an army, and then he reinforces it with the intercom dialogue which mentions the fact that she is unharmed. However, as the film develops, New Gunray is still responsible. Not only is this silly (why would he hold such a severe grudge against her) but it means the plot strands have absolutely no connection to one another. Padme’s assassination has nothing to do with the Army she’s voting against, the whole film is held together by coincidences (read: poor writing). I wonder, would it really be impossible to cut Newt Gunray’s dialogue on Geonosis and then edit Obi Wan’s message to corruscant replacing “Newt Gunray is behind the assassination attempt” with “Count Dooku is behind the assassination attempt”?

Kamino –
This is another pet peeve that I have yet to see dealt with. When Obi Wan meets the president of Kamino, the line “and now to business” has always seemed pointless to me as they weren’t exactly having a conversation up until this point. As there is no other noise and you can’t really see the president’s lips moving, why not cut that line and simply have the president sit down and tell Obi Wan his army is almost ready.

(At this point it I will say that I think the whole of Tattooine is pretty much perfect. While him jumping off the cliff to get to the sandpeople camp is very Wile E Coyote, its no major problem, and the way he edited the garage dialogue is simply superb.)

Geonosis –
I really like how he’s edited most of Geonosis. I would reduce the Slave I’s laser attack on Obi Wan’s ship a little; the more times he gets shot and survives, the less danger he seems to be in. Also, the conveyer belt scene still feels a little clumsy, although this remains the best edit of it I have seen. Padme’s dialogue before they’re driven out to the execution is excellent, L8 has almost completely perfected the timing so that she no longer sounds like she’s talking mid-sentence (which of course, she is!)

Colosium –
The introduction of the creatures is well handled. This whole scene is pretty much the perfect example of how not to direct a monster movie, it’s like the exact opposite of the t-rex scene in Jurassic Park. L8 has managed to keep some drama in the opening scenes. Once the jedi get involved, I still think the whole thing can be tweaked a little. We don’t care about any of the characters on screen, and a lot of unnecessary action is thrown at us, so the battle needs to be a bit more focused on the protagonists, and the sense of danger/violence should be increased. The Phantom Editor did this particularly well if I remember correctly.

Geonosis Battle –
Same as the above really, although maybe its impossible to fix. But Padme’s dialogue when she falls out of the ship definitely needs editing!

I will stop here. Attack of the Clones is still my least favourite edit, but I feel The Republic Divided has gone the furthest of any fanedit to improve it. I think the few changes listed above would really help, although I’m really not sure if the film can be edited into a truly enjoyable Star Wars film. I look forward to watching the Duel Layer version, and maybe some my suggestions will have been incorporated (as I assume they are problems most people have, rather than just personal niggles. I find most of the criticisms of the prequels are almost universally shared!)

My rating for TRD:
For fanediting – 8.5/10
As a movie in its own right 7.5/10

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.

*This rating was given before reviews were required*