War of the Stars II: The Future in Motion

When I first saw this edit several months ago, I must confess that I was rather nonplussed by it. The original Star Wars trilogy is so masterful in its plot structure that this mash-up of EMPIRE and JEDI seemed nearly heretical to me. And as enjoyable as it was to see the deleted scenes from the Blu-ray in this film, they did slow down the overall pacing of the edit.

However, as time passes, my respect for WotS II has only increased, even as my opinion of other fan edits remains unchanged. There's so much creativity and imagination brimming from this release, it's impossible not to love.

While many fan edits are attempts to correct errors in the film, as with the many prequel edits, this film plays simply as a "What if?" This is what a Star Wars sequel might have looked like in an alternate universe.

As such, The Man Behind the Mask expertly weaves in footage from the other movies, such as REVENGE OF THE SITH, to create a wholly different viewing experience. He even adds in his own special effects to help tell the story, with astonishingly believable results (that is, it looks like this is the way the movie was supposed to play in the first place).

His alternate version of what happened to Darth Vader after the Death Star; his variation on the Wampa attack; the alternate arrival at Dagobah; his version of the tree vision; the way the scene *actually* plays out in his version; Luke's temptation in the Emperor's throne room; and the corker twist at the end -- every part of those scenes is a work of genius.

If you're a fan of STAR WARS, by all means check out this alternate take. It's a remix that you won't soon forget.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first War of the Stars fanedit, a grindhoused version of Star Wars: A New Hope. An imaginative alternative take on the original film.

This one finishes the original trilogy in a 2 in 1 cut of Empire and Return. It's impressive because it's narratively coherent too. There's some interesting alternate takes on the Vader/Luke reveal, Boba Fett's demise, and others. But overall the story is mostly the same.

While keeping some special effects, deleted scenes, and score changes, it’s ultimately a bit of a disappointment jettisoning much of the surprise and the fun of the original, fully jettisoning the Grindhouse idea. It leaves a mixed bag in terms of overall experience.

It starts off strong with a solid 40 minutes before a long slog and basically watching pieces of Empire and Jedi before ending with a “What If '' alternative universe style ending.

It’s still impressive what’s accomplished here mixing new f/x shots, different shots from the newer prequel films, and creating a brand new ending, it’s just not enough of a change and the deleted scenes aren't enough to make me not wish I was watching the original films.

I'm almost afraid to leave this review, considering all of the positive reactions this edit has generated. Unfortunately, this one didn't do it for me. Maybe I was expecting too much after having seen the brilliant masterpiece which was "The War Of the Stars: A New Hope Grindhoused" (which I have yet to leave a review for, but needless to say it will be glowing) That film was amazing and truly gave the viewer an entirely new viewing experience.

Maybe that's the problem here. With this film, I felt that I was watching Star Wars reedited. Now that's not to say it wasn't very cleverly reedited with some very good twists (the way you saved Vader was truly ingenious and worthy of any great movie serial) and (no spoilers) an ingenious surprise ending. I think this film would have been more enjoyable for me if it had some of the vibe of the first one.

Firstly, I thought the editor should have applied a scratched film effect on the theatrical scenes so they better matched the deleted scenes in quality. Second, the use of way less star wars music would have helped break me out of the mindset that I was just watching a reedit.

With that said, I still think there were some great fanedit ideas presented here. The minimization of the Ewoks was effective and it was fun to see a ton of deleted scenes incorporated into this cut. However, because of the extensive use of deleted scenes and heavy editing, I felt some of the scene transitions were pretty abrupt. I did find myself wanting additional edits in a lot of spots.

I find myself in almost complete agreement with "tv's frink's" assessment of the edit and also believe it is worth a watch.