War of the Stars II: The Future in Motion

I write this review with mixed emotions. The original War of the Stars remains one of my favorite fanedits ever, and so I was beyond excited for the sequel. However, as much as it pains me to do so, I have to consider this a slight disappointment.

Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to love in this edit. The reworked narrative is amazing, especially the new journey that Luke goes on. I also enjoyed Boba Fett's new fate. There were some great new special effects, and it was a treat to see the new deleted scenes inserted into the movie.

But I couldn't help but feel that some of the fun was missing this time around. It just wasn't as wacky or silly, and while I know that was TMBTM's intent, I still felt let down a little. I also felt the deleted scenes weren't as well integrated visually this time, due to the improved source used for the main movies. Finally, there were a few wonky effects shots that stood out (such as the new Wampa head while Luke was being chased).

This was a really difficult edit to rate for me. I'm sure if I had seen this before the first War of the Stars, I would have rated it higher. As it is, I gave it an 8/10, because it's still a worthy watch and a great achievement.

(Note: I did not rate A/V quality as I only watched this on my phone.)

I didn't watch the first part yet, so I came to this fully fresh and unprepared.
---Spoiler-warning----
The first half and a little bit more of this edit are brimming with creativity and I was quite flashed by it, the second half is more like the original until the end that is, where Luke turned to the evil side.

I think that end is awesome in a sense of "What if"-scenario, in fact I would have made it even more evil by preventing the rebels from blowing up the death star and being completely destroyed. That is a pure evil end, that I made a few months ago for my edit, but then got the creeps and changed it back to a good ending. But in this edit it would have worked nicely.

TMBTM has amazing special-effect-skills: How he turned the emperor into a ghost, or the red eyes on Vader, the falling down of his ship, or making Luke enter Jabba's palace alongside Leia and many more instances of special-effects that he created for this, is simply amazing.

Narrative-wise I love how he changed the tree-vision to make Luke enter Lando's city before he actually gets there. As a what if-scenario I also love how he made Vader not being Luke's father. and how he made him show more his jealousy of the emperor: "You are weak old man"...

But there was a thing I didn't like and that was how the bounty hunter died, special-effect-wise pretty good, but the explosion could have/would have waken up Jabba's palace. But that's a minor point.

Also I missed Leia strangling Jabba, but that is personal preference, the narrative worked for this as is.

I loved the use of the deleted scene of the sandstorm, and I liked the use of subtitling of R2D2 to bring in some humour.

Like already said the second half dragged a bit, because the first half was so full of new ideas and changes, while the second half seemed to be more like the theatrical version, so that one expected more during that phase, until the great evil (that could be even more evil) end that is.

I've heard that the first part was grindhoused, I think that would have helped here as well with the integration of the deleted scenes that have lots of scratches.

Maybe there will be a version 2 of this to make the evil ending, even more evil, and to grindhouse this and to use a bluray-source to get the most out of it.

But to redo all those special-effects would make it probably a very hard and long work, so I can understand if TMBTM don't want to endure that.

---Spoiler-warning-end---

I highly recommend this edit for the brimming creativity of the first half, the great new ending and the masterful use of special effects. I downgraded audio/video-quality, because on my 42"-TV the picture looked flat as it is only SD.

Edit: I misunderstood something crucial about the bountyhunter and therefore amended that point in my review.
Edit2: After watching "War of the stars 1", I change my opinion and welcome TMBTM's decision to do without the grindhousing-effect.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The opening sequence was brilliant and I was fully prepared to love this one more than the first. The first forty five minutes are gold. After that it kind of meanders. I was disappointed to see the ewoks. The very end redeems it though and is pretty ingenious. Overall it's amazing how the editor was able to use the resources available and take the story where he did.

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.

July 29, 2012 @ 8:37 am

Well, TMBTM did it again. One of my favourite fan edits , that’s for sure. I love every moments of it. Félicitation TMBTM.