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.)

*Minor Spoilers*

Brilliant! Fun! Rejuvenating!

Quite simply, the best fan edit I have seen. TMBTM took two of my favorite movies of all time, and completely turned them on their heads into something completely different that is INCREDIBLY enjoyable in its own right. I loved the use of virtually every deleted scene from the blu ray release, and while there is a noticeable change in sound an audio quality, not just in this scene but multiple times throughout the film, the grindhouse label more or less gives TMBTM the luxury to not have all of those perfect.

Bottom line is, stop what you are doing and watch this edit immediately.

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.