Star Wars Episode I: Shadow of the Sith
 a TRUE FANEDIT by L8wrtr This is a more enjoyable version of TPM. It is swifter, corrects pacing and urgency issues. As a unique approach Anakin is the hero. Finally all of the characters have been vastly improved. A very difficult task – a new take on THE PHANTOM MENACE. It can be good. Really. member ratings: |
(27 votes, average: 8.44 out of 10, rated)
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TAGLINE: He
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INTENTION:
As is the case for many fans of Star Wars, the Phantom Edit went a long way toward rescuing the original Phantom Menace for me, and for quite some time it was my new ‘definitive’ version of the film, yet I could never escape the fact that I felt that Phantom Editor Mike Nichols did not go nearly far enough or cut deep enough from the original. Once I made the decision to start making fanedits of my own it wasn’t long before I came to the conclusion that my first effort needed to be Episode I. Like every faneditor of this film it is my goal to create the most watchable, most enjoyable, and most ‘Star Wars’ like version of Episode I as possible.
EDITING DETAILS & CUTLIST:
With the edit I set out to accomplish three goals:
- Drastically improve the many flawed characters as much as possible.
- Drastically improve the overall tone and pacing of the film
- Restructure the narrative so that Anakin Skywalker is the true hero of the film.
This edit also benefits from the wonderful color work of Adywan who was so kind as to give his blessing for me to use his color corrected The Phantom Menace Theatrical Edition. Almost all footage of this edit uses Ady’s color corrected footage, while the Deleted Scenes and a few short sequences that do not appear in the theatrical cut were taken from a standard DVD release and color corrected by myself, or with the assistance of Hebrides.
CUTLIST:
Boss Nass: Most critics of the Phantom Menace tend to focus their ire on Jar Jar Binks, and without a doubt, his character is the most obvious flaw in the movie. However what often gets lost is that Gungan race itself which was poorly conceived, particularly as a warrior race. Only Captain Tarpals was tolerable or believable.
My goal was to make the Gungans more ominous by removing as much of their bad dialog, slobbering, howling and shaking of lips as possible. They are now presented as distrustful of outsiders. Binks is going to be punished for bringing outsiders to Otah City rather than returning from banishment. The Jedi escape punishment for trespassing because they use mind-tricks (Jar Jar and a guard now share a shocked response when Boss Nass agrees to let them go and give them a Bonco).
Jar Jar Binks: Jar jar has been heavily edited to remove nearly all of his annoying screen presence. I removed toilet humor and as many antics as possible without removing key plot points or creating continuity errors. Because he owes Qui-gon a life-debt, he must follow him everywhere, similar to how Chewbacca shadows Han Solo. He quietly follows him and now no longer inserts himself into every scene possible. I completely removed the sub-plot of him being a bumbling idiot who was banished for being clumsy. The original movie plays this up but with no payoff outside creating an excuse for why he’s out wandering around dry land, and creating an excuse for his antics.
Nomidians
As much as possible I sought to reduce their cowardice. I worked to make them more active participants in Palpatine’s plot. While we still never find out what they have to gain by aligning with him, it doesn’t matter. Because they now behave in a manner that appears to have unspoken motivation, we don’t have to care about why. They made a deal with the Sith Lord, somehow he can manipulate the Senate to their advantage. Whatever they each get from the bargain is immaterial. This was largely achieved by removing their continual effort to justify their actions, both to outsiders (the Jedi and the Queen) as well as to themselves (constantly asking Palpatine if it’s legal). They simply do things, because that’s what bad-guys do.
Action, Action, Action!
Improve the pacing of the movie by getting to the point ASAP. When I first saw TPM I remember being confounded by the leisurely pace of the Jedi in trying to get to the queen, and lack of urgency on Tatooine. The two biggest offenders of this are the Planet Core and Pod Race sequences. The Planet core is gone entirely and the Pod Race is reduced heavily, including the Hanna Barbara announcers, all of the cartoonish sub-plots of how various pods blow-up/get disabled, as well as all of the slap-stick during the race. The race is now fast and focused.
Dialog
Almost every scene has some modification to it in order to eliminate either redundant and/or obvious exposition as well as poorly written and/or delivered dialog. The only two scenes with dialog that emerge unscathed were the interplay between Palpatine and the Queen (the only scenes in the movie that are strictly between two living, breathing quality actors). I think this is one of those areas where the original Phantom Edit was far too conservative. Virtually every scene is now tightened.
Fix Lord Maul’s demise.
I always hated how Maul simply watched Obi-Wan telegraph what he was going to do, and then have it play out so slowly that Maul should have cut Obi-Wan into 20 pieces. I have rescued this scene so that there is no telegraphing of intention, no confused look by Maul, and it happens lightening fast. Not only does it make it convincing, but it also has the effect of setting up the final confrontation with Anakin in Episode III. Obi Wan knows this move and is ready for it (my eventual Sith edit will highlight this by using Corgicar’s timing)
Anakin
There are two parts to my work here. The first is the simple and obvious one first pioneered by Mike Nichols, improve Jake Lloyd’s performance by eliminating as much of his dialogue as can be reasonably done. I don’t think I did anything revolutionary here. Anakin is presented as much as possible as a boy of action and confidence. Gone are the yippees and woohoos. The insertion of the Greedo sequence also helps show that he’s not a perfect angel, also I removed the terrible line by Schmi about him knowing nothing of greed.
Part 2 however I feel is the major shift of the entire edit;
I have recut Act 3 so that Anakin is truly the hero. In the theatrical cut, Padme and her team are the victors/heros. By capturing the Viceroy, she wins the battle because once captured the battle is effectively over, and Padme states as much by informing him that they will now discuss a new treaty. Now the queen’s double never arrives, she never gets the upper hand, she is captured. Qui-gon is dead, the gungans have been captured, and Anakin is marooned inside the Trade Fedaration ship.. there should be only one hero, and now the Chosen One is the hero.
Eliminate the Disney Main Street Parade.
This sequence has no place in a movie titled THE PHANTOM freaking MENACE. The immolation scene is perhaps the best in the entire movie, it lays out everything that has happened and setting up the players of the next two movies. This should have been the final scene. Now it is.
Misc
- New Title and Crawl. No more disputes about taxation of trade routes.. blah blah.. there is a dispute between the Nomidians and the Naboo, the Nomidians have set up a blockade.. let’s go.
- Eliminate Midichlorions. ‘nough said.
- Eliminate the title of ‘Darth’. He is simply referred to as an apprentice, or Lord Maul. My hope is to eliminate Darth as a generic Sith title throughout the PT, leaving Darth Vader as a truly unique Sith Name. I’m not sure it’s possible but time will tell. At the least its removal doesn’t worsen the movie, and could pay off later.
- Eliminate entire scene with the fake Queen hearing pro/con arguments of going to Tatooine and telling Padme to clean R2, and of course, Padme cleaning R2. We already watched Qui-gon and Captain Panaka debating Tatooine, so its duplication before the Queen is just useless and we also lose the painful interaction of R2’s introduction and the fake queen ordering her superior to clean a filthy droid.
- Cut Wato saying he’s immune to Jedi Mind tricks. Both Episode IV and Episode VI establish that the force can influence the weak-minded, but not against the strong-willed. Wato is many things, but weak-minded is not one. We’ve seen OT, we get it. This was the second-most controversial cut, but again, if you hadn’t watched the movie before, you don’t miss the clumsy explanation of why the mind-trick doesn’t work. If Wato is smart enough to know that Jedi’s can do Mind-tricks, he should probably be suspicious of an off-lander acting like he is doing mind-tricks, and certainly not consider getting into bets with a possible Jedi who just tried to trick him into accepting useless credits.
- Eliminate the crowd of kids while Anakin finishes his pod racer. Horrible scene that takes you out of the movie. With Anakin being so advanced that he can build a droid and pod racer out of free junk, I felt it appropriate to not have him be an obviously social kid, this is further reinforced by his fight with Greedo.
- Eliminated sequence of Qui-Gon talking to Wato in the box after the race.
- Eliminate scene of Nute Gunray on walking thrown taunting Governor Sio Bibble.
- Eliminate Jabba.
- Eliminate hill-billy Sand People firing at the pod race. While this was a genuinely funny scene, I feel that it conflicts with the Tuskin Raiders in Episodes II and IV. These are vicious creatures who are key in Anakin’s journey to the Dark Side. Using them as a quick joke in TPM just feels out of place to me given the context of the full saga. Of all my cuts, this was the most controversial among my previewers as it was one of only a handful of fun moments they remember fondly. But ultimately it doesn’t really add anything to the story, if you’ve never seen it, you’d never miss it, so with that as my ultimate standard, it was deleted.
- Recut the sequence where Anakin discovers he is free and will join Qui-gon for greater emotional impact
- Recut Anakin’s goodbye with his mother for greater emotinal impact as well as eliminating reference to returning to free her. This promise is not fulfilled and is wishy-washy. The scene is much stronger without it.
- Reinserted portions of two deleted scenes; Anakin/Greedo fight (replaces Jar-Jar/Sebulba sequence) and the Sith Probe Droid, not only does this make their running to the ship understandable, for the first time in the movie, our characters have a sense of urgency and dread.
- Eliminate as much of Ric Olie’s dialog as possible. This guy’s delivery made Cpt. Panaka (Hugh Quarshie) seem like an Acadamy Award winner. All Ric ever does is explain to us what is going on, but the visuals already take care of this, and much more convincingly.
- Remove Obi-Wan’s non-sensible rant about symbiotic relationships which is not explained, and has no payoff.
Release :
NTSC DL DVD
NTSC SL DVD
m4v
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Ahh let’s see where to begin, jeez this is a tough one…..The Phantom er, um i mean Shadow of the Sith, the illegitimate child of the whole Star Wars universe. The movie that quite frankly should have never existed in the first place. For all my ill feelings towards this movie, for whatever reason people keep putting it back in the spotlight, trying to salvage something that will resemble a good sci-fi Star Wars episode. I myself have edited this film many years ago but with so many versions on this site and certain things in my head that I know aren’t quite feasible, I will have to relegate myself to just sit back and watch what others have done. With that in mind, we now have a new fan-edit of this movie from L8twrtr. Can he finally bring balance back to the force or will this movie still come up a big steaming pile of bontha pooda?!
The honest to goodness truth…….NO! The reason being, quite frankly, the original movie just isn’t that good. Period. Watchable, very much so. However, for the origin movie that sets up the beginning tale of the most iconic figure in cinematic history……it flops right on it’s face before it can even get out the starting gate.
The fan-edit itself, I along with probably many other people waited patiently for this movie to download. After reading what seemed to be a great set of cuts/changes, along with the 96 minute runtime, I anxiously awaited to watch it. The Fan logo resembling the THX logo starts things off, very nice i must say. Brownie points there. Then the really nice custom L8WRTR logo comes on, along with what resembles his version of the Lucasfilm logo. Double brownie points. Then, ohh no what happened! We come to the first technical glitch of the movie…..the tile credits. It starts off way to fast and then tries to catch up. Not good. Then the newly revised title crawl starts off with one sentence to grab the audience, when every single other Star Wars film the title crawl is written in paragraph form (2 or more sentences makes up a paragraph). Not good. For everyone that hated the title given by Lucas, as evident with this fan-edit, the title credits ends with a very cheesy homage to the original title:
“Little do they know that a Phantom Menace has been plotting revenge…”
What? I am not making this up. Still shaking my head. I will give L8twrtr some credit though because at least he put the Jedi’s names in the title credits. That always bugged me more than anything. I mean if you watch the original movie, terrifying I know, but Qui-Gon Jinn isn’t mentioned by name until Anakin introduces everyone to his mom. That is like 30 minutes into the film. Jeez Lucas, don’t you think you should let the audience know what the name is of one of the main characters in the film at the very start?! Then the movie finally starts and pretty much in the end you see a mix/match of scenes from previous edits, until you reach the conclusion. I felt there was still a lot of pointless scenes still left in the film that really needed to be taken out. I think that would have really tightened up this edit……**cough** “It’s working, IT’S WORKING!” **cough** Captain Obvious has been cut to a minimum, along with everyone’s favorite Gungan. Good job there. The Pod race is cut together pretty well, but since you eliminated the announcer it becomes a little dull and uneventful. Should have left a few lines here and there. Who said Hanna Barbara isn’t cool?! The re-arranging of the four character plot threads was handled really well. I liked the swift resolve of the Obi-wan/Darth Maul fight. Flows much better now. The ending I found fascinating, not the couple of scenes preceding it (terrible), but because of L8wrtr’s commentary I have to agree that this should have been the last scene of the movie in the first place. You for some reason didn’t fix the match-cut involving Anakin and the audio comes in a little abruptly, but overall I think you ended it very nice.
Before my brain turns into a pile of incoherent goo, let’s break down some technical elements shall we:
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TECHNICAL ASPECTS
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VIDEO: When I heard that you used a color corrected version of this movie by Adywann, I was truely excited. Then I watched and then watched again and for good measure looked at it more carefully, but in the end came up disappointed. If my eyes are bad, then I will totally apologize, but I really didn’t see that much of a difference. Also, the deleted scene with the probe droid is pretty bad. Something just looks really off. I did notice that Adywann really plummed out the reds a lot, which was a little distracting (just to name a couple):
1. When the ship docks in the command center
2. Nute Gunray’s cloak
3. Nute Gunray and Rune Haako’s eyes have a strange tint.
Overall, it was pretty average video but a little too much digital compression for my taste. Maybe needs to be encoded with a higher bit rate? I did notice quite a few hard transitional cuts that were a bit weird which made the pacing in the beginning get a little off kilter because of the removal/rearranging of some scenes (just to name a few):
1. No talk on the planet of Naboo. The transition looks very strange. Monitor goes out and then bam straight to the invasion on the planet.
2. The removal of the underwater sequence. Very pointless and useless sequence of events. However, you go from getting the Bongo, Bongo leaving Gunga City, to Nute talking to Sidious, and then bam invade the palace. No real flow. It doesn’t look right because along with the video, it makes the audio sound strange.
3. After fixing the pod, hard wipe to Darth Maul arriving.
4. After Anakin wins race. Wipes to Padme and Shimi, then bam to Qui-Gonn meeting up with Obi-Wan. Not good because of the removal of Qui-Gonn talking to Watto.
5. After Anakin says bye to Shimi, bam right to deleted probe droid sequence. Not good.
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars
AUDIO: This was a very mixed bag for me to be honest. There was quite a few hard audio cuts/fades that really wasn’t that seamless. The very best example that I can give is when Anakin introduces Padme to C-3PO. At first I had to do a double take to make sure I heard what I heard, but make no mistake about it you can clearly hear the line you excised “Do you really like him?” I think if you go back and do a revision, you can hammer out all the little kinks.
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars
EXTRAS: I liked the deleted scene section because it showed in nice little sections what you took out with really good explanations, Also, the commentary track was well thought out and very informative. Good job.
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
PRESENTATION: This aspect I wasn’t to pleased with, to be honest. The menus are pretty plain and they share the same aspect ratio as the movie, which for a menu isn’t good and there is no audio or anything. I wish a little more care was taken in that regard. Very underwhelming to say the least. Sorry.
Overall: 2 out of 5 stars
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FIANAL SCORE: 3 out of 5 stars
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In the end I can sympathize with L8wrtr, in that he wanted to create a fan-edit that for himself and possibly many others can watch without having to find the fast forward button!
Review by STANKPAC — July 10, 2010 @ 12:33 pm
I meant to say FINAL SCORE: 3 out of 5 stars. Sorry for the typo. 4′o clock in the morning. Need to get to bed. Later.
EDIT by TMBTM:
Since we now rate fanedit from 1 to 10, and giving the various ratings you gave on various aspects in your review,
this edit would be rated 6,5/10 (6 or 7 if you prefer).
Review by STANKPAC — July 10, 2010 @ 12:57 pm
I was enticed into watching this edit because of the 96 min run time, the use of the color-corrected Adywan version and the list of the edits (aka “cut-sheet”).
I agree with Stankpac, the opening title crawl was rushed, slow and a bit odd. However, with all the extensive edits and some slightly bold ideas, this movie does seem to move along at a fairly quick pace.
I, too, noticed the mix of hard audio cuts/edits and the fades were a bit too noticeable. There did seem to be a few places where the dialogue dropped to a lower volume, causing me to turn up my amp, then only to be assaulted by music or effects that were now too loud.
I watched this on a 55″ LED tv and the video looked fine; no better or worse than the original. The lists of edits that Stankpac noticed, I noticed as well. This edit is in need of a Version 2.
Okay, here’s where I usually depart from most reviewers of edits: I didn’t really care either way about the menu or the extras. For me, it is always about the edit itself. My opinion and subsequent review is never effected by menu or extras. Admittedly, I have made a comment or two about a menu, but only as a passing thought.
With all the issues that Stankpac has already mentioned, my few additional comments and because there are better Ep1 edits in existence already, I just wasn’t that impressed with this edit. If you haven’t watched an Ep1 edit in a while (or never have), then maybe this will be worth the time to D/L and watch.
**** In interest of full disclosure, I feel it is important to mention that I have reached my limit on SW Eps 1 thru 3 edits. I am not sure I can watch any more of them. ****
Review by flyboy707 — July 16, 2010 @ 3:39 am
ok, heres my review of mr L8wrtr’s Shadow of the Sith v3. note that I mean no disrespect to the editor and offer my views as constructive criticism as an objective audience only.
!!!SPOILERS ABOUND!!!
The film:
very nice. I am not a huge PT fan and havent watched very many Ep1 edits but this is my favorite of the lot. The pace is brisk and well thought out. everything that could be cut has been in my opinion and the result is a decent version of a film we all hate. Jara Jar has been minimized to a great extent, anakin is tolerable and most of the characters no longer fill you with hate from their silly dialog or questionable actions. This is IMO, the best TPM edit I have seen.
a few really cool areas I’d like to comment on:
-The 20th century fox logo has been replaced w/ a custom L8wrtr graphic as has the Lucasfilm Ltd, both look very slick and are a nice addition.
-The custom crawl was very cool as well, with a new title and new text setting up the film. well done.
-Almost complete battle droid voice removal is a great touch. those guys annoyed me to no end.
-The removal of clumsy jar jar in watto’s shop and at shmi skywalker’s dinner table was exceptional.
-additional scenes such as greedo fights anakin and quigon smashes probe droid were very nice and allowed the editor to remove more garbage scenes in favor of these additions.
-anakin is now a hero during the 3rd act which makes the movie actually make sense.
-removal of the ascension guns, thanks. why were they included originally?
-custom credits very nice.
-bonus commentary is greatly done and is very interesting, explaining many subtle choices that I hadnt even picked up on.
However there were a few minor issues that I noticed, thankfully none really disrupt the enjoyment of the edit:
-slight image stutter on a few wide pans, nothing terrible, hardly worth mentioning
-deleted scene #2 (probe droid) has a slightly different aspect ratio than the film for an 8 second segment.
A few personal opinions where I was not in agreement w/ the editor (not a problem and doesnt effect my rating)
-droid says one roger roger still around 1:14:00. why?
-the dramatic ending of the films tone is completely shattered by the abrupt crash into the typical star wars theme. I understand that this is “the proper way” to end a star wars film traditionally but IMO it just deflates the ending in every way. I think Duel of the fates would be much more appropriate here since we are coming out of a variation of that theme and it is a somber scene foreshadowing the entire saga to come. BANG! Happy Music. It was the only thing that doesnt work for me in this edit, but I respect the editors decision to “stay true” to the ending of all the other films.
The extras:
Theres a fantastic commentary track that spans the feature, explaining what was cut, why, and gives alot of insight into the editors mind and passion for the material, very well done, clear and interesting. I wish more edits featured commentary as its much cooler than studio released commentary IMO.
Deleted Scenes reel, this is a nice inclusion but only angered me after being reminded what I had managed to forget over the last 10 years. The scens are divided up into characters w/ text explanations setting up each reel. a nice addition even if I hate all of this footage:)
Video: 8/10 this color corrected version from Adywan’s source is very nice, black levels are pristine and overall its nice to look at. The deleted scenes vary in quality from 7/10 (almost unnoticed) to 5/10 (wow, thats different) but are of no fault of the editor. the deleted scenes were not in nice quality to begin with and look fine here despite the obvious drop in fidelity.
Audio: 5.1 surround is here although I cannot rate it as the review copy I watched was 2.0 stereo. The stereo sounded great (albeit a bit low) so I really doubt the 5.1 sounds “worse”
Editing: 9/10 exceptional skill from a first time editor. a new viewer would not notice his presence (even if star wars vets cant miss it since we have all seen this film multiple times). no hard cuts/etc. a fantastic first effort. I cant wait to see ep 1 and 2 by L8wrtr.
Entertainment: 10/10 I have never been so entertained by TPM. I actually liked this movie for the first time.
at 96 minutes, there is nothing more that can be cut. As of now, this is my go-to replacement copy of TPM.
DVD: 7/10 simple but well authored, intro clip into a static menu w/ the options: play film, commentary and deleted scenes.
Final Average: 8.5 rounded up to 9/10. a great effort from a new talent. well worth any jaded star wars fans attention.
Review by elbarto1 — July 16, 2010 @ 7:52 am
It’s been a very long while since I’ve watched TPM. This was the first Star Wars film I saw in theaters when I was eight, so it holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Maybe that’s why I never viewed this, or any of the other prequels for that matter, as the steaming pile of poo others do. I tend not to drink the Kool-Aid, so I was never really interested in Star Wars fanedits beyond Adywan’s Revisted and TMBTM’s War of the Stars. I saw the cutlist for this, and decided why not? I was a bit hesitant to see so much cut, but I dove in to see how it turned out.
And it turned out really well.
Throughout the duration of the running time, I hardly noticed things that had been taken out. Generally, this happens for two reasons: the first being that you’ve seen the movie so many times (especially if you’re watching your own edit) that no matter what you’ll always notice the changes. The second reason is that there was an issue with the editing that made the cut noticeable. The former was the case most of the time watching this, while the latter occurred a few times as well. Since I want to heap some praise on this, I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way now.
The biggest time I noticed cuts were during scenes where audio was altered (yes, that was most of it. Bear with me). The most noticeable audio alteration was the removal of battle droid voices. While technically well done, the few instances where voices were cut the droids were still acting as though they were speaking, mainly in the Trade ship at the beginning and then later in the hangar. I was also slightly torn on the wipe from “It’s working!” to Maul’s ship arriving. It seemed rather sudden, but for story reasons, in removing midichlorians, it was necessary.
Okay, enough negativity. Now for the good stuff.
As I said, most of the fat has been trimmed off so well I didn’t even notice it was gone. Basically, everything that was cut. Perfect, except for what was noted above. And while I enjoyed the Greedo scene, its placement was odd. It’s supposed to take place after the podrace and, while it worked to get around the Sebulba subplot, it creates the question of “cheated at what? wtf is he talking about?” A small quibble that is soon forgotten at any rate. The following scene at the dinner table was very, very well edited. Another scene I hardly noticed had been altered. I could list everything that had been changed that I only noticed well after the fact, but I plan on going outside at some point.
Audio was great. No hard cuts (there was one fade during the intro of the podrace I’m unsure about. That may have been in the original version. I’ll check later, which means I won’t). I don’t have a 5.1 setup, but I’ll assume the mix was good. Video I’m torn on. I haven’t watched TPM on the new TV since it came into the house two years ago, so I can’t say if the quality was the same as the commercial DVD. It was very good, certainly not unwatchable. I suppose that’s on me to get a DL version and plonk for the discs. I haven’t yet listened to the commentary, so I can’t comment (see what I did there?) on it yet. But the thought counts, so yay!
All-in-all, this is my replacement of Episode I, hands down. Great effort, great editing choices, excellent execution.
8/10
Review by Aztek463 — July 17, 2010 @ 12:44 am
**** REVIEW UPDATE ****
Before I begin the update to my review, it is important to state that no one has asked, coerced or otherwise pressured me to update my previous review. The short history behind my update: I somehow managed to click on a low star rating when I completed my review. This, in turn, sparked some confusion and debate in the chat room and among a great many of the regular reviewers, admins etc. Typically, I am known for giving constructive reviews/explanations (whether my rating is high or low), so people were confused. I happened into the chat room while the discussion was taking place. After talking with Boon, elbarto1, Blueyoda and L8wrtr, I was able to get my star rating corrected and I thought I needed to go back and “review” my own review. Again, my relation with the editor had no or the other people l have already mentioned had no bearing on my decision to go back to this edit.
I have to admit, I am somewhat burnt out on on SW episode edits and my original review reflects that; even though I tried to ensure it did not. Also, I got a little lazy and just echoed things that Stankpac had written in his edit. I didn’t provide enough of my own information to make my review mine. So, after a great “date night” with my wife last night, I woke up with a re-charged attitude and while she still slept, decided to watch this edit again. This is the result …
As with my first viewing, it still seems to me that the opening crawl is slightly rushed, then slightly slow, then normal. I definitely liked the custom L8wrtr title. Things like this help in giving me the feel that I am watching something new/different. As did the custom credits, which I rarely watch; either in an original or edit. That feeling of watching something new/different and at the same time watching something familiar is one of the points of fan editing.
Yes, the battle droid audio edits are noticeable. Thankfully the “roger, roger” is gone (except for one spot), but the droids definitely are still acting out the dialogue. I can forgive this, because the “roger, roger” and other battle droid dialogue is grating.
As my original review, other than a couple of small audio edits (as previously mention by all the reviewers), there are no hard cuts/edits that I noticed, even the second time around. As far as my previously mentioned low dialogue, then high effects, it still seems some of that is there. It very well could be the home theater amp I am using. It has a volume correcting option on it that can be a bit testy.
The video quality is the same as my DVD. Looked as good as the original on my 55′ tv. I didn’t noticed any of the stuttering that Stankpac mentions in his review. I purposely stop at this point and watched several times. I am not sure that the color corrected version in use here would be “wow, that is really different” to the average viewer. However, there is no loss of video quality in this edit at all.
Now as I said before, this edit moves this mediocre movie along at a very good pace. As I said, the cut sheet really enticed me to watch this edit. There are some very bold edits here. And the trimmed down scenes (especially the pod race) works for me. I disagree with Stankpac in this respect. I found the announcer in the pod race to be childish and annoying, so was glad to see him/them go.
Finally, I originally said two things: that this edit needed a Version 2. I recant that with the second viewing. I also said that there are better edits of Ep1 than this. That’s not exactly what I meant to voice. Because I have watched so many SW Ep1-3 edits as of late, I think I was/am just a little saturated with these edits.
Here’s what I meant to convey:
if you liked the original Ep1 (the battle droids , the pod race, all the action [aka a showcase of ILM's cgi] and a few other things that are no longer present in this edit), then you will probably want to go to one of the other edits of Ep1. This is a different version than those.
“… in need of a Version 2″ – what I wanted to say – that all of the reviewers (and some brief PM discussions I have had), have mentioned/noticed the same issues that could be fixed. While these are mostly minor, a Version 2 would make this edit spectacular/premier.
As for a first time out edit, this is great effort and I for one would like to see L8wrtr move away from SW movies and try his hand at something else.
*** I just have never have warmed up to this movie (the original) and other than the FEs I have watched here, haven’t watched the original version on DVD since it was first released – other than to reference a scene for video quality or to verify a plot point. ***
Review by flyboy707 — July 17, 2010 @ 4:54 pm
Thank you TMBTM for pointing out the review system. You are correct my score would fall within those numbers.
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FINAL SCORE: 7 out of 10
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Review by STANKPAC — July 17, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
[b]Review of Shadow of the Sith[/b]
Watching this edit reminded me, forcefully, that TPM is rubbish. The cuts only serve to highlight how terrible the movie is.
But: it is no longer utterly crap, thanks to you, L8wrtr. Your skills have made it watchable.
I disagree with a couple of your choices (particularly the cringe-worthy virgin birth: Anakin is Jesus, but an Evil Jesus!), but overall you have done a sterling job. Very, very impressive.
If I HAVE to sit through TPM again, this is the version I will watch, particularly for the last 30minutes. That was some sublime editing of the four battles taking place!
[b]Video:[/b] I was watching on a relatively small LCD screen, but I didn’t notice any imperfections. Quality seemed great to me throughout. I didn/t notice the drop in quality that elbarto1 noticed. However, the subtitles looked blocky and semi-transparent (at least on VLC).
[b]Sound:[/b] I was only getting 2.0 sound out of my 5.1 system, I thought it was supposed to be 5.1?. But the soundscape was generally very good, apart from some dialogue sounding rather ‘echoey’, and one sound drop-out (weesa going home)
Some notes I jotted down as I watched, hope some comments are helpful!
- Opening scroll: self-conscious reference to the Phantom Meance is poor, doesn’t fit well with the text, and takes you out of the movie before you’ve even begun!
- 5min: why not cut out the droidicars completely? Have them fight the droids outside the door because they have to, and then go to hangar scene. The other scenes add nothing of value and, as you said in the commentary, show the Jedi to be weak because they can’t defeat two droids “because they have shieldsâ€. Doh!
• 8:40 cut out JarJar’s uncertainty; the cut shows too much (different colour) “ just go straight from “can you take us there? to “yes” or whatever he says.
- 12:44 arrival of bongo or whatever it’s called you’ve just shown the army moving in to the city, flying around etc… but there’s no army in this shot, maybe move it?
- 23:50 please, please take out the Greedo comment. It is just poor, self-referential crap GL stuffed in.
- Consider cutting C3PO completely. It’s not unbelievable that he could make a robot, but why would a 6 year old make a PROTOCOL droid? Gaaah! C3PO adds nothing in this movie, and you’ve already cut most of him out.
- 28-29 min: the dinner scene. Wow-.Just wow. Awesome editing. Tone is great, all Jar Jar antics gone, dialogue makes sense and flows instead of cheesy. Amazing.
- (I also really like the new less wussy Federation, and the nonspeaking droids. Fantastic.)
- No, no, nooooo. I can’t believe you kept the Virgin Birth. Please reconsider! The Darth Plagious link is way too tenuous, never made any connection to virgin birth in Ep 3.
- Hooray! No midichlorians.
- Pod race excellently edited BUT the removal of the announcer makes it a little difficult to know what’s going on, and also deadens the race somewhat. The announcer gave it a ESPN sports feel that somehow worked. Maybe a little bit of announcer would have been helpful?
The film suddenly becomes a silent movie, no dialogue for about 5 minutes, and this makes the pod race seem even longer than in the original, even though you’ve cut it down.
- It’s a pity you kept in the prophecy, vergence in the force, will of the Force nonsense. (How can the Force have a will??)
- 1:05:50 (approx) sound dips out noticeably where you cut “Weesa going home!”
- Trim up the Gungun alliance scene a bit more don’t need Boss Nass’s answer, and the awful Yipee celebration, they’re going to WAR, not a trip to the seaside!
- 1:13:10 why leave in Q saying to Anakin “find a safe place and hide” and “Find cover” at around 1:14:00? just have him run to his ship after “get to your ships? Isn’t the PLAN that he will fly?
- The editing of the 4 battles; Gunguns, queen, Anakin in space and Darth Maul was superbly handled. It was an excellent piece of film, seamlessly edited, and exciting. 20 brilliant minutes. Well done!
- At the end of the commentary you say “Thank you very much” then a big sigh and a number of mouse clicks are heard. Consider cutting!
Most seems a bit negative – however most of the way through I was nodding my approval, and the comments above are tweaks rather than real flaws.
[b]Overall[/b]
I find this a difficult one to rate. As a movie I would rate it around a 6 (compared to the original a 3 or 4) but as a fanedit I would rate it 9/10. Excellent work.
Review by dangarratt — July 20, 2010 @ 10:57 pm
Are you burned out on Episode I fanedits? First off, quit your complaining, because no one has seen as much of this movie as I have. But beyond that, you need to see this edit. It may just restore your faith in the potential of the prequels.
The big difference between this edit and all the others on the site is the editing of the four-way final battle. I’ll get in to it more later in the review, but L8wrtr’s editing choices and restructuring of the different components of the battle make this a brand new experience, one that worked for me on every level.
Before I get to the actual edits, I’ll mention that video and audio quality are in general excellent. Using adywan’s color-corrected version of the film as a starting point works very well, although there were a few spots (mainly the open of the film when the Jedi land on the Trade Federation ship) where colors seemed a little too washed out. The only other really noticeable issue with the color is during the probe droid deleted scene, but beyond that the video quality is very representative of the DVD quality.
I watched the edit twice, in both 2.0 and 5.1. The 2.0 sounded very crisp and clear. The 5.1 (my preferred choice by far) was also very good, although there were a few brief moments here and there where front music levels seemed a tad low.
The DVD presentation is very nice. Along with the movie itself, we get deleted scenes and a commentary track by L8wrtr. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the commentary yet, but I sampled it very briefly and it sounds like it will be entertaining. I am particularly looking forward to hearing the justification for not cutting the very few items I would have liked to see cut – and believe me, the list is very small.
With the tech out of the way, we’ll move on to the edit itself. I didn’t notice any hard cuts and transitions were well done. The edit is fast-paced and aggressive, with even some quick parts of the Obi/Qui-Gon/Maul duel trimmed (something I’ve never seen before). If you are looking for an edit with as much Jar-Jar and Ani removed as possible, this is it.
The one thing that may trip some people up is that Ani’s virgin birth is left intact. If I’ve understood correctly, L8wrtr left this in because he plans on maintaining the idea that Sidious created Anakin using the force. However, rest assured that midichlorians are completely removed from the edit, making the virgin birth idea less specific and more palatable.
The dinner scene on Tatooine, where Lucas ssssllllllooooooowwwwwllllllyyyyy gives us a ton of exposition (as well as some horrible Jar Jar hijinks), is now lean and efficient. We get the information we need quickly and then move on to the next scene. It’s a scene I always dread, and now it’s actually bearable.
The podrace is really well done – the focus is now solely on Anakin and Sebulba. No Greg Proops announcer, no wacky secondary characters, just Ani vs. Sebulba for three quick-but-enjoyable laps.
The scenes on Coruscant are probably the least touched scenes, but we still lose a lot of the slow and lame bits. I do wish that the aliens in the senate could have been cut out (ET’s family, really?) but otherwise this section of the film satisfies. I was especially pleased to see Anakin’s lines to Yoda cut down to almost nothing – no feeling cold, no vocalizing his feelings about his mother, no being petulant, etc.
And so we come to the big battle finale. The order of events is completely changed and it works great. First of all, the Gungan battle is cut away like nothing I’ve ever seen. The Gungans engage the battle droids, they lose their shield, and they’re captured. That’s it. Not a single Jar-Jar antic remains. You barely even realize he’s in the battle. Amidala and the troops have a quick firefight in the hallway with the droids but never use their ascension guns (no more poorly done practical effect), then are captured and brought to the viceroy. So the Gungans are captured and the Naboo troops are captured. All looks lost, but Anakin saves the day. He destroys the droid control ship, which frees both the Gungans and the Naboo troops. He is truly the sole hero in this version, rather than just part of the victory.
And yes, the Jedi still fight Maul, and the editing is very well done here too. Of special note is the way Maul no longer stands there like a punk waiting for Obi-Wan to flip over him and take him out. It happens in a blink of an eye like it always should have.
Finally, we wrap things up and end on the last shot of Palpatine, a much more satisfying ending than the horrible celebration of the Gungans with the unexplained science experiment. And for those of you who aren’t satisfied with the transition from Sidious to the standard Star Wars ending fanfare music, be sure to try the alternate music ending option L8wrtr has provided. I prefer the original music myself, but it’s nice to have both options.
So what’s left to say? I have seen every Episode I fanedit available on FE.org, and L8wrtr’s version comes the closest to what I envision as my perfect cut of the film. I can’t wait for his versions of the other two movies. This falls just short of a 10 rating, but I’d give it a 9.5/10 if I could. As it stands it gets a 9/10 and two thumbs up from Neil Patrick Harris.
Review by TV's Frink — August 7, 2010 @ 7:09 am
Episode One is hard to redeem. This version does a valiant job of the impossible. Entire sections and of the film are removed along with individual shots. Excellent video quality (especially on Dual Layer version) and 5.1 audio.
If you are still watching your copy of the Phantom Edit, I highly suggest you give this one a try.
This is now my favorite version of this film – not sure if it will be outdone.
Fan Editor Commentary is very entertaining – the editor gives insights of his editing goals and why he excised certain shots/sections etc. Great listen for any fan or aspiring (fan) editor.
Dual Layer Version is highly recommended over the DVD5 – besides better quality video, you also get alternative ending audio (as others have stated, this version has the DEFINITIVE Ep. 1 ending), and the best fan edit special feature I have ever seen – a “Deleted Scenes” section. This is not your typical Deleted scenes section – you have to see it to believe it. This section displays topics such as one for Anakin, one for Jar Jar, one for Ric Olie, etc. and actually gives you all of their deleted footage back to back! It is both funny and disturbing at the same time due to seeing such horrible acting/writing in such a short duration!
My version of the Deleted scenes had some studdering and freezing during the clips – not sure if this was due to the authoring or my DVD DL media.
Highly recommended 9/10
Review by Diamond Wan — August 16, 2010 @ 6:10 am
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
I was pleasantly surprised with this edit. The only other edit of The Phantom Menace that I had seen before watching Shadow of the Sith was The Phantom Edit. Honestly, I had expected more from The Phantom Edit. I felt that it didn’t go far enough with its edits. After watching The Phantom Menace Revew – by RedletterMedia, I was even more turned off to The Phantom Menace. But L8wrtr’s edit turns this movie into something fast-paced and enjoyable.
DVD Presentation:
Nice Motion Menu. 20th Century Fox logo into the L8wrtr logo nice touch.
Movie itself:
Podrace: Thank you for making it bearable. Removing the ESPN style announcers was much needed! Removing Anakin being delayed at the starting line was good. It makes the pacing better the way you have him just stall for a second and then take off again. Also making it 3 laps makes it more entertaining and less of a chore to watch.
Removing of the midichlorians – how could anyone have a problem with this change!
Its great that Jar Jar is no longer a goofy outcast, and regarding the Gungans theres no spitting and quivering of the lips.
The ending was awesome. Im glad i didn’t read the cutlist ahead of time.. If I had known ahead of time the change to the ending it may not have had the same effect. But ending on the cliffhanger and with suspense was cool and works much better than the multipronged ending of the original movie from a celebration to a funeral etc.
Lastly, a real stroke of brilliance was adding that scene with the probe droid. Its crazy, I never realized it before, but TPM never really explains why Qui Gon is in such a rush to get back to the ship in the outer rim of Tatooine. They just cut to Qui Gon and Anakin running. So the addition of the probe droid scene made sense.
Well this is my definitive version of The Phantom Menace. I don’t know if I’ll be watching any other people’s fanedits (there’s only so much TPM i can watch!)
I look forward to future fanedits from L8wrtr!
Rating: 9/10
Review by Gatos — September 27, 2010 @ 12:39 am
Broadcasting from a hidden location deep in majestic Canada, it is time for THE BIONIC MOVIE REVIEW SHOW!!!
With your hosts…..
BIONIC BOB– a forty something Postie who actually sat in theatres in 1977 and saw the first and best Star Wars movie!
and his partner, and super smart daughter….
BIONIC EM — a ten year old master at Lego Star Wars Saga DS!!!
Lets start talking about AUDIO QUALITY….
BB says “Other than a few soft background music moments, it sounded sharp, crisp and clear. I detected no significant drop outs or pops or anything negative. John Williams score still rocks the house!”
Bionic Em says, “uuuhhhhmmmmm…. ( Bionic Em thinks carefully) I didn’t notice anything bad. It was very dramatic sounding, but in a good way!”
SCORE: BB 9/10 BE 9.5/10
Moving onto the next round, VIDEO QUALITY….
Bionic Bob says, ” Excellent. The picture quality was beautiful. Noticed no difference from original DVD version”
Bionic Em says, “Why did the colour change when the robot-thingie attacked the Jedi-guy? The rest looked great. Especially Darth Maul! I love Darth Maul!!!!”
SCORE: BB 10/10 BE 9.5/10
Now moving onto the nitty gritty, VISUAL EDIT…
Bionic Bob says, ” The vast majority of edits are absolutely seemless. The only scene to me where it is clear that something was cut was when Qui-gon and company were departing from parts store (ok, I am not a big TPM fan, can’t remember character names…. Star Trek on the other hand….), the cuts are very fast but don’t quite flow smoothly. However, with that said, I think the biggest compliment you can give a Fan Edit is when you watch it and don’t realize anything is missing. L8wrtr cut I think over 30 minutes of footage, and for the life of me, I didn’t miss a thing. BRAVO!!!”
Bionic Em says, “I miss the guys who shoot at the podracers. But everything else is just like the video game, so it was awesome!”
SCORE BB 9/10 BE 9/10
And now the final round of discussion, OVERALL ENTERTAINMENT…
Bionic Bob says, “I have only watched a few TPM edits (The Phantom Edit, ADM’s Vergence) and this is by and far away the most aggressively edited version I have seen. And it works on all levels. JAR JAR is no longer annoying but a sympathetic character, which is an incredible accomplishment. The new scroll is wonderful, I love that it retained the Phantom Menence reference. The mystical conception of Anakin works completely for me. I completely agree with all the removed scenes. And the final restructure act works extremely well. All in all, a very good viewing experience. I may have found my definitive version of TPM. GREAT WORK! You should be very proud of your edit!!!”
Bionic Em says, “I think it was totally awesomeness because it was exciting and scary and all those awesome things. My favorite part was the big fight with Darth Maul because Darth Maul is awesome (daughter likes the word “awesome”). I also like the Jedi guy with the big head, he looks like a human egg! Really, it was an extraordinary movie, I give it THUMBS UP!”
SCORE BB 9/10 BE 10/10
FINAL SCORE TOTAL: 9/10
So there you have it, the views of a jaded Trekkie and a very happy 10 year old. I think it is safe to say this version of THE PHANTOM MENACE rocks! Thank you L8WRTR for a very enjoyable afternoon of movie fun!
Review by bionicbob — September 29, 2010 @ 10:13 pm
Overall I really enjoyed L8wrtr’s take on The Phantom Menace. Though some of the cuts seemed obvious to me, this could be because I’m so familiar with the original that exorcised material just stands out to me. I don’t think it’s anything technical. This version moves along at a brisk pace, a most welcome change. The ending is very well done and never gets boring like in the original. I only have a few minor gripes:
- Droid dialog removed when sent to check on the Jedi in the beginning. We still have the head nods, something I don’t think they need to do.
- When the ship is destroyed in the hanger in the beginning we still have the awful dialog, “Captain! Look!” “Shields!” IMO this should have been cut.
- When Anakin brings his guests home and they have their conversation at the table, there are some pauses that could/should have been cut to help it flow just a bit better.
- While I’m happy to see the end parade gone, the transition to the credits seems abrupt. Perhaps a fade up on the preceding music to ramp up the crash into the standard end credit music.
These minor problems aside it’s a strong cut and worth checking out.
Review by thunderclap — October 4, 2010 @ 10:00 pm
FINALLY! I have been searching for the perfect fanedit of THE PHANTOM MENACE for years. When THE PHANTOM EDIT was first released, it was a breath of fresh air. I had never seen anything like it and I thought it was the perfect edit. Watching it years later, I started to notice lots of things that were still in the film that I hated. Since then, I have downloaded several MENACE edits and none of them have gone far enough … until now. Simply put, L8WRTR’s edit is brilliant. I was smiling from ear to ear as I watched this, as L8WRTR made almost every single cut that I had wanted. Seriously, it was if he somehow got into my brain and made this cut just for me. This is, far and away, the greatest MENACE edit available. That being said, there are still a few small issues. The last line of the opening crawl is clumsy and unnecessary. It ruins what I thought was an otherwise excellent opening crawl. There are still a few too many annoying Jar-Jar and Anakin moments / lines (“Yousa thinking yousa people gonna die?”, “They all brokey”, “Are you an Angel?”, “I’m a person and my name is Anakin!”, Anakin’s woo-hoo as he exits the exploding Droid Control Ship). Also, I don’t like the virgin birth angle but I get that L8WRTR will be utilizing this sub-plot in future prequel edits. Going out on a positive note, L8WRTR’s editing of the end battles is amazing. The best part, by far, is Darth Maul’s death. He no longer dies like a little bitch! That has always bugged me and I’ve never seen it addressed in a fanedit. Bravo, sir! If you’re like me and hate the movie but feel the need to watch it during complete STAR WARS marathons, this is the only edit worth your time. Also, give the commentary a listen. It’s really informative and L8WRTR is very knowledgable and entertaining.
Review by Kolpitz — April 14, 2011 @ 8:57 pm
L8wrtr inspired me to watch this edit due to a well-argued debate we engaged in, even though I vowed some time ago to not watch anymore star wars edits (at least not until some worth HD efforts). http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?2524-The-Two-Sides-of-Every-Movie-An-Essay-by-Gaith/page2
I accepted long ago that it is impossible to make this movie more enjoyable than painful to watch, and thus accepted the Phantom Edit as the definitive version. (Episodes 2 and 3 already have perfect fanedits made in my opinion so I don’t bother with those either.)
It has been so long since I have seen the original theatrical version of this movie that it is pointless to even compare to that. Instead I will compare to my old definitive version, The Phantom Edit, which is more relevant anyway considering most all of the TPM edits are essentially edits of that edit. As revolutionary as the Phantom Edit was, I do agree with many other people’s sentiments that it could have gone much further in its cuts.
Much to my pleasant surprise, L8wrtr, your edit is a tremendous overall improvement of the Phantom Edit. There are small little bits of comedy or drama that I personally feel add to the characters and movie’s charm, however given how much of Lucas’s efforts in this regard fail even in The Phantom Edit, I can see how an editor might overshoot the mark a bit regarding cutting the fluff. The story now moves faster with steady and deliberate pace. The only problem is that I still don’t care about any of the characters or what is happening. I pray for something new and exciting, but of course there isn’t anything new. The best I can hope for is less annoyance and a faster conclusion.
Ironically you almost managed to turn me to the dark side. As I was watching and comparing it to The Phantom Edit I started thinking about even deeper cuts that could be done to yours. I started toying with the idea of doing an edit of your edit of the Phantom Edit. Maybe there is a good hour-long episode yet to be discovered amongst this rubble? Maybe this 4th generation edit of mine might prove to be the magic edit everyone thought was impossible! It was about this time that the characters returned to Naboo. I sobered up.
This edit is a great overall improvement and now my definitive TPM edit, which is a great credit to your skill as an editor, especially when one considers those great editors that have come before you with lesser results. But the movie is still rubbish. At best this movie could be made to work as an average 2-part Clone Wars animated episode. The failures of the story go so far beyond a bit of bad dialogue. There are only a handful of scenes that work and even fewer characters that do, but this is no fault of yours. You took a plate-full of canned cat food and made it almost palatable for human consumption. But I am still eating cat food when I want a steak.
My respect for your edit comes from the many little changes and general pacing. Your biggest change to the story itself didn’t impress me, but it doesn’t make it much worse either. You shift the focus to Anakin being the one who saves the day at the end, which is a cool idea except that you do it by shifting the focus even more onto one of my least favorite scenes in the entire movie where Anakin flies into the hangar bay. (At least you fixed the auto-pilot debacle of him flying out of the Naboo hangar bay!) If a couple torpedoes in a hangar bay can blow up that huge ship, then some engineering company out there had better get ready for a massive law suit from the Trade Federation! (nevermind that the scene visually looks terrible). The much more plausible interesting way for our protagonists to win is the part you cut out with the queen impersonator creating a diversion and capturing the Viceroy. “Everything depends on capturing the Viceroy.” This makes sense to me. We have already established he is a bit cowardly. Capture him and he will cave, call off the attack, and sign a new trade agreement. There is not even a need to have the ship blow up other than for the cool effect. But then again, why is Anakin there at all! Why wouldn’t he be left on Corruscant. It is all absurd, but I digress.
The video quality is much improved over The Phantom Edit.
Biggest technical issue comes at 25:20 where you have a short scene that has a sound glitch followed by a lip synching problem for a few seconds. I also noticed a small sound glitch at 54:53.
Still virgin birth. Ugh.
Pod race much improved! Pacing felt about right, though I wouldn’t have minded you keeping a couple cutsie moments. My recommendations: one sandpeople shot (not at Anakin), Jabba, and the pitstop incident with the little droid that gets sucked through. Maybe the humpty dumpty dude stuck at the starting line simply because there is a shot later that it seems like you need of the pod racers zooming by him on one of their laps. Maybe I spaced out but it seemed like I only saw them cross the starting line once instead of twice for a 3-lap race.
It still seems like there is something missing from the pod race. I noticed for the first time that there is no music in the background. That should make the editing simpler and opens up some potential for some real creativity here that I have yet to see in an edit of the podrace. The whole thing still feels a little hoky and un-intense. Anakin has one too many mishaps and I have a hard time believing that he could ever catch up and win, no matter how awesome his pod racer may theoretically be.
Jar Jar handled well.
As somebody else mentioned. Still a random “roger roger” that is very out of place.
Great improvement to the Obi killing darth maul scene, but still horrible absurdly stupid.
I missed the “I will be watching your career with great interest” line. Presumably this was because you wanted to keep Palpatine’s identity more mysterious? If so I find it hard to believe that anybody watching would not comprehend by this point that there is something ‘insidious’ about this man (what horrible character names!).
Mixed feelings about cutting the celebration at end.
Love the new text crawl at the beginning of the movie. Always hated that the Phantom Editor used that as his place to put a political message.
Overall: Strong work! Still hate the movie but now this is my new official least hated version!
Video: 9/10
Audio:7/10
Technical and story editing: 8/10
Review by geminigod — June 9, 2011 @ 1:24 am
If you are new to Star Wars fanedits this is where you need to start. This is the only Ep I edit I have watched all the way through, and I feel no need to continue my search. L8 cuts out the silliness and some bloated scenes but leaves the story intact. From the clips I’ve seen of other edits, it seems the editor’s primary concern was to cut out as much as possible. But, this to me just made the movie feel rushed and not enjoyable to watch. Having watched SotS and seen L8’s work on episodes 2 and 3, I can safely say that his primary concern is story. For example, many are unhappy that he left in the virgin birth and prophecy story line. But, I admire that he left it in, even though it could have easily been cut out, because it was a part of the story that GL gave us. Although it was not really developed, the theme of the virgin birth and prophecy flows through the other two episodes, helping tie the PT together. I say bravo and I am really looking forward to seeing your entire trilogy.
As for video and sound I cannot really comment. I have a laptop and a tiny 10 year old tube TV. All I can say is that SotS sounds and looks as good as any other movie I watch.
I have heard a rumor that L8 may revisit this project after he finishes episode 3 so I’m willing to bet many of the issues people have already brought up will disappear. Here is my primary suggestion. Someone above mentioned that the ending felt strange with the main theme cutting in on such an ominous scene. But, I also feel it is strange to have a Star Wars movie end with anything other than the main theme. First, I have to say I really like the movie ending at the funeral. It sets the tone for the next 2 movies. But, I think what would be best is to have a musical climax as the camera is panning over to Palpatine. Every SW movie has the music ending on a high note before it goes to the main theme. What makes the SotS ending awkward is that the final scene is basically silent so the main theme sounds abrupt. If you find a climactic portion of Duel of the Fates to play while the camera is panning over to Palpatine, I believe this will solve the issue. I hope I described that clearly enough
I give this edit 9/10. I only knock a point off for some of the minor issues that I’m sure will be corrected when L8 revisits SotS. But, I feel certain that when L8 finishes his trilogy, once more there will be peace in my Star Wars galaxy. In my mind no other edits will be necessary. Thanks for all your hard work.
Review by theologyjohn — June 21, 2011 @ 11:01 pm
Out of all the prequel fanedits out there I had only seen the Phantom Editor’s version of Episode 1 so the bar for this one was set rather high. However, L8wrtr put a lot of thought and effort into this one and it shows.
This one goes by so fast that it will be over before you realize it. A LOT was cut and the movie now goes at breakneck speed. Gone is all the excessive silliness and horrible lines of dialog; what we get is a leaner and meaner Phantom Menace with little room for breathers. Which is, ironically, the main flaw of this fanedit. Or rather I should say it has the quality of its flaw; as it was a balance between keeping some of the crap and making us cringe every 5 minutes or throwing all of it out the window and giving us a much more serious take on The Phantom Menace. In my opinion L8wrtr cut a little too much out of the movie but those wanting an all-silliness-removed version will be very pleased with this one.
On the technical side of things, the image quality was great throughout. Some of the cuts the editor made were too abrupt for my tastes but by his own admission this was a more drastic take, meant to cut deeply into the film. Some of the audio cuts and transitions could have been smoother but these moments were few and far between over the course of the movie.
As for presentation and bonuses, we get simple but nice menus. The dual-layer version gives us deleted scenes – which help us put a lot of what we just watched into perspective – and a nice commentary track explaining the editor’s views on the movie and the editing choices he made.
I give this fanedit a 7/10, which was almost an 8/10 had some of the cuts not been so abrupt and had the audio issues been smoothed out. Overall, it did get me hyped to see his take on Attack of the Clones because I think his editing style will lend itself beautifully for what is, in my opinion, the worst of the prequels.
Review by blueyoda — August 7, 2011 @ 4:40 am
Shadow of the Sith review
Ok, I just geeked out and watched 3 Phantom Menace fan edits in a row. The Phantom Edit, followed by JasonN’s Attack of the Federation and finally L8wtr’s Shadow of the Sith. For a while I considered Phantom Edit to be the definitive version, but having rewatched it tonight I came to see a lot of the problems that have been previously highlighted by others. I didn’t feel like JasonN’s cuts went nearly far enough, while the emperor’s cloaked face seemed quite clumsy. Finally, I viewed L8wtr’s edit, which I have had on my laptop for a while but never ventured more than 20 minutes into.
Well, blow me away, I now have a definitive Episode 1 for my collection. *But* – and this is a massive but – there are a couple of problems that I feel should not only be highlighted, but if at all possible edited. L8wtr, I hope you’re listening!
First and foremost, the ending. I can understand you cutting the celebration: personally I’ve always enjoyed it, I love the music and I think its shot well, it’s a highly enjoyable end to a movie which is as much an old-fashioned adventure as anything else. But I think ending on the funeral also works: it’s a beautiful scene and it also perfectly mirrors the ending to Return of the Jedi… however, the final cut of the film into the credits DOES NOT WORK. It has three major problems.
Firstly, while the scene is good, the final shot of lingering of Palpatine is too heavy handed. The PT is pretty clumsy with its reveals; its not clear at what point the audience is actually supposed to realise that Palpatine is Sidius, but to anyone with the slightest understanding of film language, the pyre scene makes it abundantly obvious. Within the original film I dislike how the shot stops on Palpatine (I feel it’s one of the scenes that should be edited) but at least it is immediately followed with the street celebration scene and the audience is just left with a pretty major hint. But to make it the very last scene of the film is simply too heavy handed in my opinion. The fix to this would be to try and make the shot linger less, or to use a different final shot. (This ties to the third problem, but I will get to that.)
Secondly, the use of the standard star wars music doesn’t work. Somebody else has commented on this, and I see you have provided the option of an alternative score. This would be fine, except for…
The third and final problem, is the cut itself. The timing is too abrupt, and the use of the circular wipe just doesn’t match what is in the frame. I know this is the standard way to end the films, but just as you are willing to change the music, I would strongly suggest you consider a different wipe. In my opinion, the best cut would be simply to either fade or cut straight to black. I know this isn’t very ‘star warsy’, but it does fit the film itself.
I adored your edit from start to (almost) finish, but that last second of film really left a sore taste in my mouth. I would beg of you to consider either tightening it or changing it for a slightly different climax, by changing the final shot, timing or wipe and keeping either Duel of Fates or another score that is different to the original.
Now, I will briefly mention the other (lesser) issues I had with the edit, before moving onto praise.
The opening crawl
The dialogue is good, but the crawl itself isn’t great. There is too much space between the letters and it just looks slightly cheap. The other edits I have seen – including the Phantom Edit – had scores which could be mistaken for the original if it weren’t for the altered text. Also, the timing and speed of “STAR WARS” seemed a bit off.
Within the film itself, one of the droids says “roger roger” as mentioned by another viewer.
The probe droid deleted scene
The colouring is very apparent. I don’t really mind this, but anything that could be done to lesser the contrast between this and the other scenes would be good.
The timing of almost all the subtitles could do with tweaking, they tend to appear too early. Also, perhaps using a smaller font would make them seem more natural.
Things I missed: Padme’s pouty “Well I don’t like it” and “You assume to much”. I don’t mind their absence, but I do like the lines.
Finally, the only other thing I wasn’t a huge fan of (and this is simply an opinion) is the inclusion of the “chosen one” subplot. It could be dropped entirely from the prequels and we would be left with a more grounded tale of a man’s corruption and its terrible consequences. However, its not really a problem and I’m jumping complaining about nothing now.
Now, this is where the film excelled:
The crawl. Yes, the actual graphics need changing, but the dialogue is probably the best fanedit TPM opening crawl I’ve seen. It’s both concise and interesting, and I for one don’t mind the TPM reference at all.
The dialogue: all of it. You have done excellent editing throughout, although of particular note were:
Boss Nas – I didn’t think I’d like this change as Boss Nas’s ticks are pretty central to his character in the early scenes and I felt the altered dialogue would be too abrupt. However, I feel it works very well and you succeed in your goal of presenting the Gungans as being genuinely dangerous (quite an accomplishment considering the material).
The ship escape – removing all the horrible references to R2 makes these scenes considerably better. No cleaning, no naming of R2, etc.
Anakin’s mother – This is the finest editing I have seen of this entire part of the film. Removing Qui Gon explaining the he couldn’t free his mother adds intelligence and emotion to the scene. Similarly, I have been waiting a long time for somebody to clean up Anakin’s goodbye and remove his reference to “returning to save” his mother. Brilliant stuff.
Also, the dialogue during scene at the dinner table is really well edited. The removal of the horrible “I die everytime…” line is very well done; now all the characters appear stronger and more likable. Again, the emotion you managed to get out of Anakin’s separation from his mother is incredible: I was genuinely moved by his loss. You also highlight a great deal of the humanity lost in the PT, Qui Gon now comes across as a wise, kind and caring – yet still dangerous – individual. Anakin is now a scrappy and slightly volatile yet fundamentally decent kid, which is exactly what he should be. Bravo!
If I continue highlighting dialogue I’ll end up discussing almost every scene in the film, so I will move on.
Anakin’s fight – great inclusion, it works really well, showing a violent side to Anakin that isn’t normally shown. Removal of his friends also improves the Tatooine scenes considerably.
The Pod Race – less is definitely more. I was sad at Jabba’s removal, I like him in TPM, but you manage to present the pod race as a genuinely dangerous and thrilling race. Its shorter length definitely adds to the effect, it feels less like an endurance and more like a no-limits drag race.
The final battle – I questioned your inclusion of making Jar Jar a general. It seems an unnecessary scene, especially as *all* of Jar Jar’s actions in the final battle are horrible slapstick. As it turns out, you didn’t include any of them – which is excellent – although I’m still not sure if making him a general is necessary. I was also unsure about making Anakin’s destruction of the Control Ship the focus when I read it, but you’re right it works perfectly. The sense of loss when *every* plan fails really works. I did miss the conclusion to Padme’s capture, I wondered if the throne room scene could be re-edited, but I suppose its conclusion is easy presumed and I probably miss it most because I’m so used to seeing it.
All in all, this is a truly excellent edit, by far the best TPM I have seen. You manage to capture a sense of danger, excitement and emotions that the film has never shown before. However, I would truly implore you to change – 1) the opening credits to one that looks more official, and 2) the final few seconds which really undermine so much of your good work.
Review by gugliemo — September 17, 2011 @ 3:40 am
I finally sat down to watch this, this afternoon.
I’ve watched a good few TPM edits and JasonN’s Attack of the Federation was my favourite. Well, sorry Jase, but you’ve been pipped.
This is a fantastic edit. It really is, nothing I can really add what hasn’t already been said – but things I did enjoy:
– Jar Jar has like a half dozen words.
– Anakin is an alright kid.
– Padme isn’t whingey.
– Boss matey-boy doesn’t have ticks.
– The dinner scene was really well edited. It all just comes from Ani.
– Pod race was great.
– The final battle was great as well, making it all seemingly hinge on Anakin.
– Droids don’t say much.
– Prefer that ending. Hate the original one.
Colouring did seem to be off on the probe droid section, but I do wonder if this will happen in the DVD version (I watched the MP4). Editing was seemless, crawl was great. I think this is my go-to version now. I missed nothing except Padme & Co got captured, but Anakin saves the day and I kinda missed Padme & Co getting control of the throne room…but nah, you wouldn’t miss it if you knew no better.
I’m excited to watch your Pt2 now, which Attack of the Phantom was currently my go-to version.
Nice one mate.
Review by white43 — September 25, 2011 @ 5:33 pm
STAR WARS EPISODE I: SHADOW OF THE SITH by L8WRTR
The Phantom Menace. What is there to say about the original 1999 prequel? Well, I would like to say that when I first saw it, I loved it. There were certain annoyances (ahem…Jar-Jar…ahem…Jake Lloyd), but I mean, I was pretty young, so I thought it was awesome. I don’t completely disagree with my less wise self, as there are some genuinely cool parts of the film. However, as I’ve gotten older, these annoyances have intensified. I can still watch the film and enjoy it, I just cringe a lot. One other annoyance has become more evident though, and that is the pointlessness of the story.
Unfortunately for L8wrtr, he’s only managed to intensify this fact. In this process of cutting the film down to the bare necessities, he’s dramatically increased the pacing of the film. While many might think this a good thing, it’s really detrimental. The original’s problems were conceptual. I re-watched it recently, and I noticed something I hadn’t really noticed before: it’s pacing is actually much better than I remember. For awhile I’ve been trying to pin down what makes TPM and Attack of the Clones different in badness. I’ve figured it out. TPM’s story is pointless, however, when shown with a 2+ hour runtime, there is time for the story and the world time to flesh out, which allows me to enjoy the movie as a self-contained little tale. AOTC’s story is kind of what TPM’s story should have been, but the movie still sucks because the pacing’s all screwed up.
So, sadly, by making the movie 1 1/2 hours, circulation has been cut off to the plot. The movie now feels like just a set up for the next movie, but it can’t really even function this way because, like I said, the story is pointless. This is the movie that starts the saga, it doesn’t feel right that it would be this short, faced paced adventure. Now I don’t really miss anything L8wrtr cut, but the movie doesn’t really work when its that short. I know many people will disagree with me, but its just how the movie feels when I watch it. The pacing is so quick that I feel like some of the sequences go by so fast that you’re almost questioning what happened. I like getting rid of Jar Jar’s banishment, but the whole scene with Boss Nass and Qui-Gon goes by so quickly that your left trying to figure what just happened after the scene is finished. One scene that really lags in my opinion is the pod race. Without the announcers, the opening is really quite uneventful. Speaking of things that are uneventful without voices, the battle droids. Also at the end of the film, when all hope is supposedly lost in the battle, the editing is so quick that the possibility that our heros might actually lose doesn’t even occur in the mind because, before you know, Anakin has just saved the day.
Something that I know people, including me, don’t like is the ending. Yes, no one really likes the celebration, I know I’ve hated it since I first saw it, but the ending as is in the edit is far too downbeat. Now, I saw in one of the forums someone said that they think the movie should end with the scene of Obi-Wan talking to Yoda. I didn’t like this idea the first time I heard it because I think the funeral scene is a good one. But it got me thinking, what if the funeral scene played first (sans Anakin and Kenobi dialogue) and then the Yoda and Kenobi scene is the final scene of the film? One other random edit suggestion that came to me while watching the movie is during the scene when Padme discusses the battle plan. As she goes over the different parts of the plan, there are cutaway shots to the other people listening. When she mentions the pilots, in the original film the cutaway shot is of Obi-Wan, but I think it would a good edit to make the shot of Ankin instead, showing that he’s taking interest in that particular part of plan, which makes his decision to join the battle later make all the more sense.
One technical problem I noticed was when Watto is first introduced, the subtitle starts and ends too soon.
Okay, rant done. I just felt I needed to explain the main flaw of the edit properly. Now, like I said before, none of the cuts are really missed, or noticeable. There were a few that I definitely noticed, but they were only because of my knowledge of the original film. The only really slightly almost sloppy editing came at the end during the final battle. The music was just all over the place, but I honestly don’t think there was much that could be done when so much was being cut out. Don’t get me wrong though, this is by no means a bad edit. I really enjoyed all the little plot points that have been changed. Making Anakin the hero was particularly ingenious. Also, the editing was superb in the scene where Obi-Wan kills Maul. I have to say one of my favorite parts of the edit was the opening crawl. To me, it was the perfect way to set up the film, and its what the original movie needed. It put emphasis on the real point of the movie (the sith have returned), which, in the original movie, felt like an unimportant sub-plot. It also reduced the complexity of the trade dispute because, honestly, we really didn’t need to know exactly why there was a blockade, especially considering less than 10 minutes into the film Darth Sidious says f*** it, and reveals that the whole thing was part of an invasion.
Anyways, I would give the original TPM a score of 6 out of 10. As a movie I would give Shadow of the Sith a 7 out of 10. Since I know that it wasn’t really L8wrtr’s fault that the movie still isn’t great, and that, for the most part, the editing is supreme, I give STAR WARS EPISODE I: SHADOW OF THE SITH 8/10.
Review by DominicCobb — November 11, 2011 @ 3:28 pm