Overall an enjoyable edit. The pace was fast and got right to the point. I enjoyed the shortened opening, though there were a few obvious cuts. I personally think that the editing was far too severe. I feel much of the epic storytelling is lost here. It doesn’t feel like a Star Wars film any more. Therefor, I give STAR WARS EPISODE III: SPECIAL EDITION 8/10

Finished this just now. I enjoyed it and it shits all over the original version. I understand why you removed the Yoda/Palpy fight, but I guess I’m not a fan of it. Yoda just kind of hiding until the end was kind of a WTF moment for me, but again I understand why you did it. Nice work. 9/10.

I do however hesitate to recommend it to anyone I know in real life for two reasons:

1) several bad jump cuts (most are previously mentioned here)

2) the DVD Menu. I greatly dislike the DVD Menu because it’s out of place for the feel of Star Wars both for the video sequence and the music.

The best I can say is that the Anakin Vs. Dooku fight is much improved.

I have seen edits of the other prequels where I didn’t like the choices the editor made but AT LEAST it was edited well. This doesn’t deserve the high score and I recommend skipping this one until the edits are improved.

This was so good, especially the Anakin vs Dooku fight! It was such a surprise, like I had no idea what was about to happen. Way to go on making that more intense. And thank god you took out all that redundant crap dialogue leading up to the anakin and obi wan throw down! And the fight it self was way more intense. I missed the “i failed you part” but it’s cool cause there was no pause in the action.
Oh yeah, removing the emperor yoda dialogue and fight was another major plus! Though I did originally like the fight outside the temple, I did not miss it for sake of the flow of your edit.
I rate this 9/10.

So… I watched the whole thing with a couple of other Star Wars geeks at work and, to quote my friend, “Holy crap. I actually care about these characters now. How did this guy do this?”

I figure that’s about the best compliment I can pass on, you made a movie where-in boring and dull characters became characters we enjoyed instead of cringed over!

However seeing as how good this one was, I would really like seeing your skills on ep1 and ep2. As good as The Phantom Editor was with his films, they are not perfect. Specifically the CRAWL, and a flying R2!

I really do hope that you reconsider and do the other two films. TGHanks and looking forward to more of your projects.

(PS: sorry, I think I failed to respond to an email of yours regarding this v3 way back when! Been a busy year.)

Technical editing 9/9.5 out of 10
Story editing 10/10
Menu 5/10 Menu is fantastic, brilliantly presented, but utterly ruined by the menu movie of Yoda dancing with the troopers. Totally ruins the mood of the film immediately.
Overall film: I rate Ep3 about a 5 or 6, so this edit would be a 7 or 8 as a standalone movie release.

But this is fanedit.org, not imdb, so I’ll give a final rating on the fanedit, not the movie.

9 out of 10 (docked a point for the menu and a couple of obvious cuts – I’ll list them when I watch it again)
SUPERB!

Anyway I set down to watch, expecting something similar to the last edit I watched of episode 3 and in places it was very similar, but I was gobsmacked at how much better it overall was, Anakins fall seems more natural, there’s no Palpatine goading him, he just seems to do things out of what he believes is necessity. Not only does this improve Hayden’s character (which I already felt he’d stepped up his game a little since ep 2) but also Ian McDiarmid’s since there’s less of him chewing scenery. The way the final fight is handled leads me to think this was the way it was intended to be carried out, Glad all the yoda stuff is gone. The high ground and all the whining about Jedi ways are gone, which again makes me glad, having anakin attack constatntly attacking without all the talking seems to work better, channelling his hate and contempt toward Obi-wan, much better than the ‘In my opinion’ crap we were originally subjected to.

The somersault caught me by surprise, it was so seamless, perfectly done, I had never even have dreamed something like that could be possible, and the way it flowed wasn’t obvious that it had been edited. Bravo for that. Like other people I wouldv’e liked to have seen slightly more of suited up Vader, But again I think from a prequel point of view this helps bridge the mystery a little between the films not really showing his burned face makes (or will make it) all the more believable when he’s unmasked in Jedi.

Thank you.

As much as I enjoyed watching this edit I think it’s made me realize a sad fact. I don’t think the prequels can ever be made into great movies. Episode 3 can be made good. Episodes 1 and 2 can be made tolerable. I think it’s the best we can hope to achieve. All do respect to George, I look forward to when he’s passed on and maybe a decent creative team can reimagine the prequels…

Couldn’t have said it better myself…..Ben Burtt should have declined the job in the first place, nothing against the guy, but a sound editor doing video editing? Really Lucas, jeez what were you thinking?!

I’m afraid I’ve been unable to finish watching it yet, but I did recall one other thing I noticed do far…Anakin actually seems to be falling to the dark side more naturally as opposed to the GL version where he seems to (almost) abruptly switch for trivial reasons. From the beginning in this one, he’s visibly different. The anger and frustration show more in this version as he turns. It makes it more believable when he does take that final step and assists Palpatine.

You know, I’ve started thinking recently that perhaps one of the problems with the prequels is Ben Burtt. I love Burtt’s sound engineering for the Star Wars & Indiana Jones films (Raiders is one of my favorites when it comes to sound design), but as an editor he leaves much to be desired. If it hadn’t been for the editors on the original film in 1977 it’s possible that one could have suffered a similar fate. They did a fabulous job with what they had to work with (filming stopping just as the shots end, etc). I’m not sure what other film editing Burtt has done or why he ended up with the job on these and I know he confronted GL on the problems of putting together the final battle scenes on Phantom Menace, but I’ve begun to wonder if it has something to do with it. Between your RotS edit and Phantom Editor’s Phantom Menace & Clones, it sure seems that if the right editor had been there at the beginning, we might have ended up with solid films, though still slightly disappointing from a story/script point of view.

I am basing this review on the DL DVD version.

I am a huge fan of JasonN’s version of this movie, but I thought I’d DL this just to see if the movie could be improved even more (Episode III is, as everyone seems to think, the best of the PT).

TECHNICAL

WONDERFUL quality! The picture was as crisp as any DVD I’ve seen (I watched it on a 19″ CRT, which I believe have far superior pictures to LCDs). The sound was great (admittedly on my 2.0 PC speakers) with nary a strange cut to be found. Incredibly smooth with and balanced, with no effects or dialogue getting drowning out or intruding on each other at any point.

I noticed but one semi-hard cut in the movie when Obi and Anakin were going to meet with the Chancellor after they “landed” the crippled cruiser, and there was one transition effect I wasn’t terribly fond of (what would make me laugh is if it were an original Lucas transition and I just THOUGHT it was Stankpac’s lol), but these are minor niggles and in no way took me out of the movie.

Overall, the Picture Quality and the sound quality were top notch! – 10/10 Great job!!!

EDITING

Amazing choices overall I will go into the detail of the ones that really stood out to me at the time…I wish I had a pen to write them down, because I can’t remember them all lol

THE GOOD

– The buzz droids are gone!!
– The entire first battle was greatly reduced in time…this made it feel MUCH more like Episode IV. Episode IV was a very hurried movie at it’’s start.
– Anakin just lops off Dooku’s head without any prompting…I kind of liked a bit of the prompting, but it makes no real difference to the movie and
doesn’t detract from the movie at all (kind of makes Anakin seem like a bastard too lol)
– No dumb-assed R2 slapstick (which I hated with a burning passion)…very smoothly taken out.
– Adding in Droidekas coming in through the door instead of R2 flying through.
– The Boga scenes were trimmed. I really did not mind at all that there were some of his calls in there. It made it seem like a real creature to me.
– No “duh” moment when Obi separates Grevious’s chest armour!
– Adding in the “Birth of the Rebellion” scene really adds to the movie.
– No balcony scene!
– Windu’s fight with Sidious is improved in EVERY way…and the jedi masters don’t go out like a bunch of pussies lol
– The fight between Yoda and Sidious is gone. I didn’t miss it one bit.
– There is no hesitation with Anakin lopping off Windu’s hand.
– No “What have I done?” from Anakin (I liked his lack of remorse. Much more convincing)
– No Wookie battle or cheezy Tarzan scream…all the cuts involving Kashyyk here were for the better.
– Anakin does not turn to the camera with the stupid tear in his eye.
– I absolutely LOVED when Obi looks at the dead Younglings, says “Who could have done this?” and then the movie cuts immediately to Anakin
killing the Separatist leaders…well done!!!
– The lightsaber battle was great!! It is pretty much the same as JasonN’s, which I loved (and I’m glad for the loss of the lightsaber twirling and force
push things…these were stupid, unrealistic – even for Star Wars – and meant as nothing but very lousy-tasting eye candy).
– No Emperor on Mustafar scene. This scene was comprised of entirely weak camera angles and I never liked it.
– Amildala dies as a result of Anakin choking her. No more is heard after she is choked.
* Did you lower the emphasis of Anakin’s voice when he says “MY empire”???? It didn’t seem as annoying as it did before somehow.
– No horrible “Birth of Vader” Scene (I hate it for reasons I previously posted)
– No Vader and Emperor watching the Death Star under construction. I liked the scene in the first place, but it is not missed AT ALL.
– The ending is crisp and concise. Great choices.
– There are more, but I have a family I have to pay attention to and I don’t have the days it would require to write them all down lol

THE “MEH”

– I liked the Grevious/Anakin banter…cheezy, yes, but I like it lol and now it’s gone — Personal Opinion –
– Took out “Another happy landing.” I liked that too –Personal Opinion –
– Obi’s battle with Grevious was oddly silent.
– I would have ended Vader’s Birth at “Yes, my Master.” — Personal Opinion –
– Nothing else that I can remember.

As you can see, the good far, far outweighs the bad in this edit. I really wish Ian MacDermot’s acting would have been better after his battle with Windu, and that Obi actually HAD watched the Younglings get killed on the security vid (which he says he did, but was never shown for some weird reason…Lucas dropped the ball on that one)

Overall editing – 9.5/10 (just due to my personal choices)

I have now watched JasonN’s and Stankpac’s versions of the film, and, overall I think Stankpac’s version is a tiny bit better. I watched the Phantom Editor’s version of Episode II and the movie was completely ruined before it started (because of the opening crawl) and I was forced to delete it from my hard drive. I will keep yous and JasonN’s versions of this movie just for different viewing experiences in the future because they are both great edits.

Your edits to the STORY were perfect! I actually felt bad for Anakin by the end of it, which is a far cry to wishing he had fallen off the edge of a building at the BEGINNING of the movie lol. I hope you come out of your Prequel Trilogy burnout soon, because would kill to see your edits of Episode s I and II!!!

Overall, I give your edit a hugely enthusiastic 10/10. I have my minor niggles, but they are inconsequential in the overall picture. Keep up the wonderful work!!!

To be honest, I haven’t seen the whole film yet, but I gotta tell ya…what I’ve seen so far is AMAZING. I had planned on putting it on for a second and see what it looked like and just watch it later. I almost couldn’t stop watching. I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth this flowed. The editing here was almost flawless. I saw one cut somewhere on board Grievous’ ship that seemed maybe a frame off. It probably wouldn’t be noticeable to most, but being an editor it kinda jumped out at me. But that’s minor. I was glued. I had to force myself to turn it off so I could get a few things done! I’d watched around 30-35 minutes, but it seemed more like 45-50…AWESOME pacing!! I had planned on waiting till I watched the whole thing before I commented further, but I simply had to chime in. This is a phenomenal achievement considering the original material. The opening scenes (battle over Coruscant, Grievous’ ship, crash landing) were great. The addition of Organa, Amidala and the other members of the Senate discussing starting the Rebellion fit perfectly and was a welcome one! I recall Rick McCallum stating at the time that the scene ultimately didn’t fit in and it ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’, so to speak. After seeing it reinserted here, I’m not sure what he’s talking about. To me, it added a depth that was sorely missing from the theatrical version and offered yet another tie in to Ep. 4. I’ve seen a couple different attempts at improving this film, but this one so far is the best. The only real complaint I had was maybe with the overall quality. It seemed slightly grainy and the contrast appeared off slightly. The blacks weren’t quite black. Again, minor and it didn’t affect my overall enjoyment. This looks like it’s going to end up my preferred version of the film. Between The Phantom Editor’s Episodes 1 & 2 and your Episode 3, FINALLY I can enjoy the prequels!

I can’t wait to see this in its entirety. Stupendous job!

Oh, and about Lawrence Kasdan? I’ll third that!

My sentiments exactly! Hope you enjoy it.

As I haven’t downloaded this version (YET!!), I can only comment on your cutlist…

The “Birth of Vader” scene sounds like it has been trimmed FOR THE BETTER…I’ve always had trouble with the whole “In your anger, you killed her,” Vader screams in the cheeziest way possible while Palpatine laughs.

In all reality, the whole series would have pretty-much ended there…if any normal jedi would have turned to the Dark Side and then found out he killed the only REASON he went to the Dark Side, wouldn’t that Jedi think: “Hmmm…maybe this Dark Side thing wasn’t such a good idea after all,” try to kill the Emperor for doing such a horrible thing to him and have the Emperor lash him with lightning bolts, ultimately killing him?

IT was a REALLY bad script decision on GL’s part…he should have gotten Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett to writ it instead.

I’m really looking forward to watching this!!!

I haven’t checked through all the comments yet so I’m not sure if anyone else touched on this, but the information you provide with the files is inaccurate as far as one small story detail is concerned. The governors the Chancellor appointed were not Jedi. The Jedi were acting as generals in the fight against the Separatists. The governors were military officers promoted to oversee various regions. One must look no further than the original Star Wars (Episode 4) to verify. Tarkin was one such governor. If I’m not mistaken, Jerjerrod from Return of the Jedi was another. Palpatine appointed the governors to help maintain control & order throughout the soon to be Empire which is why Bail Organa has such a problem with the concept. As we saw in Episode 4, Palpatine later dissolved the Senate and gave the governors direct control over the various territories they oversaw.

More info verifying this can be found here: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Governors

Thanks for the edit! It sounds amazing compared to the theatrical version. Can’t wait to NOT see and hear Vader yell “No”. I mean, really…what was that all about? It was embarrassing to watch. Why could he not have simply dropped to his knees and pondered what he’d done (even though we already got an earful of that after he cut off Mace’s hand). It would have been more effective I think than the ultra-unbelievable garbage we ended up with.

I’ll be sure and let you know how I enjoyed it!

I liked how Anakin just cuts Dooku’s head off – no taunting from Dooku or Palpatine, just Anakin trying to complete a mission. Though the original scene does mirror the ROTJ Luke/Vader scene, these new cuts don’t hurt the story, and do show Anakin as a more able Jedi. Good decision in cutting “My powers have doubled since the last time we met”, though I did enjoy Dooku’s retort.

The cut of the Mace/Sidious/Anakin sequence is also great – I now fully believe that Anakin was tricked into thinking the Jedi were evil, and not regretting his decision whatsoever(at least not until ROTJ). Cutting out his “Noooooo!” later works great as well, as he feels betrayed by her, and doesn’t give a shit.

Leaving out the Yoda/Sidious fight actually works here – I’m going to admit that I actually liked the scene. If Yoda were ever to bust out the saber, it’s there, as it is the Jedi’s last stand. But with Yoda insisting that the Sith must be destroyed, but only having Obi Wan go after Anakin, it makes Anakin’s turn that much more important to the fate of the Jedi and the galaxy. Of course, Obi Wan only leaves him for dead, but Anakin is forever disabled.

The only things I would have liked left in, would be when Anakin and Obi Wan twirl their sabers, then force push each other in the control room, and when they collide, and we see lava spew behind them. Just two really good money shots that I enjoyed.

I would have also liked a commentary track, but I realize that these can be difficult to make.

Once again, great job. I hope you decide to do the other episodes in the prequels. It’s a shame that more footage/materials don’t exist for fan editors to work with, but that obviously doesn’t stop the cutting.

Shortening their conversation seemed a bit unnecessary but I didn’t mind it that much. The other cuts (Jedi conversation and whatnot) are all good. Redundant crap we already know or stuff we don’t need to know.

Loved the Seeds of the Rebellion scene being added. No idea why they cut this scene, it connects to Episode IV very well. Mon Mothma having a bigger part is great. Also liked the other scenes you added in this area. It amazes me they weren’t used but others were. Also removing midi-chlorians… thank you! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!! If a fanedit has midi-chlorians in them I just can’t keep it. Thank you very much for removing that godawful pseudo-science crap. Keep the force mysterious!

I liked the cuts on Utapau, although it felt weird to have Obi-wan go so long without saying anything during the Greivous fight. Not saying I don’t like it, but it was odd how he didn’t speak during that entire exchange.

Definitely liked tightening up the whole arrest scene. Always thought that seemed overly long and I HATED Palpatine’s overacting and all of the “no’s” he spouted out when he was about to zap Mace. Very impressive editing of the whole fight scene too, I might add. I liked how Palpatine just immediately killed those two Jedi and made short work of Plo Koon much more quickly. He IS the Dark Lord of the SIth, after all! The whole scene is just much quicker, tighter, and flows better. Anakin’s turn is much quicker and more believable. I do, however, wish you could have cut the “UNLIMITED… POWER!!!!” line from Palpatine. Always hated that. Doesn’t take too much away from the scene, though. Wish there was a way to get rid of some of the bad acting on Christensen’s part but hey you can only do so much.

Cutting the younglings scene… Kind of iffy on this one. I always thought it really cemented just how twisted and evil Anakin had really become. I can live without it, though.

Removing the “Welcome, Lord Vader” line caused a bad jump cut… I know the line isn’t the best but the cut is really obvious. Having said that, was there any way to remove the “The war is over! Lord Sidious promised us peace–” line before Vader ices that guy? Just annoyed me how he didn’t just kill him immediately like the other guys.

Getting rid of Yoda’s saber usage is good. Removing the fight with Palpatine is very good. It was a cool visual but it really made no sense and added nothing of substance to the story.

The Mustafar Duel is now much quicker and better paced. I really liked what you did here. It flows very well. I especially liked how there was no “From my point of view the JEDI are evil!” and “I have the high ground!”. It jumps right from the fight into Anakin’s defeat and incineration. Nicely done.

Cutting the “she has lost the will to live” thing made me happy. Always thought that was a dumb cop out. I would have left in more of the Birth of Darth Vader scene. I really enjoyed that scene as it was the final death of Anakin and the true birth of Darth Vader as he breathes his first breath. That’s one thing I’d really like to see back but it doesn’t hurt my enjoyment at all. Very glad the “NOOOOOO” is gone.

Overall this is my favorite edit of Episode III, and while it isn’t perfect in terms of certain jump cuts sticking out and a few other things, its going to be my definitive Episode III for now. Very well done!

9/10