THINGS I ESPECAILLY LIKED
-no “You’re beautiful because I love you”
-cut out a lot of corny lines
-no buzz droids
-no screwing around with elevators in the beginning
-no more R2 trying to be Inspector Gadget
-no losing the will to live
-a lot of cuts I pry didn’t even notice that just helped to streamline the movie (Lucas has a tendency to go on irrelevant tangents/redundancies)
-cut out the Yoda/Palpatine fight
-I wasn’t sold on this at first but the fight scene is so over the top plus I think the emperor would be so well guarded that not even Yoda would be able to get to him
-Obi Wan is no longer a self incriminating Sith

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH (nitpicks)
-Biggest Pet Peeve: Cut out talk about Obi Wan communicating with Qui Gon
-this explains how Obi Wan was able to appear after death even though there were no Force ghosts in the prequels. I also liked the idea of Obi Wan having something
to do all those years he watched Luke grow up. It isn’t necessarily an integral part of Star Wars but I thought it was an amazing concept and it didn’t hinder anything else in the movie
-a few scenes/lines were cut that I felt developed character (though I can understand some of them given that the dialogue wasn’t the best)
-Yoda’s counsel to Anakin about learning to let things go (shows that Anakin was seeking help and Yoda was willing to give it even if it isn’t what he wanted to hear)
-We’re smarter than this —APPARENTLY NOT—-
-Anakin wishing Grievous was taller and Grievous thinking he was older (kinda corny dialogue but shows that Anakin has some attitude)
-You have done that yourself (partly because I quote this daily in my Obi Wan voice)
-You will try!
-The part of the epic duel where Anakin is physically choking Obi-Wan (it shows that Anakin means business and how dark he has become)

Overall great edit! The few problems I had with this edit pale in comparison to the embarassing/annoying blunders in the source film (but Kudos to Georgie for providing the still awesome “unfinished product”)

**On a personal note: this message is for reviewer Geminigod, i believe i have the magical edit you seek. i have totally re-worked the Grievous/Obi-wan fight & the all new ending reflects exactly what you have posted in your comments section. I am finishing it up as i type this and hope to upload it very soon. Just having a little difficulty with the subtitle track. If i can’t hammer that out, then i will just upload the fan-edit without it. Be patient!**

Only gripes are:
We don’t need the “Nooooo” bit at all. I’ve edited that out myself from this so you see Vaders mask being lowered then the next time you see him he’s standing on the bridge with Tarkin and the Emperor. Not a dig at this edit but I really can’t see Vader even using the word “OK” or “Alright”.

The dialogue with the medical droid is perfect, but we now have a shot of it and then a closer shot of it. It seems a bit clunky but I suppose it was difficult to get right.

Other than that… top notch! I’ve downloaded the Spence edit for attack of the clones in the hope that it is as good as this!

Yours has, without question, the best opening sequence I have seen. It is probably as close to perfect as you can get it without constructing some elaborate shots from scratch to find a plausible way to get them off the ship after fighting Count Dooku so you can skip entirely their capture and subsequent horrible Grevious fight and crash landing of the ship.

More good news: You cut out the “I have the high ground” line. Thank the lord. Major kudos for recognizing that absurdity. I also dug that you made the shot of Anakin jumping down onto the hover droid thingy over the lava look less retarded.

Then came the final epilogue scenes. These left a sour taste in my mouth because I thought for sure you would trim that way down to the quick montage get-us-in-and-out-quickly sequence that it should have been. In my mind anyway, it always seemed like one of the easiest editing decisions. I imagine sequence going as follows: Padme is unconscious. (Padme remains unconscious until she dies!!!) Establish with audience she has twins and droid informs they need to operate before she dies. Cut to pretty shot of Leia laying UNCONSCIOUS on the table before surgery. Cut to Vader getting operated on. Mask goes on. Vader starts breathing. Cut to meeting where they plan what to do with the kids. Cut to having protocol droid’s mind wiped. Cut to funeral. Cut to Alderan with Leia. Cut to Tatooine with Luke. Credits. In and out in 5 minutes instead of 15 minutes, and the movie ends with me still high from the climax and giddy over the tie-in to the other movies instead of bored and annoyed by George Lucas Antics. Everything else in the epilogue part of this movie is either redundant or too much new information that is best left a mystery, or just plain bad writing, directing, and acting. It is not a mystery why Padme is dying to me. Anakin killed her with the force. I saw it. Furthermore this explanation adds amazing impact to Anakin’s choices and dreams because the death he was trying to prevent that caused him to turn to the dark side was actually caused by his very choices he made in attempt to prevent it. Fear does lead to suffering, hate, and the dark side after all! Did I mention Padme should never regain conciousness? We all know what the kids’ friggin names are. I don’t need her to wake up to name them, and I don’t care how they got their names. I also would be quite content to never again see Darth Vader act like Frankenstein and scream “NOOOO,” especially when it is completely anti-climactic to the shot of the mask going on and the sound of him breathing.

Who writes crap like that anyway? Oh yeah, George Lucas. The man will go down in history as the one of the most visionary producers and one of the worst dialogue writers and directors of all time. The smartest choices the man ever made was to have other people direct Empire and Jedi and Indiana Jones. Furthermore If he was really a great writer, these movies would be totally different. If I were Lucas writing these movies, I would have gotten in my head to the scene where Count Dooku explains to Obi Wan about the sith lord in the senate and presents himself as a good guy and the separatists and rebels, and I would have realized what gold that idea is. Then I would have completely re-written episodes 2 and 3.

While I am ranting, here is something that has been nagging me. Why the freak does Palpatine turn all wrinkled and old looking when he electrocutes Mace? It just doesn’t really make much sense or seem necessary. If Lucas really felt the need to age the Emperor for us (not sure why he would) to make him look older like he does in the later movies, here is a better idea. Have him bust out some sith necromancy action on Anakin when he saves him on the volcano planet, which causes the Emperor age in order to save Anakin. This would establish even more reason for Anakin to be loyal to the Emperor, and ties in nicely to the talk the whole movie about these alleged healing powers the sith can have.

One last tidbit for anybody reading this with more time than me to take another stab at editing this movie (my big editing project if I can make time for it will be Matrix 2 & 3. I have some radical ideas for how to completely change those movies so they don’t suck.). I would love to see somebody get really creative with the Obi-wan vs. Grevious scene. Sure there is all the annoying lizard chase stuff that maybe can be trimmed down, but more importantly to the story is the fact that Obi-wan is frigging retarded and totally out of character by brazenly jumping down into the middle of the entire enemy force. I think there is a way to tweak that so that he jumps down and the clone troops pop up at the same time and Grevious makes a run for it. The other stupid thing about that scene is that it seems improbable that the other separatists would have time to escape out of the building, much less get off the planet and into hyperspace. Maybe there is a way to space out their leaving a bit more before Obi-Wan crashes the party??

I digress. Anyway, Strong work, Spence, but you lost me at the end. Also the DVD menu could stand to have some work done to it. Those criticisms being said, I do think this is the best edit on this site as of today (I am pretty sure I have seen all of the episode 3 edits now). 9/10 for effort and a job well done. Unfortunately it just isn’t quite what I envision the perfect edit looking like, so my Star Wars collection will continue to have the Phantom edits with an empty slot beside them until the Phantom Editor or some other beautiful soul can come along and make my dreams a reality.

PS: If any kind soul reads this and knows of the magical edit I seek, please post the name or link to it under the comments for this Spence Edit. Thanks!

I had been looking for a good edit of “Revenge of the Sith” for a long time and was very happy after I downloaded this fanedit. Like the previous reviewers have already written, this IS my definitive version.

All the edits are crisp, professional and well thought-out. The video/audio quality is excellent. Spence has made a much more well-paced, consistent movie without losing any plot, important points etc. I especially appreciate no longer having to deal with Lucas’ cheesy jokes, lines and childish escapadees by a great deal of the characters.

I agree with a great deal of Moe_Syzlak’s points so I won’t regurgitate them in my review. One scene in the movie that I have always found extremely boring and long-winded is the meeting between Anakin and the Senator; where they are watching the water-bubble performance. Although, i undertstand it is needed to further the plot, I just do not like it – in this edit nor the original. The dialogue is starined, boring and predictable – at it’s best. I would like to see someone (much cmore clever than me) somehow edit/fixed this scene.

Overall, a 5-star edit!

10/10