Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – The Spence Final Cut

A/V Quality 9/10
The quality matches the source. There are noticeable video quality differences during the intersected scenes from the original version, but again, they match the source material. Audio levels were not always consistent, e.g. the ending credits volume jump and skip. Pretty good though

Visual Editing 7/10
I liked the idea of this edit, but some of the cuts are just too hard and make the scenes feel like they are going by way too fast. I know this is due to video cropping out scenes for continuity's sake, but it just seemed a bit off and rushed. The vision scene were Luke senses what is happening in Jabba's palace was a neat concept, but didn't really work for me. I've struggled with this too in my own edit of this movie. I think one obvious look from Luke and a cut to Jabba's palace let's the audience make the connection to the scene in empire and know that he is seeing what they are seeing. And who doesn't want to have Jedi vision? :) But that should go in the narrative section I suppose. I didn't care for the lightsaber duel cuts either. They felt very jarring and mispaced. Not sure how they got from in front of the emperor to coming up the steps. Video played backward was noticeable also. The death star in the background was intriguing and looked like it was still in concept phase (graphic wise), however it was integrated very well. No more jiggling stars during that scene :) Other nitpicking comes from the transitions. Not sure why a still of the outside of Jabba's palace was used for such a long duration without sound. Other transitions seemed rushed or out of place. However most of the small cuts that took out phrases were done quite well and are only noticeable to those of us who've watched the ot a billion times.

Audio 6/10
I had a hard time with the audio in this edit. I appreciate the fact that some scenes had to receive a new soundtrack for them, did you do foley? It was neat to think of you actually creating those sounds, but the mix was off in most of those scenes. I like the idea of music during the speeder chase, but the music was a little off for the scene and ended anticlimactically. As stated above, the end credits aren't synced with the edit material and jump dramatically in volume. Last, duel of the fates seemed out of place. It did heighten the intensity of the scene, but once the scene was over, the movie felt flat. This seems to be my main complaint of this edit. Great ideas, but the implementation makes me feel like a short winded sprinter who sprints 100 meters then has to walk 400 meters to catch my breathe.

Narrative 7/10
So this is hard to rate for me. I'd give you an 8 or 9 on story, but the visual aspect of the narrative distracted me from what you were trying to accomplish. As I said, I liked the vision concept, I even liked the flashback ideas, but they were forced (no pun intended) in their presentation. I think a minimalistic approach, like the one I mentioned about the vision, allows for greater story telling as it allows the viewer to fill in and actively collaborate with you as editor. I like the boldness of your edit, but I think it needed a revisited treatment in order for the visuals to equal the story you were trying to tell us, and I do like your story more than Lucas'.

Enjoyment 7/10
The enjoyment of this edit came from the concept and changes such as the death star floating behind the emperor's head. I liked the idea and the fact that Jabba's palace was cut way back. This edit gave me some great ideas for my own personal edit that I work on now and then. So, Thank you spence for your contribution. Even though it's not what I would call "the version" of rotj, I'd still recommend this to anyone that is searching for ideas on how to tighten up the story of jedi.

Review by QuickCut — January 15, 2012 @ 7:36 am

This isn’t my go-to version of ROTJ, but it’s pretty well done.

Technical quality – 8/10 – in general, the video was pretty good quality, but there was some flickering or something during the opening crawl. The audio was great except for the end credits when the volume abruptly went really high.

Presentation – 8/10 – special features and scene selection were a nice thing to include, but the random clip after I clicked play was rather abrupt and unnecessary.

Editing – 8/10 – all the transitions were nice, but there were some choices I didn’t particularly like that I’ll address in the entertainment section.

Entertainment – 8/10 – if a few things were cleaned up it would have been a 10. First of all, the cutting between Luke and Han/Leia. I got why you were doing it, but it wasn’t real clear. The transitions to Luke were too abrupt. When Luke and the rest leave Tatooine, it makes no sense why Luke leaves since you relocated the Yoda scene. The Ewoks could have been trimmed a little more and the scene where Wicket pokes Leia with his spear was way too short. There are various bits that could have been trimmed but I won’t recount them all. I half-wish you had left in the ghosts at the end. Other than that, I liked most of your cuts, especially the trimming of the Tatooine sequences, the edits to Han’s character, the changes to the battle, and the added prequel music (only good thing about the prequels).

Overall – 8/10

Review by videohead — August 25, 2011 @ 5:43 pm

I would have to agree, this to me was by far the worst of the original trilogy, and with that said this is a great edit of the final episode in an epic saga.

A part of me really misses the rancor pit scene (though i agree with the reason that u took it out).

One of the little shots that always bothered me was – at the execution scene where r2 launches Lukes saber into the air, why does luke have to look up to catch it? hes a jedi, he should just catch it, light it, and swing it all in one movement. little things like that would make the jedi’s in the movies look that much tougher in my mind.

The only cut that looked strange to me was after the rescue when Luke leaves the group he just pops back up in the next scene and is like “hey guys!” while i was just like “wait, didn’t you just leave?”, a very strange cut in my mind. I think the talk he has with Obi Wan should be left in.

The only real problem i had with this edit was that the ending, it felt a little flat to me. I mean this is the final episode in an EPIC saga, and the ending should show that. Now with that said i still hate the original ending and yours is still superior.

Overall great job! 8/10

Review by Captain Khajiit — April 16, 2011 @ 2:54 pm

Spence’s edit shows that ROTJ has the potential to be much better than it is. I didn’t think that I would enjoy watching a ROTJ edit this much.

Video: The quality was good overall. In some scenes the color correction doesn’t quite work, but this aspect of fanediting is *very* hard to pull off. Some extremely ambitious effects work was undertaken, mostly successfully. 8 out of 10
Audio: The audio editing and audio quality were excellent. Most of the cuts were smooth, which was impressive given that they were done in 5.1 and this film is rather heavily scored. There were a few relatively minor audio problems that others have noted. 8 out of 10
Entertainment: I found this more enjoyable than watching the theatrical cut or the special editions. 8 out of 10
Editing: There were many clever edits and most of the changes were successful. I still feel that more could be done with this film, but Spence has really shown the way. 8 out of 10
Presentation: there is cover art available for those that want it. The menu is basic, but that’s fine with me. There are some nice special features. Great to see and hear you, Spence! 8 out of 10

Overall: It’s a solid 8 out of 10 from me. I hope that Spence will consider revisiting this film at some point after he has had a break from it, but as it stands this version is very highly recommended. :-)

Review by tylerdurden389 — April 14, 2011 @ 8:47 pm

Just finished watching this. Here’s my thoughts. First let me start by saying that I am not a huge Star Wars fan anymore. Never cared for it as a child, but I was quite obsessed with it around the time leading up to the special editions (I was 12-13 years old during this time). I did actually see Phantom Menace (4 times to be exact), but my fascination with all things Star Wars fizzled out shortly afterword, and I never even saw ep. 2 in theaters.

Anyway, I definitely like this version over the theatrical/special edition. However, I feel it’s too short. I understand that dialogue and Ewok stuff was cut to avoid camp, but I think some things could’ve been retained. I LOVED the entirely new opening. From the text crawl, to the introduction of characters. Superbly done. I like how now we understand that Luke has been training since the end of Empire. I always wondered about the timeline between Empire and Jedi, and what Luke’s training consisted of. I liked how we got through the Jabba stuff much quicker. However, I didn’t understand where Luke flew off to after they fly off of Tatooine. Also, his return when they’re discussing the plans to attack the Empire. I understand that by using the fade cuts of Luke being aware of what’s going on with his friends meant him rushing to save them (Which was GREAT btw. I loved how they did this at the end of Empire and was disappointed it wasn’t utilized in Jedi), however I hated losing his conversation with Obi-Wan. I understand that the dialogue was bad since it negates things from the first film, but it left me wondering how Luke figured out that Lea was his sister. I suppose this works better though.

I personally didn’t care for the added music during the forest speeder chase. We heard the triumphant Star Wars-ey music during the big action sequence from before, so no need to re-hash. Actually, I just say that cuz for some reason I LOVE the sounds of those speeders. Speaking of music, since I could care less about the prequels, I DID NOT care for the “duel of the fates” music for the first half of the saber fight at all. Also didn’t care for the music change for the Vader reveal at the end. i also didn’t like the special edition ending with all the other planets celebrating, but it’s better than the Ewoks celebrating. As for the final shot of Luke burning Vader’s body, there was no sound of fire, only the music. The scene didn’t seem “complete” (ugh, I hate using that word in context of this film, lol).

Lastly, did you add in sound effects of Harrison Ford grunting from the Indy films for when he fights the stormtroopers? Nice touch if you did. Anyway, this film will never be on par with the first 2, but this edit certainly is an improvement. I consider the theatrical/special edition about a 6 out of 10. I give this fan edit an 8 out of 10.