Star Wars: Downfall of The Old Republic

For what it's essentially accomplishing, it's a good edit but relies too heavily on things you should already know from previously seeing the prequels in full. I don't know if someone who never saw a Star Wars film would be able to follow it very well...but then again, I don't KNOW that because I can only look at this and think "there are key things missing". I'd really like to know what someone who has either never seen a Star Wars movie or has never seen the prequels would think about this edit.

Visually, the edit works for the most part, but the pacing of the cuts can be hectic at times where it moves from clip to clip rather quickly. The audio chops in the Episode 1 portion did get bad at times with audio cutting out from stereo to mono on occasion among other things. Nothing that ruins the film but it was noticeable...not much else outside of that though. I would say it's mostly competent.

The narrative overall is mostly the same story, just with a lot of the fat (and some of the meat) chopped out. Unfortunately, I think the narrative here suffers a bit from the brisk pace. Anakin and Padme never form an actual relationship before she just suddenly admits she loves him. Anakin's mom's death just kind of comes out of nowhere. I don't feel like Dooku was ever really given a back story to let us know he's not actually "evil", just misunderstood. And the transition between films is overly noticeable - as one person said, it feels like it was 'going to commercial' in a TV movie. It's little annoyances like those throughout that mar the narrative a little.

I did REALLY like the omission of the cloning of Jango Fett. It felt a lot better without it. That is one thing that has been kept in every other edit I've seen so far. While some have made it much more tolerable, I always thought it was stupid to have Jango be the source of the clones. It was clearly just Boba Fett fan service. This edit basically just makes it an army that was secretly forming for the soon-to-be emperor. That was a nifty plus for this edit.

Overall, the film consists of 20 minutes of Ep.1, about 45 minutes of Ep.2, and the remaining hour spent with Ep.3. Personally, I feel like Ep. 2 should have been a larger focus than 3. I think too much time is spent on 3 here.

All in all, this is a good attempt at making the trilogy into a single film, but moves a little too briskly for the scope of the story told here. We all know it's apparently possible to make it a 90 minute film from what we've heard about the Topher Grace cut, but I don't know if it's necessary to cut it that short (obviously I won't know until the Grace edit is ever seen).

I honestly feel like there's still a very good way to compile a single film from the 3, but I don't know if it's possible to make it sub 4 hours. As much as I hate to say it, I feel like there is a good 30+ minutes of essential story from Episode 1 that leads into Ep 2 (the strongest of the 3 in my opinion), and I feel like if maybe half of Ep 3 was chopped into Ep 2's tail end, it could be done. I look at HAL9000's Episode 2 edit as being the most perfect edit of the middle of this story so far, so all we need is to find someone to chop 1 & 3 up and sandwich them around HAL9000's Ep2 then we'd have a solid film... it'd be around 4 hours for sure, but at least would be worthy of the Star Wars moniker.

This edit is pretty awesome, I laughed pretty hard when phantom menace ended in 20 minutes (you must hate that movie) and I liked the removal of anything related to General Grievous (it worked shockingly well). The video quality was OK but I can't really tell because I watched an MP4 on my phone so I'll leave that at 8.

Visual Editing:

Pretty good all around except for a few very noticeable cuts, in the mustafar battle, Anakin and Obi-Wan do this extremely cheesy thing where they hold hands but then a second later they aren't anymore, the whole thing needs to be cut because it takes you out of the experience for a few moments. Later in that battle the end of it could have worked but it was edited roughly and is very obvious (also, there's never land at the bottom of a water/lava fall).

Audio Editing:

Pretty rough all around, battles were an absolute mess for the most part, music was freaking out and changing/rearranging all over the place and really drove me nuts! This might be one of your first edits but PLEASE fix this. It still passes though because the dialogue isn't shredded up. (although cutting mention of general grievous was a little awkward)

Narrative:

Works pretty well, mainly about obi-wan but sometimes cuts to anakin randomly, nothing terrible here (cutting clones actually makes a continuity error with the original trilogy jus' sayin')

Over all, I enjoyed it, it wasn't bad, has some unique cuts and is worth you while if you're on a Star Wars craze but nothing INSANE here.

*may contain spoilers*

As you can see from other reviews, as well as discussions at the forum, opinions about certain elements of this edit vary. As the one who approved this edit, I figure I would take a minute to mention a few specifics and why certain things didn't hold me back from passing it.

- Complete removal of Anakin from TPM was brilliant. Of course, it wouldn't have worked if it was an edit of just TPM, but in this case, no problem. When AOTC starts, we just figure 'oh, Obi-Wan took an apprentice. Padme knew him for years and hadn't seen him in a while.' I think the early scenes in the elevator and meeting with Padme, because it provides a quick way to establish their potential 'wink wink, nudge nudge' relationship without the horrible sap of the butt monster picnic, and not so little info that you'd think 'where did this come from?' later on.
- The whole Senator/Queen thing is just another part of the whole political mess of the movies and I don't see how anyone would care what position she had. She's a V.I.P. 'nuff said.
- There could've been a '10 years later' or whatever title card added between movies, but that has been done before and I didn't think it was necessary. Most people who would watch this have seen the movies multiple times already and don't need their hands held. (but don't try telling George that!)
- I will agree that to a certain extent, Qui-Gonn is underdeveloped and his death doesn't mean as much. But then, I think about what has been excised and...there just isn't a ton of development anyway! I would like to see Qui-Gonn more, as Neeson was one of the good things about TPM, but I don't know how much could be put back in that wouldn't involve scenes that are rightfully cut. Therefore, his amount of screen time is pretty decent. *shrug*
- No Kamino! How 'bout that?
- The way the Obi-Wan/Vader fight ended was so cool! It shortened it in a brilliant manner. I hope other editors borrow this idea. ;)
- The ending has no "noooooooooooo!"? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! (pronounced 'yeez')

At the end of the day, is this a perfect edit? No, but there is plenty to enjoy, with some brilliant editing choices, as mentioned. (I'm ahppy with this one, but if H.S.F. wants to implement some of the suggestions others have made for a possible future version, I would look forward to that one too.) With the absolute plethora of PT edits out there, it's nice to see another one with some genuinely fresh ideas, not just another 'no Jar Jar' one. I didn't have problems with continuity, partially because I knew the stories and filled in any gaps, partially because I hate politics, and partly because...well, let's be honest, they're just not the most interesting characters, especially Padme. (maybe that's just me) Overall, little hiccups are bound to happen when you make a mega-edit, but there's nothing that really bothered me.

Recommended, especially to those who know the stories already.

I watched the 720p MP4 version of this edit and the quality of this file suggests to me that the Blu-Ray version thats available would probably be on par with the official release, I just didn't have the bandwidth to spare.

The visual and audio edits are mostly seamless. The only edits that are obvious are the joining of TPM to AOTC and then to ROTS.

Narrative wise I would not suggest this to a first-time viewer. It feels more like a "TV to Movie" edit that cuts out all the filler (filler that is sometimes necessary for character development) and gives the viewer the overall plot in a condensed form.
What this edit REALLY exceeds at is highlighting how much of the prequel movies is completely unimportant. There are no Gungans (except for Jar Jar), no Kamino subplot and it really doesn't doesn't affect the overall story arc. It works for the better!

I would suggest this edit to someone who wants to rewatch the prequels at a quicker and more serious pace but I probably wouldn't recommend it as someone's first experience of the prequels.

I certainly enjoyed it more than the actual films... Haha... Keep up the good work HanShotFirst!!
I look forward to your next project!