Star Wars: Episode III - Labyrinth Of Evil

My previous favorite edit of Revenge of the Sith was L8wrtr's Dawn of the Empire. I did have some problems with it, like Chewbacca was still there, Padme dies unlike her daughter's memories, C-3PO doesn't have his memory wiped and it isn't explained why only Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Yoda are able to use the force ghost technique. Despite the universe shrinking and the continuity errors though, overall it was the best edit of ROTS.

But now, Labyrinth of Evil has taken over the title of best edit of Episode III. Why?

The Audio/Video quality is great, so is the editing. The narrative was similar to Dawn of the Empire (that's what I like about this) but better. And of course, MUCH better than the original. The only problems I had were,

1) The removal of the Yoda/Palpatine fight. The fight has a point. When he warns Luke “Do not underestimate the power of the Emperor”, he is speaking from experience. When he goes to Dagobah to hide without the fight people would say "Why doesn't he stop the Emperor?" When he does and fails, he goes into exile. Many people complain that Yoda having a lightsaber contradicts and destroys his character, and they argue that Yoda represented a character that someone didn't need to be physically strong but strong in the heart to be powerful as shown in the Empire Strikes Back, which is correct. And according to them Yoda having a lightsaber destroys his character because of this. But think about it this way; the lightsaber is no laser sword used with physical strength, the lightsaber is a force weapon used by force wielders. The stronger you are in the force the better you use the lightsaber as well.

Did you play the Knights of the Old Republic games? Well in the second one your Master, Kreia, talks to one of your other companions, Atton, and says "Take the greatest Jedi Knight, strip away the Force, and what remains? They rely on it, depend on it more than they know. Watch as one tries to wield a blaster or a lightsaber, and you will see nothing more than a woman, or a man. A child."

We can easily ignore the blaster part because Jedi don't use blasters anyway, except only on dire situations like at the end of Obi-Wan vs Greavous, which also ends with Obi-Wan saying "So uncivilized." But the important part is the lightsaber part. This time it's the opposite. Other than Jedi and Sith, people are never able to use lightsabers properly, why not? Because you need the Force in order to use the lightsaber, which proves that a lightsaber is more than just a laser sword. That is why in my opinion there is nothing wrong with Yoda having a lightsaber.

2) "NOOOOOOOOOOO"

Ugh. It's still there! I couldn't believe it. The most laughable moment in the prequels that isn't meant to be laughable.

That being said, I prefer the removal of the fight and "NOOOOO" over the continuity issues (Padmé's death, C-3PO, force ghosts) and universe shrinking (CHEWBACCA!!!).

Thanks, HAL9000 for giving us all a go-to Episode III.

More enjoyable than I anticipated, much more enjoyable.
Sleek, fast moving edit, almost breathless many ways.
This really harks back to the earliest SW releases, which echoed old Republic serials.
Great execution on HAL 9000’s part.

Video editing appeared seamless to my eyes.
(Note: In the opening crawl, GENERAL GRIEVOUS was in all-caps.)
Try not to be a nitpicker. If I had noticed awkward chops I would mention them.
None that I could see.

Regarding audio editing, at one point, some of the dialogue between Palpatine and Anakin went slightly out of sync for me. To be honest, that could have been my doing.
I got the 720 mp4, and for whatever reason, it would not fit onto an 8.5 DVD. I tweaked the file through Handbrake (sorry, I know this potentially irritates editors). So the brief sync problem could have stemmed from modifying.

Aside from Christensen's wobbly performance, I always liked this installment.
Not really certain what HAL did, but Christensen seemed more villainous here.
His limited acting skills, I viewed through this edit as flawed arrogance.
I I I was a jucier portrayal after Attack Clones.
Again, I credit Hal for cranking the pace - truncating lulls - so I did not have time to focus on out-of-character miscues or muddled narrative.
Really fine edit here. Cannot praise it enough.
I realize this franchise suffers over-saturation, yet I hope more members check out Labyrinth Of Evil.
Well worth the effort.

For me the best of the Episode III edits, except for a couple of editing choices this is my ideal version. HAL9000's changes demonstrate how there always was a decent film in the mostly-serviceable theatrical cut and make one wonder at what was going through the original editors' minds, did they set out to create a plot hole intentionally?

For me at least, this is now a film I can show other people and not need to give an explanation for liking.

This is a very good edit of a fairly good movie. That's how I'd sum up my thoughts. Revenge of the Sith is easily the best Star Wars prequel, but it is not without its faults. Minor faults (but major annoyances) are the overabundance of CGI and bad dialogue. Fan edits can't really fix the first (not yet at least), but they can certainly remedy the second. Hal9000 does that with this edit, which is, of course, a big plus. Already the film is better. But the movie has major faults too, ones not as easily fixed.

So I'm willing to forgive Hal if I'm torn on whether or not he's fixed Anakin's fall to the dark side. (Before I get to much into it let me say Hal's handling of everything else in this edit is exemplary, so I won't talk about that stuff.) Anakin's fall as presented in the theatrical film is clearly flawed. Is he really seduced by the dark side, or does he just want to save Padme? Does he really believe the Jedi are evil, or does he just want to save Padme? Does he actually have any reason to turn to the dark side besides saving Padme?

Hal9000 has a smart way to answer yes to that last question. By playing down the Padme dying in childbirth angle, it definitely feels like Anakin has some ulterior motivation for turning to the dark side, with the Padme thing being more of a subtle push to bring him over the edge. But what is that ulterior motivation? We suppose it's because the Jedi are tricksters and keeping Anakin out of everything. Whether or not there's enough here to support that, I'm not sure. Hal does the best he can with what he's got (we all know it's really Lucas to blame for this). Ultimately, either way, it's clear that Anakin has turned to the dark side because he has become disillusioned with the Order, so nice work by Hal for that.

He accomplished what he set out to do in regards to the Anakin debacle, so in that case I'd say Hal has done a great job. There's a nagging part of me that says L8wrtr did this better, but I'm not sure if that's true. To be honest, I'm getting kind of tired of these movies (which is why I've spent most of this review on a digression of sorts). The more I critique the less I enjoy it seems. So even if Anakin's fall didn't totally work for me this time around, I know it did when I viewed this edit's work print the first time around, and I wouldn't be surprised if it worked for me the next time I watch this. Even if it doesn't, the other aspects of this edit are enough for me to say this has become my go-to Episode III. Thanks Hal9000, for making my preferred prequel trilogy!

Many small dialogues trims work wonders here. All of the cringey dialogue bits seem gone. And Jar Jar's one line is gone, always remove him as much as possible.

Implying the dream as having been planted by Palpatine is a stroke of genius, it makes so much more sense. Midichlorians are also, thankfully, gone.

The full uninterrupted duel on Mustafar is so much fun. The “high ground” silliness was trimmed, as it should.

The version is as much of an improvement as it should be possible. It is my go-to version.