Star Wars Episode IX: The Final Order

"THIS IS THE EDIT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR"

Spence my man...you really took the skin off the ball on this one.

Ths won't be a long review since I actually don't want to spoil it for people.

The FX work on this is first class...I mean Adywan levels of quality. Frankly, like others I had to go and do shot for shot comparisions since I did not believe what I saw . I ended up printing out the changes list and ticking them off on a second viewing, with the original in my second blu ray player cued up to switch between the two on my second GEEK pass, as opposed to my first clean watch through.

This is just leagues better than the theatrical version....which would rate a 7, so a big uptick on that score of Enjoyment to a 9. The only reason it is not a 10 is that there are just characters and performance whcih cannot be totally fixed or removed. Simialarly for Narrative, the original would be a 5 or 6, and again, this holds off being a 10 coz there is still a feeling of throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, HOWEVER, this is now a lot cleaner narrative wise, and the excisions made are masterfully executed.

This is a stellar peice of work and even though I concur with many of @nic 's points sits in an Amray case on the shelf next to the official version (which is sine inwards, so that I do not accidentaly watch it EVER AGAIN)!

THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE!

Star Wars, the franchise with the most fanedits ever. I guess that says something on its own about the original work done in the prequels and the sequels. Anyway, Spence is a legend in editing so I had high hopes for this one, especially since it came out almost two years after the incredible HAL's edit "Ascendant" which Spence kept stuff from and he was right to do so.

Besides this one, I had watched HAL's obviously and also the "Anti Cringe Cut" by DonKamillo because I was really pissed when I first watched the original Episode 9 and I wanted a really aggressive edit (DonKamillo cut 45 minutes(!), but it had many issues, for me at least). Spence's edit I believe is the best of those two worlds. Doesn't cut too much and doesn't cut too little. Plus, is has many from the subtle great changes from HAL's edit.

To be more specific, I personally prefer the 'Rey nobody' version here, I'm tired of the Skywalker/Palpatine lineage, Star Wars is rich enough to have many original new characters. I also prefer that Spence had Leia's death in the beginning and not dying because of the message to Kylo. Although I felt it was a little rushed and out of place. Speaking of the message to Kylo, what a great editing in the fight at the sea between Rey and Kylo! Really loved how Spence handled Leia dying earlier in the movie. My last remark is something that I was certain I would just add as a suggestion, but to my very pleasant suprise, Spence had done it! After the beginning of Episode 8 with Luke casually throwing his lightsaber away, I found completely ironic and out of place the line "that's no way to treat a lightsaber" that he says to Rey when she throws it in the fire. I was like, you did the exact same thing in the previous movie, don't try to retcon it man!

I most definitely recommend this edit to everyone! Spence has, once again, done a great job! For me, it became my new go-to version of the movie!

Thank you Spence for all your hard work, thanks to anyone who read my review and may the force be with you!

I much prefered watching this version of TRoS than when I saw it originally in the Cinema. Gone are most of the cringy lines, The narrative is much clearer and peoples motivations are able to be understood. This is certainly the best fan edit of this film I have seen so far. I still found myself wishing a couple of moments weren't in the film, but it's what he had to work with. But the improvements are really worthwhile. Additional footage of places in the galaxy make it feel like it's connected to the Star Wars universe we know, Many moments of added or changed dialog and re-ordered scenes made me care more about the characters. And I was pleasently surprised by how well the removal of the Jedi voices worked to make Rey's character feel more fulfilled and the scene more poignent. It shows how much extra rubbish they tried to shoehorn into this movie. Not perfect, but a very watchable Star Wars movie, well done.

I actually was a fan of this movie when I first saw it - I know some people absolutely hate it, and I totally see the reasoning behind that point of view. As the years have gone on, I have seen more of the flaws and one of the most glaring issues was the way they tried to shoehorn Leia into the film using old footage.

This edit does a fantastic job getting rid of that entire problem. Having Leia die at the very beginning is genius, as she doesn't really have any impact on the plot. I then love how later when Kylo and Rey are fighting, at the point when Leia originally dies, it creates more drama because it seems like Kylo is naturally drifting back toward the light while Rey is drifting toward the dark side. I really liked that dynamic and the scene really works well once Leia is removed.

I am a big fan of removing Rey as a Palpatine - my only worry is going forward, when new movies come out, will this version of the story flow into whatever comes next? I guess we will have to wait and see - but perhaps a future version where she is still a Palpatine? Wishful thinking, but totally respect why Spence went the "no one" route. And for the time being, this is perfect!

The only reasons I took a couple points off for narrative was since the terrible Leia scenes were removed at the beginning, it did seem to make the first act fly by almost too fast. I felt like it was 5 minutes in and Palpatine has returned, Leia is dead, and the crew is already having the speeder chase in the desert. While I know the actual movie is fast-paced as well (not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion) a viewer perhaps not as familiar with the source material may have a hard time keeping up with what is happening. Not sure how that can be fixed - it is just a problem with the original story. You've made it better, so I guess I'm taking points away from JJ Abrams and not you. =)

Two small other narrative things that perhaps AI can fix in the future - when Rey runs to look at the ancient text - I thought it would be awesome if she whispered something to herself like "luke almost found Exogul" just to hammer home that she is using the books to follow Luke's trail. The viewer eventually will of course pick up on it when Lando explains they were looking for Exogul, but it goes from the briefing to Rey saying "I'm going to start where Luke's trail went cold" - what trail?

Then maybe a line when Lando finds them - since the line "Leia sent me a message" is cut - saying the "resistance sent me a message' just to explain why he is there.

I only suggested those because the AI lines you did add were amazing and sounded like they were originally in the movie!

These are SUPER nitpicky and I LOVED this edit. Highly recommend it! Thanks for making this movie a lot better!

Better.... it's better, that's what I can say.

The quality of the edits is top notch. A lot of the decisions made worked out for the better. Killing off Leia early on allowed the characters to be more independent, and enriches characters arcs like Poe's need to be the leader or, more importantly, the rivalry between Rey and Kylo. There is now more of a push and pull between them, Rey being pulled to the dark while Kylo is pulled into the light, and no Leia means this conflict is allowed to play out with their choices as opposed to others coming in to make the choices for them. The removal of Rey's parentage is cleverly done, using the vision of her taking the throne as the way Kylo tries to get to her. Bonus points for removing goofier elements like the Dark Rey scene or "Empress Palpatine," plus the addition of Palpatine's message to the beginning so we're up to speed. The Final Order feels more like a proper sequel to the previous movies now, and if this was released in theaters there'd be significantly less conflict about it (to put it mildly). It is better than what we had.

However, "better" doesn't translate to greatness, at least in my eyes. Even with these quality of life improvements, and believe me Spence outdid themselves on that front this isn't on them, I can't really bring myself to enjoy this movie. Finn isn't given anything to do, Rose being left to the sidelines, the fake out deaths, the Final Order fleet, Palpatine, that ending... these issues still permeate the film and hold it back immensely. There's still a reactionary vibe to the film that doesn't do it for me. Again, this is not the fault of the editor, who did the best they could and made a significantly more competent, even compelling, movie out of Rise of Skywalker. The Final Order gets a recommendation for me, if only because of how even these smaller changes help the movie immensely.