Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: Anti-Cringe-Cut

First of all, I have to admit, I really enjoyed TLJ in theatres, and on Blu-ray. Did I have issues? Yes.

Anyway. When it comes to this edit... I can honestly say, I loved it, and will be adding it to my blu ray set of TLJ. Love how the edit cuts the long Poe/Hux joking scene to go straight to the action!

There were some small things about the cut, like the first scene with Luke and Rey, but I understand why it looks like that. Another issue is the small music moment during Luke mourning Han.

And, when it comes to Leia, that was a ballsy move. In some way, in this cut, it works for the most part.

My all time favourite thing about this cut... no Canto Bight!

Wow, within the first 5 minutes you know you watching something better, the ach-to scens plus the added deleted scenes add so much and this time we can relate to how luke is acting! The Yoda scene doesnt feel forced, How Rey is handled on the island is way more logical and how their story continues to the end is the way the Original should have gone. If id change one thing is delete all the Luke Stuff after "see you around kid" against Kylo, but that is more a matter of taste then anything. I get why it was done this way

The Leia thing. If i throw my carrie fisher sentiments out of the window this is perfect. Love the scene editting with Luke and her!

Thanks a lot for skipping all the Rose/ Finn stuff. The funny thing is I didn't miss any of it, mean for the story. This proves it was a total nonsense build in plot.

The Rey/Kylo stuff is done way better as well.Their story "rhymes" much better and actually makes sense, from opposite sides with the same kind of struggles makes their connection more logical

great stuff Don, this is my go to version now.

Let’s just say that to me, TLJ is the worst Star Wars movie ever and that I don’t consider it even a Star Wars movie.
With that said, this edit is better than the theatrical cut, but that was so bad it’d be hard not to.
So I’ll go with what a liked and disliked about this edit.

Good:

- Luke lived
- Casino, Finn Rose gone
- most of Holdo Poe gone
- Leia dies in space

Bad
- without the casino scenes the movie is a complete bore as it focuses on Rey/Kylo/Luke etc too much and barely anything happens at all.
Again this is Rian’s fault and not the edit.

I plan never to watch any version of this movie ever again.

(Spoiler Alert - some key differences between official release and fan edit mentioned)
I agree with DonKamillo when he stated, "This movie was a mess! It managed to subvert fan expectations in the worst way and was riddled with plot holes and pointless twists and turns." He further stated, "Maybe with some changes here and there, it could be possible to redeem this movie." Redeem it he did!

DonKamillo, took a bad movie, and made it decent. Stating that it is decent is in no way to minimize my opinion of his abilities. On the contrary, just as a good cook can only do but so much with a bad recipe, and low quality ingredients, so is the case with this Anti-Cringe edit.
A few of examples of poor ingredients used by a good cook are: Rian Johnson could have been original if he had not begun the movie with an evacuation reminiscent of ESB, including the line about forgetting some of the equipment, and detecting the Star Destroyers upon them coming out of light speed;
Next, how was it that the Star Dreadnought did not detect Poe's X-Wing, the bombers and other ships until they were in visual range, close enough even to fire upon the massive flagship? Shouldn't their radar have detected the ships farther away? By contrast, the comparably small rebel base in the beginning of ESB detected the Star Destroyers from the surface of a planet.
Lastly, there was little DonKamillo could do about the glaring feminist agenda, and socioeconomic commentary within the story, but minimize and cut where possible, as he did. In doing so, he made it so that those of us who abhorred the original VIII can actually watch and enjoy this and IX, again Anti-Cringe of course, without being completely exasper​at​ed, and feeling like money was wasted buying the blu-rays.

As for a technical review, there were a couple of places where the audio seemed a bit loud. I can remember two instances, off the top of my head, as it were: The scene where Luke mourns for Han, and the transition from VIII to IX at the end of the movie. The latter was more noticeable. Those aside, great editing!

In short, from the modified crawl to the Luke lives and TRoS lede ending, this is a great edit of a bad movie. Great job, DK!

Editor, DonKamillo, has done a superb job in bringing out a decent film from a largely awful one and showed how a movie can be saved in the editing process, just like the original 1977 'Star Wars' was.

Gone are the insipid attempts at humour, written by a guy (Rian Johnson) who just isn't funny, and the unbearably twee nonsense, like the porgs. The fish people on Ach-To have a smaller presence, too. But I'll admit that they didn't bother me that much in the first place and I quite liked them, if the truth be known.

The most crucial part of this edit, though, was the complete deletion of both the (almost) universally hated Canto Bight scenes and the completely redundant mutiny side story, which only exist so that Finn and Poe Dameron have something to do, as the writer clearly didn't know how to use them, because the focus of his story was on Rey and Luke's interaction on Ach-To. Quite rightly too, it should be said. Kamillo has also has inserted the deleted scenes of Luke's moment of grief for Han and an extra lesson for Rey on the nature of impulsiveness. Why these were cut from the original theatrical print, I'll never know.

Also excised, almost as completely as Canto Bight, is Rose Tico. A controversial character - to say the least - Rose adds, absolutely, nothing to the film in any sense and it's very clear from her deletion in this edit. Written as a prop, purely for Finn to interact with, she - literally - might as well not have been in the picture at all. However, in Kamillo's cut she does show up at the end on Crait, which creates the problem of the "who is she and why is the camera focused on her?" effect. All of a sudden, there's this girl with lines that we've not seen before and it's a touch jarring, I have to say. I'd have endeavored to cut more of her, as her scenes here make little sense without the introduction to her that takes place in the theatrical cut.

Another deletion and a surprisingly effective move, was the "murder" of Princess Leia. While it's not a route I would have taken myself (although I would have cut the "Leia Poppins" fiasco), it does work relatively well here. Once Leia is blown out of the bridge of her ship, she's seen floating in space and quite dead. Thus eliminating one of the cringiest moments anybody has seen fit to put into a Star Wars film. However, while it's very well done, it (and to some extent the deletion of Rose) creates certain problems, which I'll admit, are mostly of a personal nature. When I watch a fanedit of a film, that has sequels and prequels such as Star Wars does, I am always aware of the impacts of the cuts or additions that the fanedit possesses. Cutting an entire character or scene that may have crucial elements that are expanded on in a future film is extremely problematic and diminishes the life of that edit drastically. So, the elimination of Leia from 'The Last Jedi' may look extremely odd, if and when she shows up in the theatrical release of Episode IX (a dead Carrie Fisher notwithstanding). The reduction of Rose will look out of place too, as she's bound to have a bigger role in The Last Jedi's sequel. Likewise, another massive change to the original narrative (not killing Luke Skywalker at the end of the film) will absolutely create a schism when he inevitably appears as a Force ghost in the next movie. Thus, it makes great additions, or in this case subtractions, in a given fanedit null and void, most unfortunately.

But, as said, those issues are rather personal tastes and, presently, this version of 'The Last Jedi' is my "go-to" one. But, I fear that it can only remain so, until Episode IX is a reality. The film still suffers from terribly egregious moments, but these are built into it by the poor and careless storytelling that the original cut incorporated and there's nothing that DonKamillo could have done about that.

Elsewhere, the video quality was excellent and I noticed very little in the way of blocking or banding and the editing was well handled for the most part. The audio is good, by and large, but at times did sound a bit more crunchier in certain places than my original Blu, as if it was slightly overloaded. But that's a minor issue really.

On the whole, though, it's a very enjoyable version of 'The Last Jedi' and a commendable piece of editing work.