Star Wars - Silent Edition: Episode VII

This edit turns The Force Awakens into a silent film by changing the aspect ratio, adding various monochromatic filters, and removing all audio in favour of a very well chosen orchestral soundtrack. This idea is incredibly unique and I'd like to see it attempted again with other films as well. My one suggestion would have been to lower the framerate of the video in order to further enhance the silent film feeling.

Additionally, this edit essentially follows a truncated version of the plot of The Force Awakens very closely. Title cards largely correspond to what is said in the original film. I feel that this was a missed opportunity to rewrite the story, although I can't really fault the editor on this as the edit came out before The Last Jedi and the other sequel film.

Overview - How do you fix a crappy reboot? Oh, how about making it a Silent? No more annoying voices! Check. How about shredding all the dull stuff? Say half the film. Check. How about Rey Mary Sue? Oh, you can’t. Bummer, dude.

Video - 854 X 480 AVC. Fair amount of added grain, not excessively so. Minimal damage effects, thank you! Other editors go hog-wild adding scratches and debris, never considering how hard restoration crews work to clean up damage for nit-picky buyers. So well done. Tinting is superb, particularly several of the day scenes with what appears to be two color tints. Aspiring editors, take note. Learn.

Audio - 256 kbps 2 Channel AAC. No subs, but inter-titles, yes! Music uses John Williams cues, and always reinforces visual goings on. This is sharp attention to detail. Lessor editors fumble this and permit rousing crescendos inappropriately inform a romance sequence. Only quibble (which I have ignored), the score is missing during the opening thirty seconds. To me, this is an error.

Narrative - As a stand alone, this hurtles at a gallop, yet is incoherent. Unless you are familiar with the full length original – and yes, everyone who views this is – this version is a hectic dash. Characters surface and react at a dizzying pace. Much of this stems from the original script, the writer of which has always shown indifference towards audience’s intelligence. TMBTM did better with his previous Silent Star Wars releases, and this narrative suffers by comparison.

Enjoyment - Somewhat of an improvement over “The Force Awakens.” At least you no longer hear characters talking like hyper excited eight year olds. Actually deriving pleasure, however, no, sorry. It still strikes me as pandering to target demographics, feeble characterizations, and lacking any sort of soul. In short, the Force is weak.

This is also much too long for a serial. Broken into fifteen minute chapters would have been more appropriate.

Another excellent TMBTM fanedit! And a great refresher for Episode VII before seeing "The Last Jedi".

This was an absolute joy to watch. At less than hour long, TMBTM manages to still maintain a consistent and clear narrative, capturing all the key plot points.

I dare say I enjoyed this more than the original. A delayed reveal of Kylo Ren as Han and Leia's son, very little Star Killer Base/Death Star fan service...all the bits I didn't like were gone, and a simple, but satisfying story remained, as did character charm.

It was wonderful hearing the soundtrack as a feature. It truly allowed me to appreciate elements of the music that I wouldn't normally notice.
Visually, this was gorgeous as well. The contrast in colour, black & white and sepia was superbly used and created an excellent visual dynamic. Music and colour told more about the emotion of the story and characters than you would necessarily expect (A key example being the death of Han Solo).

Now for the qualms, (the part of the review I hate). These are pure nitpicks compared to the beauty of the overall product:

I noticed a few music transitions, most of which would easily go unnoticed. There was, however, one jarring music cut at around 50:24. There was also one visual cut at around 46:54ish (possibly just before) that I found took me out of the experience slightly.

Overall, though? Wonderful. A genuine pleasure from beginning to end. I'd echo Q2 in saying that this makes me want to go and watch the other silent edits. It also makes an excellent recap of The Force Awakens - just in time for Episode VIII!

I've always believed one should be able to watch a movie with the audio muted and still be able to know what is going on. Perhaps it's because I've seen TFA enough to know the story, but I like to believe it's more for the fact that TMBTM is an expert editor. He manages to cut TFA down to under 60 min. focusing on the very important moments with minimal text cards popping up. It's a rather effective and refreshing way to re-watch the seventh SW film. There's not much I can say about it: it's been cropped 4:3 with film dust and hair added, the film converted to black and white with color overlays to help convey mood, and as previously noted the text cards. It looks and feels like a silent film.

If you're not into silent films then this won't do anything for you, but for those that do enjoy them you'll probably get a kick out of this. I haven't watched TMBTM's previous silent film but after watching this I will have to add them to my to watch list.