War of the Stars: A New Hope Grindhoused

This fanedit is unlike anything I've seen yet. It remixes A New Hope into a Grindhouse film which plays out differently, and has a very different feel to it. There are a bunch of different scenes used and modifications made. I laughed out loud quite a few times. I recommend watching this without reading anything about it as you'll be surprised by some of the changes made.

My one critique is that, even though a lot was cut, this could've been packed even more tightly so as to resemble A New Hope even less, especially the final sequence with the attack on the Death Star. After the first 30-40 minutes, it began to feel like more like A New Hope again. However, this is only a minor criticism. The work on display here is truly imaginative and is a great example of what fanediting represents. The mind of TMBTM is something to behold.

Enjoyment - I think my biggest problem with this edit is that it feels like a job half done. It has the potential to be great, but it stops just short of that. The opening presents us with something that implies we are in for a real treat, something that is radically different to the original movie: we have a very retro opening crawl, deleted scenes of Luke with his friends, witty subtitles for R2-D2 and excessive gore as rebels and storm troopers get shot (which I loved!). Unfortunately, as the film goes on, R2-D2 subtitles become less frequent, the changes become less inspired and the blood/gore we were previously exposed to is pretty much non-existent (bar the odd effect here and there). Things do pick up again in the last act though, and TMBTM introduces a fun and unexpected twist which I won't spoil for those who haven't watched it. But in essence, it basically felt like I was watching a slightly trimmed version of A New Hope, book-ended with a genius opening and climax. Love the beginning, love the ending, but the middle felt a bit dry.

Audio/video quality - Ironically, I'm marking this down one point because of a scene that looked good - and by that I mean bad. This is a grindhouse edit, and so the entire film is meant to be laden with poor audio/visual quality and awkward cuts. However, despite most of the film being consistently grainy and crackly, the reunion between Biggs and Luke at the Rebel base looks completely fine. Well, not good as such, but certainly not grindhouse. It's the only scene in the entire edit that isn't covered in film grain and it just stands out in a really weird way.

Visual editing – one point off for the above reason.

Audio editing – generally excellent, except for the noticeable changes in Darth Vader's voice. I didn't think that all of the altered dialogue really worked, but I imagine this is a hard thing to make fit.

Narrative - was fine. Nothing confusing. The twist possibly could have been executed a bit better, but this is a minor qualm. At the end of the day, the only people watching this will be people who know Star Wars. The aim was to create an alternative experience, and for the most part that is what this is.

Overall, a fun edit and well worth a watch despite its flaws. The highlights for me were the subtitles on R2-D2 and the excessive gore, so it was a shame these were inconsistent. The Neil Young Cantina scene was genius. The "address me as Lord Vader" moment followed by Tarkin doing doing so was brilliant. I also cracked up after Obi-Wan dropped the f-bomb when talking about Mos-Eisley.

Anyway, good work, TMBTM. I'd love for you to consider revisiting this and turning things up to 11, but in the meantime I look forward to watching The War of The Stars II.

Nifty reworking of a classic viewed numerous. Edit incorporates plenty of ugly, deleted footage, making the experience greasier and dirtier. No disrespect intended. This is a snickering subversive retelling that takes its sweet time before slithering into broken territory.

Video - Decent 720p, MPEG 2. Outtakes were all crappy, with poor resolutions and bleached out colours. Editor TMBTM matched the look across the edit, so there was no jarring feature - bonus - feature - bonus recognition. The editor is too professional for his own nature, however, and transitions and edits were smooth and thought out.

Audio - 2 Channel, 448 Kb. Dialogue easy to understand. No subs - and yet - R2D2 is subbed throughout, and it proves to be one smart ass astrodroid. I also wondered about reinserted footage of storm troops on Tatooine. If redubbed, clever dialogue of poorly motivated workforce. The old saw about good help being hard to find applies.

Narrative - An altogether deceptive story that feints like an extended version, but midway begins to weave into a different direction. Having viewed the sequel first - lame, watching out of sequence - I can reassure uncertain readers that the modifications progress logically and bloom in the second installment.

Enjoyment - A lot of this is funny as hell. Storm troopers, who cannot shoot for shit in the original trilogy (Jango must have been rolling in his grave over nth generation clones) in this edit blast resistance left and right. Jawa haters, check this out. As noted, R2D2 is sees all, chatters away, but no one pays attention to him. Probably because he talks too much. A generous assortment of bonus goodies here, and you can’t beat Frances Gall (thank you for not going with the obvious ”Chick Habit”).

I suspect there may be purists who hate anyone tinkering with this installment, scratching at canon. Forget ‘em. This is a gaspipe kick. Go for it.

Many edits attempt to make a movie better. Reinstating deleted scenes, cutting stuff that didn't quite work, completely obliterating the existence of Jar Jar - good stuff. But this is something truly special. It actively tries to make a great movie worse - and does so in the best possible way. I was amazed as to how well A New Hope works as an exploitation flick. The use of an actual 16mm print of the movie works wonders for the visually aged aspect of the film. The other sources are also convincingly damaged. Visual quality in the presentation of that decay is perfect. The special effects are amusingly cheezy and in no way distract from the viewing experience. There is one brief instance where effects are visible on the letterboxing, which can be distracting - but I suspect that most won't notice. If I'm not mistaken, this has been cropped out and corrected in the AVI version, regardless. The new music is completely appropriate and blends in seamlessly. Hearing disco alongside John Williams is a unique experience, to say the least. But the real brilliance of this edit is how the characters were changed. Grindhouse is more than low budget. Grindhouse is sleaze. It's cheap monetarily - and - ethically. All the iconic characters are now worse people than they were in Lucas's vision. Darth Vader is completely insane (and even cooler thanks to a clever editing tactic). Luke is an idiotic weak-willed farm boy with no great destiny. Leia is a psychotic animal murderer. Obi-Wan is every bit the senile fool that he only pretended to be in the real movie. Artoo's a foul mouthed wise-cracking sidekick. And Han? Han shoots first. Every. Single. Time.

I can't recommend this edit enough. It's a masterpiece,.

April 30, 2012 @ 5:33 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*