Fall of the Jedi: Episode I - The Phantom Menace http://www.fanedit.org/ifdb/media/reviews/photos/thumbnail/300x300s/5a/9b/7f/_fotjep1-front-133961809555.jpg

Wow, what an improvement. Clearly far better than the painful original. As it stands, if I had a kid, this'd be the version I'd show them.

Great work on the scrolling wording.

Well done on getting Anakin out of space in the final act. Reviewers have questioned it, but you are spot on - a comedy accidental destruction of a big boss (droid control ship) by a child ? Why didn't Lucas have Darth Maul die after being distracted by a puppy?
Personally I'd like to lose from this version of the control ship scene the lines that suggest that the rest of the squadron didn't know why the ship was blowing up (otherwise what was their plan?!). So I'd take out "What's that?", "We didn't hit it." and "It's one of ours", but keep "It's blowing up from the inside."

Glad 3PO's gone too. I wouldn't have minded R2 kicking around, but not bothered.

Which brings us to JarJar. Frankly any appearance is too much, and it's great there's so little of him. The problem is now, because he can't be entirely removed, that he seems to be stalking the principal characters! From the dialogue, once he's taken them to the underwater city his role is over. But there he is in Theed. Oh and look now he's in the Jedi spacecraft & following them round Tatooine...
But what can you do? It's the source's fault. Given that we can just about believe that he might have guided the Jedi to Theed, it would be good if we could have just a couple of line's of dialogue to explain why he's following the principals off Naboo.

I remember the pod race as interminable. This version seems better, though ideally would be just two laps!

So essentially great. There is only one thing I strongly disagree with, and that's taking out Obi-Wan's promise as Qui-Gon is dying. That *is* a key moment in the trilogy. To have him mention it casually to Yoda later felt weak. You managed to speed up the pace everywhere - it's ok to slow it when it's important!

I can't compare to other fanedits of Phantom as I haven't seen them, but this is great - I say find it and watch it.

The Fall of the Jedi movies are fantastically edited, and the story is much improved. I just wish it used Adywan's color corrections to fix the coloring problems.

It's my favorite edit by far, as far as story. I've watched this and L8wrtr's Shadow of the Sith, and this one is better. For one thing, L8wrtr's edit has obvious gaps in the dialogue where it is obvious there should be some, and Q2's do not, so Q2 also wins on the editing.

I feel that I could pick apart the differences and point them all out to show why this edit is superior, but all I /really/ need to say is that the whole Fall of the Jedi trilogy is a must-watch.

Seriously.

(A caveat before I begin: I hate the source material for this edit, so I did not take into account my bias when giving a score for enjoyment.)

This was a flawless edit, technically speaking, very professional. And Q2 has removed the most egregious mistakes from Phantom Menace (midichlorians, little Annie's accidental adventure, most of Jar-Jar, R2D2 and C3PO). He also manages to make young Anakin tolerable; the biggest impression I got was that he was a cute kid, which is plenty at this stage in the game, if you ask me. The whole thing clips along at a much faster pace, completely to the film's benefit. And, in what ended up being the most beneficial change in Q2's prequel trilogy edit, Darth Sidious is no longer in the movie at all!(You need v.2 for this) I cannot overemphasize what a difference this makes. Once it's no longer obvious from the get-go who the "phantom menace" actually is, top-to-bottom everything gets better. The eventual reveal in the third film is way more satisfying, for instance. Ultimately, however, these prequels are horrible, with this being easily the worst Star Wars film by a long-shot. But if you're on the fence about liking them, and you want to give them another shot, Q2's versions are a marked improvement.

The ONLY thing that stood out as a kind of "huh?" moment was why Jar-Jar is suddenly a part of the Jedis' crew. I understand the explanation had to be cut to keep him out of our faces, though, so fair enough.

I started off by watching Q2's version of Ep 3, since that's the only prequel that the infamous "Phantom Editor" (the man who started the fan edit revolution) didn't do. I really liked that cut so I decided to go back and watch his cuts of the first two movies.

While I applaud his effort and enjoyed most of his decisions, I think he went WAY too far in his edits. Q2 cut out material that may have been silly, but were still essential to the story, and took out bits that left me scratching my head (and no I don't have dandruff).

For example, he totally removed Anakin being the one who takes down the Droid control ship (he made it seem like it was some random Naboo pilot). Ok, sure, I cringed at Anakin "bungling" his way to an accidental victory, but it's still an important part of his story; without it, there is essentially no payoff to Anakin's story arc and his character becomes completely unimportant - and almost absent - from the last act of the movie. If it were in my hands I would have just tried to make it seem more like he was acting deliberately, calling upon both his skill as a pod racer and, albeit unwittingly, being helped by The Force. Like it or not, the movie still needs this to work.

Other odd choices is his removal of Subulba sabotaging Anakin's pod. Now it just seems like he has a part come lose at random. I liked the tension that was present when WE knew the pod was sabotaged, it added a strong element of suspense. I have no idea what he thought he was achieving with that cut; there was nothing silly about it and it was a major element in the setup of throwing every obstacle you can in the path of the hero's victory.

On the other hand, he left in the whole "immaculate conception" speech, which had always been a major cringe moment. And it's very easy to cut, just snip where Qui-Jon asks about his father until the end of her explanation. It lifts out very easily. So why cut stuff that isn't silly and helps the drama but leave in one of the worst moments in the movie?? Unless Q2 is a religious fellow and has personal reasons for wanting to leave that in. But once again, if you're going to leave in a moment that cements Anakin's role as a Christ figure, you can't cut out his "miracle" of saving everyone at the end of the movie!

He also chops out not just the explanation that 3PO was made by Anakin (I totally agree with that choice) but he cuts him completely out of the movie! In some of his comments he said one of his goals was to remove the droids from the trilogy as much as possible. I'm waiting for him to explain why, as we all know they are supposed to be - more or less - the heart and soul of the franchise and the only characters meant to be in every film. There are plenty of moments of stupidity that center on the droids, so I agree that a lot of R2 & 3PO moments have to go, but given their importance to the Star Wars saga, I would have made it my goal to keep as much of them as I could. I mean look, like it or not, R2 is the wonder droid that often saves the day. That's just who he is, and most of the time he does it in Ep 4 and 5 are fine and I don't think anyone has a problem with it. So while I agree flying artoo crosses the line and has to go, the pilot's comment in Ep 1 "that little droid did it!" is the very first time that R2 proves his worth and thus starts the saga-wide thread that R2 is everyone's favorite pint sized hero.

So while I applaud his success in cutting out dumb humor and tightening up story focus, he just goes too far and cuts stuff that either needs to be there or material he seems to have some personal issue with. Personaly, I think the goal of any Ep 1 edit needs to be REDUCING the elements that are so bad they pull you out of the movie, but I think Q2 got so caught up in gettjng rid of ALL of them, he lost sight of the big picture and wasn't paying enough attention to silly moments that, even if we hate them, are necessary to complete the movie. Besides, I think most of those moments, even if you have to leave them in, can be made a little better with skillful editing. When Anakin accidentally destroys the droid control ship, some good sound work could at least get rid of most of his lines like "what does this do? Ooops!" Which are the real cringe inducing moments. But cutting the whole thing leaves the movie incomplete.

In conclusion, I'd implore everyone dojng a fan edit to remember that the goal of these works is not simply to chop out stuff you hate, but to make a better movie! So when you cut those moments out, you need to pay careful attention to how those edits effect the movie as a whole. I've done some edits myself, and at some point you lose all objectivity since you get so wrapped up in the project; that's why having friends whose opinion you trust is a vital part of the process - they become your test audience and can often be a better judge of the big picture than the editor is. How many stories have you heard about the reaction of a test audience having a big impact on how the movie gets edited? Without the voice of a test audience being heard we never would have gotten "I love you, I know!" So all fan editors should make sure they screen their cuts with friends before making their final cut.

Ok, I'm done ranting. I only say all this because I care :-)

Hey everyone, I had the wonderful opportunity to watch this edit. I'm a big fan of L8wrtr's edits of the Prequel Trilogy because of the new flavor it adds to them. This is definitely another great alternative for those that are looking for something a little bit more closer to the original prequels, but told better. The edits are greatly made. It makes the film move at a much better pace as well. This is definitely my go to alternative to the theatrical of Phantom Menacce. Great job. I'd highly recommend it.