Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released) — Page 20

Collipso said:

Regarding Grievous-Anakin interactions, I think Dom edited their scene making the joke Anakin makes quite funnier than its original version. If it interests you, you could check it out on his thread and see if he approves.

Hal’s free to use anything he wants from my edit, especially that, considering I stole it from someone else (who, though, I can’t remember).

Here are a few suggestions (my last two cents on Episode III, I promise 😃):

Removed Obi-Wan leaping from his cockpit, and his little jump during the fight with the battle droids.

Oh it’s such a fun callback to the Clone Wars microseries 😃

The elevator sequence is gone

Maybe you should keep at least the destroyers scene and cut when they enter the elevator ? I think it would be good to keep as much Anakin/Obi-Wan friendship interaction as possible. I also like the R2 humor with the elevator but since you later reuse of shot of Anakin I guess it has to stay removed (and it might be a little bit over the top humor so I agree with the removal).

Anakin never tells Padme about his nightmare, another conflict within him.

I agree with that, but still I think you should keep the balcony scene, which is the only moment in the movie they actually look happy together (and the corniness of the scene is cute, way better than what Lucas wrote for Episode II).

Dialogue trimmed in most scenes, especially during Anakin’s appointment to the Jedi Council.

I think you should also remove the following line (where Anakin is too vehement): “How can you do this? This is outrageous.”

the opera scene

I would love to see Lucas caméo reinstalled 😃

The scene where he seems to have paranoia about Obi-Wan being as Padme’s apartment is gone.

I would suggest to keep the part where he admits his “lust” for power, which is still why he embraces the dark side according to ROTJ, while still removing the paranoia and saving Padmé stuff. Dialogues would flow like that:

• Obi-Wan’s been here, hasn’t he?
• He came by this morning.
• What did he want?
• He’s worried about you. He says you’ve been under a lot of stress.
• I feel lost.
• Lost? What do you mean?
• I’m not the Jedi I should be. I want more. And I know I shouldn’t.
• You expect too much of yourself.

Removed Boga’s noisy introduction

Well, it’s a fun western vibe ! 😃

Grievous retreats as soon as the clone troops arrive, in keeping with what little characterization about him we have seen so far, rather than gloating a bit and then running away.

Western vibe again: I wish you would use Kerr’s idea to keep the Sergio Leone close ups and the “you are doom” line.

Trimmed dialogue as Palpatine reveals his true nature to Anakin in order to slightly downplay Padme as Anakin’s only real motive for joining the dark side.

You should cut completely all references to Padmé so as to keep that only to Anakin (he told about his nightmares to no one in your edit, so Palpatine shouldn’t know either, and Anakin is already someone convinced by fascist ideals - as established in Episode II and in TCW tv series - and who leads a continuying quest for more power: the Padmé dying subplot should then stay something 100% kept in his own mind; it would emphasize his guilt more when he understands he killed her at the end - even if he actually didn’t in your edit !).

Removed Palpatine’s voiceover as Anakin waits in the Council room, talking about Padme again.

I agree with this removal but it creates a slight sound issue. I’ll check if it could be possible to use the soundtrack cue to replace the voice over (“Anakin’s dark deeds” is the name of the cue IIRC).

Trimmed the lightsaber fight, including Palpatine’s bizarre serpentine jump.

I would suggest to keep the first jump because it explains why 3 jedi masters are stunned by such an unpredictable and vicious move (it would also keep a creepy weirdness to Darth Sidious aggressive martial style).

As Anakin enters the scene, Windu is already going to kill Palpatine

I think you should remove a few more lines and only keep Anakin helping to kill Windu with almost no word said, hence removing the following lines:

• He must stand trial.
• He has control of the senate and the courts.
• He must live. I need him.

If Anakin says almost no word, it would also be a very interesting parallel to the ending of ROTJ when he quietly kills Palpatine (I’m referring to ROTJ edits without “No. Nooooooo” obviously 😉).

Anakin and Palpatine don’t mention Padme during the knighting of Vader scene

You should also remove Palpatine’s “…along with all the senators.” and “The council’s next move will be against the senate.” It’s over the top that Anakin would agree with Palpatine about that (why would the Jedi kill all the senators they have been protecting for generations ? Anakin has turned to the dark side but he’s not completely stupid to believe that in your edit).

Removed R2 popping out of Anakin’s fighter.

Well, I don’t mind the popping out thing (but I might be alone here 😃).

removed the scene where Anakin ignites his saber on a roomful of children

100% agree, but I wish you could keep the wide shot of the clone troopers killing jedi inside the Temple along with Anakin’s close up (to imply he’s actively killing jedis, as seen later in the movie with the recording scene).

Removed Obi-Wan referencing the chosen one prophecy during Anakin’s immolation. It’s more effective when it’s personal rather than philosophical.

I’m unsure about that. Since you’ve kept the Chosen One subplot intact in your edits I think it would be good to keep that last reference here.

Three last ideas:

• remove a small part of Windu’s dialogue in the gunner (I made this change using your edit, I can send it to you if you wish to hear if it sounds good) when he says “It’s very dangerous, putting them together. I don’t think the boy can handle it.” to make him say “It’s very dangerous. I don’t think the boy can handle it.” (because if putting them together is dangerous - and why would it be ? - why are you putting them together ?!?).

• remove Padmé naming the kids, so you still keep Leia being Luke’s sister as a slight revelation when you watch I-II-III-(R1)-IV-V-VI.

• Don’t know if possible to remove, but I never liked the shot of Palpatine smilling during Vader’s wrath. It’s too ridiculously evil.

Sorry it’s a long post but I’ve been thinking recently (after rewatching your edit and the extended cut) about what I would do if I were to make my own Episode III edit using yours as the base so I take the opportunity share my ideas here 😃 (don’t worry I’m not gonna make such a list for Episode I & II… only a few minor suggestions but not that many !).

Hal 9000 said:

Well, the necklace has no payoff whatsoever in Episode III because my handling of it does not allow a place for either of its two appearances there. I’m open to others’ opinions though, given this.

I agree but there is a payoff for the necklace in my beloved Clone Wars microseries (when Anakin is knighted) so I would love to see it reinstalled 😄

(by the way whatever you add or remove could you keep a log of the number of frames added/removed so it would be more simple to resync the subtitles ? I will do it in both languages, my pleasure as usual !).

MalàStrana said:

Hal 9000 said:

Well, the necklace has no payoff whatsoever in Episode III because my handling of it does not allow a place for either of its two appearances there. I’m open to others’ opinions though, given this.

I agree but there is a payoff for the necklace in my beloved Clone Wars microseries (when Anakin is knighted) so I would love to see it reinstalled 😄

(by the way whatever you add or remove could you keep a log of the number of frames added/removed so it would be more simple to resync the subtitles ? I will do it in both languages, my pleasure as usual !).

Yes! There’s the microseries payoff. I think that’s worth it haha 😛 I’m sorry I’m so useless tbh, I don’t know anything about editing and I can only speak Portuguese and English 😕

Thanks for the equally long reply ! And I’m glad for the necklace of Episode I being put back 😃

• Obi-Wan jumping out of cockpit. It’ll probably stay out, since its so cartoony. I think it’d only be missed due to having already been familiar with the original.

You may be right about the first cartoonish jump, but the second (little) one is actually quite nice here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUpB2MkLNLE#t=0m18s

• I think I edited the elevator sequence like that but felt it was too abrupt without something to cut away to in between.

Yeah I was thinking about that and the only solution would be to reinstall a shot a R2 hiding from the 2 droids. Maybe the shot “those are jedi fighters all right” could be used… if so removing the sound from this line… i’ll check that out if this is possible, IIRC there is no central channel dialogue for this shot so the rest could be muted thanks to ambient sound of the space battle (could work)… i’ll try that and keep you informed if this is feasible !

• Balcony scene. Well… I suppose the balcony scene could work. It would be a way to include a very subtle appearance of the necklace, and enhance the tragic aspects of Anakin’s story. It would come at the cost of slightly undercutting a powerful cut from Palpatine’s “…a new apprentice…” to Anakin’s nightmare. I’ll think about this one, but it might be a good idea if I reinstate the necklace in Episode I to let that scene feel solid.

The scene could also be reinstalled after the first Padmé/Anakin scene (around 0:20:00); I wasn’t thinking about placing it before the nightmare scene (around 0:32:00 of your edit), but this choice could indeed be better.

• Apartment scene. I don’t know. I mean, I’m not sure where else the third rebellion deleted scene would go and that scene’s second half would have to be removed anyway. I think it’ll need to remain out.

The only place it could be reinstalled I think is between the second rebellion scene and Obi-Wan/Anakin farewells (around 0:40:00 of your edit). It would also better establish that during the appartment scene Anakin had no antagonist against Obi-Wan as well as being a callback to his quest for more power (I really do think this dialogue is important for Anakin’s turn, “I’m not the jedi I should be. I want more” => it has a clear payoff with the later Palpatine reveal, “all your life you’ve wanted something better etc.”). But I believe it would need to use (or reuse) a wide shot… or reinstall the second nightmare to smoother the scene transition… I would love to say half the scene back but yeah, I understand it might be tricky to do so.

• I think it’d feel abrupt to remove that much of Mace and Anakin’s conversation over Palpatine. This dialogue lets us see ‘principle photography Anakin’ advocate for his idea of justice before acting on it.

It might be just the “he must stand trial” that really bothers me, because Anakin doesn’t mention it after. He never intended to really arrest Palpatine. I’m not sure I must confess about that line. Anyway it plays so far better than the theatrical cut in your edit that I might just be nitpicking on very small details no one else sees 😃

• Not sure how well it would play to have just the first shot of killings in the Temple and a closeup of Anakin. I will play with this. Maybe it would work being placed between Padme crying and Bail arriving there.

Oh yeah it would be great to put it there !

• “YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE.” I’m open to persuasion on this point, though I like omitting it in order to keep things personal, and I’ll likely keep it that way.

I’ve just been talking to someone familiar with your edit and the theatrical cut, and… I think the way it currently is should stay. I agree it’s better Obi-Wan doesn’t mention the prophecy here. In this regard, should the earlier mention during the gunner scene be trimmed as well of the chosen one ? (well, don’t know, because Yoda’s remark has a payoff so it probaly should stay as it is).

Hal 9000 said:

Here is the nighttime scene for anyone to take a stab at. I’ll edit the prior post to include it:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ijkUtOTbBsQu3OChi0hRm9FMjU3tdq0K

I’ll go for it, shouldn’t be too hard.

By the way, if anyone else wants to take a stab at that “Padme” Boleyn footage, be my guest, it is a pain in the ass and will take me more time to crack than I thought.

Also, couple thoughts on Mala’s suggestions:

• I found a very easy way to incorporate the beginning of the elevator scene, basically once Obi-wan and Anakin slice up the battle droids, we cut to the elevator going up the elevator shaft and stopping at Dooku’s. I can upload a preview to show what I mean if you want. Thing is, I’m thinking about cutting it out anyway, because the scene ends up kinda pointless without any elevator antics to pay it off. Rather than use any of the R2 stuff, though, I think the easiest and shortest solution would just be to cap the scene with the “Roger, roger” joke from the deleted scenes. But I don’t have an upscaled source of that, so as is the scene is just kind of there.

• The way I included the third rebellion scene and the apartment scene is back to back, right after Obi-wan goes to hyperspace. Though you need to also include the nightmare to make this work, but basically you go from Palpatine sensing betrayal in Padme to Anakin dreaming about Obi-wan delivering the baby, adding a bit of jealous paranoia there that was cut out of the theatrical film. The tricky thing is to place the scene here, you need to cut out Padme saying “he came by this morning,” which is possible, but tricky.