Phantom Menace REIMAGINED!

Like everyone else, I hated what they did with the prequels. It had so much potential, but they ruined it simply because they wanted to sell toys. I find it especially shameful because along with having all that potential it had some great actors and actresses. So at one point we hoped that George Lucas would hear our pleads and fix the movies in the next release and more we cried about it, worse he made them. (In the end he even started to mess with the originals. HAN SHOOTS FIRST!) So we tried to fix it ourselves, some people tried to edit the movies to cut most of the annoyance (like most of the Jar Jar Binks and little Anakin scenes), though some had great ideas, they ended up butchering the movies. Some even cutting a chunk of 30 to 40 minutes of the movie. Some went for the light touch and just cut a line here and there. After watching, I found that neither of them worked for me. They either cut too much or not enough. The problem is most obvious in the Phantom Menace, since it is the worst of the entire prequel trilogy and there are so many things that makes little to no sense about the story along with WAY too much of Jar Jar Binks and  unnecessarily a lot of Little Anakin.

So the other day, this idea came to my mind when I saw Phantom Menace on TV, while on Tatooine why would a Master Jedi like Qui-Gon Jinn take an annoying clumsy idiot like Jar Jar Binks with him where he would be mostly useless knowing he would most likely get everyone in trouble? and while on Naboo, why would he take Anakin, a little kid who has no training and put his life in danger? It is not like it adds anything to the plot or anything, most of the time, they just ignore their existence, most scenes are same with or without them in the scene. (Only a bit better since the movies are a lot less annoying without them)

So this edit will focus on that, when they land on Tatooine, Jar Jar Binks will stay on the ship, and when they are going back to Naboo to liberate it from the Federation, they will not take the young Anakin with them, instead they they will leave him in the Jedi temple. This makes the most sense and since we will see less of the annoying characters, (since they will only be where they make sense to be) they will be far less annoying.

And a little video, sorry for the low quality and no sound, please don't forget it is a WIP.

https://vid.me/9xx8

Well, I am sure you guys get the idea.

The goals of this project is to:

1- Reduce the screen time of the annoying characters and to use them only where it makes sense in the story. (This means no Jar Jar Binks in Tattoine and no Anakin in Naboo)

2- To make it so that every annoying aspects of these two characters is gone. (More ambitiously I want them to be redubbed using a modified version of the script. Also instead of cutting the Gungan underwater city scene, I want to have every Gungan that appear in the movie to be dubbed as well. How many times in your life you get to make an entire species less annoying? :D )

3- Instead of cutting Midi-chlorian releted scenes like most did, I want to edit&redub them. Preferably using the original actors voice. This can be done by editing it word by word (though it may sound a bit fake if not done right), using a sound alike or begging the original actor via twitter to record a few lines on their phones and send them to us. (less likely to happen, but not impossible.)

For example, the scene where they go back to Naboo to free it from the Federation would play out like this:

You know, instead of the whole midichlorians this, midichlorians that and come with me, stay close me, watch me to learn the ways of the force scene (which doesn't make any sense, Anakin is a little kid, he is not even a Padawan, he is a Youngling at best and he didn't receive any training whatsoever, he is a liability and he is useless even if he is strong in the force. Also, since when Jedi's take Younglings to the missions? Aren't they supposed to stay in the temple and, you know, learn stuff? Even though they refused to train him, wouldn't they leave him in the temple, where it is safe, until they complete the mission? Instead of endangering him by taking him into a battle?)

4- 3PO wont be built by Anakin, he wont even be in the movie. (Also, Anakin will no longer be great at everything. Thats just annoying.)

5- I will restore some of the deleted scenes. Especially the ones that Includes sand people, Greedo and Padme.

I have few more goals, but I will reveal them later. This will not be easy for me as I don't have much time and my editing skills are only average. I am not even promising to ever finish the project. (I will do everything I can though, even though I may need help from time to time. I will post updates whenever I can.) I just hope to give some ideas to other editors. I especially wonder what Adywan thinks on the subject. (After all, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't watch Revisited. Great stuff)

sansuni said:

Anakin is a little kid, he is not even a Padawan, he is a Youngling at best

TV's Frink said:

sansuni said:

3- Instead of cutting Midi-chlorian related scenes like most did, I want to edit&redub them. Preferably using the original actors voice. This can be done by editing it word by word (though it may sound a bit fake if not done right)

 If you can make it sound anything less than completely fake, I wanna hire you to work on my edit.  Because it's super obvious it has been done, no matter how careful you are.

I realize it is not easy to make it sound anything less than completely fake. But that's why I suggested other methods. Using a soundalike would be easier after all.

Mikeluv80 said:

sounds cool and the jarjar-less clip completely got my interest... looking forward to this

I am glad you liked it. Thank you.

Unfortunately, after making so some progress, my hdd crashed and died on me. So, most of my files are now gone. I still have some of the footage I edited on my spare drive, but since everything else is gone, I have to do them from scratch. Sigh.. I hate this. All this work and it goes to waste.

Anyway, like I have said before, above all else, I just hope to inspire others with new ideas about editing prequels. This is another way of saying, this is going to take too long for me to finish it, maybe someone else can do it before me and I wont have to finish it. :D

Your Anakin idea sounds like the "What if Episode I was actually GOOD!?" video

fishmanlee said:

Your Anakin idea sounds like the "What if Episode I was actually GOOD!?" video

I does? I don't know, I never watched it, but it should be common sense, why would a Jedi Master take a little kid who had no training (not even a padawan, more like a padawan candidate) to battle?  If he is the chosen one, why would he risk the little kids life? How does it even make any sense?

Skippy The Jedi Droid said:

I know your frustration. I've watched so many TPM fanedits but none of them please me. You have very bold ideas but I like them a lot. I hope you have enough patience to finish this project.

There are few things that really interest me:

1. What is your main video source? I hope it's not the regular Blu-Ray but the regraded and regrained version (V2) that can be found on myspleen.

2. The problem with the deleted scenes is that they're not availbale in HD (as far as I'm aware of). Are you going to lower the resolution of the whole film because of that? There are few shots that I would like to include as well: during the extended scene before the podrace starts there are few additional shots of the racers that are NOT CGI (Mawhonic and Dud Bolt). More practical effects in TPM! :)

3. Jabba cameo. Are you keeping it? If you are then I wish you'd make him more green. He was always so grey in TPM.

4. Podrace lap 2. Are you going to remove it? It slows things down too much imo.

5. In my opinion Gungans resemble Native Americans. What do you think? Making them sound like "indians" would be pretty cool :D

6. "No Anakin in Naboo". Does that mean he's not going to blow up the Trade Federation ship?

7. Jedi Force speed. There's that one shot in the opening scene where they use the force speed. Will you keep it? I'm asking because it's stupid that Obi-Wan doesn't use it when the red "doors" are closing during the Darth Maul fight.

7. Yoda! Puppet or CGI? I'd prefer the puppet IF you make him less cross-eyed and enhance his mouth movement so it actually syncs with the audio.

I'll definitely try these things myself but I have much less experience with editing than you have. Maybe I'll turn to Adywan after he finishes ROTJ:R :D

Thank you. I am glad you liked it. I hope I will be able to complete it as well. Even if what I create will not be perfect, it can't be any worse than what we already got.

1. My main source is a SWEP1 Blu-ray disc. I believe it is the regular version. I already had the OT's and a friend of mine gave me the prequels as a gift (I had received better gifts) I believe he was trying to get rid of them. :D I am unsure about changing video source, since all the work I have done will need to be remade (I have already lost a lot, if I have to start from scratch, I may lose my will to continue.) but I might consider it if the source you mention is really better.

2. I am thinking a compromise, I will try to lower the quality of what I got just a little bit, and raise the quality of the deleted scenes a little bit and try to make them work together nicely. If it works and it is passable, I will do it that way, if not, I will think of something.

3. I am thinking about getting rid of the Jabba cameo. It messes with the OT. You will still hear about him during the Tatooine sequence, but I feel he shouldn't appear so early.

4. I am going to shorten the whole Pod Races sequence to an incredible degree. I find it just so incredibly annoying. I am going to use some of the scenes from Pod races lap 2, but not everything. For instance, some of the crash scenes and Sand People will make an appearance, but that's about it. Anything that slows down the pace too much and anything George Lucas added to make it more appealing to kids will be cut and where it is possible replaced.

5. I was thinking something similar. I decided to keep the underwater sequence, but again it will be a lot shorter and a lot less silly. I want them to appear a little intelligent and a bit intimidating. To do that, I want them to sound just a bit unique, like how they are natives in this planet. With their alien culture and stuff. I wish there was a way to change the part where Qui-Gon Jinn meets with their leader. He should have convinced their leader instead of using Jedi mind trick on him. Whole thing emphasis how silly and stupid these natives are, it is almost racist.

6. He will not. Anakin being there makes no sense whatsoever. A little kid who had no Jedi training, who doesn't even know how to fly, learns it in 10 minutes and destroys a federation ship and that makes sense to everyone? Instead we will see an intense fight where good side wins trough bravery, instead of the luck of a little brat.

7. I think I am going to cut it. I agree with you, it doesn't make sense.

8. I really want to keep puppet Yoda, but since the other two movies uses CGI (where Yoda fights and stuff) I believe it would just look too different. I am undecided. I mean, I am not sure if I could make the puppet Yoda look good as Adywan does. That guy is the real talent. He is using blood magic or something. OR IS IT JEDI POWERS?! I must investigate.

I wish Adywan worked on this as well. I hope he will do just that after he releases OT.

towne32 said:

sansuni said:

 

2. I am thinking a compromise, I will try to lower the quality of what I got just a little bit, and raise the quality of the deleted scenes a little bit and try to make them work together nicely. If it works and it is passable, I will do it that way, if not, I will think of something.

 Perhaps you can just reduce the quality of the shots immediately preceding and following the deleted scene to make the shift a bit more gradual. Shouldn't need to have the quality suffer throughout the entire film. 

I guess I will try to find the right balance trough trial and error. I don't want to degrade the whole movie.

Skippy The Jedi Droid said:

There is TPM game sound files on myspleen that could be useful for this project. There is additional dialogue that are not in the film, background noises and other cool sound effects. You might wanna check it out in the future. Sadly nobody is seeding it right now...

I will check it out, but I believe I watched it on youtube and thought the quality of voice acting was terrible. I might be wrong, but I remember thinking that it sounded really stale.

Hey I'm actually doing the same things in my edit! But this is pretty much the last thing that I'll be doing once I'm pleased with the rest of my work :P

Smithers said:

Hey I'm actually doing the same things in my edit! But this is pretty much the last thing that I'll be doing once I'm pleased with the rest of my work :P

That's good to hear. How similar will your edit will be to mine though? Will you fallow my less Anakin and Jar Jar idea as well? If so, I wish you luck! It is hard to do without butchering the movie and if anyone can do it, I believe it would worth it. That's why I am even working on this.

Yeah this is just one of the more minor changes really, the movie will be very different by the end story wise, I'm also removing Yoda from my cut

While I mostly agree with you about vastly changing the story, I believe removing the Yoda scenes is a terrible idea. (are you talking about CGI Yoda or Yoda in general? If you are talking about CGI Yoda, I don't disagree completely)

Completely removing Yoda as a character from the PT, but leaving an empty chair in his place, he actually doesn't contribute much to the story and most of the time just rephrases what the other Jedi had just said.

Smithers said:

Completely removing Yoda as a character from the PT, but leaving an empty chair in his place, he actually doesn't contribute much to the story and most of the time just rephrases what the other Jedi had just said.

While I agree that he doesn't actually contribute much to the story, Yoda not being there doesn't make any sense in my opinion. Also, I believe some scenes wouldn't work without Yoda there.

sansuni said:

I wish Adywan worked on this as well. I hope he will do just that after he releases OT.

doubleofive said:

sansuni said:

I wish Adywan worked on this as well. I hope he will do just that after he releases OT.

Good news for you!

I am already aware of that, but the problem is, there are no guaranties that he will work on the prequels after finishing OT's. Even if he somehow decides to work on them, it would probably take like another 10 years until we see the finished version of Episode 1.

Skippy The Jedi Droid said:

That doesn't mean anything. He had plans for the prequels years ago but now I'm a bit sceptical. ESB:R was supposed to come out years ago but the Blu-Ray release changed everything. Now he's ben working on ESB:R for over 6 years and it won't even come out this year. Then he will start doing ROTJ:R that will probably take another 3-4 years and when ROTJ:R is finished he'll start working of ANH:R HD. I know Adywan hates these type of comments but I'm going to say it anyway: I'm dead before TPM:R comes out! :D

Honestly I think he will quit after ANH:R HD... and yes I know I'm a pessimistic person :P

I completely agree. Who knows when Adywan is going to start working on the prequels, or rather if he is going to work on them at all.

By the way, I am working on an idea to make the droids less silly and annoying. (and I am also trying to make them look less like CGI, but so far, it is difficult)

Anyway, it is time to add more things I am planning to do:

1. Make the droids sound less like silly cartoon characters and more like mechanic and menacing sounding robots. That "roger roger" crap has to go!

2. In episode one, there are scenes where everything you see, without exception, is CGI. It mostly looks unnatural and weird looking colors doesn't help either.. I intend to make it look more natural using several filters. We will see how that will turn out. I want the droids and Gungans to look more grayish in contrast to their environment, at the moment they look more like toys, they are too colorful. I believe that was the purpose, George Lucas needs to sell toys right? Sigh.

3. I don't know if it is possible or not, but I want to try changing the story a little. I want to make sure Anakin Skywalker has a better backstory. I believe it could be done with a few clever edits. I need to think a bit more about that though.

I wish I could edit and change the child actor into a teenager/young adult actor, but I can't see that happening. (Imagine replacing little Anakin and imagine how less annoying the whole movie could become.. Impossible as it would require greenscreen and lots of clever editing, but it would have worth it. I am not going to do something like that though.)

fgqb#19nyj said:

which editor are you using?

Oh, I think it would be easier to have Qui-Gon scold Anakin for following them to the Naboo capital than to have him stay behind on Coruscant. The space battle isn't crucial, but it could still be edited to make Anakin look somewhat cool. 

The problem isn't with Anakin's involvement with the battle, anyway. The problem people have with it is how he came to be there in the first place.

I am using a very old version of after effects. It is not very efficient, but I am kind of getting used to it.

Well, it isn't really about what is easier, but it is about what makes the most sense. Little Anakin has no place in that battle and that is all. No matter how you edit it, you can't make little Anakin look cool, but you can at least make him a lot less annoying. Anakin fighting in the battle and winning it easily, undermines the whole thing and makes everyone involved look like incompetent losers. Less is more principle applies here. Less little Anakin is better and that's a fact.