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The Last Jedi: A Light Edit (DISCONTINUED) (* unfinished project *)

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 (Edited)

Update 4/4/18: My editing skills are not up to par. This will not be out for quite some time, if ever. Sorry.

Original:
Like many of you, I walked out of The Last Jedi feeling very conflicted. A lot of it was great, but so much of it made me wonder what I was watching. However, I believe that, at the core, we have a very good movie hidden under a lot of pointless sideplots and fat, and with a few trims and possible shifting of scenes, we can finally see it. I’ll be using some of the same ideas discussed in the Fan Edit ideas thread, with a few of my own.

The main goal is to remove the casino planet entirely, and show Finn and Rose’s story from Poe’s perspective until they infiltrate the ship. This will hopefully make Captain Holdo’s characterization feel more natural as well. I also plan to remove Maz and Phasma as well, as they contribute nothing to the main story, our focus is on Rey, Kylo Ren, and Luke Skywalker.

Cutlist:

  • Cut stupid expository Hux dialogue. “I have my orders from Snoke himself”. Who is he saying this to and why? He’s there to destroy them and that’s what’s on his mind.
  • Trim Poe’s toying. The worst part of this was Hux going along with it. Now Poe just says he’s on hold and Hux immediately asks if he can hear him. Hux looks more competent here.
  • Cut Snoke dragging Hux along the floor. We go from “Snoke wants to talk to you” and Hux looking worried straight to the rebel ship.
  • Cut shot of Luke getting milk. This didn’t bother me much but it was odd and got enough of a bad reaction to justify its removal.
  • Trim Leia’s Superman moment. The explosion doesn’t show her getting sucked out. The next time we see her, she’s unconscious.
  • Remove Luke’s reference to “Darth Sidious” with some audio trickery.
  • Cut all of Canto Bight. We see Poe raise his finger when Finn says we need a codebreaker (possibly dub in “I think I know someone” for Poe or utilize some of Rose’s dialogue from later on), then we cut to another scene of Luke and Rey or Ren (whichever comes next). Rose’s line, “We get in, get the codebreaker, and get out” is moved to right after they steal the shuttle. This removes the need for Maz.
  • The next time we see Finn and Rose, they’re on the ship with DJ. “Did you get the codebreaker?” “We got A codebreaker, not THE codebreaker!”. Merge the scene where Rose gives her medallion here. Cut Finn’s “Look at us” line.
  • Trim some of Snoke’s dialogue before his betrayal. It goes on a bit long, making his betrayal more obvious, and Snoke looks like an idiot.
  • Add deleted scene of Finn trying to flatten Rose’s hair on the ship. Since Canto Bight is cut, more material (not much) to show their relationship develop is needed.
  • Cut Phasma fight, remove Phasma entirely. This also removes BB-8’s dumb walker thing.
  • Cut Hux repeating Kylo’s orders. Attempt to make Hux more of a threat.
  • Cut broom kid, an extension of removing Canto Bight.
  • Possibly adjust brightness or contrast of a few Yoda shots to make him look less weird.

From Hal 9000

  • Reign in the SNL opening with Poe and Hux.
  • Remove or trim BB8’s wack-a-mole repairs (as part of broader effort to remove ‘Droids’ stuff, just like in AOTC and ROTS)
  • Remove Maz’s Battlefront Skype call.
  • Keep the scene with Chewie about to eat a porg, though remove the final porg giving him the sad eyes.
  • If deleted scenes make this possible, give Rey her promised third lesson from Luke.
  • Remove Poe’s “big ass door.” Hopefully that shot is static, so a simple crossfade or similar trickery will make it work, saying “Let’s just hope that door holds out,” or whatever the exact line is.
  • Similarly, remove Finn’s unnecessary line about the battering ram being “old Death Star tech.” (Let’s never reference the Death Star in another ‘saga’ film ever again.)
  • I’ll ask anyone here who is willing, to stabilize the crate Luke sits down on while talking with Leia. The filmmakers bothered to not have him physically interact with the ground, or make walking foley sounds, so this seems like a small but positive change to make. (You just gotta do stuff like this while you’ve got everything cracked open.)
  • Remove the porg smacking against the Falcon window.

From darkrush

  • Edit Finn’s sacrifice to show Rose get blown up. Finn’s motivation now is to avenge Rose. His ship goes out on him. I like the kiss, so will play around with this to see if I can fit it in, but the “It’s not about hate, it’s about love!” line will be cut either way.
  • Cut Luke barking “Go Away”. Sounds childish, just let him ignore the knocks.
  • Cut jokes of Porgs with the lightsaber.
  • Cut Luke saying “Nothing at all can change my mind.” and “C’mon that’s cheap” to R2. This will make the scene of him seeing Leia’s old hologram a lot more natural and emotional. Those lines blatantly stated what the scene was trying to do.
  • Cut rock crashing the cart of the frog nuns.
  • Cut evil BB unit scanning them from a distance
  • Cut close up shots of evil BB unit and BB-8 looking at eachother after Finn and Rose are caught.
  • Cut silly close up of Snoke’s dead face and his tongue hanging out.
  • Move Yoda scene to after Kylo declares himself Supreme Leader. This leads into the introduction of Crait.
  • Cut Hux’s “Do you think you got him?” line.
  • Cut Kylo hitting Hux and the “right away sir” joke.

I’ll have to play around with the placement of scenes once I make these cuts in order to maintain pacing. I’m considering moving Finn waking up somewhere else. I think the structure of the film as it is works, it’s just far too long and meanders a bit. I hope this tightens up the film, brings the tone more in line with the previous films, and induces less cringing.

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I think you’d have to cut the part of DJ stealing from the ship as well. It doesn’t fit since as the viewer, you have no idea what Canto Bight is and it’s a lot easier to assume it is a resistance ship. And if you move that plot later in the film, you can just have Poe and them agree to find the master codebreaker, then only a few scenes later just have Poe call them and they say “we found A codebreaker”. No need for dubbed lines.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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darthrush said:

I think you’d have to cut the part of DJ stealing from the ship as well. It doesn’t fit since as the viewer, you have no idea what Canto Bight is and it’s a lot easier to assume it is a resistance ship. And if you move that plot later in the film, you can just have Poe and them agree to find the master codebreaker, then only a few scenes later just have Poe call them and they say “we found A codebreaker”. No need for dubbed lines.

Possibly, however we still need to set up that DJ’s not to be trusted, I was thinking of just removing the Canto Bight references. DJ telling Hux about the shuttles is pivotal, otherwise it seems like the First Order knows about them anyway. That makes Holdo’s plan that much stupider, which we can’t have given the way she treats Poe. I’ll see how it plays out, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

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 (Edited)

Another random thing, after just coming home from a final theatrical viewing… when Luke is staring into the sun at the end, there’s a black speck there. 1st viewing I thought it was a ship coming in, then I assumed maybe it was something on the screen. But it’s definitely there, and at the end of a movie that has screamed “JUST KIDDING” a dozen times up to that point, I’d like to see it removed.

Oh, and count me in for test footage or anything else.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Handman said:

darthrush said:

I think you’d have to cut the part of DJ stealing from the ship as well. It doesn’t fit since as the viewer, you have no idea what Canto Bight is and it’s a lot easier to assume it is a resistance ship. And if you move that plot later in the film, you can just have Poe and them agree to find the master codebreaker, then only a few scenes later just have Poe call them and they say “we found A codebreaker”. No need for dubbed lines.

Possibly, however we still need to set up that DJ’s not to be trusted, I was thinking of just removing the Canto Bight references. DJ telling Hux about the shuttles is pivotal, otherwise it seems like the First Order knows about them anyway. That makes Holdo’s plan that much stupider, which we can’t have given the way she treats Poe. I’ll see how it plays out, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

Watch that scene again in theatres closely. There is nothing but talk of Canto Bight. Finn walks in, asks for the medallion, asks why he’s stealing, says at least your stealing from the bad guys (Canto Bight) and then the entire rest of the scene is DJ showing Finn that Canto Bight sells to both sides. There’s nothing in there to salvage which doesn’t conflict. And I don’t see the need for it either. All it shows is that he is willing to steal, so…eh

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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I like this. I think a light edit of TLJ to take out the fat is definitely in order

However, I didn’t mind the milk drinking scene, the SNL opening, nor most of the casino scene except for Rose’s rant and a few bits. From Canto Bight I would only cut out her stupid rant, that part where Fin says “Felt good though, to hit em where it hurts”, that one stupid thing that horded the coins, and anything shoving muh animal abuse in your face

No offense, kid, but I don’t think you know how to boil water.

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“Let’s go chrome dome!”

“You were always scum.”
“Rebel scum”.

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darthrush said:

Collipso said:

“Let’s go chrome dome!”

“You were always scum.”
“Rebel scum”.

I’ll be cutting these. Currently developing my cutlist. Expect a dedicated thread pretty soon.

I look forward to it. As Phasma will be gone entirely from my edit, those lines are too.

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Handman said:

darthrush said:

Collipso said:

“Let’s go chrome dome!”

“You were always scum.”
“Rebel scum”.

I’ll be cutting these. Currently developing my cutlist. Expect a dedicated thread pretty soon.

I look forward to it. As Phasma will be gone entirely from my edit, those lines are too.

I’m considering this cut as well but haven’t made up my mind yet. How you would you execute it?

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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suspensiondigital said:

I’m willing to help with some VFX stuff (like fixing the crate or splicing shots that almost but don’t quite cut together, etc.).

If your speaking of connecting the shots where Kylo swings at Luke (after someone removes the slowmo) then you can bet that would be really valuable for many here. That sounds awesome. I’m trying to dabble in some VFX myself when I have the time.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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suspensiondigital said:

I’m willing to help with some VFX stuff (like fixing the crate or splicing shots that almost but don’t quite cut together, etc.).

That would be invaluable, thank you.

darthrush said:

Handman said:

darthrush said:

Collipso said:

“Let’s go chrome dome!”

“You were always scum.”
“Rebel scum”.

I’ll be cutting these. Currently developing my cutlist. Expect a dedicated thread pretty soon.

I look forward to it. As Phasma will be gone entirely from my edit, those lines are too.

I’m considering this cut as well but haven’t made up my mind yet. How you would you execute it?

As far as I can tell, her only important scene is when Hux is talking to her about DJ, so maybe I’ll just alter the dialogue and have Hux talk to someone else, like Finn, or cut it completely. As you have repeatedly demonstrated, you have a much better memory of the film than I do at the moment, I don’t recall anything of hers that can’t simply be cut or cropped or painted out.

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Looking forward to seeing what the fan editors can do with this film. I know there’s potential for an enjoyable SW film in there, just not the cut I saw at the theater. 😦

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Handman said:

Phasma will be gone entirely from my edit

Woah this edit is starting to seem a little radical

No offense, kid, but I don’t think you know how to boil water.

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Handman said:

liamnotneeson said:

Handman said:

Phasma will be gone entirely from my edit

Woah this edit is starting to seem a little radical

How so? She doesn’t do much, if anything.

She still has a fight with Fin, as short as it may be

No offense, kid, but I don’t think you know how to boil water.

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Man, that whole fight reminded me of my TFA rewrite idea I had shortly after it came out. If you’ll indulge my slight off-topicness:

TFA would mostly play out the same way, but there’s no Starkiller Base. Instead, there’s a huge Super Star Destroyer or Dreadnought (sound familiar?) at the center of the First Order fleet. (It would also have been implied that said fleet is all there is of the First Order.)

The Republic doesn’t consider one fleet of ships in the Unknown Regions to be a threat, Leia starts the Resistance, yadda yadda.

Takodana would play out pretty much as it does in HAL’s Restructured, then Rey is taken aboard Ren’s Star Destroyer for interrogation. Finn tells Leia about the First Order fleet and the Dreadnought. Resistance Intel finds out that the FO fleet is headed to Hosnian Prime.

The final battle is a massive space battle between the First Order fleet, the Republic fleet, and the Resistance arrives to assist…

…just as the Dreadnought fires on Hosnian Prime, destroying the capital and the Senate with it. The rest of the battle is fought to allow the rest of the Republic fleet to escape.

Meanwhile, Finn, Han, and Chewie board Ren’s Star Destroyer to rescue Rey. That all plays out mostly as it did in TFA (Han dies, etc.), but during the lightsaber duel, the Resistance cripples the Star Destroyer, and the duel plays out on a collapsing capital ship…much like Finn and Phasma’s fight in TLJ.

The “ground splitting in two, separating Rey and Ren” thing could’ve made more sense this way, and you could’ve had Finn and Phasma’s fight parallel to Rey and Ren’s.

Anyway, sorry for the long derailment, but that was all I could think about when watching that whole part in TLJ.

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I agree with most of these changes except for why remove the mention of the emperor

As people who enjoy the prequels they get a nice reference

As for the people who haven’t seen the prequels it adds more back story to Anakin and the emperor

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HerekittykittyX said:

I agree with most of these changes except for why remove the mention of the emperor

As people who enjoy the prequels they get a nice reference

As for the people who haven’t seen the prequels it adds more back story to Anakin and the emperor

I don’t like the prequels, and I don’t think Luke referring to the Emperor as “Darth Sidious” makes one lick of sense. I don’t even remember him being referred as that in the prequels themselves, only in promotional material like action figures and video games. It’s the only explicit prequel reference, and I’d rather not be reminded of them.

In regards to the Phasma fight, I thought it was another unnecessary prolongation in a film with too many unnecessary scenes. I’d rather Phasma be killed off in TFA than randomly reappear here only to do nothing of consequence. Sure, as Dom (I think) pointed out, it’s important to show Finn fight his literal past, but we got that already, and he does it again 20 minutes later anyway. Phasma is a useless character. I like the idea of their fight being repurposed in a TFA edit (not sure how it could be accomplished, though).

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Darth Sidious was definitely referred to in the PT.

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 (Edited)

HerekittykittyX said:

I agree with most of these changes except for why remove the mention of the emperor

As people who enjoy the prequels they get a nice reference

As for the people who haven’t seen the prequels it adds more back story to Anakin and the emperor

I love what you implied here

Handman said:

TV’s Frink said:

Darth Sidious was definitely referred to in the PT.

I wasn’t about to double check, haha, thanks.

He’s referred to as “Lord Sidious” by the Nemodians many times in TPM, and by Dooku in AOTC. I know this for sure because in my edit Dooku is a Jedi and he warns Obi-Wan of a Sith controlling the Senate

No offense, kid, but I don’t think you know how to boil water.