Really highlights what the problem with SEs and prequels is, too. George really didn’t change at all. I think this also shows that he stubbornly felt he was right all along. See how the trade talk pops back up in TPM’s crawl. Honestly surprised he didn’t make further changes in the SEs to return the film to its original version.
Still makes me wonder if the prequels couldn’t be redeemed if given to actually talented editors.
NOTE: I’m not talking about a mere fan edit, but editors being supplied with all shot material and even a budget to complete or undo special effects. Obviously you’re not going to be able to fix bad performances and bad casting, but I could see them being restructured into something approaching a competent film.
Unfortunately I believe the main issue all fan editors and probably the editors at the time of production faced is in fact the source material you have to work with and the mentioned performance and casting issues.
If fan edits have proven anything with the PTs, is that no amount of rearranging and editing will ever properly fix something that is inherently shit to begin with.
I think Adywan had the potential to get close to making them good movies when he was still looking to edit them (not any longer) but I believe the only way to ever properly fix the PTs is to actually remake them, which isn’t out of the question knowing Hollywood. But then they’d probably want to remake the OT and ST as well, so all in all it’s probably just best to either forget the existence of the PT or enjoy them as you can with fan edits 😉
.Val