So, the last half of this edit on my timeline is now very different than the original version most people have seen. Essentially, I felt like the pacing was very off once Anakin became Vader. There’s a lot of build up and then the rest of movie wraps up in like 45 minutes. And, overall there’s not a whole lot of excitement. Before I finalize it, it’d be nice to know what people think about these new changes:
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New crawl, with capitalized letters for the factions and better wording/grammar. Letters also aren’t so spread apart.
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Various new extra voice clips, or different voice clips added throughout to make characters seem more like people. Things like Anakin saying “Come on, buddy” to R2, or Obi-Wan and Anakin actually laughing together. The usual with this edit.
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The ending I had devised with the voice over and finishing notes of Vader breathing, is now gone. I’ve just decided to end like the original cut, minus Padme’s dying words and everything Vader says or does after “Yes, master.” The ending I had come up with just seemed a little too hacked together and ended the movie way too quickly. Besides, it seems like the theatrical ending of RotS is generally considered pretty good.
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Yoda wookiee goodbye and fight to get into the temple reinstated just to pad things out for more balanced pacing. Overall, I just also kind of like the feeling of “the Republic’s final days” that these better help establish. These kind of hype up the end, with a goodbye, and just more visuals of Order 66’s aftermath. I cut out the excessive wookiee noises and Yoda only addresses Tarful and not Chewie. So it can still be a random wookiee.
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Since this a TCW adherent edit, Yoda using a lightsaber isn’t a huge deal. I re-added Yoda vs Sidious, just L8WRTR’s cut down version. The movie needed more action and excitement. Obi-Wan and Yoda still don’t plan together to take out Vader and Palps tho; Obi-Wan isn’t told to kill Anakin, and I added dialogue before and during their duel to facilitate that he doesn’t want to. It’s also been pointed out to me that the duel destroying the Senate Hall is pretty symbolic of the end of the Republic and is pretty okay pay off for the trilogy.
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The Chosen One schpiel by Obi-Wan at the end, even if I don’t particularly care for what it’s saying, has some good emotion from both Hayden and Ewan, that I feel was lost in the cut down version. So that’s been put back in.
I think for sure this will be the last version. So. Yeah. If you disagree with any of this, or have any extra thoughts…
I’ll be doing Attack of the Clones after, since I actually have ideas for it now. Like this one, the focus will be on making the characters actually seem like likeable people who have real relationships, and not just purely cutting out the “bad stuff.” That said, if any bad stuff has to stay, it’ll definitely be re-edited to be less stupid.
In terms of a personal edit trilogy, I think by the end, Octorox’s TPM edit should fit fine with my AotC and RotS.