I think I’ll need to ruminate (read: hem and haw) about potentially removing Snoke berating Hux at the end of the opening battle, as Mala proposed. Not sure yet. But it might help steer clear of laughing at Star Wars rather than with it.
I’ve rewatched the opening scene of workprint#2, and this scene really feels like a TESB spoof. Glad you’ll think about removing it ! The prank call removal works well by the way, I nevertheless feel that Hux last “allo?” before Poe’s “push it” could also be removed. But I’m probably nitpicking.
One idea for sneaking in an honest “I have a bad feeling about this” would be to slip one in by 3PO (from offscreen) right before Leia tells him to wipe a nervous expression off his face
Seems cool but wouldn’t it make Leia’s joke less funny ? I would really be in favor of getting a hardcore subtitle when BB8 bips the line (or a softcore subtitle?).
(I’ll add it to a custom subtitle file anyway now that I got the joke 😃 like “it’s a Sith!” strange line in RotJ)
(edit: hum… there might not be enough frames to do so, so bad idea. My bad !)
While not strictly necessary, I noticed the repeat of music with Luke’s moment and walking out of the tree.
I’ll try to think about a score replacement; if I get an idea, I’ll let you know !
The second act is a bit long and can get a little “”“boring,”"" but only in the same sense as ESB.
Maybe removing a few more repetitive moments might help the second act passing ? I don’t remember if there is obvious “fat” that could be easily removed though. It’s slow, but it builds the famous Star Wars montage between all situations like only Lucas was able to do it. The second act might even be the more starwarsie part of the movie imho.