Alright, so I finally had time to sit down and watch this. First of all, the video quality was great. It almost looks like you added film grain, but I could’ve just been imagining things. I also really love the color correction.
The shortening of the opening space battle was seamless.
I like the music you added for when the Anakin and Obi-wan land their fighters. My only complaint is that maybe it goes on a bit too long. The music keeps playing even after all the droids are dead and they’re just talking, which felt kind of weird. Still, I’d much rather have the music than not.
I like the music added for the “spring the trap” joke. Not sure if it’s a different piece of music, or just a continuation of the previous one, but it worked.
The music added when Anakin and Obi-Wan are captured by Grievous/when they fight the droids is good, and I love the way you edited Anakin’s joke.
Somehow, the change of music during the ship crashing sequence made the “we lost something” joke land.
I like the idea of moving the opera scene to where you did. Cutting right to Anakin sitting with Palpatine leaves the impression that maybe Anakin sought out Palpatine of his own volition, setting up their relationship a lot better. Putting the scene where you did also makes Palpatine’s arguments about the Jedi seem more convincing. We hear Palpatine’s side of the story before the Jedi’s, and that really works. Also, learning about Plagueis so early sets up Anakin’s motivations right from the get-go.
I feel like the movie kind of jumps around with all the scenes on Coruscant. It’s like one second Anakin’s here, the next second he’s somewhere else, then Obi-Wan is doing something, then we’re back to Anakin; but I suppose that’s not really a problem with the edit, that’s just how the movie is, and that can’t be fixed short of filming new material.
Not sure how to feel about the music during the scene where Anakin and Padme talk about what’s happening to the Republic. On one hand, it felt a little out of place, especially towards the end of the scene where they’re hugging as the music gets louder and more intense. On the other hand, I kind of like what it represents. It sounds fascist, militaristic. Hearing that theme as Anakin rejects Padme’s pleas for peace and diplomacy gives the impression that Anakin is actually on board with how Palpatine is running things. It feels like we’re seeing a side of Anakin that we haven’t really seen since he advocated for dictatorships in AotC. I also like that the next scene is Anakin telling the council that Palpatine requested he be the one to go after Grievous, lending itself to the idea that Anakin’s loyalties lie more with the Chancellor than with the Jedi.
What you did with the march on the Jedi temple and Order 66 was great.
Something weird happens with the audio at 1:41:31. It’s like the audio in the left ear/channel gets a lot louder for a second, then fixes itself.
Overall, I really enjoyed the edit.