Revenge of the Sith - Abridged (Released)

The biggest problem, in my opinion, of Revenge of the Sith is all the time spent on Coruscant not really doing much. It’s all spent talking about nothing in service of setting up the plot that will begin later in the movie. This is a job that should be done in the opening crawl, and so I moved it there. The movie now begins with Anakin finding Mace Windu trying to assassinate the Chancellor. Dooku’s death is already explained, Mace Windu’s suspicion of Palpatine after he refused to step down, that’s already explained.

Some plot lines have been cut, making a tighter story and simplifying the plot. Padmé is not pregnant, the twins have already been born. General Grievous does not exist. Anakin has no premonitions of Padmé’s death, and his turn to the dark side is completely political.

I think this turns the movie into a focused adventure about the overthrow of the Galactic Republic and founding of the Galactic Empire, and the birth of the villain of Star Wars. A 38 minute story, about the length of a TV special that covers the backstory of the Star Wars Trilogy.

GENERAL CHANGES

-I have a new custom crawl made using Jack Pumpkinhead’s crawl creator. Thanks! The pan down was made by me from scratch in Blender, and the music was replaced by the Shadows of the Empire opening music.
-The movie opens on Mace Windu already having Palpatine pinned down, Anakin entering the room.
-Mace Windu has a blue lightsaber. Not even because I take issue with a purple lightsaber, but because I think the new lightsaber color needs a proper introduction this fanedit can’t give.
-Anakin isn’t called Vader until he’s in the suit. I think it kinda makes him feel less solidified, it also makes it feel like the Jedi are just a religion or philosophy, and Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side is more of a political turn, not him leaving one Bureaucratic Order and joining another.
-The Order 66 sequence is cut out. For one, I think it would be weird to show the battles of Utapau and Kashyyyk without them having been established earlier in the movie. Also, Obi-Wan has a much better introduction later. I think it’s contradictory to the OT and that the movie is better without it anyway. Cutting it makes it look a lot more like a coup than the ultimate culmation of a massive plan.
-Obi-Wan is introduced when he leaves Utapau and calls Bale Organa about his troops ambushing him.
-Any references to the troops being clones are removed or altered. The opening crawl introduces the Clone Wars as an attack on the Republic by Dooku’s Clone Droid Army. Mostly because I think it makes the Republic firmly the good guys and the Separatists (and Dooku, and by extension the Sith and Palpatine) firmly the bad guys, and I think establishing them that way is kind of important given that besides Palpatine and Obi-Wan, you do not know these characters yet.
-Cringy dialogue and acting is cut down, but I tried to not be too much of a zealot about it.
-Dialogue and ideas that I felt kinda undermined the magic of the Jedi, etc, was cut wherever I could, though. The Jedi don’t have security cameras. Unfortunately though there’s some cases I don’t think could have been removed. Yoda still talks about special sessions of Congress.
-Yoda doesn’t use a lightsaber. He and Obi-Wan don’t fight clones on their way to the Temple, and he doesn’t fight Sidious.
-Additionally, because it would be weird if Yoda told Obi-Wan to kill Anakin, but he doesn’t fight the Emperor, he doesn’t. Obi-Wan looks for Anakin on his own.
-Obi Wan and Anakin’s fight is one continuous thing now that Yoda and Sidious don’t fight.
-The birth of the twins is cut out. They were already born before the movie started.
-The Emperor and Vader don’t overlook the Death Star, but Coruscant, using the video in the Prequel Fanedit Care Package.
-The credits are cut out and replaced by a thank you to the OT.com community! I don’t think the original credits should have been put on this fanedit, because not enough of the movie is still there for enough people’s work to still be there for me to think the original credits are appropriate, but I don’t even know how I would begin making new credits. Besides, I kinda think credits are an outdated practice. Nobody watches them and you can put the credits online now, nobody is hurt by leaving credits out of the movie.

Preview Stuff:
Opening Logos, Crawl, and Scene (this video is kind of old, but the general ideas are the same)

A version is upload to Google Drive. PM me for the link. I’m gonna make a second version, though.

Link sent