You know, I watched this last night with low expectations, as I had not watched AOTC in its entirety in quite a few years, and I found myself enjoying this more than I expected to. There’s still some things (from George’s pen, not your cut) that still leave a bad taste in my mouth, BUT…I think I kind of like this movie now.

You cut some of Anakin’s cringe inducing dialogue and made Hayden’s performance shine a bit more. I also felt the relationship was more believable, thanks to the added scenes and cutting some of the creepier Anakin dialogue.

I can think of a few things that I might personally do away with, like any mention of the chosen one stuff. I just hate the prophecy stuff that was added in the prequels. There wasn’t really any of that in the originals, save for “That boy was our last hope” but I got more “He’s the only non-corrupted Jedi left”. Then by TPM George wanted to make Anakin a Christ figure who had the perfect genetic makeup for being awesome.

My favorite bit of the edit was cutting out the Yoda saber duel. It made Yoda feel all the wiser and all the more powerful, especially with Dooku giving him the slip like that.

I also liked that Obi-Wan’s detective work was streamlined to make Obi-Wan seem more competent and capable. This felt like the Obi-Wan of Guinness, and less like a good impression.

I think so far, this edit is my definitive AOTC. Now to give ROTS a preview.