logo Sign In

Star Wars Episode I: Age of the Jedi (WIP Phantom Menace Edit)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hello! This is my first real attempt at this sorta thing, an attempt to, in my eyes, better The Phantom Menace. I know these are probably dime a dozen at this point, but I thought it’d be fun to do!

The primary goal is to shift Qui-Gon and Anakin as the definitive protagonist, remove much of the unneeded clutter, comedic relief, all that jazz.

Change List:
-A new color grade, attempting to remove the horrid pink tint over the footage, as well as trying to get it looking more like Star Wars ‘77
-The Gungans, Neimoidians, Battle Droids, and Darth Sidious are now subtitled over, using the French dub of the film (The latter three heavily pitched down)
-New Opening Crawl, establishing a slightly more interesting plot (will most likely be redoing)
-The Trade Federation are now just The Federation, an extremist section of the Separatist movement
-The Opening goes straight to the escape from Naboo
-Cut out a few lines or moments I didn’t quite find pleasing
-Cut out Padme thanking R2
-Replaced the conference scene with the Federation and Darth Sidious with one earlier in the film, Sidious merely alludes to Maul
-Cut most of the Jar Jar antics. Some are still in, of course, Jar Jar is still largely comedic relief, though to a far lesser extent. His personality has also been changed to a more laid-back type.
-Cut out the “Are you an angel” line, Padme and Anakin’s conversation starts with Anakin talking about how one day he’ll fly away from Tatooine, and ends at Padme’s realization that Anakin’s a slave
-Cut out Watto saying mind tricks don’t work on him
-Resubtitled Anakin and Watto’s conversations, tried to make Anakin more of a smartass
-Cut out Jar Jar and Sebulba’s initial meeting, instead replacing it with the “Anakin and Greedo” deleted scene
-Tried to cut Threepio out of the film, he is still in the background, but doesn’t speak, and there’s no mention of Anakin building him
-Removed the “At last we reveal ourselves” scene. Tried to make Maul more mysterious
-Tried to remove most of the references to Anakin being a bad pilot, tried to go for more of him being inexperienced
-A major change is Anakin not being the Chosen One, just a very powerful force user. During Qui-Gon and Shmi’s talk, Qui-Gon asks who the father is, to which Shmi gives a sad look before saying “I carried him, birthed him, raised him”. The implication being he left while Shmi was still pregnant.
-Removed the annoying kids
-Moved Qui-Gon and Anakin’s nighttime talk to after the podrace. Instead we just see Maul land and send out the Probe Droids
-Removed the Pod Race commentators, as well as all of the cut away reaction shots. The pod race is now one giant lap, with people dying left and right.
-Added TIE Attack to the early parts of the race where there was no music before.
-Cut out the scene that shows Sebulba survived the race
-The nighttime scene has been moved to after Qui-Gon reveals Anakin is free. Though I removed the midichlorian part, ending the scene at the “sleep well Ani” line
-Re added part of the deleted scene where Qui Gon realizes they’re being tracked by the Probe droids
-Really tried to trim down the politics scenes, shortening and restructuring scenes. Now they’re barely able to get a word into the Senate before being interrupted by the Federation spokespeople, who are able to go unimpeded, causing Padme to get fed up and declare the vote of no confidence.
-In a similar vein to other fan edits, I tried to remove lines about Anakin being “too old”, to remove the weird pseudo cult-like indoctrination the Jedi seem to be doing
-Tried to remove all mentions of a “treaty”, instead the Federation’s goal is the force Naboo to join the Separatist cause.
-Inspired by Sheepish’s amazing edit, I changed Anakin and Qui-Gon’s discussion to remove mentions of Midichlorians, instead Qui-Gon tells Anakin that, when he clears his mind, he’ll hear The Force speaking to him.
-Tried to subtly explain the hostility between the Naboo and Gungans better in Boss Nass’ conversation. The implication made is that the Naboo had colonized the planet, destroying many sacred places to the Gungans, and dismissed them as barbaric savages due to their warrior ways.
-Cut explicit mention of Jar Jar being made a general
-Anakin joins the space fight intentionally and before any one notices him in the cockpit. Thought it’d help show his defiant behavior later seen in AOTC and ROTS off early.
-Tried to reduce the slapstick in the Gungan Battle
-Added the “Bad feeling about this” line to the moments before the duel with Maul.
-Fixed one shot where Obi Wan’s lightsaber was for some reason not at it’s proper opacity
-Heavily tweaked Obi Wan and Maul’s duel. There is no more pit part, and Obi Wan slays Maul using his lightsaber, instead of grabbing Qui-Gon’s
-Tried to remove some of the extra cheesy lines and “oops” moments from Anakin’s destruction of the Federation ship
-Padme doesn’t get an upper hand over Viceroy Gunray until after Anakin shuts down the droids

And that’s about it so far.

Clips (Would have more, buuut Youtube’s a pain when it comes to this stuff):
Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFPMh8gfYMM
Meeting with Boss Nass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eer5Pe-b-BE
Anakin’s Defiance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzia-0UQUXA
Obi Wan vs Maul duel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMu-KJO9oC4

Author
Time

Hey i have been watching your videos, good work!

Author
Time

Thank you! I’m still quite a novice to this whole thing, this is my third attempt at a fan edit, I believe.

Author
Time

Good if want some ideas, you can count on me.

Author
Time

That was great, but why palpatine is talking like this ?

Author
Time

I like your choices of changes so far!

Personally, I moved ‘Attack of the Clones’ to Episode 1, so events of TPM technically still happened, but it’s just back story in my canon, but to each their own.

Author
Time

Skybatman said:

That was great, but why palpatine is talking like this ?

Hm? If you mean him being pitched down and speaking their language, I imagine he’d want to keep his identity secretive.

Darth_Zounds said:

I like your choices of changes so far!

Personally, I moved ‘Attack of the Clones’ to Episode 1, so events of TPM technically still happened, but it’s just back story in my canon, but to each their own.

Thank you! I personally am a fan of The Phantom Menace, especially more than Attack of the Clones. While it is pretty much just backstory, I just like it, lol. To me, AOTC is irreparably boring, without massive changes.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

You can even say it’s like a secret Sith language or something to keep people from easedropping.

I like some of your ideas here, I’m interested in seeing where you go with this edit and if you’ll make others.

My Star Wars Fan-Edits

Author
Time

G&G-Fan said:

You can even say it’s like a secret Sith language or something to keep people from easedropping.

I like some of your ideas here, I’m interested in seeing where you go with this edit and if you’ll make others.

Well that even makes more sense.

Author
Time

G&G-Fan said:

You can even say it’s like a secret Sith language or something to keep people from easedropping.

I like some of your ideas here, I’m interested in seeing where you go with this edit and if you’ll make others.

Gonna steal that explanation, lol. And thanks! I have thought of doing Episodes II and III (was working on a rough II edit before beginning on this one, actually), though the ideas I have for them are pretty sparse compared to The Phantom Menace, aside from the typical “remove cringe lines/Darth Vader” approach. Especially AOTC, which re editing would essentially be putting a band-aid on a bullet wound in my opinion.

A few other projects I’ve considered/started were a 3 in 1 of the OT, changing a few plot points along the way, though I haven’t really gotten too far. One I might pursue further is combining the entire (Pre-Disney) Saga into one film about Vader, though that’s about it for the pre planning.

Author
Time

Its very good, i hate gunguns, but your version make them a litle smart. Great joob

Author
Time

Update: First draft of the edit is complete! Just having to watch over to check for mistakes, before I export and pass around to gather criticism, then it’ll be officially complete!

Author
Time

Interesting take on the story. Though it’s very clear that people are speaking French in this edit complete with French accents. Now if that doesn’t strike you as weird, ok. But consider audio reversing the dialogue that is pitch shifted down so it cannot even be understood as French. You don’t have that luxury with the Gungans but you could also use something other than French for them. For a TROS edit I did, I audio reversed and reprocessed the sound of a weird cat from YouTube to use as the voice of Boolio. IMO it would be awesome if they were all no longer speaking understandable French.

heil Palpatine!

Author
Time

Hm, I’d have to find someone/something to va them. Though I’m not sure how well I could get it to work, I’m not quite knowledgeable on audio editing.

Author
Time

What app are you using to edit?

heil Palpatine!

Author
Time

Did you plan to do trailer to your edit ?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Skybatman said:

Did you plan to do trailer to your edit ?

eh, probably not, I’m not quite experienced in making trailers. I did plan on pairing the release with a video breaking down/explaining the changes I made for the edit though. (Though, not even sure if I’ll do that. who knows, it still isn’t done yet, lol)

Author
Time

Ok in vegas, you just use the slicer to isolate a small portion of audio. Then right click the clip and click reverse. The audio will play in reverse. Might be interesting. And good luck with finishing the edit however you want to do it!

heil Palpatine!

Author
Time
 (Edited)

krausfadr said:

Ok in vegas, you just use the slicer to isolate a small portion of audio. Then right click the clip and click reverse. The audio will play in reverse. Might be interesting. And good luck with finishing the edit however you want to do it!

uh, I know how to reverse audio, I’ve been using VEGAS for a good couple years now. Just mainly worried about the results, how obvious it could be and all that. Though I will try a quick test to see if it’d be workable.