The Rise of Skywalker: RESURGENCE - krausfadr
I had a great time at the cinema watching TROS. The issues came afterwards, the more I thought about it. Although I still have a very positive opinion of the movie, I know it’s got a lot of issues: pacing at the start is too fast, a main character doesn’t get the ending they deserve, the villain was revealed in a Fortnite event.
The RESURGENCE fanedit by krausfadr goes a long way to fixing my qualms with TROS. There’s less sillyness, which is a common goal of many Star Wars fanedits, but good jokes have been kept in this one. It gives Kylo Ren a stronger character arc by punching up his motivations and hatred / love for his father Han Solo. The Knights of Ren are voiced, raising them from easter egg to cool masked villains like Boba Fett and Phasma, they’ve got a snarky personality. This makes them more menacing and gives them more depth. I want to buy Knights of Ren toys because of the new voices.
Technically it is nearly flawless. There’s a very minor audio volume issue with a Kylo Ren line around halfway. Every other cut or change I could barely notice, most I didn’t.
One thing I’ve come to know about Star Wars fanedits is how great the community is. The Knights of Ren voices for this cut can be used for other cuts, and similarly krausfadr has used CGI edits by other editors to great effect here. I salute the people making these sequences for the community!
Rey’s character arc also feels improved by this edit.
SPOILERS
In RESURGENCE, Rey was the one who killed her parents, and she is unrelated to Palpatine. Palpatine’s reveal is left to nearly 40 minutes in, and AFAIK the Resistance barely even learns he is back, they are mostly fighting the Final Order fleet. In order to successfully sell these plot changes, krausfadr had to cut a lot of lines throughout the movie, but it worked. Rey’s motivation and character arc is still coming to terms with her dark side. This is manifested in her killing her parents after they sold her, presumably having sold her because she was dangerous, not just because they were drunk fools. They were afraid of her, perhaps. The conversation with Luke is all about coming to terms with her dark side, and not about her lineage. Speaking of Luke, he feels regal in this edit. And it matches well with the use of the force ghosts with Rey at the end. It feels like the same Luke throughout the movie and the trilogy.
SPOILERS
TROS is a good Star Wars movie IMO, but RESURGENCE makes it a great Star Wars movie. There are still a few new scenes I would love to see, but without source material it is hard to get there.
Parting words: this edit’s version of Rey vs the Tie Fighter is phenomenal.