Smudger9, thanks again for sharing your edit with the fans. I just finished watching your cut, and overall, I enjoyed it a lot. I felt like I was watching a classic Star Wars ride with a story that flowed very well. You did a great job adding in the opening crawl, creating seamless transitions between scenes/episodes, and narrowing the film down to a core storyline by making conscious decisions on what scenes to keep and what scenes to cut. In the first act, it took me a moment to understand where you were going with the earlier scenes because I was expecting to see specific moments/events that were actually cut. At first, it felt like there was something missing in Mando’s character build but your choice of progression quickly clicked with me once I made the connection between the opening crawl and Mando turning in his bounty. As someone else had already mentioned, the action does seem to feel a bit too constant at times. Though, here I try to imagine the life of a galactic Bounty Hunter that isn’t necessarily all beaches and cocktails. Mando ‘constantly’ has to stay on his feet with little to no rest. Especially now with Grogu in his possession. It’s a dangerous life for a hunter and I think it’s well portrayed in your edit.
There are some minor editor nitpicks I have:
- The 20th Century Fox logo or the reimagined Walt Disney style Fox logo versus Disney’s Star Wars “faces”. The Mandalorian manages to make Star Wars “cool“ again and to be reminded of Kylo Ren isn’t something I look forward to. I may not be speaking for all but the Mandalorian replaces the Sequel Trilogy in my mind.
- The ‘Star Wars The Mandalorian logo’ looks really, really cool but I was expecting the traditional Star Wars logo with a Mandalorian subtitle before the crawl (e.g. “The Mandalorian/Episode I/A Vergence in the Force”). I feel like this would’ve kept the fan edit consistent with any other Star Wars fan edit that has worked to remove these reimagined Disney logos and openings without the crawl. The classic Star Wars logo would hit it a little more home. It’s a Star Wars film but the subtitle would reveal what type of Star Wars film it is.
- I don’t think the final scene should be a hidden scene à la Marvel. I think it should take place after Mando takes down Moff Gideon’s Tie and before preparing his ship to leave Nevarro.
As mentioned, you’ve done an outstanding job with this cut. Your edit will work as a continuation of selected fan edits to compile the best Star Wars saga possible. I am now highly anticipating episode 2. However you decide to patch the story, please do not cut Ahsoka (or Boba Fett). The Jedi episode was one of the best. Here we are shown to believe that Mando has finally found a Jedi that can help him but that of course turns out to not be the case. In other words, we are set to believe that Mando is close to completing his quest but there is more to it than what Mando is able to believe. He doesn’t understand the nature between the Light and the Dark side. Ahsoka attempts to explain this. Mando has to understand that he can’t just drop off Grogu with any force wielder. Ahsoka helps Mando (and the viewer) learn more about Grogu. Additionally, we don’t get to see many Jedis in action (unless we go back to the Prequels era). I don’t think Ahsoka would ruin or diminish the reveal in the final episode of season 2 (I initially thought it was Ahsoka boarding Moff’s cruiser until I saw the black glove and the green lightsaber light up). Ahsoka did not detract from the final reveal in my experience. I think it added to it, heightening the excitement because again, we don’t get to see a lot of Jedis in action these days.
That is all for the feedback I have. Thanks again for allowing me to view your edit.
PMs sent