ROS FIRST IMPRESSION & ASCENDANT REVIEW

So I hadnt watched Rise of Skywalker until yesterday - through your edit, except for the first 30 minutes on a shitty camrip when the film came out. I was prepared for a shitshow beyond belief in an epilepsy-inducing first 30 minutes. It was… not a shitshow anymore. It was okay. It was paced better. Annoyances were removed. I don’t remember the original coherent flow of scenes, but I believe there were changes made. The film felt better. However, one thing that cant be undone and that is the only thing to really ruin the first act of the film is the inclusion of Palpatine. I will not go into details as this is not a review thread for the film, but oh my. What a disaster to bring him back. Not to mention what an insult.

As for the rest of the film, it feels like a Indiana Jones movie with the treasure hunt. I am glad you edited the horrible “They fly now” from the trailer, and to be fair the only part of the film I really enjoyed was actually all the stuff on the Lando-planet and up until they arrive on the planet with the random new woman character. It was the only place in the film where I actually got to listen to character conversations and world building without being rushed to another setpiece. And the Chewie death was heartbreaking, although I realized the second after he didnt die because I havent heard nothing about that on social media. But the way these scenes played out did give the film some stake and build some character for Rey. Too bad they did a cop out - once again.

As for the Third Act… I dont know what you have done here or not done here - but I suspect you’ve done a lot of fixing up on horrible lines and silly antics, but the third act is just disgraceful nonetheless. Everything is non-sensical and disappointing. Sidious is a meme, the Star Destroyers are plot devices concocted out of thin air without any logistic reasoning behind it, Kylo Rens character arc is at this point butchered and so is the sequel trilogy to be fair. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the Original Trilogy is worse off from this ST, due to the very fact that this is now all globally canon and stuck in most people’s head’s. I did get a slight goosebump from important Jedi characters showing up at Rey’s confrontation with Palpatine, but it died out at the reminder of what I was actually watching.

Conclusion and thoughts

What you have done here, HaL9000, different from your other edits, is that you have taken a piece of broken glass and been told to glue it together without glue. The first 30 minutes are objectively better and intruiging, and the first half of the second half - until the new-woman-character-planet, is the best part of the film.

I think fanediting is a gift for us mere mortals to use to improve upon something that has a lot of potential. This way, we can give ourselfs and our common fan brothers and sisters an improved and perhaps even completely new experience. In my subjective perspective of this film and this edit, I must be honest and bold enough to say that this is the only Star Wars film that can not be fixed to do just that. There is not enough (good) material. Hell, I used 40 minutes after watching your edit trying to look for deleted scenes or extended cuts to come with ideas, but all I could find was a video on YouTube with extended trailer shots and behind-the-scenes pictures.

I applaud your work having enjoyed Attack of the Clones and ROTS fanedits a very lot, as well as improved versions of TFA and TLJ, but here I think we all must just acknowledge that Disney stole our money and won.

Thank you for your efforts!