Star Wars Episode I: Cloak of Deception (2013) by Hal9000
WARNING: The following will contain spoilers for Cloak of Deception and The Phantom Menace. If you somehow haven’t seen either movie and wish not to be spoiled then please stop reading now and do so. You have been warned.
Preamble
The Prequel Trilogy in terms of my experiences with it have been… interesting to say the least. Growing up, I was old enough to see at least Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in theaters. Because of my mom not necessarily being the biggest fan of the movies? I wouldn’t truthfully get to see them until various visits to one set of grandparents’ place which had the movies on VHS and later DVD if I remember correctly. So before that my first experience with Star Wars was in the so-called “proper” order where I watched the unaltered Original Trilogy on VHS first and then I’d watch Episode I, II and III but because I was a kid? I really loved the PT growing up. It helps I was also inundated with the era through the Clone Wars microseries, various video games and so much more and thus I grew to love it all.
Then 2008 hit and I’d rewatch these movies and my opinion would very drastically change. With the exception of ROTS maybe if you caught me at a certain time? I really found that I did not care for the PT the same way I used to. Not for a lack of trying mind you. Every time I’ve had a Star Wars marathon I’ve incorporated these movies in some form or another and therefore each time I’ve had my opinions shift every so often with this most recent watch I did prior to going to see Episode IX being where I was the most positive about these movies. Now as for the topic of fanedits? Well… I never really experienced any until 2021 when I watched Dragon Ball Recut as a means to introducing someone to that franchise in as efficient of a manner as possible and The Rise of Skywalker Ascendant which was the first fanedit I checked out for a movie I had major issues with. In other words unlike some Star Wars fans I’ve never watched The Phantom Edit, quite possibly one of the most famous fanedits of all time. I’ve heard of it but I never got around to watching it or any other prequel edits… until now.
Hal9000’s work I only really know from his edit of Ascendant and for a first impression? You couldn’t get much better than that since Ascendant is so professionally put together that at points when I watch the original movie? It feels like it’s a slapdash fanedit instead of being the other way around so when I saw he had edits for all three prequels? I knew I just had to take that plunge eventually as I was so curious and excited to see what this lovely dude and his band of friends could do for this story because the prequels really had some ambitious ideas and really great concepts. Concepts that unfortunately in the source material weren’t executed necessarily in the best manner so seeing what an edit could do for it piqued my interest, especially when it comes to the likes of TPM and AOTC which to this day are my two least favorite Star Wars movies. For the sake of transparency, I am reviewing the most updated version and with all that out of the way? Here are my thoughts on Cloak of Deception, Hal9000’s take on The Phantom Menace.
Presentation
The editing across the board is phenomenal. Granted maybe this is something I should’ve come to expect at this point considering this is the seventh version of this and what I’ve seen with Ascendant but it really can’t be stressed enough that so far the edits I’ve checked out from Hal9000 show a level of professionalism that it’s kind of frightening. The cuts and splices feel seamless, audio cues are preserved very nicely and overall? It feels like a professional finished product. Like I can believably see this being a version of the movie brought to the big screen instead of being an impressive but still ultimately amateur endeavor done on someone’s downtime. It also I have to say compared to recent releases of the original movie looks so much better with that layer of film grain added. I personally have never been someone that sensitive to movies that have had a high amount of DNR applied to them but I have noticed over the years how the prequels seemingly with every new release in HD look considerably more dated than what I saw on my original DVDs and what I remember seeing in theaters and this really helps to counter that.
Mind you, it can only do so much since we are still talking late 90s and mid-2000s CG effects in movies that are kind of infamous for their very liberal use of them but at least with this edit, it makes things so much easier to gloss over at least for TPM for visuals blend a bit more with the environment and actors and it helps one to appreciate the movie more from a place of it being an ambitious technical marvel for its time rather than your eye being drawn to how it was probably filmed 90% of the time on green and blue screens. It even manages to do this while utilizing various AI-upscaled deleted scenes at certain moments. Now I’ll probably talk more on these scenes if I find any that are particularly noteworthy but in terms of the aesthetics? This impressed me. Normally, I am someone who is kind of against AI upscaling in terms of going from SD to HD. When it’s 1080p to 4K? It’s a problem but I find that visually it’s still fairly pleasing but SD to HD? If done improperly and especially if you stick it in with scenes that are very clearly not upscaled? It can stick out like the sorest of thumbs. But in this instance it actually works quite well. I have to really look in close to notice any real oddities and considering that when I’m watching a movie I’m not seeking out every tiny flaw? It’s hardly gonna be noticeable on a regular viewing which is a great thing and it all contributes to again just how professional this looks and feels.
Act One
Immediately it starts out very strong with the opening crawl which I adore. Generally speaking, the original movies have always nailed the opening crawls, AOTC and ROTS in particular are shining examples of crawls that are going to hang around in your memory long after you’ve seen them in all the right ways. The only two outliers to this are TROS and even so that mostly depends on who you ask and TPM which with its whole first paragraph does not set the stage right by bringing up the Trade Federation’s taxation first with the structure and language of it really throwing things off, creating this sense that this movie was set back way, way too early in the timeline as this doesn’t seem like the kind of conflict that would maintain our interest. This new crawl however does and it does so in spades by taking the first paragraph and changing it out to place the focus on the state of the Republic and that there is an unknown adversary with the second paragraph reframing the details about the Trade Federation to be more about how they’re taking advantage of the current situation to benefit them. To me, had this kind of crawl been what was seen back in 1999? It would’ve set a much better first impression and gotten people more willing to accept what they were about to see whereas the original just felt really off and really sets you up with the idea that you should probably be prepared to be rather bored as you sit through trade disputes.
And with that we get right into the pacing of this which is significantly faster than what was seen in the original movie and it makes various adjustments that I’m sure some will be mixed on and there are a couple I am kind of on the fence about but for the most part the decisions made here help it to feel like a consistently moving adventure. In the original, there are points where it felt like the movie just stopped dead for the sake of scenes that were either unnecessary in the grand scheme of things and when coupled with some of the odd acting? Well if ANH and TFA as the beginnings to their trilogies are like thrill rides that keep giving you something exciting with downtime at only the most opportune moments? TPM was like having a car that was starting to get to its last legs. When it works, it really works well but it can take a good while to get going and god forbid once you stop, be prepared to have to waste time to get it working again. This brings it more in line to being like a thrill ride which is helped along by some genius editing choices such as removing some of Jar Jar’s introductory dialogue and having that first meeting cut off when Qui-Gon mentions that more droids will be coming with a screen wipe after Jar Jar’s line to show said droids approaching Theed. I am a sucker for filmmaking choices like this that prefer to show rather than simply tell and this edit provides those in many places.
It also cuts back on unnecessary reveals and connections with the ones it can’t necessarily remove it does a good job of mitigating. One of the prequels’ biggest issues I’ve always felt was how it fell into trappings that a lot of prequels from other franchises would continuously struggle with and one of the biggest issues was how the movies seemingly kept feeling the need to connect elements to the OT even when for the story it just wasn’t necessary with even the good moments often being undercut by dialogue that draws too much attention to it like it’s trying to spell it out for the people struggling to see in the back. Here? It’s just right. I smiled a bit seeing that R2 wasn’t just referred to by name immediately when he was being congratulated for fixing the ship. It makes to where regardless of if this was someone’s first experience with Star Wars or if they watched the OT beforehand? It doesn’t feel like a distraction but rather a natural part of the film.
In fact there is so little in the way of distractions here which really calls attention to how as a movie, TPM really had a lot of potential and a solid foundation for its story that really just needed another pass in the editing room to achieve it and that the optimal decision if any changes had to be made at all to the home release? A lot of them shouldn’t have been based around adding content back in as what that did was bloat the movie. Things here are faster, a bit more intense, a bit more focused and natural. Case in point, Jar Jar goes from being a very frustrating ball of useless childish failed comic relief that takes away from the drama and tension in all the worst ways and now he feels like how the film seemingly wanted us to view him, the clumsy average joe whose curiosity over what’s around him and innocence often gets him into trouble. It helps to bring out the best of the performance that the brilliant Ahmed Best gave and makes Jar Jar honestly kind of charming.
We also get a lot of little tweaks that really help this to feel like a more believable prequel to the OT. Trimming Watto saying he’s a Toydarian in response to Qui-Gon’s Mind Trick? It’s subtle and a great choice as it takes the attention off of the idea that Toydarians can just resist the Mind Trick and puts the attention more so on Watto’s strong will to see actual cash, highlighting what happens when a Jedi isn’t necessarily faced with the weak-minded. Also what convinces Qui-Gon to ultimately take Anakin under his wing is done so much better. Instead of being about Midichlorians, a concept that to this day I still roll my eyes at as it takes a good deal of the mysticism out of the Force? It instead has Qui-Gon’s interest piqued when it comes to Anakin’s skills in this podrace as he notes only Jedi reflexes could allow for the kind of piloting Anakin claims to have engaged in and that is properly built upon when Qui-Gon gets a confirmation from someone who saw him race and speaking of the future Sith Lord, the edit does a great job of making Anakin feel like a more believable prodigy and a more natural little boy. For instance, removing the little bit of dialogue that implies Threepio was just built by him completely works really well. It builds upon what he said about how things wouldn’t work that well at Watto’s without him around to fix everything by showing his technical prowess in that field, it tones down the connection to the OT in a way that feels more like how Star Wars tends to structure its stories and it allows us to get more invested in Anakin’s story without it feeling like all of a sudden this galaxy is being forced to center around this one family.
Of course it’s not entirely without its faults. I feel the escape from the planet is maybe just a tad too fast without certain scenes and dialogue, certain chopped down comedic beats with Jar Jar kind of don’t work without the more ridiculous slapstick but overall a lot of those issues are more a result of the movie and unavoidable issues with the edit process rather than being genuinely poor decisions that hurt the movie. It comes back to that detail I stress about faneditors and how they are very much at the mercy of what’s available to them. That being said, the only real major problem here is the podrace which is mainly just a me problem because I have always felt this scene was just too long. This edit makes a couple tweaks that speed things along and allow for it to be a little more exciting but honestly I think I will forever feel this scene is just obnoxiously long no matter what.
Act Two
The second act of TPM is where I honestly feel a great deal of editing was needed the most. A big complaint that has been thrown around about the movie is that it puts too much focus on space politics which really is unfair considering this movie really doesn’t have much in the way of political debates. That being said, I think I can see where the complaint comes from as with the way the film is written and delivered coupled with just how long we spend on Coruscant due to the editing? In the original movie these sequences on the planet come across as being overly long and very boring with the debate scene itself being very low on passion and energy. With this edit? It is trimmed down to a much more manageable length and a lot of this film’s most important plot beats get so much more focus. In particular, I want to draw attention to something that I was not expecting this edit to really fix so heavily and that’s the whole Chosen One angle with Anakin.
Now me personally, I’m not big on Anakin actually being the Chosen One nor am I a fan of those kinds of narratives, especially with how the original film did it. Here though, it feels much more natural and more like Qui-Gon from seeing the signs believes Anakin to be the Chosen One while the council finds this dubious at best. It doesn’t completely change my opinions on it and I’m sure someone pointed this out with the original movie but here it’s done a lot better due to how things are framed. I also really like how this cuts down on so much fluff, including Obi-Wan’s apology to Qui-Gon. To me, that ensures the death of Qui-Gon has more emotional impact and it adds a whole other layer to Obi-Wan’s struggling relationship with Anakin since with him being unable to properly apologize to Qui-Gon and being put into this uncomfortable position in part thanks to him choosing to take on Anakin as an apprentice? You get the sense that this poor guy is carrying a lot of responsibility and regret for a single man.
There isn’t any issue here at least not one I can think of, the second act’s really solid.
Act Three
The third act of TPM is often considered to be its strongest and… yeah. Yeah I have to agree. The battle for Theed is a great one. It really gets to show off what this new CGI technology could do for battles like this and it really delivers since this was at the time the largest incursion I think Star Wars had and it was only topped by the next two movies. This is the first time that it truly felt like a massive war so the third act for this edit has more to consider overall.
And for the most part? It does a lot of great things though this is where at least a few not massive but still noticeable issues come up. To start with positives, I have to say the cutting of the battle droid dialogue throughout has been a change that I thought I wasn’t going to like and that it was gonna make some scenes awkward but honestly? It really improves upon the movie as not only does it mean the battle droids are allowed to feel more robotic and by extension have more menace to them but certain beats are just sold better without the dialogue. In particular, the pause that occurs before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon ignite their sabers at the beginning and the one that occurs when the tank gets destroyed at the battle of Theed towards the end demonstrate just how much silence in these scenes can really make a moment pop. I also feel most of the cuts are very well executed and that it makes this fight feel more intense, us getting Boss Nass and the other Gungans here really works as an introduction and the dialogue flows very seamlessly and I love the idea of moving Anakin’s piloting of the N-1 starfighter to after Maul comes out and the destruction of the control ship to after Padmé captures Nute Gunray. It allows for more natural progression as we go from seeing the locals and Padmé succeeding in reclaiming their home before transitioning to the story that’s more important for just the entire saga with Obi-Wan taking down Maul. Not only that but this really helps Anakin to feel more important to the story for it now feels like he’s more proactive and that chose to take a chance in order to help his friends rather than just hanging around behind cover. This continues with his actions in space where he actually is competent in the battle which means it feels less like he just stumbled into his victory. Same goes for Jar Jar Binks and how we see less outright slapstick from him during this battle.
One problem I really felt that TPM had was very inappropriate comedy. Not that the comedy was all bad mind you, Star Wars has its trademark wit here with many dialogue exchanges still getting me to crack a smile every now and again but TPM really struggled with finding that balance and I feel the final battle is the perfect example of it for in what should be their shining moments? Jar Jar and Anakin… really should’ve died the way the original has things play out and while Anakin gets to recover a bit? Jar Jar’s clumsiness is so overplayed and yet so successful at taking down droids that it helped to inspire a whole fan theory that he was a hidden Sith Lord. This makes things much more balanced and much more natural. We still get bits of comedy like Anakin trying out that neat trick called “spinning” and Jar Jar freaking out when a droid lands on his back but now they’re welcome. In Anakin’s case it gives us a small glimpse at his overconfidence and maybe a tad bit of arrogance, issues he will struggle with well into adulthood along with his fear of losing those he loves and in the case of Jar Jar you understand it because he’s just a local dude fighting for his home. Gungans are proud warriors but it’s clear he’s not a warrior himself. Hell when Jar Jar’s goofiest moments happen during the battle like when he gets launched onto the AAT? It’s when the droid army gets the upper hand and destroys the shields thus at this point this is when Jar Jar’s bravery would feasibly leave him and thus he goes back to being scared out of his gourd. Jar Jar actually has dignity while still being comic relief and considering that I feel that not even most Jar Jar-centric episodes of TCW even made him likable? I have to just state that Cloak of Deception might just have my favorite use of Jar Jar ever and I can’t believe I’m even saying that right now.
Though I did say I had issues that are small but noticeable and mainly it’s just a few moments where you kind of have to remind yourself it is a fanedit and that it can only do so much to change up the film and there’s also the build-up to Obi-Wan charging Maul after the laser gate goes down feeling a little too truncated but that’s really it to be totally honest.
Verdict
While I have at least one more edit of this movie to look at and that’s Octorox’s aptly named “Faster, More Intense!”? I feel pretty confident in saying Cloak of Deception is one of the best takes on TPM and a great way to get this story. Aside from a few minor quibbles and nitpicks here and there, this edit takes a movie that is often swapping places with AOTC as my least favorite entry in this series and really brings out all of its best qualities while removing and mitigating the worst. I’m in fact very confident in saying that if I absolutely am going to include the prequels in a Star Wars marathon that this is how I’m gonna watch it from now on. To score it? I give it a 9.5 out of 10, this is well worth a watch and I have nothing but praise for Hal9000 and his editing buddies. I swear if his edit of Episode II keeps this up, I might end up convinced he’s an angel with all the miracles he keeps pulling off.