So without the Skywalkers being enslaved it is very creepy when the Jedi just decide to take Ani away, his mom volunteers him for the podrace because he’s “special” and they are “Jedi.” She is then paid off with a few weeks’ drinking money. You can see the great relief she feels as they depart, yes you literally see the (figurative) burden lift from the actress’s shoulders as they go. When Ani arrives at Coruscant and is getting on the shuttle he acts like he realizes he’s just been trafficked to Epstein Island. Dazman has perhaps unintentionally introduced an entire new subplot to this movie–no, of course it doesn’t go anywhere. Maybe that’s in Episode II.
Anyway, almost all scenes play out better with the changes. New crawl is good and explains everything it needs to. Jedi treaty conference and their escape works better. Boring Naboo council works better. Gungans stuff is a little too abbreviated but Boss Nass seems a lot more serious now, Jar Jar much toned down. Dealing with Watto enjoyably streamlined. Pod race is awesome with the additions and subtractions, but I do still kind of hate the announcer. Threepio won’t be missed. Coruscant to Naboo and End all worked well. Aside from some changes in visual fidelity I never would have realized the lightsaber battle was extended, as it plays out great.
Also never would have realized the audio was mixed and edited to accommodate the changes. It all flowed very well except for a couple times when lines were shortened, there were some brief mute points where the ambiance disappears. There is one new offscreen line from Qui-Gon talking to Shmi that is really lo-fi, I can’t imagine what source that was from.
Other things can’t be helped without much more audio work, and as in all things Star Wars, are a matter of taste. Such as all the atrocious dub actors and Queen Amidala’s “accent.” These days I guess you could just replace the Queen’s voice with an AI trained on Portman’s real voice, copying the line reading so it all stays in lip sync. (Maybe that will be my project here one day.) I’ve read about but not seen edits that replace the Neimoidian and Gungans voices with subtitled alienspeak, which might be a good fit for a project like this. Well, getting back to what is and not what isn’t…
This edit was cool and I would recommend. Thanks Dazman.