Okay so I finally started watching these. I was waiting on my wife, but… now she’s holding off on Star Wars until I finish my Andor fan edit (guess I did that to myself), so I figured I might as well dive into these by myself. I watched the first two movies today. (I had watched the first film partially with your previous version)

Overall, awesome! I love how it helped the pacing of the story. I especially loved Book 2, I thought the two stories flowed really well together. But I did have some thoughts/critiques, in particular on Book 1:

Book 1:

The transition to the jailbreak storyline felt strange. Now on one hand, it did feel like a good way to show Mando’s character, like, this is who he is normally. But, it felt like it was placed in sort of the third act, but maybe it was actually the second act? Idk, I guess it felt like the movie had 4 acts and that was unexpected. Basically, it contributed to the acts of the movie feeling more episodic rather than like a cohesive film. But the pacing still wasn’t bad, and I enjoyed all the content. I guess I didn’t really see a point in deep diving into that story, other than to introduce Mayfeld.
Speaking of which, unless I missed it, did you cut the shot of the bad guys in the cell at the end, the reveal that Mando actually spared them? I guess I’ll see later as I watch the 3 & 4 how you incorporate that, maybe as a sort of surprise? But idk if it will be worth it or not, feels like it should have been there.
The scene with the blue guy on the razor crest. I remember before you did the quick cut from him asking about Mando’s helmet, whereas in this one you add more to it and Mando’s line “Probably not”.
Now when I had seen that original cut, I did have a critique that it felt much too quick, like it was missing a beat. Like we just needed two more seconds of pause before the cut. It seems you might have felt the same way on the pacing and were trying to address that.

However, I feel something was lost in the new version. The first version, despite the issues with the quick cut, it had a humor to it that, which was good. It was a humor not even present in the first scene, like Mando was annoyed with him. That quick cut illustrated that really well. The new version… it doesn’t really feel like anything, just like we’re cutting to the next part of him getting frozen. Despite my original gripes about your first version, I feel that humor moment was better than the new version.

I would like if there was a balance. Maybe put the “Guess that won’t be happening” or his line about life day or whatever, BEFORE the helmet line, then still end with the helmet line and a faster cut to the carbon freezing, and that would be restore the humor to the scene. OR, if you can somehow manage it, keep your original version, but maybe try to insert some silent shots of the blue guy just to add another 1 or 2 seconds before you cut to Mando freezing him. But thats just something for you to consider if you get around to the first movie again.

Book 2:

I don’t have many notes. I really liked this movie. I actually did not realize you would include the finale sequence of Season 1 in this, and I was glad you did. Felt really exciting.
Your original post mentioned how “Like a bantha” was a very intentional removal on your part… I have to say I disagree with it being cut. Now, I am a big fan of the Boba Fett show, actually. But even so, I enjoyed most of your cuts. But this one, I did not, I would have liked to see you incorporate the scene somehow. That moment, it’s a great piece of levity, and gives some heart to the Boba character. Not like the other scenes in the show that make Boba too soft, but to me it truly felt in character. In fact, it felt to me like an improv moment. So I decided to google that, and Temura Morrison did claim at celebration that it was actually /his/ own improv line, and not something in the script.

A problem I see in a lot of fan edits is going too serious. Levity is good. Any “Star Wars” movie (imo) should have a joke every 10 minutes or so, except maybe in the most intense sequences (Im fairly certain Star Wars follows this pretty closely, at least every 15 minutes, outside of the last act of Revenge of the Sith, where it is appropriate to go without jokes). Star Wars is a pulpy serial comic book sort of franchise, so jokes and moments of levity are important. For any movie but especially one with the tone of Star Wars.

Anyway, I felt it was a good moment, not as cringy as many of the Boba moments in the show, and one worth keeping, but thats just me.

Thank you for cutting the sequence of Mando having to protect the farming planet. Him leaving cause of the bounty hunter was very well done, and more than enough. I thought that relaxing sequence contrasted well with Boba’s story.

Overall though I had a really good time with Movie 2. It was just a lot of fun and exciting throughout. Though like the first film I was sort of having trouble figuring out what act I was in at any given moment. But it wasnt a big deal cause the movie was just fun the whole way through.

Can’t wait to watch more! I’m very interested to see what you’ll do in 3, because I kind of know what 4 will be already so 3 is kind of a mystery to me.