I'm in the middle of watching the avi rip of MagnoliaFan's Ep1 edit.
Wow. This is very great editing. I like how he not only *removed* stuff (ala Phantom edit) but added some interesting things in as well. Things like Jar Jar thinking *he* saved *Qui Gon's* life, adding new minor lines and audio for Watto from the N64 Podracing game, and including the deleted waterfall scene from the DVD.
I'll post a full review when I'm done. I would LOVE to have a DVDr of this. Excellent work, MagnoliaFan.
Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!
I got the sound working now. It was indeed a codec problem. Now everything should work normally (but knowing my luck, something else is gonna go wrong and I'm gonna come back here for help and then figure it out again ).
- Sept. 18th.... The Journal of the Whills: UNAUTHORIZED MAGNOLIAFAN COLLECTION - EPISODE I: The Balance of the Force - XVID
- Sept. 25th.... The Journal of the Whills: UNAUTHORIZED MAGNOLIAFAN COLLECTION - EPISODE II: The Clone War - XVID
Was the torrent for "The Phantom Re-edit" posted yet? Or should we look for it next week since "The Balance of the Force" is up? Just curious. I'm looking forward to watching all of MagnoliaFan's edits.
BTW, thanks for all your hard work Rikter! If everyone else is only half as appreciative as I am, then I'm twice as appreciative as everyone else. Either way, your efforts are greatly appreciated!
Hmm... think you could bump Clone War up to the 18th? Anyway awesome editing, Magnolia, and of course Rik, you're awesome for letting this out for free. That really is a huge improvement over TPM, however no amount of editing can ever make that film "good" to me. But at least this is adequately passable compared to TPM (which was shit). Again, no offense whatsoever to Magnolia, he did an amazing job, it is a problem in the source material entirely.
One complaint: how many "Hell's," "Bastards" and "Shits" were you planning on inserting into a Star Wars movie? That one film had more swearing than the entire OT! And all by, of all creatures, Jar Jar! I don't mind the first two as much, but JJ's "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" during the Battle of Naboo was a little much for me. Not that I mind swearing, Pulp Fiction and Scarface were fuckin' awesome, but not in a Star Wars movie...
--edit--
Oh, and is your torrent of Clone War going to have the corrected opening crawl? I heard the original (Magnolia's original, that is) spelled a word as "seceed" when it should be "secede" and I also heard he made a new version which corrects this. Is that the one you have or not?
This is the best of any sort of re-edit of TPM I've ever seen. By far.
The traditional "Phantom Edit" (which looks to have the quality of a VHS tape recovered from the 1920s) simply cuts and swipes to cut out annoying or pointless contect. But Blance of the Force not only removes, it changes and even adds as well. I like how he modified Neimendions (however you spell) dialogue to suggest further brutallity towards the Naboo people. And THANK YOU for making the Gunguns bearable. I can hardly beleive it... JAR JAR DOESN'T SUCK IN THIS VERSION!! Hehe. I'm not really sure if the podrace was *improved* or not, but it was different. I think the added shots form the deleted scene was a good idea. By the way, does anyone know where the new podrace musical score came from? I like how he didn't cut the *entire* 'planet core' sequence, as most do. But simply cutting the last part, once it starts to get pointless. And nice inclusion of the waterfall scene from Disc 2.
The only thing I find "non-SW-ish" about it is the excessive cursing. No Star Wars film cursed that much. And I would've kept it to "hell" and "damn". "bastard" and "shit" don't really seem Star Wars-ish to be yelling in one. But overall, 'Balance of the Force' is much better than 'The Phantom Menace'.
(And I'm glad this Phantom Edit had a decent opening crawl. I didn't like the original edit b/c it spent the valuable introduction time in BSing about how they made their edit)
I covered the swearing issue before... Essentially, some of it went in since there was cursing in the OT and some of it went in as a joke in a rough cut, but got such huge laughs from the people I screened it to that when I cut it, that was their main complaint. Besides, I figured the original Jar Jar was the most vulgar thing ever to happen to SW, so he might as well be the most vulgar character as well... He's still well within 80's PG boundaries.
The torrent of CW will probably be delayed, as I asked Rikter not to put it up quite yet, as I am making a new version, fixing the crawl and making a few tweaks here and there.... He should have it soon, and you guys of course shortly thereafter.
If you're tweaking Clone War, might I make a suggestion if you haven't done this already? I thought that at the end of ROTJ the Force-lightning effect was much more powerful at the end of everything (coupled with "Only now, at the end, do you understand") and having it in the prequels ruined that. Can you somehow remove all of Dooku's (rather annoyingly nonchlant, I might add) lightning? Might not be too easy, but that's my suggestion.
I tried very hard to do this, but there is a snag... He blasts Anakin into a wall with it koncking him cold. I have no idea how else to take Anakin out of the scene.