Ignore the naysayers ;-)
It's much better now, kinda beautiful even. It plays like the natural flow of a sequence of scenes. Before it was just 'hard cut to Vader and ESB begins'. The editing in that clip was so well executed I didn't even notice the removal of Reiken until my 2nd watch (Even though I suggested it LOL). The Leia and Han relationship plays correct now as the bickering pair we just saw escaping the DS. It's one seemless character piece!
Couple of pointers:
- 1.49 Colour correction needed as the two shots don't match. The first is bright the 2nd is dark. Should be an easy fix to level the two out.
- 2.24 I take it that hard cut to the Imp fleet is temporary? Otherwise wipe needed and musical transition etc
A few more suggestions:
- Have you thought about using the deleted footage of Han and Leia arguing in the tunnel. Han is much nastier to her which didn't fit that point in the OT but might fit this point in the monology?
- Did you try opening the Hoth segment with the Threepio "How are we going to dry the Princeses' cloths" scene as I suggested? Or did it not work? I still think it will help ease the transition since it explains away the cloths change, explains away a shift forward in time of a few hours (At least) and transitions onto two characters we can recognise as looking identical to the way they did in the ANH footage.
- (Again shooting from the hip on this idea so haven't fully thought it all out) but maybe cut staright into the conversation between Vader and Palpatine after the Hoth sequence. Would it read as Palpatine and Vader chatting about the suprise arrival and death of Obi-Wan (About an hour before) and the possible threat it means in the form of Luke?... Hang on, maybe in this edit it needs to play out after Luke leads the Hoth ground assault otherwise who the f*ck is Luke to the Emperor? arrghh not sure.