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Star Wars Episode II: The Approaching Storm (Released) — Page 8

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That is correct, but rest assured that v3 is a quality release as well. It did not feel like a rough cut, or anything like that. I just watched ep2 last night with my family, and we all were really impressed. My brother in law, who hasn’t seen ep2 in a while, said he wouldn’t have known it was a fan edit if I hadn’t told him.

Great work, Hal 9000! I think your edits really went a long way toward making the movie enjoyable, in spite of its many flaws. I can’t wait to see your edit of ep3 (which we’ll be watching Friday night, in since we’re seeing ep7 Saturday).

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Very nice. I’d be interested in hearing any specific reactions or thoughts, even if they don’t pick out any specific differences.
Did you all watch the six films in release order, then?

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I’ve sampled all the fan edits I can get my hands on and yours are the best both in terms of judgement of what to leave in and take out and skill/techinical quality of the edits, so take this with that in mind–you seem open to feedback, unlike some fan editors…

I’ve showed your edits to a couple groups of people (they were generally very well-recieved) in preparation for TFA and everyone is a little baffled by the Padme’s family scene. I get that you used it to make up for some of the romance stuff you cut out but it just raises a lot more questions than it answers re: the political system and royalty of Naboo. Plus it’s as embarrassingly bad of a scene as any of the Anakin/Padme scenes you cut. Hope you don’t use it in the eagerly-anticipated-'round-these-parts V4.

Anyway, thanks for the best versions of the prequels out there, I cringe whenever terribly-edited versions make the blog headline rounds just because they’re on Youtube.

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Thanks very much! The family dinner scene is hardly cinematic gold, but I agree with the fan editors who preceded me in including it for its value in demonstrating some suppressed infatuation on Padme’s part. In AOTC, it seems like Padme can’t stand Anakin until she abruptly falls for him. This deleted scene bridges the early “you’re just that little kid” stuff and their “bonding” on Naboo before Anakin has his nightmare. In AOTC, she seem to loathe having him around, she kisses him and immediately regrets it (probably because he’s such a moron), she has to make up a reason for him to leave her alone (“I’m a senator”), and then transitions into falling in love with him as he confesses to genocide.
However, one thing for us to consider about the family dinner scene is that in my edit of ROTS, we do not see her family at her funeral. So… yeah, there’s that. I’m still inclined to keep it for its use in showing Padme having feelings for Anakin. It also gives a touch of resistance to them, so their romance doesn’t seem 100% linear. (Since I had to remove so much of the “we just can’t be togehter because of x y z.”)

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I agree with the decision to use the family scene.

Also, didn’t you tweak end of the kitchen dialogue recently to make it a little more bearable?

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towne32 said:

I agree with the decision to use the family scene.

Also, didn’t you tweak end of the kitchen dialogue recently to make it a little more bearable?

I took Octorox’s advice in silencing the line, “Our relationship is strictly professional.”
I had already removed, “It’s obvious he has feelings for you,” and shortened the mother’s reaction shot.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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My crew (which has watched your edits of ep1 and ep2 thus far) are hardly film critics, but they all really enjoyed them.

Your changes in ep1 are golden. Honestly, I would have been happy to never see ep1 again, but your edits actually made it a pretty enjoyable movie for me. Especially the trimming of the pod race and the Jar Jar antics, and the removal of the Gungan city. You have successfully elevated ep1 from “worst in the saga” to “second worst in the saga.” lol

That brings me to ep2… the new worst film in the Star Wars universe (since you were able to improve ep1 so much). My wife, who had seen all of the theatrical versions once or twice before but wasn’t overly familiar with them, did comment on how abrupt and artificial the romantic development between Anakin and Padmé was. I think the inclusion of the family scene helped mitigate that some, but obviously you can only do so much with the material available. I’m thankful you found a way to include the extended Naboo arrival scene in your v4 as well, as I suspect that may help some too.

The exclusion of the Yoda/Dooku lightsaber battle was met with mixed feelings. My brother-in-law and I both have fond memories of seeing that scene in the theater as the one highlight of the otherwise boring film. After talking and thinking about the reasons you gave for removing it, I concluded that I agree with your choice to exclude it, but I am still torn about it. I know my boys would have loved to see that scene.

Overall in ep2, your edits went a long way to clean up some of the awful acting, and improved the incredibly boring pace some, but when you boil it down, it’s still a downright dull movie with a confusing yet mostly pointless plot. I’m thankful for your improvements in it, but it really only exists to get you from ep1 to ep3, with very few redeeming qualities.

We are really looking forward to seeing your edit of ep3. My plan it to watch it Friday evening, because I have tickets to see ep7 with my oldest son on Saturday afternoon. Is there any chance v4 will be ready by then? 😃

I’ll try to get on this weekend to give you my thoughts on ep3.

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I appreciate the feedback! The group I watched the saga with this year (one film per month leading up to now) was also torn about the Yoda fight scene in Ep2. To me, an edit has to assume that the audience has not already seen the original version of the film, even though this will not be the case 99.9% of the time. Not that you should show her, but I wonder what your wife would have had to say about the romance had you watched the theatrical AOTC.
Sadly, V4 of Episodes II and III will not be out in time for TFA. Even if Schorman posted right now that his source material has been uploaded and is ready to go, there would be no time for me to implement it, export and upload for you all. V3 is just fine, though, so it’s not like you’re gonna see something that’s half-baked. V4 will be the finishing touches is all.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I’m sure she would have been even more aware of the abrupt transition in the theatrical release.

No worries about v4 being out after TFA… I’ve seen enough of your work that I’m confident it will be a fantastic edit. I’m just eager to start seeding v4 when they are out. 😃

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wrkerr said:

I’m just eager to start seeding v4 when they are out. 😃

Most altruistic torrenter ever?

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Minor request, would you be willing to remove the line “This creep is gonna end up deep fried”. That line has always bothered me. Also can you explain the motivation for the “I’ve been dying each day since you came back into life” line? I don’t even understand what that’s supposed to mean, especially in the context of this edit.

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The dialogue for the love pledge scene isn’t an a la carte thing for me because of the music. In V1-V3 I left in some terrible dialogue in the name of preserving the production value. For V4, I gave the scene a fresh attempt, and I think this combination of lines works better than the older configuration while having the music work perfectly.
Removing the creep line would really mean cutting the whole exchange, and I’d like to keep Anakin’s hesitancy about what he’s doing. Maybe look up Richard Cheese’s cover of Creep to take your mind off it. The Approaching Storm, if it had been what was released theatrically, would still not have been known for good dialogue.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hal 9000 said:

The dialogue for the love pledge scene isn’t an a la carte thing for me because of the music. In V1-V3 I left in some terrible dialogue in the name of preserving the production value. For V4, I gave the scene a fresh attempt, and I think this combination of lines works better than the older configuration while having the music work perfectly.
Removing the creep line would really mean cutting the whole exchange, and I’d like to keep Anakin’s hesitancy about what he’s doing. Maybe look up Richard Cheese’s cover of Creep to take your mind off it. The Approaching Storm, if it had been what was released theatrically, would still not have been known for good dialogue.

I’d remove the whole exchange myself but I understand your reasons now. Thanks for the explanation.

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I know this is an oddly specific question, but, in V4, are you going to keep Zam Wesell as a changeling? Other edits cut it because:

  1. She never uses her powers to evade the jedi.
  2. It makes the toxic dart look more potent.

A particularly good excision was done in Trooperman’s workprint. It goes from Anakin’s “I think he is a she” to Obi-Wan’s “In that case be extra careful.” Bit of humor added.

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The idea was that, because I use the Phantom Editor’s redubbing of Zam to cut short the toxic dart investigation, it’s clear that she is reverting to her true form as she gets her dying words out. If that wasn’t the case, I’d agree and allow it to be the effects of the dart making her disfigured. I do like it when edits do the “I think he is a she” joke.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hal 9000 said:

The idea was that, because I use the Phantom Editor’s redubbing of Zam to cut short the toxic dart investigation, it’s clear that she is reverting to her true form as she gets her dying words out. If that wasn’t the case, I’d agree and allow it to be the effects of the dart making her disfigured. I do like it when edits do the “I think he is a she” joke.

I’m not sure if redubbing her makes it clear she’s reverting to her true form (in fact dubbing her in English rather than whatever weird language she’s uses originally makes it seem even more as if the dart is deforming her rather than turning her back to her native appearance and language). Don’t think there’s really an issue in both using the Phantom Editor line and cutting the changeling aspect. I don’t mind the concept of it but the problem is, like many things in AOTC, it goes absolutely nowhere. It’s actually one of the very editing choices you made for EpII that I disagree with. So I’d like to just give my two cents and say chuck it for V4.

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Thanks for that, and I will consider it. Better stated, I figured it would be better to keep the changeling thing because of how her voice changes when she dies due to the Phantom Editor audio.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I think you should trim the Padmè family dinner scene just a little at least the first part of the scene cause it is a little strange and only contributes to the story slightly. Think about removing the roll around in grass scene with Anakin and Padmè cause that scene is just dumb. Also cut out the force pear thing too lol. I like the making the kiss scene look like its night. That was great. Also at the circle meeting scene with Padmè and the Seperatists at Geonosis when they take Anakin and Padmè away change the subtitles to something like “take them to the arena” or “send them to be exectuted”. One more thing, when Padmè is all like “I love you. I truly, deeply love you.” try to extend the time before that– I think you made a cut there, but the cut seems a little just a little rough, and Padmè’s declaration of love is a little just a little out of the blue. Good work overall!

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I am really looking forward to seeing this fan edit. It sounds absolutely amazing. Is there anywhere else where it might be available? I am not a member of myspleen and dont know how to obtain an invitation. I understand there’s no link sharing or anything, but can anyone point me in a direction?

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Astrobot7000 said:

I am really looking forward to seeing this fan edit. It sounds absolutely amazing. Is there anywhere else where it might be available? I am not a member of myspleen and dont know how to obtain an invitation. I understand there’s no link sharing or anything, but can anyone point me in a direction?

Well, the Episode I V4 edit was uploaded to kat, so I’m sure once Episodes II and III release, someone will upload them there.

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A partial feedback (sorry i’m French so there might be a few grammar mistakes below):

  • good idea to reinstal the senate scene of Amidala. Sadly the picture quality is low and the overall shots of the senators are kinda “frozen/liveless”. On the opening assassination attempt I would have left the captain’s piece of dialogue, because it’s not at all annoying.

  • the all night assassination scene is slighly better in your edit (the entire sequence stays really stupid but as it is more entertaining it’s a good editing effort). Except for the “kamino system” reveal, as I don’t really mind the Dex cantina sequence. The “Jedi Business” line was funny, I understand why you removed it but it was at least one of the very few badbass lines Anakin had in the prelogy. It’s a very good idea to keep Fett’s involvement in the attempt a final mystery.

  • the Geonosis droid plant action sure is dull but it has a narrative purpose to show that Amidala and Anakin don’t get caught without a fight. Here in the trial scene they seem too passive, and it’s quite incomprehensible for someone who would have never seen the movie before.

  • it’s great to keep the sand people massacre sequence, as it is the most important sequence in the entire prelogy. I wonder why you removed the Yoda scene feeling Anakin’s disturbance (maybe you use it in your Episode III edit ?).

  • i like the fact Yoda doesn’t wield a saber anymore. It suits better the character who is a spiritual warrior, not a muscle warrior. The edit is cleverly made. The duel that occurs a few minutes before also seems more interesting (I guess you’ve removed a few shots to tighten it).

I still need to rewatch a few sequences to complete my feedback (i see you’re planning to release a v4 version, so I’d better wait for it). On the overall this edit is good and it keeps the plot untouched and understandable. I consider Episode II to be the weakest part of the saga, and I welcome every effort to improve it without reducing to half an hour action piece: it will never be a good movie, but at least it can become something watchable. You’re very close to reach this objective, well done !

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First thinks first i’m new here and just learned there are Numerous Fan Edits for SW which is excellent since you know the PT was kinda a meh.
Anyway Hal if you don’t mind me asking hows your SW Ep2 & Ep3 V4 are coming along ?
I loved what you did with the first one and really liked that commentary track you provided, learned a lot from it especially Ep1 Prequel Novels. It gave a nice insight to fan edits overall.
Would like to ask are you going to put commentary tracks on both of your v4 aswell as you did with the first one, i’ve seen your Ep2 V3 but the link for the commentary track you provided doesn’t work. (some kinda of youtube copyright nonsense)
Anyway waiting patiently do your last two “re-entries” for PT so i can complete the PT and replace my blue-rays.
-Peace.