Farlander enters the scene of Fan Edits (* unfinished project *)

Don’t want to sound arrogant, but I feel myself a bit special when it comes to OT.com and FE community, because it occurred to me that most (if not all) Star Wars Fan Editors and most of the Fan Edit viewers have started their journey in the galaxy far-far away through A New Hope (or one of the other OT movies). I, myself, was introduced to Star Wars when I was 8 years old, in 1999, through The Phantom Menace. And I was totally into the Star Wars universe after that. Then I saw the ’97 Special Editions of the Original Trilogy, and then the other two prequels. In 2005 I was 14, and I totally loved Star Wars movies. Each and one of them. I did consider A New Hope and Attack of the Clones as some of a bit more boring installments for me, but I still liked them.

But, time went on, and I began to see that there would be more and more things that I didn’t like very much. In each of the movies. C-3PO in Empire Strikes Back was as annoying as Jar-Jar in The Phantom Menace, Palpatine acted incredibly stupid in Return of the Jedi (especially in comparison to his devious self in the Prequel Trilogy), Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side is too abrupt in Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope is a little dragged out at times (forgive me all ANH fans, it’s just my opinion), and so on and so on – many different little details that started irritating me more and more. And yet I still liked Star Wars, just tried to ignore some details, because I love the story as a whole.

And at one point I decided to finally watch Star Wars chronologically, from Episode I to Episode VI (because I never really watched them in that particular order). And then I thought “Well, this is a mess”. I don’t hate Lucas, but despite what he says or tries to say, he was making things on the move. The only bearable way to watch fully Star Wars Saga is from A New Hope (since it’s a lighthearted fairy-tale story) till Revenge of the Sith (since it’s the darkest installment with more complex moral questions), i.e. as they were filmed (and, after all, that way there’s some feeling of a natural progression of atmosphere). And even in that case, it’s a mess. And I thought to myself, how wonderful it would be if Star Wars Saga was more… consistent. Would look more like one whole, not six different movies.

And then, thanks to Adywan’s A New Hope: Revisited, I was introduced to the world of Fan Edits. I was just amazed by the work he had done on the movie, proving me that I can, well, make my own version of Star Wars, the one I would like to see. After all, Star Wars in our modern world is like greek mythology – different and contradicting representations of one story don’t make it any worse.

Now, despite everything I have said and all grudges I have, I still enjoy Star Wars Saga as it is now. And I want to do these edits because I like Star Wars, and I enjoy Star Wars. I just want to try and make them better, but it won’t do anything bad to me if I fail. And I’m actually not going to watch other Star Wars Fan Edits (asides from Adywan’s Revisited edits), though I still read through cut changes if I see someone is doing something (just out of interest), to keep myself at least somewhat open-minded. Besides, I think that to do something like this, you must like what you’re doing, and I remember reading about edits (mostly Prequels or RotJ) who have this goal as to “make it bearable”. And I especially won’t watch them, because I don’t want to see a work of a Fan Editor who “makes it bearable” (no offence to anyone). It’s just my opinion, but I think that if you don’t like it (or you even hate it) then bothering to do something is a waste of time and the result won’t do any justice to the movie or yourself. Also I noticed (judging by the cut lists, I’ve read a lot of them when stumbled upon fanedit.org) that there are a few who have tendency of cutting everything in sight, instead of trying to make things work, and in my opinion things like this won’t do any justice either.

So, anyway, my scope is to make Star Wars Saga consistent, as a whole – story-wise, graphics-wise, other-wise. With natural progression of things, of atmosphere and other stuff. Now, I know I’m going to need help from you guys, because I won’t be able to do absolutely all by myself. I also realize that some of you will like what I’m doing, and some will hate, so I’m OK with that. Everyone has his own opinion.

Now, on to the general plan of my edits (I’ll do the prequels first, btw).

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

A New Hope is a perfect beginning to the Saga, because, practically, it’s a fairy tale that introduced us to this big new world, with a pretty straightforward storyline. And a lot of exposition material. Now, The Phantom Menace doesn’t feel like the first in a Saga (though it can work, after all, it was the first Star Wars movie I’ve watched, and I don’t remember anything I didn’t understand at the time), because it relies mostly on knowing what it’s all about.

Now, The Phantom Menace can’t be remade into a fairy tale. But it has to be a pretty straightforward and lighthearted adventure (which could actually act as a first, because right now The Phantom Menace, though a prequel, is nothing more than a sequel), with little political aspect (asides from the most important ones, I suppose; after all, ANH had a few politics in it too). Oh, and no midichlorians and Chosen One prophecies. I suspect that midichlorians were created for the Episode III plot (to create life and save from death and stuff like that), but it works with “The Force” too. And, frankly, I don’t really understand the Chosen One prophecy, besides, it creates a mess (it kind of works somewhat when we watch only the Prequels, but it totally doesn’t work in the sense of the whole Saga). I will leave Anakin’s virgin birth, because I like the possibility that either Darth Plagueis or Darth Sidious could be Anakin’s father.

I remember an Episode I ad where Anakin asked a question “Dreams do come true, don’t they?” The basic idea of this edit can be seen as an answer - “YES, Dreams DO come true!” So I’ll try to ANHize TPM as much as possible (after all, Anakin is a naïve child at this point, and because of that I won’t add the Greedo-beating deleted scene). It will be a hard thing to do, though.

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Episode II, of course, has to start getting darker. As Anakin grows up, life doesn’t seem such of a dreamy thing as it was when he was a kid.

Now, the detective plot isn’t the best mystery plot in the world, but… it’s… kind of OK. There is one thing though, one tiny detail that just… kills me. Jango Fett says he was hired by a man called Tyrannus. Now, don’t tell me that Obi-Wan (who in RotS realized the Palpatine became an Emperor just judging by the hologram in the Jedi Temple security room) didn’t remember the name and in the whole three years of war ABSOLUTELY NOBODY didn’t learn that Dooku’s Sith name is Tyrannus. I’m sure they did. And I’m sure they would’ve think that something is wrong with the Clone Army if Count Dooku has ordered it. But it seems they didn’t. No wonder they’ve got all killed.

Now, concerning the Clone Army. I don’t have anything against Jango Fett being the host of the Clone Army AND working for Tyrannus/Sidious to assassinate Amidala. He IS a Bounty Hunter, after all. And he was hired practically by the same guy. The problem lies with one of these guys, Dooku. Now, Dooku’s an interesting character right till the moment when he turns on his lightsaber and starts being a bad guy (before that his alignment was kind of unknown, and I like that). And I think that Dooku is a perfect opportunity to start seeding “Evil/Good is a point of view” idea which then gets a more serious progression in Revenge of the Sith. The thing is, I want to make him less of a bad guy. Even a good guy. I want to make him reluctant killing his comrades, I want to make him less arrogant and less “I AM A POWERFUL DARK SIDE USER”, and, most importantly, tell the TRUTH to Obi-Wan (he REALLY wants to get rid of the Sith). It’s just that it’s his way of doing what he thinks is a right and good thing (after all, you don’t simply kill a Sith who’s a Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, that would’ve been a mess).

But, globally speaking, AotC needs a lot less rehash then TPM needs. Oh, and I know I’ll get a lot of kicks for that, but though I will tweak with the love story, I will NOT cut out the Meadow Scene (I mean the one with Shaaks). Because I like that scene. In some sense, it reminds me of, well, me, when I was 17 (basically a few years back), and I don’t find it totally inappropriate.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

I won’t deny it, Revenge of the Sith is both my favorite of the prequels and favorite of the Star Wars movies. That doesn’t mean there’s few things I would like to change – there’s a lot. A very big lot. But, speaking globally, there’s kind of two big problems in the movie.

Problem 1 – Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side (the whole point of the movie). In the movie, it basically goes like “I shouldn’t, oh how could I, oh what have I done – snap! – Ah, screw everything, I’ll go on a killing spree!”. I already know how to make his turn more believable in my opinion (so it’s not that big of a problem), because… it IS a turn in the movie, and with all this grayishness established, it shouldn’t be.

Problem 2 – The Ending. The very ending, I mean. Now, Revenge of the Sith ending is really a “The circle is complete” ending. It’s an ending to the Saga. And I think it’s a good ending to the Saga. But it shouldn’t be like this for a middle movie. The ending has to be darker. Not as dark as “nothing good can happen”, but I think it has to be the darkest ending of all of them. And unlike the Anakin’s turn problem, this is the one I think I’ll have troubles with.

And, actually, this will be the movie I’ll start my edits with. Yeah, totally out of order. How Lucassy. I will try to plan as much as possible ahead, though.

Episode IV: A New Hope

This will be the hardest one to edit. Because after all this different perspective and points of view and darkness we get a… EVIL and VICIOUS Empire (of course dictatorship is not democracy, but… it has it’s own merits) against GOOD and NOBLE Rebels. The fourth Episode HAS to be lighter than the third one, because it HAS to be, well, A New Hope (it’s only natural of it not being so dark), but not so fairytailish as to destroy the natural progression of the atmosphere. Honestly, I think that’s an Episode I will be making last. It’s just so hard to think of good ideas how to make it work. Not to mention all the tomatoes I’ll have to evade.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Though Revenge of the Sith (despite all those things I want to change) is my favorite Star Wars movie, Episode V is, undeniably, the one that needs the fewest tinkering with. By the way, I do like the idea of Vader learning that the one who destroyed the Death Star is actually his son in this Episode, but I’m not sure whether to go with it. Besides, this idea needs more than changing the Emperor talk scene to make it work (but that’s not a very big problem).

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Now that I think about it, Episode VI totally doesn’t work as an ending. At all. Now, if we look at the Saga, the way it should go (in my opinion, of course) is from a light adventure to a very dark tale (which is Revenge of the Sith) with a moment of respite in form of a New Hope the darkness grows again through ESB and it should reach it’s highest point (point of total despair, even, I must say) in RotJ. RotJ, as it is now, is a lighthearted adventure, it even doesn’t make much sense if we look at the Original Trilogy alone.

Now, the way I see it, the Rebels are facing overwhelming odds in face of the Empire and it’s new Death Star (actually, I would be glad if there would be absolutely no Death Stars, but… that’s not really the case), their Alliance is at the brink of destruction, the only hope of surviving is to kill the Emperor (which will NOT destroy and dissolve the Empire but will add some chaos to make the fight worth it), Darth Vader is Luke’s father and that’s a big problem and everything else. And the ending itself should not be a happy ending. It should be like the current RotS ending – despite everything that has happened, there is hope.

I actually had an idea of ending RotJ with Vader’s funeral pyre. The camera pans up, to the night sky, the Force Theme playing, and then… the end. But I don’t know if that would do justice either.

I know I’ll certainly shorten the Han Solo rescue sequence. I mean, how long is it? 40 minutes? 30? I’ll also make less of this “Good/Bad” stuff. Yes, Luke wants Vader to remember who he was, but it kinda goes like “There’s good in you” – “No there isn’t” – “There is!” – “Hey, whatd’ya know, there really is!” And the way Palpatine tries to turn Luke to the Dark Side is totally inappropriate, especially comparing to his seduction in Revenge of the Sith. Every time I watch the Death Star duel sequence, I think “He just has to keep his mouth shut, and Luke will kill Vader, and maybe the Emperor along with him”. Another hard edit to make. That’s three from six (TPM, ANH and ROTJ). Because everything is more clear with other Episodes.

Also, what is Light Side, and what is Dark Side? I don’t want it to be Good and Evil, because… well, Good and Evil is pretty straightforward, and I like the fact that in RotS the Dark Side doesn’t necessarily look as Evil. The way I see it, Light Side is selflessness, represented by Jedi, while Dark Side is selfishness, represented by Sith. They’re just two different ideologies. But the main trick in life is to combine these too together, which, I think, Luke did pretty well.

So, this is it for my first Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker watchable as a whole edit post. It will take a very long time to do, heh. So, thank you for your attention, any opinions and ideas are welcome, and let’s hope I’ll get through.

Farlander said:

...judging by the cut lists, I’ve read a lot of them when stumbled upon fanedit.org...

Hi there Farlander!

Have you been reading the full script cutlists, or just the summaries on the FE.org pages?  If just the summaries, you might want to take a gander at my full scripts.

Good luck with your edits, and keep up posted :-)

-TVF

Wow, very cool and ambitious stuff. I like the different approach you're coming from. I started on TPM too.

I like your ideas. Only I don't feel like ROTJ should be the darkest of all the movie at all cost. Well, there must be a point, near the end, where all things turns bad - and it is more or less the case in the actual movie (rebels capture on Endor, space battle avorted, Luke in trouble) - but I don't see anything wrong about a real happy ending for the whole saga. We already have three movies with a kind of dark ending (AOTC, ROTS, ESB). I personaly would let the other three with a happy ending. It would bring balance to the... oh well, you got me! ;)

But this is YOUR fanedit, and this is just my opinion. I like to watch new visions of this movies anyway. best luck with it!

TV's Frink said:

Have you been reading the full script cutlists, or just the summaries on the FE.org pages?  If just the summaries, you might want to take a gander at my full scripts.

Well, only summaries, actually. I know about your scripts (and I think you're crazy doing them, but on the other hand, so are we all :D ) and I think about looking at some of them at some point.

TMBTM said:

Only I don't feel like ROTJ should be the darkest of all the movie at all cost. Well, there must be a point, near the end, where all things turns bad - and it is more or less the case in the actual movie (rebels capture on Endor, space battle avorted, Luke in trouble) - but I don't see anything wrong about a real happy ending for the whole saga. We already have three movies with a kind of dark ending (AOTC, ROTS, ESB).

If we look at Star Wars as at a Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) tale (like Lucas likes to call it), then it makes sense to wrap Anakin's story to an end, how he was brought to peace, but this end is not the end for Luke Skywalker or the Rebel Alliance. I'm not against happy endings, but the Empire, as I already said, can't be destroyed just by killing the Emperor. The planets won't celebrate everything just like that, I'm sure there would be a lot of planets/people who didn't have anything against Empire's rule, because... because it's only natural. So, I don't want the ending to be dark, no. But I don't want it to be a happy ending as in "everything's done everything's good".

Besides, though Rebels are officialy overrun and everything, it doesn't feel like that in the movie. It still feels like a swashbuckling adventure.

vaderios said:

You have my Mockups ;)

And my saber

and my axe

oh well

Good luck :D:D:D

 

Thank you. I love your mockups :) By the way, is there a place where they all are gathered in one single place?

Also, it happens that the Lord of the Rings is another one of my favorite movies, and I'm one of those who loves both the book and Peter Jackson's trilogy.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your comments. It will be some time before I get to actually editing stuff, because I want to plan as many things as possible.

TPM is really a nutcracker, you know. I think it tries to show too hard that it's "The beginning of the Saga." It like tells you "This is the beginning, this is how it was, this is young Obi-Wan, this is his master whose name we don't get till the middle of the movie, this is Yoda who we already must know who he is and therefore he gets little introduction or even hardly mentioned by name but he was the head of the JEdi Council, see?" and so on and so on. I never noticed it before I tried to make an edit out of it, but TPM tries to hard to be the beginning of the Saga.

One thing I like about ANH is that it just throws you into action with this battle. And I thought that, well, ANH depicts the beginning of Luke's journey (though also the continuation of Anakin's, but that's not the point) and TPM kinda depictst he beginning of Anakin's journey, so why not to mirror it at some point, because, well, SW films love to mirror eachother.

So I think of going a bit radical and starting the TPM movie right from the Escape from Naboo. After the opening crawl, camera pans down to Naboo, we see the Royal Starship flying past the camera right into that blockade. Essentially, to cut out the first 20 minutes of the movie (maybe incorporate the cut footage elsewhere somehow) and we meet Anakin a lot sooner this way, because the point of the movie is beginning of his journey, how dreams do come true for him.

I think that might just as well work, though I must see how it will work with the introduction of characters of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Padme and Jar-Jar (and the escape itself serves as an introduction for Artoo). Jumping straight in is one thing, knowing who the hell are these guys is another.

I would be very grateful if you did. My e-mail is farlander1991@gmail.com

They certainly will serve as an inspiration to me as to how bring the Saga together visually :)

Fantastic ideas! This sounds very promising!

You refer to the order of viewing the movies, but let me ask, have you ever watched them in the order 451236? In that order, for a first time viewer, you can experience just about ALL the surprises. You get the "I am your father" surprise without spoiling the "Henceforth you shall be known as Darth Vader" surprise.

Thanks, vaiderios! :)

You refer to the order of viewing the movies, but let me ask, have you ever watched them in the order 451236? In that order, for a first time viewer, you can experience just about ALL the surprises. You get the "I am your father" surprise without spoiling the "Henceforth you shall be known as Darth Vader" surprise.

Well, I think that Episode V kind of spoils the "Henceforth" sequence, because it becomes clear that whoever guy whose last name is Skywalker but first name is not Luke is his father. Well, as I said, the Order I first watched them was 145623 and then I was just randomly viewing movies.

------------------------

I will most likely keep the TPM beginning idea, it feels like it will work out pretty well.

I also noticed another parallel in TPM/ANH: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are those who get Anakin and Luke respectively started on their journeys, and they are meant to be their teachers and masters, yet they die before they can do anything, so Anakin is trained by Obi-Wan and Luke is kinda trained by Yoda. But Luke hears Obi-Wan from time to time, Obi-Wan acts like his Guardian, if you will. Now, what if Qui-Gon acts as Anakin's Guardian? What if Anakin hears from time to time Qui-Gon as Luke hears Obi-Wan?

It's not a problem to add Qui-Gon's (after his death, of course) phrase "May the Force be with you", though it would be more nice to cut out a "The Force will be with you. Always." phrase. I think it would be nice, if done properly.

And I think Liam Neeson filmed enough footage in other movies that would make themselves appropriate so he could talk to Anakin EpII and III. About Episode III, you all know about the voice of Palpatine in the JEdi Council room, when Anakin makes his final decision. At first I wanted to remove this voice, but then I though, what if I were to add Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon? Maybe even make sort of a conversation. But as soon as Anakin becomes Palpatine's apprentice, Qui-Gon doesn't talk with him anymore. Until either Episode V or Episode VI.

Now, there's one instance in Episode V where I can see Qui-Gon's voice fittable, it's after the talk with the Emperor (it's possible to tweatch the scene so there wouldn't be a swipe right after it ends and add a little more time). Maybe as something as simple as "Anakin?" (or without the question mark). It would work really well with Vader learning that his son is alive only at that precise moment. And this could be marked as the moment when Vader begins his journey back to the lightside (just as Anakin's path towards the Dark begins in AotC), when he starts to remember his old self and has gained again something to live for, even if he doesn't fully realize it.

Episode VI has more instances where Qui-Gon's voice could be seen as appropriate, I have to think about it. I do have an idea to add Qui-Gon's phrase from Episode I, which he'll certainly say to Anakin in my edit, which is "Always remember, your focus determines your reality", at the moment when he looks at Luke being tortured by the Emperor. And after this, Anakin understand that "Screw everything, this is my son, I couldn't have saved Padme, but I can at least save him" and goes wild on the Emperor. I think this idea looks good, at least on paper. But, as we all know, not everything looks good on screen as it does on paper.

bkev said:

That's a very interesting idea in the PT, but I don't know if it would fit in the OT.

Well I suppose it depends. I see how it could work in the "saga" edits Farlander is making but as standalone films or OT only the changes wouldn't make sense.

About the colors. At first, I wanted the colors to be one represantation of Saga "unity". So it would be all in more or less one style. So you could always say that this is a Star Wars movie, so, for example, Coruscant in Ep1 would have the same lighting as in Ep3 and etc. But then I thought.... this would be bland. After all, colors ARE part of storytelling. On example of Coruscant, though I will update Ep1 buildings to be consistent with Ep3 ones (for example the view outside the Jedi Council), Ep1 Coruscant WILL look different than Ep3 one. I will try to make Ep1 look more like a magic and colorful metropolis, while Ep3 (being closer to being an Empire and being in a darker chapter of the Saga) is a gritty place losing it's colors (I do not like the idea of having the Empire as pure evil, but I do like the idea of Republic losing it's colors and diversity, because Empire is, after all, a dictatorship). So, each movie won't have the same feel (in terms of color representation) but I will try to make this look more natural and progressive than the mess we have right now. I will need consultation on that part, though, to make it all better.

In SW there's kind of a running gag "I have a bad feeling about this", and in Prequel Trilogy there's a kind of running music gag in form of Escape from Naboo music. I happen to like this music and am planning introduce it in the IV-VI Episodes.

Speaking about musical changes, I'm going to introduce litte Across the Stars cues in TPM, in two scenes: "Are you an angel?" (I like the question itself, I mean, the boy basically fell in love on the first sight and kept his feelings for 10 years without even seeing the one he loved, which thenr eally blossomed; but the dialogue following the question won't remain the same) and the scene where Anakin gives the gift to Padme. After all, the music drives the story too (a lot more than colors, of course), and since Across the Stars is their love theme, it's only logical to make it originate and hint at where their love is.

Anyway, I'm ready to start my TPM draft cut, which is, essentialy, a cut to mainly get the feel if I'm going in the direction I want. My draft cuts will use dvd as the source (because quality doesn't matter, I just need something to work with to get the idea), but in the end I would like to use HD sources, so I would be grateful if someone could tell me (PM, for example) where I can find the best quality possible (for all SW movies, preferably). Thank you in advance.

In that case, though, appears a problem with deleted scenes, their best quality is DVD quality, and there are some deleted scenes I would really like to get back (ESPECIALLY for Episode III to see the origins of the Rebel Alliance, which we will follow for the next three movies, and seed more distrust between Anakin and Padme; and the parent scene in Episode II which would replace the pointless meeting with the Queen).

Talking about seeding the Rebel Alliance reminded me. I'm planning to change a bit TPM backstory to make the Naboo blockade look more like seeds of the Separatist movement. Also, about Dooku. I gave it a good thought, and my original idea of having Dooku being a Sith who uses his position to turn Palpatine's plan against him... there's too little footage to make that noticable, so I think I'll go with the old and many-times-used rogue idea. He still will be a Dark Side user though, so it's good enough (and maybe even better than being Palpatine's apprentice) to start subtly showing the certain point of view in using the Dark Side to make greater good in your own way (which was and still remains the main idea).

And about the Separatists being controlled by Palpatine... well, in TPM Trade Federation is in league with Darth Sidious, of course, and then it will look like the Separatists don't have anything Palpatine (no dialouges between Dooku/Grievous and Sidious), but I will leave the scene where Nute Gunray on Mustafar says "Everything has gone according to plan, m'Lord" phrase (or how does it go?). It's one line, but I think it will make a pretty nice little "that ********** was with Palps all along, felt betrayed my ass!" impression, and I won't have to think up anything to justify Anakin's coming to Mustafar without nobody trying to kill him or anything in that manner. Plus, what Palpatine is Palpatine without his love of scheming devious plans?

but Anakin's Theme was playing during that scene, because it was that anakin was "falling in love" with padme.

That's correct... from a certain point of view :p And even if I'll leave Anakin's Theme in the angel scene, I will surely put AtS in the gift scene instead of his theme, where Padme says she cares for Anakin. It's like playing an imperial cue during discussion of Anakin's future.

Farlander said:

 It would work really well with Vader learning that his son is alive only at that precise moment.

But you'll have to remove "I'm sure Skylwalker is with them" before the Hoth battle for this to work I think.

But you'll have to remove "I'm sure Skylwalker is with them" before the Hoth battle for this to work I think.

I also will have to edit the title crawl where it's stated that Vader's searching for Luke Skywalker and... that's it. That's actually what Lucas had to make in order to make the rewrite of his Palpatine talk work, because in 2004 version it's confusing, how Vader can not know about his son if he's searching for him?

Yes but you can search for someone (the one who blew the Death Star) without knowing his name. The name Skywalker would be in the crawl for the audience to know who we're talking about.

Just playing the devil's advocate here, cause yes, it sounds like Vader knows his name.

So, real life sometimes takes priority... actually, most of the times.

But, I did some experiments from time to time, as what and how can work, and here's the result of one of them.

Now, as I already said in the youtube description, when I've meant rough cut, I've meant ROUGH. It's not the final result, it would be shit as a final result... It's shit as a rough cut too, I guess, but the main point is to show the general idea.

YOU'RE NUTS!

I know. But still, pay more attention while reading messages.

PS. As an addition to my reply to TV Frink, I think there's no way to watch SW to keep both "I am your father" and Anakin's turn to the Dark Side a surprise.

You're still nuts, though.

What a surprise! Oh, wait, it isn't :p

Anyway, I've been keeping experimenting. Starting from flight from Naboo actually works really well. The start is in a new-hopey good sense "WTF is going on?!" way. Plus leaves the trouble of trying to explain the most controversial beginning moments, like what's happening on the TF battleship, why TF is invading and so on and so on. Every vital information can be explained in the title crawl.

Padme-Jar-Jar talk on the ship suddenly has a purpose of introducing the characters, so it's not cut out.

Darth Maul is introduced together with Sidious when Viceroy talks about Queen's escape. But, we don't see Darth Maul at all until he ambushes Qui-Gon near the ship (only his probes, a few times), which makes a nice "WTF" moment. I'm thinking of further cutting Darth Maul altogether until he appears infront of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and the Queen on Naboo itself. I think this treat of him makes Darth Maul actually cooler, he's like a hunter.

I would like to cut very much Sidious, so he doesn't totally appear in the movie, making the assumption that Federation acts from it's own accord. But that would also leave Darth Maul totally nameless, and so far Darth Maul's introduction is the only intercutting between the good guys and bad guys during the first forty minutes of the movie until they leave Tatooine (well, I didn't experiment after Tatooine anyway).

There's no Obi-Wan wardrobe talk, no Obi-Wan midichlorian talk, and nobody contacted from Naboo. "What if it's true, and people are dying?" seems like a dumb question to me. I mean, the planet is under blockade, and invaded by a droid army, and... of course they're dying. Plus Sio Bibble is like a totally pointless character now.

I see a few problems with the way my cut is going, though. Firstly, since we don't see any gungan city or anything, it seems that the gungan army may aswell appear out of nowhere... And secondly, Viceroy, who's like supposed to be the main villian of the Episode (invading planet and stuff) hasn't too much screentime. I'm still thinking about what to do with that.

PS. Oh, and I cut out Jabba fully. His appearance was totally pointless. I think I already said that, but anyway I'll repeat, I think it will be a nice progression: EpI, we hear about Hutts, EpIV, we hear about one particular dangerous Hutt, EpVI - we see that particular dangerous Hutt.

PS2. All changes I've made so far are for my rough cut edit version, I didn't start clean anything yet.

EDIT:

Also, I would like to point out that the first time we see a lightsaber ignited is during the Darth Maul-Qui-Gon battle, which is kinda cool.

I've removed the Watto mind trick (meaning no mind tricks in this Episode, and I guess no mind tricks at all until EpIV).

And the learning curve of "what's a Jedi? The Force?" will be going pretty well in this Episode, albeit in a different style. If in EpIV most information was from Obi-Wan's teaching, in my EpI cut we learn about Jedi and the Force mostly in action. First as Qui-Gon talks about premonitions of the future, then makes the bet with Watto in his favor, fight with Maul, Council on Coruscant - yeah, everything will be pretty nice, I think.