Info: Episode II Fan Edit Review ('Attack of the Phantom'?)

A little while back Rikter offered two copies of an Episode II edit he was given in exchange for a review of the disc. I got one of the discs and didnt get a chance to watch it untill just now. But seeing as I said I would, here is my review of it.

First the video/audio quality. Rikter said this was a dvd made from a xvid file and that the quality wasnt that great but it was much better than i was expecting from his comments about it, infact i had no complaints with the audio or video quality. There were a 1 or 2 parts that skipped a little but it seemed partially player related and not really due to any editing. (major jumpy part was during the arena battle when Anakin jumped on the bull thing and looped the chain around his neck, but there didnt seem to be an edit at this point to cause that so it might have been my player, the disc, or the encoding)

Next, the scenes that were cut.
This edit only cut scenes and peices of dialogue out in order to ‘improve the pacing’. I did not notice any deleted scenes that were restored. So here is the list of scenes/dialogue that was cut (what i noticed, which i think is most if not all, i did jump to the official dvd to check a few times)

• Corde’s line about failing Padme was cut, she only says I’m sorry
• Yoda’s line to Padme about seeing her alive bringing war thoughts to his heart
• the alien that ‘curses’ the jedi when Anakin blasts by him on the speeder is cut. (during the chase scene in Coruscant)
• Part of the convo between Obi-Wan and Anakin about the speeder. Anakin just says, you know me, couldnt find a speeder i like and his other comments are cut out.
• Anakins laughing when diving straight down in the speeder towards the big ship seems to be muted out
• The “I think” is cut out before Anakin says “Its a shortcut”
• after Anakin’s “short-cut” he and Obi-Wan says “now youve lost him” Anakin replys with “I’m deeply sorry”, then with “if you’ll excuse me” cutting out Obi-Wans dialogue in between
• The guy offering Obi-Wan deathsticks is cut out of the cantina scene
• When Anakin talks to Palpatine about getting Padme to go to naboo, the word ‘and’ was cut when Palps says ‘And so i see they finally gave you your own mission’ (or something along those lines. Not a big deal, but it results in a fairly choppy switch so it seems like something was cut out.
• When Anakin and Padme go to board their ship, the line “At least we have artoo” and Padme’s subsequent laugh is all cut out. It just has Anakin say “Im afraid too” or whatever his exact line was
• The scene with artoo getting Padme and Anakin food is cut, it starts off with Padme thanking artoo for bringing them food.
• When the arrive on Naboo, the scene where Padme says how she wasnt the youngest queen ever elected, and the scene where they see the new queen have been cut. It goes right to the scene with Anakins infamous “I hate sand” line
• The picnic scene is gone
• the dinner scene is cut
• Parts of the fireplace scene are cut, the Anakin’s line about ‘the kiss you never should have given me’ , ‘if your suffering as much as i am’ and Padme’s ‘if you follow your thoughts to conclusion’ (just that part) are all gone
• When C-3PO goes into the droid factory on Geonosis and his ‘Machines making machines’ line is cut, but he still says ‘How preverse’
• When Anakin’s saber is cut in the droid factory his ‘Obi-wan is gonna kill me’ line is cut
• Padme’s ‘Ive been dying a little each day’ line was cut from the scene right before they enter the arena
• there was a s
• The comment Padme makes during the battle about aggressive negotiations was cut
• C-3PO’s ‘Die Jedi Dogs’ line was cut, as well as his “I’m quite besides myself” line
• when Dooku fights Yoda, right before they fight with lightsabers, Dooku’s line “It’s obvious this battle cannot be determined by our knowlege of the force, but with our skills with a lightsaber” has been shortened to cut out ‘but with our skills with a lightsaber’

My thoughts.
Overall I thought it was a decent edit, but it really didnt change the movie in a positive way, i would rather watch the Official dvd for a few reasons. While it did try to remove some of the more cheesy lines (many of which people here have discussed removing in various edit threads) it left just as many in some (most) of which were more annoying/weaker lines then the ones cut. Some of the lines were also ones that werent really that annoying to begin with and were some of the better ‘comedy’ lines.

Also some of the scenes that were cut didnt really increase the flow in my opinion. I think this was because even though some of the dialogue in the scenes that were removed was cheesy (mainly the Anakin/Padme ‘romance’, as this is mostly what was cut) they still provided us with info and showed the growing romance (even if not very well). So the problem that arouse was that no scenes were put in place of these, so the ones that were left in tact (which also had lines cut out) felt somewhat ‘hollow’ or as they were missing something, like we didnt have all the info (which i guess we didnt)

Overall, i think it gets the same basic storyline across as the official movie, but looses a little bit of the relationship development between Anakin/Padme (even though this might not have been done the greatest, i think that removing it all together is not the answer, i think some of the other edits in discussion with creative editing on these scenes as has been talked about will do it more justice) However, i really didnt see a flow improvment, or think this flowed any better or was paced any better/faster than the official movies, and maybe even at times lacked information/developments that the offical movie at least tried to get across, even if not executed all that well.

think that about sums it up, i can answer questions and/or elaborate on specific points if anyone so desires.

-Darth Simon

p.s. I dont think this edit has a name (at least not one i know of) so dont really know how to refer to it except as an Episode II edit. If anyone has more info on its origins please chime in as im sure Rikter would like to know as well (if he hasnt found out already)