My Episode III Re-Edit (v 2009) (Completed)

So it becomes kinda uneventful when people post these threads here becuase there are so damned many… but I figured I should add to this list because of how much people online have liked my sets.

Anyway… Lets preface this with the reason for my edits.

I personally had never seen the OT of Star Wars until the Special Editions… I mean,I had them on VHS, but I never watched it. Then the SE’s came out and I saw what became Episode IV in theatres opening night (stepfather won tickets). I remember the highlight of the night being that they had the poster for “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” in the lobby lol…

Anyway… the movie was amazing. I remember really liking it.

Fast forward to when the PT started. I remember watching the first ever TV mega trailer for Episode I and being so stoked. I HAD to see it.

I bought the album to Episode I immediately and half the books and toys that were available. I was a HUGE fan. My friends and I would use the toys at the YMCA and during play time just make up our own stories with the Toys.
 

Anyway… I preface it with this to say… I loved Episode I. I still love Episode I.

Frankly, I feel Episode I was a masterpiece. The way it was shot, the way it was done… there is very little I didn’t like. Granted… it had moments that looking back I go “really?” but not many. It was so artistic…which to me was one reason I loved it so.

Now, lets move on to Episode II. Things have changed. The script was bad… and the film was cut back denaturing the more elegent and touching moments. We loose a sense of who the characters are as they seem to exist in this vacuume.

Episode III was a mass improvement on Episode II but I remember before it came out having debates with friends about seeing Vader. My friends were soooo excited about Seeing vader.

I wasn’t.

I felt that it seemed to bely the reality that was portrayed in Episode V and VI… the biggest plot twists in Cinema history are just painted over in broad strokes… and I wasn’t pleased.

I liked the film… but I wasn’t pleased with it.
 

So I decided to edit my own version…removing any mention of Anakin as Vader… returning the mystery. Cutting back on the birth to show only Luke. Then I further changed it by adding Qui-Gon to the film… and so on.

I felt that Vader, like Dooku and Grevious could be a bad guy that seemed to appear out of the void. Who was the big bad guy of the OT and we’re left asking “where’d he come from?” and then suddenly… it all makes sense… we’re hit with this…oooOoo! moment …preserving the same feeling, and perhaps even expanding upon it by this.

I also resolved to cut back on extranious moments. THings that didn’t need to be said or seen or done.
 

This is the pieces, the big ones, to my Episode III edit… how I felt it should have been:

(I recommend watching these all in HD)
 

Landing in the Hangar Bay - Death of Dooku

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlQG7f68l48

Edits:

1. The video starts out with the proper syncing of the music used moment earlier in the film version.
2. The complete “General Grevious” cue is reinstated.
3. Cut the Battle droids entering the hangar.
4. “The Elevator Sequence” music is synced (the alternate percussive track to be precise)
5. Obi-Wan and Anakin exiting the elevator to see Palpatine is shortened as it was way too long.
6. Cut Obi-Wan and Anakin’s lines about “taking him together”
7. Removed most of Dooku’s back flip.
8. Reinstated a shot of Dooku igniting his saber and changing it’s placement.
9. Re-syncing the music
10. Cut Palpatines preposterious “yeah!”
11. Shortened the shot of Anakin swiping at Dooku to make it more abrupt
12. Cut the sequence so that Obi-Wan falling and Dooku pulling the platform down were faster
13. Resynced the music
14. Added Anakin screaming after the “don’t use them” line to show that he’s let go.
15. Make it seem like Anakin has lost it and kills Dooku
16. Cut the conversation of Anakin and Palpatine to make it seem like Palpatine was more insistent on changing how Anakin feels.
17. Put Palpatines line over the tusken raider SFX
18. cut a preposterous amount of Anakin sitting next to Obi-Wan
19. Added music to the battle and near fall from orbit
20. Cut slightly to make the video fit the new music.
21. Made it seem like Obi-Wan was still unconscious until after they fly out of the elevator shaft.</span>
     

General Grevious Flees

(This is pretty much the same sequence but I added the music which to me changes it so much that I would consider this as being very similar to how I’d do it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-YwXDpcLDM
 

Dialogue with Mace - I am the Senate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1nf0swhT_I

Changes:

1. Omission of “[I Think] he is a sith lord.” You just stated he was, why say “I think?”
2. I changed the sequence of shots as the convoy flys away (trying to fix continuity of shadow/placement/ etc.)
3. Moved Anakin flying ship to save Palpatine latter and added a new establishing shot
4. Recut the first few shots of the fight.
5. Moved Anakin leaving the Jedi temple (rather tan arriving at the Senate offices building) here
6. Moved Anakin arriving to the senate offices a bit latter.
7. Removed Anakin running through the hall with the overly dramatic music for him simply skipping through it
8. Cut some breif moments of Sidious saying “Help me!” and such during his fight with mace (better fits the NEW music).
9. Sped up the actual attack on Mace by Anakin by removing Palpatines shot (leaving line layered in) and cutting a bit latter to anakin cutting his hand off.</span>

Lament (There is one error where I leave in “Vader” by accident)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwJLaXftzNg
 

Most of these are subtle edits-

1. Removal of the naming of Vader
2. Cut to the battle on Kashykk and shortened the establishing of this battle (Redid Music)
3. Cut a few moments of Obi-Wan being shot at.
4. Show Obi-Wan and the animal falling but not hitting water, making it seem for the moment they have the same demise as the rest of the Jedi.
5. Added more SFX to Plo-Koon exploding
6. Rebuilt the SFX/Music for the next Jedi’s death to continue the music.
7. Extended the “Lament” sequence by placing Anakin entering the Jedi Temple where it was originally (within the Lament).
8. Rebuilt the sfx/music
9. Replaced the original music of Bail leaving the Jedi Temple.
10. Rebuilt the SFX for the boy Jedi fighting to escape</span>
     

Obi-Wan talks to Padme about Anakin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJJICINf9zg

A Partial List of the edits:

1. New Establishing Shot of Padme’s Residence
2. New cut from Obi-Wan leaving Padme’s Residence to Padme sitting in grief.
3. Wipe to Padme leaving Courescant rather than a cut to Anakin.
4. More time is shown passing after Padme leaves Coruscant to Mustafar (an outer rim planet which in the film takes a matter of moments)
5. Replacing a computer screen showing Padme arriving to Mustafar
6. Cut back to Coruscant after we see Anakin.
7. The Yoda/Sidious conversation is streamlined to remove Vader but also to highten tension.
8. Padme’s Landing on Mustafar is SEVERELY cut short. Lucas loved shots of ships landing way too much.</span>
    

Padme and Anakin Talk on Mustafar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWJKyHk6JxE

Edits

1. I replace the shot of Anakin after Padme says “He wants to help you” so Anakin isn’t seen smiling like a teenager
2. I quit cut from Padme falling, to Obi Wan looking, then to Anakin’s line rather than having a needless shot of Padme lying there for 10 seconds.
3. The Conversation between Obi-Wan and Anakin is changed slightly. Anakin responds to Obi-Wan being for democracy that he is “[his] enemy.”
4. Cut the line “Only a sith deals in absolutes” as it’s an oxymoron.</span>
    

Battle of the Heroes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0fAqbw4p0Q

Here I removed a lot and edited a lot. Also worth note is that I fully rebuilt almost a lot of the sfx.

1. Cut extraneous and duplicate shots of Obi-Wan and Anakin fighting. In the film, they do the same moves THREE TIMES, from THREE angles, played one after another. If you look Closely in the real film, Padme dissapears after the first run. I fix this by cutting it down to one time.
2. I began “Battle of the Heroes” with the choir from later pitch shifted, edited, and layered over the film music.
3. I remove the shot of Anakin kicking Obi-Wan as it’s a near duplicate of one later and it kills the tension.
4. Cut back to Yoda and Sidious
5. I cut back to Obi-Wan and Anakin, removing some extraneous moments.
6. I link up the sequence of them in the control room
7. I replace the shot of Anakin destroying the console with a similar shot of him doing the same latter.
8. Anakin kicks Obi-Wan near the face and we cut faster back to Yoda and Sidious
9. Yoda Evading the Senate chairs is re-edited to strengthen tension of Yoda in peril.
10. Cut to Obi-Wan and Anakin on the heat dissipator with new layered music.
11. Cut back to Yoda and Sidious
12. Made the shot of yodas cape landing on the pole more important.
13. Cut to Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting further.
14. Allowed the tension to dissipate slightly by adding a new establishing shot of the senate and cutting the Vader line.
15. Cut most of Yoda in the tunnel and synced up what was used.
16. Cut back to Mustafar quicker with new establishing shot.
17. Cut some extraneous lava explosion shots and cut to the action faster.
18. Synced the arm falling in the lava to the actual battle in the lava flow.
19. Cut some of the extra moments of the arm falling over the clif and Anakin and Obi-Wan jumping to safety on the pads.
20. Edited some of the conversation to truly make Anakin seem Evil.
21. Cut the part of the line that was “[From my point of view] The Jedi Are Evil!” As it was obviously his point of view.
22. Cut to them fighting again faster
23. Cut most of the flip Obi-Wan makes (we see it from three angles again)
24. Cut most of Anakin jumping and some beats of nothing to make it faster

25. Changed the sequence of the conversation (Kept most of Obi-Wan’s lines together)
26. Made the exchange harder with “I love you”/ “I hate you”
27. Made it seem this final line made Obi-Wan leave Anakin.</span>
     

Finale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiQlDHxIJxY

1. Cut Padme regaining consciousness and had her simply moan to make it seem like she was more hurt.
2. Added a new shot of the skiff leaving Mustafar and pull out of an establishing shot.
3. Flipped the shot of Obi-Wan in the skiff thinking to how it was theatrically
4. Cut to the asteroid
5. Minimized the robots converastion to simply that she’s dying.
6. Let some time pass by having Yoda go to meditate.

Meditation Sequence:

1. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon making the pact that Anakin must be trained
2. Yoda nearly conversing with Qui-Gon in a way through this.
3. Jump to Anakin in the future
4. Showing that Yoda knows about the conversation Obi-Wan and Anakin had and how Anakin died.
5. Yoda and Qui-Gon converse about the profesy.
6. Yoda see’s Padme dying/ That Anakin is alive/ and that there is a “New Hope”
   –
7. Cut to Yoda being interrupted.
8. Yoda’s eyes open slowly as Qui-Gon fades
9. Move to the birth.
10. Cut all of Anakin being rescued.
11. Show only birth of Luke
12. Show that some time could have passed for Leah’s birth
13. Padme speaks the line that Luke remembers for the rest of his life.
14. Replace the music.
15. Various new cuts of reactions.
16. Iris in on Padme’s face to show the arrival at Naboo.
17. Funeral sequence re-edited to show mourners in sequence (some errors here in the cuts)
18. Iris in on the gift Anakin gave Padme and move to Alderan.
19. Rebuilt the sfx/music
20. Most of the Conversation is cut and is now present on Alderan.
21. Some small seconds are cut in Yoda and Obi-Wan’s conversation to stream line it.
22. Iris from 3P0 to the first shot of Episode IV
23. Move to the finale as seen in the film.</span>

Now this spans pretty much the whole film… so you can kinda fill in the spaces…

Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did making it! I learned so much!

I wasn't truly planning on putting these things here... so I never really looked as deeply as you all are so acustomed to when it comes to these (a la Adywan's edits).

Frankly I hated the voices too. The videos did serve a duel purpose though, to show off how the music was meant to be in the film, and then also satisfy my personal curiosity for editing the sequences down.

Very nice^^

Will you release it as a full edit for downloading?

You're the second person to ask me that. I had honestly never intended to. But I mean, if people like it enough, I could always go back and redo it again...

In a way, I'm posting this because I want to spread the ideas I'd had about editing Episode III.

Many feel that the prequel trilogies are below par, which in a way they are, but at the same time, there's still a lot that can be done with them... and honestly should be without sacrificing the films to the hutts gods. lol

a more radical cut? Oh you mean like completely restructuring the films? Yea... I've seen some... I guess I'm just the kind of guy who prefers something a little more...cinematic.