Spence's ST Preferred Versions

Hi All!

I must confess, I’m a big fan of the first two films in the Sequel Trilogy, and quite like them the way they are. However, there are some great changes that have been made to them by various editors over the years, so I’m cobbling together what I consider to be my “preferred” versions of the films. These, for most people, will be totally unnecessary and I’m making them mainly for myself, but since opinions on the films are so varied, I thought I’d share them when I complete them.

Here’s what I intend:

Force Awakens:

• Both films will open with the original 20th century Fox and Lucafilm logos from the 70’s and include the fanfare so all 9 of my versions of the movies are uniform.
• Based mainly on Starlight, but not as drastic as that version. I want to keep a lot of the quality of life improvements and first act restructuring.
• I want to have Jakku it’s original color timing.
• Things like the etching in Rey’s home will stay, but I won’t include her getting “sith eyes” at the end.
• The first Falcon sequence will use Adywan’s IMAX restoration so that aspect ratio will open up.
• I also don’t want to use the “restructured” format, so the Hosnian system/New Republic will be destroyed in the middle of the film, like the theatrical version.
• Definitely including the deleted scene of Kylo on the Falcon.
• The third act of the film after Solo and Finn find Rey is more or less unchanged.

Last Jedi:

• An even softer edit, this version will include a few quality of life improvements from HAL (adjusted timing at Snoke’s death, etc.) but mostly remain unchanged.
• The “Leia remembers Han” and “Third lesson” deleted scenes will be included.

Again, these are mostly going to be pointless edits for most people, but I wanted these slightly extended, slightly reorganized versions for myself. So by the time I’m done, I’ll have my versions of the Prequels that are nearly completed, 4K77-4K80-4K83, these two edits, and The Final Order. The whole saga to fit my particular tastes. Everything should also fit nicely with Ascendent if you don’t want my more dramatically different version of TROS or you want something closer to canon.

I’m wrapping up work on the prequels, which will hopefully be done and released by the end of the year, then I’ll probably put these together. They shouldn’t take very long.

I am very interested in this !!! Thanks for doing it.

Any interest in adding Han putting the dice in the falcon in TFA ? I know the scene is not perfect on the vfx side but I like the connection with TLJ it offers.

Guiguioh said:

I am very interested in this !!! Thanks for doing it.

Any interest in adding Han putting the dice in the falcon in TFA ? I know the scene is not perfect on the vfx side but I like the connection with TLJ it offers.

Yeah that’s likely going in.

I prefer the restructured format for TFA, but otherwise these look pretty close to what my preferred versions would be. Excited to check out TLJ especially.

Octorox said:

I prefer the restructured format for TFA, but otherwise these look pretty close to what my preferred versions would be. Excited to check out TLJ especially.

My argument against the restructure, which I agree makes more logical sense and does work, is that there’s already a ton happening at the end of that movie. Han dies, Finn gets horribly injured (and in the moment looks to be dead) Rey uses the Force for the first time, Kylo injured, etc. Adding that big moment in with all those other big moments feels like one too many and lessens the impact of what’s already there.

I understand preferring it, but I just never have.

SpenceEdit said:

Octorox said:

I prefer the restructured format for TFA, but otherwise these look pretty close to what my preferred versions would be. Excited to check out TLJ especially.

My argument against the restructure, which I agree makes more logical sense and does work, is that there’s already a ton happening at the end of that movie. Han dies, Finn gets horribly injured (and in the moment looks to be dead) Rey uses the Force for the first time, Kylo injured, etc. Adding that big moment in with all those other big moments feels like one too many and lessens the impact of what’s already there.

I understand preferring it, but I just never have.

I definitely understand where you’re coming from, but I think in Starlight especially, all these things sort of crescendo together nicely.

I’ll probably do my own sequel edits at some point. I like TLJ mostly as-is with some deleted bits added back in. I like Starlight although the color grading and some of the more overt dark-side telegraphing like the sith eyes change the character of the movie too much for me.

I’ll definitely check out your versions once you finish them, as I think we have similar preferences when it comes to the sequel trilogy.

After watching your PT I’m really looking forward to seeing these.