Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released) — Page 10

I totally understand and, like I said, it doesn’t break the film in any way.

As far as choosing between other edits goes, Episode III is a tricky thing. There are so many little bits and bobs of continuity and fan service, that the only way anyone can probably get the pieces in place exactly how they like is to make their own edits.

As far as continuity goes, I’ll take Padme living over C3PO keeping his memories forgetting to mention that he’s back on his home planet where everyone is probably named Skywalker so don’t worry about it. 😃 (I think the actual reason was to remove the Tantive. But that’s a bit of fan service I don’t really mind).

I have to say, I love your Episode I edit, and I think it’s the best one out there, but I started watching your Episode III edit to provide feedback and gave up about 20-25 minutes into the movie. Everything up until they land on Coruscant is great but after that, the way you reorder so many scenes just doesn’t work for me, it feels choppy and disjointed, especially the music transitions. I understand that you’re trying to emphasize the political reasons for Anakin’s fall and demphasize the love story related reasons but I just don’t think it works, the material is just not strong enough to support that change. Ultimately it feels less like a comprehensible, flowing story and more like a collection of random scenes designed to set things up later on. Sorry to say this, but I actually think the theatrical cut is stronger so far.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, it’s just my personal opinion. I honestly have not been satisfied with an EpIII edit since Kerr’s, and I have similar feelings about L8wrtr’s edit. I feel like faneditors really tend to overthink EpIII and overestimate what they need to do to fix it.

EDIT: I guess this basically means I should make my own EpIII edit…

Yeah that’s fair. I think the edit is just not for me, but judging be FE.org reviews you’ve definitely created an edit that strikes a chord with a lot of people.

Personally, EPIII has always been my favorite prequel (EpII is my least favorite). That said, It’s a film filled with a lot of extreme and heightened moments, which under GL’s hands can sometimes be really dramatic (The birth of Vader and the delivery of the twins, the opera scene) and sometimes really corny and over the top (The Palpatine face scarring scene, most of Anakin’s dialogue in the Mustafar duel, NOOOOO!). It is the prequel film where the “sith hits the fan” (pun intended), and in that sense it avoids one of the major problems of the first two films (being boring/feeling inconsequential), but brings with it another problem (having some of the most over the top/campy moments in the entire trilogy).

Basically, this is a film that I have a begrudging affection for, and I haven’t really seen an edit yet that satisfies me, so I will probably just “shut up and do it” and make my own.

I did do a 3 in 1 edit a while back that contained a lot of my ideas of EpIII. However I abandoned that edit after I decided that the 3 in 1 approach was not the best one for these films, as it was difficult to pull off an a way that still felt seamless and professional. Unfortunately my hard drive has crashed since then and I no longer have the files. I’ve been watching the Clone Wars series recently and it has rekindled my interest in the prequel era, so I may return to do an Ep III edit, since my 3 in 1 edit was like 65% Episode III anyway. Basically my idea for EpIII is more dialogue trims than anything, Kerr’s edit provides a strong template although I think some of his cuts are more aggressive at times than is actually necessarily (I appreciated that you didn’t hack down the opening space battle as much as most edits).

Fan edits don’t change the music because it’s damn near impossible to. Most would if it didn’t add mountains of SFX work.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

I can’t see why no fan edits change the music.

Because it is out of this world difficult to do seamlessly in most cases. Difficult in scenes with no dialogue because is involves rebuilding the entire soundtrack including sound effects. Nearly impossible in scenes with dialogue because the music overlaps onto all of the audio channels containing the dialogue and sound fx.

I’ve only just recently joined this site, but I wanted to commend you for your outstanding work on this film and the other prequel movies. I watched your V4 of Ep I (as well as its commentary), and V3 of Eps II and III – phenomenal work across the board. I’ve been working in Hollywood for over a decade myself, and I found your edits to be very seamless and professional. Overall I agree with your approach to editing and the choices you’ve made. For example, I love how the only time we see Yoda wield his lightsaber is during the quick beat to defend himself from Order 66. Or the removal of dialogue during the moonlight kiss scene back in Ep II. I find that kind of ‘less-is-more’ approach to be very effective.

You can also count me in the camp of agreeing to your change of Padme’s fate. I think it works really well and flows nicely with what Leia says in ROTJ (I, too, was bothered by that lack of continuity in the theatrical Ep III). That tease you showed from Hundsdorfex’s VFX edit to the balcony shot really helps tie the scene together. I think the cut straight from the Tantive to Padme is slightly jarring, and that added balcony shot establishing her room completely sells it. Definitely looking forward to V4 of these last two films (and their commentaries to boot!).

I watched L8wrtr’s Ep III edit as well, and it’s an excellent edit for those who prefer to keep Padme’s original fate intact. One instance where I preferred his edit was during the opening sequence where he removes some of the short awkward cutaways to Palpatine reacting to the duel with Dooku (like when he says ‘Yeah!’ after Obi-Wan cuts down a pair of droids – what is he, a father rooting for his kid at a soccer game?). Of course, this is super minor in the grand scheme of things. However, in L8wrtr’s edit there are a small handful of abrupt transitions throughout the film (particularly in the audio) that stand out to me, and draw attention to itself being a fan edit. Also, there are a few other things in his cut that I find problematic. During the first act, there are a series of scenes that are back-to-back involving Anakin in different places: Anakin & Obi-Wan chat in the briefing room at the Jedi Temple. Cut to Anakin and Palpatine at the water orb performance. Cut to Anakin with Yoda back at the Jedi Temple. Cut to Anakin and Palpatine in the Chancellor’s office. It all felt very abrupt and completely drew me out of the movie.

Anyways, enough talk about someone else’s edit. Kudos to you once more, and I can’t wait to see the next release!

Yeah, I do understand that there is a history to some of these editorial changes over the course of years of fan edits to these movies, and that some of those changes have become commonplace enough to almost consider them a sort of ‘standard’. You mentioned as much during your commentary of Ep I, and how some of your edits are simply iterations on another’s idea. Of course, since I’m new to the scene, I don’t know the history of these edits, and credit should certainly go where it’s due. That being said, props to you for your selection and execution of these ideas, in addition to your more original changes!

Hey, I’m really intrigued by everything I’ve read about your edits and the praise they’re receiving. I was wondering how I could get hold of a link? I can’t find anything anywhere.
Thanks.

Hey, I loved your edits for Episode 1 and 2, and was watching this edit - and I’ve noticed a few things I’d like to mention.
First off the grain flickers in a lot of scenes, for short moments it becomes bright. I think possibly the grain should be cut completely away from this edit, though it has improved the others. There’s also short scenes without any grain.
The scene from the Jedi meditation room, where Yoda, Obi-Wan and Mace-Windu are speaking seems like it’s a 480p resolution… wait, is that a cut scene? because I seem to remember it from the movie xD
thirdly, I absolutely love that Anakin kills Dooku on his own, but the battle before it seems a slight bit cut. It feels short and lacking. Frankly I think the whole opening feels a bit short, but it’s probably because I’ve seen it and loved it a lot. Also the crash scene, it doesn’t feel like they flew really fast when they stop so quickly.
But damn the dialogue overall feels so much better in your edits… I love it.
By cutting part of the MacexSidious fight, specifically the part where Mace blocks the force lightning attack and it reflects onto Sidious, you also remove the reason for his wrinkles and sudden strange appearance, though I might agree that removing that would have been better (that it was just an age thing in the originals) but it seems strange in the edit.
I really feel like the edit gives more meaning to Padme’s decisions, with the conflict of politics - what with the deleted scenes and such.
I really do applaud the decision to remove the YodaVSPalpatine fight, though I really like it - alas, “Kill your darlings”
And I miss the "Anakin, my allegiance is to the republic (in there) - To Democracy! (not there 😛 )
And finally it’s great that you let Padme live, so it fits with the rest of the movies (a shame her burial scene is so good.)

Just finished watching the most current versions of these as part of my pre-The Force Awakens marathon and I must say these are excellent edits. Until now I thought it was pretty much impossible to edit even a decent film out of the prequels but these are very watchable and a much more enjoyable experience. I even took the time to make some DVD covers for them for my collection, and I look forward to v4 of The Approaching Storm and Labyrinth of Evil.

That said, I was wondering if it was still the plan for the edits of Episode II and III to recolor Windu’s lightsaber to a more standard blue. That was one of the talked about changes here that I was looking forward to and a little sad it wasn’t there yet. Anyways, I’m looking forward to the final versions which I will gladly add to my collection.

I just noticed on Wednesday, during my pre-Force Awakens marathon, that you wrote “BEGIN OPERATION HOT ZONE KILL” underneath the 20th Century Fox logo!!
Bravo, sir. Bravo…
“Hmmm. What should the bad man say now? What about a number? What’s, like, an evil sounding number?”
XDD

I’m just getting around into looking for PT edits to watch, and since I lost my copies of L8wrtr’s edits and can’t seem to find them online anywhere, I thought I’d check out these in their entirety.

Just a question, what are the V4 specific changes for these edits (I realize V4 of Episodes II and III aren’t out yet), and how does the scene ordering in this one compare with L8wrtr’s Dawn of The Empire edit, since I remember him making Anakin’s fall more believable, and I see in your first post cut list you moved things around as well.