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different prequel versions? what to watch?

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Let me start by saying this is for my kid, I swear 😃.

He’s seen the 3 OT films (despecialized versions only), as well as The Force Awakens. I tried to leave it at that.
But recently, he’s been playing some old games (specifically Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga). And he’s seen a lot of Lego Star Wars cartoons. Both of those have a significant amount of prequel stories in them.

So of course, the question came, ā€œcan I watch all the star wars moviesā€ā€¦
😦
So I’ve never really focused on prequels. Only seen them in theaters when they were released, and probably bits on TV whenever they happened to be broadcast while I was channel surfing?
Are there different bluray releases? Do you recommend he watches an official bluray release, or any of the fan edits? Keep in mind, he’s never seen the prequels, so I’m thinking an official release (first, at least). He’s 7 years old, if that matters.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks.

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I don’t know much about fan edits of the Prequels, but I’d suggest the Clone Wars cartoon. It’s on Netflix (in America at least) and it’s great for kids, and as the series progresses, it’s quite good for adults.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

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If it was me, i would probably choose an official release for first viewing. It pays to know the official story, not really sold on any fanedits that i have heard of so far (other than as a curiosity, but you need to know the original works first).

I recently got the Blu-rays of these (already had all the dvds), and TPM is really kinda ugly on blu-ray, the DVD is probably the best release of it. the other two seemed fine on blu-ray to me.

AFAIK, only one set of dvd releases, and then one set of blu-ray releases.

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Tyrphanax said:

I don’t know much about fan edits of the Prequels, but I’d suggest the Clone Wars cartoon. It’s on Netflix (in America at least) and it’s great for kids, and as the series progresses, it’s quite good for adults.

Yeah, i would certainly recommend this as well as rebels

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dahmage said:

Tyrphanax said:

I don’t know much about fan edits of the Prequels, but I’d suggest the Clone Wars cartoon. It’s on Netflix (in America at least) and it’s great for kids, and as the series progresses, it’s quite good for adults.

Yeah, i would certainly recommend this as well as rebels

I also recommend this. Some of the best Star Wars media we’ve gotten since the OT.

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dahmage said:

Tyrphanax said:

I don’t know much about fan edits of the Prequels, but I’d suggest the Clone Wars cartoon. It’s on Netflix (in America at least) and it’s great for kids, and as the series progresses, it’s quite good for adults.

Yeah, i would certainly recommend this as well as rebels

For sure, but definitely start with The Clone Wars, as it sets up some big stuff in Rebels.

I would probably suggest going with an official release of the Prequels, as well, considering there’s so much work to do to ā€œsaveā€ them, a lot of stuff is likely cut out or edited heavily which would result in something that might be confusing for the kiddies.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

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OK all, thanks a lot.
Now I know not to be searching for different bluray versions or anything. And I’ll hold off any fan edits 😃.

About clones wars, I’ve seen all those (many years ago now). I liked them in general (though I personally get annoyed with the overdose of ā€˜rah rah’ military stuff). But it’s what, 6-7 seasons I think. Might be better that I don’t introduce it to him, he’s hard to pull away from this stuff and it will occupy his whole summer probably with watching this all day 😃.
He has watched all of Rebels with me so far (season 1 binge, but season 2 as each episode came out weekly, which is better for him, I think).
So I’ll think about the clone wars stuff, but maybe not till later.

Thanks again everyone.

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Well if you’re gonna get fanedits of the prequels you should definitely own the source so I recommend getting the full complete saga blu ray box set because it has all of the films and A LOT of cool bonus features. That being said, here are the fan-edits that I liked (more than others):

The Phantom Menace:

  • Q2’s Fall of the Jedi - Episode I: The Phantom Menace [heavily edited and has no technical issues, only runs 90 minutes]
  • Magnoliafan’s Episode I: Balance of the Force [Jar Jar is re-dubbed]
  • Yads’ Episode I: The Lone Gungan Edition [Jar Jar is re-dubbed and he’s the only gungan in the film]

Attack of the Clones (I’m gonna be honest I think this film’s unfixable but these two are the best of the edits):

  • L8WRTR’s Episode II: The Republic Divided
  • HAL 9000’s Episode II: The Approaching Storm
  • The Phantom Editor’s Episode II: Attack of the Phantom [I also recommend his commentary track]
    ^All of these are heavily edited but have slightly different cutlists. I recommend HAL’s for the good deleted scenes.

Revenge of the Sith:

  • L8WRTR’s Episode III: Dawn of the Empire [I also recommend his commentary track]
  • Kerr’s Episode III: Dark Force Rising [sadly low quality and rough editing but has some of the most interesting changes of the lot]
  • HAL 9000’s Episode III: Labyrinth of Evil
    ^These are all heavily edited but I’d go with L8WRTR’s because he cuts pretty much all of the worst elements of the film whereas the other two leave in a little too much.

If you need help getting fanedits, as long as you own the source, send me a PM, I’ll be glad to help!

Prequel Fan-Edit thread: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Yet-another-series-of-prequel-edits/id/17329

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OK thanks darthrush. I’ll maybe look into those after the originals. If he doesn’t want to watch the altered versions, maybe I’ll check them out for myself!

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Thanks mr Smithers. Looks like you and darthrush agree on ep2 and 3 (hal & l8wrtr). So I’ll likely try to grab those (eventually).
Will have to decide on ep1 though. Again, not something I’ll need to look into until after the originals.

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SnooPac said:

Thanks mr Smithers. Looks like you and darthrush agree on ep2 and 3 (hal & l8wrtr). So I’ll likely try to grab those (eventually).
Will have to decide on ep1 though. Again, not something I’ll need to look into until after the originals.

I’d of course recommend buying the originals first. The blu Ray bonuses are very awesome 😃

Concerning episode 1 edits:

I HIGHLY recommend Hal’s because it gives you a very similar experience of watching the Offical release except it seamlessly cuts bad diagloue and streamlines the story to be more simple.

Q2’s edits are more heavy and rough. He removes Anakin in the space battle which is weird to adapt to. Your kid can better connect with the story if Anakin is apart of the final battle. But as said before, Hal still cuts bits and pieces here and there for an overall stronger third act. The other edits involving re dubbing are more radical. I’d say they’re more experimental and wouldn’t appeal as much. Given what your looking for, I really think Hal’s episode 1 is the best course to go. It’s safe, familiar, yet still greatly improved.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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Noones reccomending Phantom Edit? Is this cause Star Wars movies are suppposed to be 2 1/2 hours and that edit isn’t long enough? It’s a good edit tho.

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In terms of prequel fanedits, my favourites have always been:

Magnoliafan’s Balance of the Force

Great restructure. All Gungan’s and Niemoidians are dubbed and some significant changes are shown through the subtitles, for example the Trade Federation casually discusses killing Naboo inhabitants, and the Gungans are looking for some kind of crystal the people of Naboo stole from them. Jar Jar is also this brash, Han Solo type, but without the cool factor, and improves tenfold. If you can get past the bad video quality and subtitles/strange languages, it’s great.

The Phantom Editor’s Attack of the Phantom

Little I can say about this one. All changes are well thought out and imrpove the story. I highly recommend the editors commentary if you choose to watch it a second time.

Kerr’s Dark Force Rising

Very short version of Episode III, cutting out a ton of my problems with the film. Grievous is actually pretty cool, and the pacing is great in it. No scene is useless.

I’ve never been a fan of L8wrtr’s or HAL9000’s versions, as they don’t do much to change the film and I essentially feel like I’m watching the original (though this reality is frequently broken by L8wrtr’s version with their poor audio cuts). Magnoliafan’s The Clone War is quite good, though he really doesn’t cut much from the film.

Not enough people read the EU.

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LuckyGungan2001 said:

In terms of prequel fanedits, my favourites have always been:

Magnoliafan’s Balance of the Force

Great restructure. All Gungan’s and Niemoidians are dubbed and some significant changes are shown through the subtitles, for example the Trade Federation casually discusses killing Naboo inhabitants, and the Gungans are looking for some kind of crystal the people of Naboo stole from them. Jar Jar is also this brash, Han Solo type, but without the cool factor, and improves tenfold. If you can get past the bad video quality and subtitles/strange languages, it’s great.

The Phantom Editor’s Attack of the Phantom

Little I can say about this one. All changes are well thought out and imrpove the story. I highly recommend the editors commentary if you choose to watch it a second time.

Kerr’s Dark Force Rising

Very short version of Episode III, cutting out a ton of my problems with the film. Grievous is actually pretty cool, and the pacing is great in it. No scene is useless.

I’ve never been a fan of L8wrtr’s or HAL9000’s versions, as they don’t do much to change the film and I essentially feel like I’m watching the original (though this reality is frequently broken by L8wrtr’s version with their poor audio cuts). Magnoliafan’s The Clone War is quite good, though he really doesn’t cut much from the film.

All three of these are low quality and sadly don’t cut it for me. For example, Kerrs edit is great and I actually think it’s on par with L8wtrs edit but it’s DVD5 quality. It’s literally unwatchable for me on a tv 😦 If Kerr released an HD edit I would gladly recommend you show your kids that.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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LuckyGungan2001 said:

this reality is frequently broken by L8wrtr’s version with their poor audio cuts

I don’t know if you watched an old version or something but I showed my kids his whole trilogy not too long ago and I didn’t hear any poor audio cuts.

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TV’s Frink said:

LuckyGungan2001 said:

this reality is frequently broken by L8wrtr’s version with their poor audio cuts

I don’t know if you watched an old version or something but I showed my kids his whole trilogy not too long ago and I didn’t hear any poor audio cuts.

Yeah I thought they were pretty seamless as well.

Prequel Fan-Edit thread: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Yet-another-series-of-prequel-edits/id/17329

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I think any edit’s going to have a few audio cuts that stand out to viewers, but didn’t for the editor. Often, it’s a hard decision between total seamlessness and effective editing.
That being said, there are very few of these in L8wrtr’s edits, no more than the best of the others.

I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently.

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I would not reccomend the prequels, including the overrated Clone Wars TV show. If you like nurturing good imagination, you should not show this to ANYBODY. The prequels do little other than to retread what’s already been said in the original trilogy and therefore diminish the world building in the original trilogy.

The original trilogy relied on mystery to immerse the audience and improve its characters. When C3P0 introduces himself as Human-Cyborg Relations, it opens your mind to a racial conflict between humans and cyborgs, and the fact that it is just a cliff note makes the world seem grand. When the Clone Wars is mentioned similarly, it has the same effect, but that is diminished when the prequels are viewed.

Boba Fett would not work if his backstory was filled in because it was the mystery that made the character cool to some degree. Darth Vader is also miles less compelling if you watch even an optimized fan edit because the central story of Revenge of the Sith was flawed and only worked for how much better it was than the previous prequels. Ultimately, Darth Vader helps destroy planets and kills countless loyal Imperial Officers because… he had a dream his girlfriend would die. Darth Vader is almost too evil to have a decent backstory, and the final nail on the coffin is people’s imaginations. Any thing you can imagine for Darth Vader’s origin is more compelling to you than any movie prequel ever could.

tl;dr For a TV, only watch Star Wars Rebels and the to-be-release dStar Wars movies and nothing else because the prequels ruin the world-building and characters of the OT.

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TCW overrated? Most people see it as just being pretty good. Not many people see it as anything great…

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Lord Haseo said:

TCW overrated? Most people see it as just being pretty good. Not many people see it as anything great…

If you don’t think it’s good, that makes it overrated.

Not saying I agree, by the way.

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Anything I don’t like is overrated.

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Anything I like is underrated.