Just finished your TFA edit… and your TLJ one seems really incredibile, due to the work you are doing with Luke. Can I have a link? Thanks!
Sent. Thanks for watching! Let me know what you think after viewing.
I suggest watching at least Resurgence and the No Palps edit for TRoS, just for two very different approaches to making changes.
Thanks for the suggestions. I watched Resurgence last week and will draw a few ideas from it. I’ve also seen the anti-cringe cut, but still need to check out the No Palps cut, HAL’s, and the Movies Remastered edit when that releases
(Might do a V2 of my TRoS edit eventually as the MR cut is still a ways away)
There are a few things in TRoS that draw on Legends plot points, like the hidden fleet, force clones, a revived Palps, even Rey’s parentage, but just pulling random pieces of lore and smooshing them together doesn’t make for good callbacks and doesn’t make up for the lack of showing Rey’s victory as a balancing of the light and dark.
True, and on the surface I’m cool with a lot of the ideas. I just don’t think they were implemented with care. My worst part of the entire film is the “I am all the sith”, “well I’m all the Jedi” lines. My goodness that shows a lack of understanding of anything about balance across the entire saga. If they were both equal representatives of their sides of the force then they should have evened out at a standstill. Or even if Rey won, the force would soon correct this by producing someone to wipe out the new jedi to even the score. Either way it’s a mess and displays a clear lack of understanding of the main theme of the force.
I haven’t watched HotF or FotJ yet, but I havee skipped around to look at some of the big changes.
- Luke constantly saving Leia is excellent, it establishes him as a character who cares deeply but has succeeded in basically every way that his father failed. He was able to hold his attachments lightly enough to do what needed to be done to maintain balance, but not so lightly he forgot to care. And the way you implement these changes is really strong.
Nice to see you agree, thanks. Theatrical was legitimately depressing when it came to Luke and Leia’s relationship. I wanted to show that even though they were apart, Luke was always watching over his beloved sister, and she knew it. That’s the Skywalker bond.
- When Rey arrives I would trim the lingering shots on her face and hand as she’s holding the saber to Luke. We already saw those in the vision in the last film, so I think this sequence would be helped by having her walk up and hand it to him sooner.
I actually did trim a lot of just what you’re saying. I’ll go through again to see if it can be smoothed out any more, but I had the same idea as you and did some work in that area.
- I appreciate what you’ve done to remove the movie’s ridiculous attempt to have the entire plot fallout in like 3 days. A huge part of TLJ’s (and TRoS) problem was the pacing and it’s helped quite a bit here.
Ah yes, the constant insistence on how many hours of fuel remainins makes even Rey’s segments with Luke feel so unnecessarily rushed. The way I restructured Act 1 helps to push off that countdown timer until later, giving Rey actual time to learn… and sleep.
- I wonder if it is necessary to keep Luke’s line “I will not be the last Jedi.” Him saying it at all goes against both his and Kylo’s insistence that what came before has to be surpassed, and in TLJ was certainly used to show that he had decided he was wrong about the Jedi. Though I am intrigued by his saying while showing Kylo a shot of Jedi Leia.
So I did toy with this line a lot, almost removed it. Decided it still worked and instead of the line being about Rey, in my cut it was about Leia, and here’s why… in Episode 9, Rey still clearly needs a teacher. Rey even calls her “master” and it was really off putting to me since it didn’t appear like Leia knew anything about the Jedi in 7 & 8. Showing that she is also a Jedi, as Luke is, should be a surprise for my viewers, and leave them anticipating more in the future. Also, since my film isn’t titled The Last Jedi, there isn’t so much emphasis on that one line. Luke is simply telling Kylo that he has underestimated his mother by fixating on killing Luke, and that may come back to haunt him in the future… Luke and Leia both trained as Jedi, but after Kylo, Luke realizes there shouldn’t be any new ones, although Leia already is a Jedi.
- Finn and Rose’s plot is much helped by trimming Canto Bight and using some of their deleted material.
That’s the goal! I still want to maintain the basis of their friendship for a love triangle aspect (that never really goes anywhere…) while not dominating the movie with a “b plot”.
- Keeping Kylo as the big bad is a good idea and well executed. It helps with this feeling less like an irreverent rehash of ESB and RotJ and more like it’s own solid Star Wars film.
Awesome, happy that worked for you. I read the novels and cannot find any reason for Kylo to be light or wavering after killing Han. It is so forced in there that it feels unnatural and weakens Kylo’s presence. They hinted at it non stop for 3 movies, making the payoff feel tired. If he turns in my cuts, it won’t be so obvious or clear cut. His weakness is caring for Rey.
- When Luke is fighting Kylo and we get the shot of him in the WbtWs, I think their needs to be a shot where we see him meditating on the island and then it melts away to reveal the WbtW and he gets the blue tint of the Force Ghost. This way there’s some intro for people unfamiliar with Rebels and the WbtWs, it could be assumed he’s ascending, that he’s become one with the force without dying simply because he’s so powerful. And the blue tint provides visual continuity with his appearances in the next film. And we’ve already seen him helping out, so as you said above there is no big reveal that he can. So this final one needs some more oomph on his end.
Hmm, I kind of like that idea. Struggling to think of a way to implement it, ill ponder it for a V2. To counter that point, in my cut I wanted this reveal to be more ambiguous and open to interpretation… maybe I missed the mark. Luke is a force ghost in the WbtWs, meaning that he has already passed away as one in the living force. Did this happen ala Ben Kenobi when Kylo cut through him and he faded away? Or perhaps… was Luke a force ghost in the WbtWs the entire film, having ascended long ago? Was he an illusion from the start, being projected as a real person from the WbtWs? What say you on that theory?
Anyway, those are a bunch of my thoughts. I’ll be more thorough once I’ve been able to watch both films back to back.
Thanks for your hard work!
Thank you so much for the well thought out message. I really appreciate that and love reading everyone’s thoughts. Let me know after you get a chance to sit down and watch through everything, would be interested to see if any of your thoughts change!
May I also get a link to both your versions of TFA and TLJ?
Thanks in advance!
You’re welcome, have fun!
Very excited to watch this and HttF, and really intrigued to see how you fix TRoS’ mess of new material and badly done Legends references.
Excited to see how my cuts change the experience for you, for better or for worse!
One of the reasons I’m taking a bit of a break before starting TRoS is one, to rest after putting nearly 100 hours of work into TFA and TLJ, and two, to take time to watch other Ep. 9 edits and gather my own ideas. I think TRoS has less potential for Legends fixes than TLJ did, so while I have some big picture ideas for my next edit, I still have a lot of research and planning ahead before I even open my editing software.
In TLJ I was able to flip character motivations and arcs, but in TRoS it’s going to be more about managing the saga/lore destroying themes… I have plans for Leia, Kylo and Rey, but there’s still a lot I need to process. Ep. 9 is my least watched Star Wars film at only 3 completions, so I need to get a better grip on JJ’s story before trying to transform it into my own.
Oh, I am so excited for this. I would love a link!
Cool! Sent it to you.
Hello! could i get a link? 😃
pm me a link. sounds very promising!
Can I also get a link?
Sent to all three!
Please send me the link. Thanks!
PM’d!
Can I get a link to both your TFA and TLJ cuts? I really want to watch them! Thanks.
Sent. Let me know what you think after you watch!
I really enjoyed it! Can’t wait for 9! Do you have a title for it yet?
Good to hear! I do, but I’ll wait for my next thread. I probably won’t start editing for a month or so. I might get the thread up soon though and start working through things. TRoS is going to be the toughest for me to fix.
I’d also like to check it out!
Sent, have fun!
Can I have a link please.
Sent!
Ok just finished the first 30 minutes.
YES!!! You really managed to craft a very different but more engaging experience for Luke and Rey’s first lesson. Kudos on the use of TFA trailer music it worked so well.
It genuinely feels like Rey and Luke are bonding and that times passing between scenes. The cuts between “balance, force, life” and “island days/staff training” was brilliant!
Looking forward to moving on with it.
Awesome! So glad it connected with you. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the rest.
Hi I coudn’t find the link? Could you possibly resend it?
Sorry, might’ve been my fault. Just sent!
This sound incredible - could I get a link to both your TFA and TLJ cuts? Looking forward to watching them!
Thanks!
Thanks! Sent, let me know what you think after you watch.
Awesome, can I get a link?
Sent! Thanks for watching.
In theatrical he keeps wanting to run away and desert the Resistance.
Not quite, he wants to find Rey to convince her not to return to the Resistance fleet since they’ll inevitably be killed off in the chase.
I mean, true, he is leaving because he wants to rescue Rey, but he has absolutely no desire to fight for the Resistance. Remember that in theatrical TLJ takes place immediately after TFA and Finn’s whole arc was about running away from the fight. He doesn’t fully commit to the Resistance until he kills Phasma and self-identifies as “Rebel scum” for the first time. In the deleted scene right after that, Rose asks if he is going to keep running away, and he says that the Resistance is his home now. So yes, he wanted to save Rey, but he identified that he had been trying to run away from the entire fight since Maz’s castle.
Either way it’s a moot point for this thread since my cuts have removed this part of his character, as well as added a time gap between TFA and TLJ where he officially joins the Reistance.
I’ve been able to fix enough of the initial bugs that I think were significant enough to warrant releasing a v2 of the Workprint. It is uploading now. You can PM me and I can send it to you later today.
Sent and sent!
Uploading right now, will send out links in the morning. PM me if interested in watching the workprint and helping me make fixes.
How’s the progress on the edit? I’m super excited!
I got to go through and touch up a few soundtracks earlier today. All that’s left is to create and render the new crawl, do a quick once over through the edit, and then export and upload! Since it’s the weekend I’ll be able to stay up late and knock it out within the next 6 hours or so.
Glad to see some anticipation for it. I am excited to share. This was a much bigger task than TFA!
As a longtime EU fan I’m really interested in this edit! Can I have a link? Thanks!
Then this is the edit for you! Sent, but mind the bug list stated in OP. After a few more reviews I’ll release the final cut.
Skybatman said:
I liked, but you can still see the reflection of Holdo in the ship.
Pesky reflections. I just put a tracked blur mask on it so in the workprint release it should now be pretty much gone.
Sounds great! It’ll be nice to see Luke portrayed how he should be. I don’t know how it could work, but any chance any of Luke’s footage from The Mandalorian could be brought in? It would be cool to see that version of Luke in the films, maybe like a flashback or something.
Hmm, I can’t think of anywhere it would go in TLJ, but I’ll keep it in mind for when I tackle TRoS. The purpose of my edit is to make Luke more like the Mandalorian scenes, so you can watch both with a consistent version.
orion13 said:
Cracking! I really liked the interior shot showing what looks like the empty ship alongside Luke’s struggle.
Great, that’s what I was going for. Especially after Hux mentions that it’s empty I thought it was important to show that the ship actually is empty… In Star Wars you’ve always been able to detect lifeforms on a ship pretty much instantaneously, so I don’t understand in theatrical how they didn’t scan that Holdo was still on board piloting. My cut removes that inconsistency and also doesn’t break all of space combat lore by allowing ships to hyperspace travel through other ships. Now it’s just the force.
I’d delete the shot inside the cruiser from 1:26 to 1:27. You can see a little of Holdo’s arm moving. Other than that, exciting stuff!
Ah, I see it. Fixed that. Also changed around a few shots and soundtracks. Is this any better? https://vimeo.com/user51558385/review/500592539/eff7d03548
I think it’s better not to show Luke until right before the ship goes to hyperspace, that way you create a mysterious build up 😉
Hmm, it’s an interesting idea. I might play around with it.
My reason for showing him throughout is without the Holdo scenes there’s still some missing context and I don’t know how easily a viewer would connect the dots if I only show Luke at the end. Also, earlier in the movie when Luke saves Leia from space we see a similar scene of him meditating events across space like that so I don’t feel there is a mystery to preserve now. I want the viewer to physically see Luke displaying his immense power.
I just read through your changelist; this edit sounds brilliant! Your ideas will be a wonderful way to fix the issues with Luke’s character in this film.
Thanks, I hope when you watch it you can experience a different version of Luke that will hopefully resonate with the people who didn’t like what they saw in TLJ.
Speaking of Luke, I’ve rendered a test preview of my scene where Luke destroys the Supremacy. Let me know if there’s any way to improve upon this as I’m still going through my cut doing bug fixes.
orion13 said:
Sweet looking forward to the surprise, in relation to your TFA cut the only possible change I would suggest is the transition between Rey on Jakku at the start to Kylo’s stardestroyer. It feels like it should be a wipe screen like OT & PT (the one where it seems to zoom into the next shot?) , I think it shows the complete change in location quite well for the audience. But that just my two cents! Keep up the good work man
Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely check it out and see what I can do. There’s a couple transitions that I want to touch up in the TFA edit.
Regarding this TLJ edit, I have completed a first rough draft. Check out the rest of the Act III changelogs for an update. I am looking at fixing a few things before actually uploading, so I’d say I’m aiming for a Friday Workprint release.