Dexter Jettster's Lab

Blueffalump said:

D-A113 said:

For me keep the aspect ratio, and just trim down the epilogue and remove mentions of Bruce’s dreams.

Ah, finally a fellow 4:3 defender! These changes would definitely be my top priorities and for a conservative fanedit (that would please even hardcore fans) those would probably suffice.

Throw me into this camp, too. In most cases I’d prefer my bars on the top, but it worked for JL and BVS. It feels as though the films were meant to be shown that way, and the picture looks more exciting and fixes Snyders problem of shooting so close in many cases. I thought the JL we got in full-screen looked awful, and the aspect ratio was part of the visual improvement

I am thoroughly happy with the Snyder cut and I don’t really need any edit to “fix” it. That being said, this movie just gives us everything to play with and I can see some fun edits coming out of it. I definitely am all for a “theatrical cut” of this movie with a more traditional aspect ratio and a trimmed runtime.

That being said, the idea in my mind has been to try and make a Justice League origins trilogy out of BVS and this. It would go something like this:

Superman: Darkest Knight

This would essentially be a trimmed down BVS. Remove all the dream sequences, including the Knightmare which has always seemed too jarring when placed with this movie. I would also cut Africa entirely, and make the Superman controversy surround the carnage from Man of Steel. I would also want Superman to more closely resemble the symbol of hope that Justice League treats him as, which probably just means cutting the hell out of his scenes in this movie. No “consider this mercy”, “the bat is dead”, speeches about the earth and how he doesn’t want to defend it. Essentially keep Clark being sad about how the world is reacting to him, and keep his plot about researching Batman. Cut down Batman straight up murdering guys, and have him be 100% devoid of dialogue in the Superman fight. He is trying to kill Superman out of necessity to save the earth, and the smack talk just humanized Superman, which is something Batman is trying to do the opposite of. No Martha moment, but Lois showing up makes Bruce feel like Joe Chill, and puts him back in perspective. Remove Justice League bait to credits scene. Also, generally trim Lex’s many plans to streamline it a bit.

Dawn of Justice

This is the first 4 parts of the Justice League Snyder Cut. I like everything here, but it could probably bare to be restructured a bit to keep the excitement going. This climaxes with the decision to resurrect Superman with the great musical swell at the end of episode 4. The post credits can be a Darkseid tease. Cut the awful Martian Manhunter reveal at the apartment and just let it be Martha. I would reinstate some small bits of Josstice that I liked, such as the “wind up Penguins” bit with Bruce and Alfred, Flash checking out the Batcave (which looks amazing in the DCEU but never really gets lingered on), and the fallout of the Gotham Harbor fight where we get a little extra Gordon that wasn’t in the Snyder Cut.

The Justice League

This is the latter half of Justice League, with some additions. You can cold open the movie with the Knightmare sequence from BVS, up to the point that Batman gets KO’d by a parademon. Then you can utilize the scene of Bruce waking up from his nightmare in bed from BVS. After that, use the “everybody knows” montage from Josstice League, as it was a solid open and fits well as we are starting this movie with the focus on resurrecting Superman. Afterwards, we cut back to the continued conversation that ended our Dawn of Justice. Yet again, we use some Josstice League to reinstate Wonder Woman questioning Superman’s resurrection, and the big argument that ensues. We can also throw Diana and Bruce’s one on one from Josstice League back in, as that was one of the few genuinely good added moments from that cut. The rest of the Knightmare from BVS with Batman getting killed by Superman can be added into the flash forward that happens with Cyborg later. I would also reinstate the pre final battle conversation from Josstice League with the lasso bit for Aquaman, as that was some fun banter that further added some character to everyone. I would also have Superman’s suit be Blue for the final reveal shot at the end of the film. Move the Joker Knightmare/Manhunter reveal to mid credits and the Deathstroke scene to post credits.

I really don’t think that we need the broadcast in the movie. The dialogue is just really stiff and sounds more "trailer"y than something you’d actually hear in the film. Add that with the unconvincing reaction shots and I think the whole thing just comes off pretty flimsy and stunted.

I think the “somehow Palpatine returned” thing sucks in the context of the theatrical movie, but its issues have largely been corrected with what Hal has already done. Palpatine’s return isn’t in the crawl any more, and we now get him showing up initially with Kylo. From there, it makes sense that maybe the First Order spy has been leaking information. Also, Palpatine has a bunch of clones floating around in tanks, so I don’t think the movie really needs to explain much more about him. Poe’s line doesn’t really play as a throwaway to avoid logic, it plays like a leader trying to mince words about a difficult situation and prepare for retaliation, a very Poe like thing to say. To him, it doesn’t matter why Palpatine is back, what matters is stopping him.

For what it’s worth, I’m also in the camp of thinking Mustafar looks pretty good in Hal’s most recent mockup. I think the pacing helps a ton and the effects hold up, I’ve seen worse CG in the sequel trilogy. I think it makes a really good buffer for the scene.

The edit is coming together really nicely! I’m all for the level of conservatism we are going for, as it genuinely feels like a better version of what was in theaters. Too much changing and it starts to feel unofficial. I don’t think I have a ton to add that others haven’t said, but here we go.

• Klaud to me is at a point where the effort put into cutting him while we still see him in the background is more distracting than his actual presence in the theatrical movie. This can be changed if his removal is really strong, but he doesn’t bother me at all and I’d probably rather see him retained.
• I’m not a huge fan of the Palpatine “Find Me” with the wayfinder. It buries the lead of the reveal that is about to happen in the very next scene and lays on the device’s purpose a little too thick while the new crawl will already establish that as is.
• I can take or leave the Chewie capture scene being in this cut at all. It is short and harmless but also the new placement doesn’t feel 100% right to me. Still better than the original.
• I am actually fine with the camp that Leia knew, but Luke didn’t. Luke cut himself off from the war, the force, and his loved ones for long enough that I can buy him not knowing about Rey’s grandpa until he becomes one with the force after TLJ. I think making him already know hurts Luke in TLJ, but cutting everybody knowing out of TROS hurts what we have to work with for Leia. A lot of the themes that Luke and Leia discuss in this movie have to do with identity and where you come from not defining you, and cutting their knowledge altogether will cut out most of the meat of those parently conversations with Rey, domino effecting into having their ghosts appearance at the end on Tattooine be less earned.

Aside from all that banter, I love this edit! It seems like it is coming together really well, and it helps to take what we got and enhance it, rather than hacking it into an even less coherent mess. I really appreciate your work on this, Hal.

I’d appreciate a link! Love all the work you ALL have put into this edit, and I know this will do a lot to make the movie much more watchable. Thanks guys

I absolutely love this idea. Adore Cowboy Bebop and its soundtrack, and this edit concept has actually crossed my mind before. Here are a few essentials from the CB OST that immediately come to mind.

Space Lion - a sprawling epic of the CB soundtrack, I think Vos’s Yacht where Han sees Q’ira again could use this track for both the mood and tension of the scene.

Bad Dog No Biscuits - I could see this fitting perfectly for the opening chase scene.

Tank! - this would definitely work best for an action scene, maybe even the train heist.

Cats on Mars - one of the more quirky CB tracks, I could see this working great as a theme for L3.

Blue - the ending credits song for the final episode of CB would also work really good for Solo. I think it just naturally works very well for a climactic moment.

This is me just spitballing ideas, there’s a ton of quality tracks in the show to choose from.

Hal 9000 said:

On a personal note, thinking back over my long history jacking around with this set of particular movies, I really feel like it’s time to stop. I can’t keep doing this and the obsession needs to end.

I’m going to see this project through, and give it as good a release as we can. I’ll even hold out in order to release an alternate ‘Rey Nobody’ cut.

But once it gets laid in place, there will probably not be a V2. Any and everyone will be more than welcome to take it and run with it to tweak and do with what they please. I’ll put out a lossless audio export and all.

But I have to make a decisive break with this when this is over. Otherwise I’ll see imperfections and be tempted to get sucked back into it. It served a purpose earlier in my life that was helpful, then I went back to it to do it right in 2013, and I’ve been pretty focused since. The prequels have been given several passes, the OT is about as reasonably good as I ever thought they’d be, TFA is wonderful, TLJ is nice, and TROS will be more fun. There will always be unfortunate aspects of them, imperfections, and issues. But I need to let go of them and let them lay.

I thank you all again for continuing to make this last hurrah surprisingly fun, but that’s what it’s going to be.

Hey Hal, thanks for your work and time that you’ve put into these edits. I’m more of a lurker on here and I’ve never talked to you, but I just wanted to say that the work you’ve put into all these fanedits has always meant a lot. Your cuts of the prequels ARE my version of the prequels, and they have been so for years. That includes showing them to friends and family when we watch the movies and I’ve also always enjoyed your commentary tracks as well.

The sequel trilogy has come about with a series of flaws and issues, but I’ve always been interested in all the fanedit potential, and it’s been fun to watch you spearhead a lot of that discussion with your cuts. I’ve always prioritized edits that I feel I could have watched in the cinema, and you’ve always met that standard for me. Thanks for everything you’ve put in these cuts and this community and I’m glad to see this last hurrah through.

Anakin Starkiller said:

Why did this need a new thread? We already have one.

Well, it is nice to have one coherent thread for an idea that doesn’t go into critiquing the films and off topic stuff. If anything, I wish there were more threads like this one.

Hey Hal, do you have any interest in using the Kylo vs Vader vision to beef up Mustafar? I know it is from a fan film, but it is pretty damn cinematic and Darthycey did a pretty solid job of making it work in the context of the scene.

I figure it’ll be a bit too fanedit-y to use in your cut but I’ll take anything that slows this movie down a bit and provides some entertainment value. Plus, it gives us some manifestation of a pay off for all the on and off again affection that Ren shows towards Vader’s helmet. You’d have a motivation for Kylo to glue his mask back together rather than that whole thing seeming out of nowhere and there’s the “Every voice you have ever heard inside your head” line a few scenes after too which would ultimately provide explanation for why the scene is relevant. I figure it won’t make the cut, but it was worth an ask! ¯_(ツ)_/¯

DarthYcey said:

RogueLeader said:

Random idea regarding Palpatine:

One gripe I’ve heard people bring up before is Palpatine committing the “Evil Gloating” trope when he tells Rey that if she kills him, his spirit will pass into her.

Palpatine: You want to kill me. That is what I want. Kill me, and my spirit will pass into you, as all the Sith live in me.

This may have been suggested before, but I was thinking this line could be moved to Kylo’s first scene with Palpatine, replacing Palpatine response after one of these two lines:

Kylo: I killed Snoke. I’ll kill you.

or

Kylo: You’ll die first.

I personally think it would fit better to replace Palpatine repeating the “to cheat death” line that doesn’t do anything beyond being a callback. Either way, I think this change would accomplish a few things. First, we get a stronger explanation and understanding of Palpatine’s true nature and means of survival at the beginning of the film rather than the end. Second, it provides a good reason for why Kylo didn’t just immediately kill him. And third, it creates dramatic irony during the climax, because we know what is at stake if Rey kills Palpatine, but she doesn’t. So hopefully the audience would react by thinking, “No no no, Rey, don’t do it he’ll possess you!”

RL, this is brilliant. I liked the idea so much I did a quick test. The timing for the Kylo part is perfect, and most of Palpatine is obscured anyway so you can pretty much put in whatever dialogue you want there and not have to worry about the lip movements matching:

https://vimeo.com/424408915
fanedit

Out of curiosity, I also rendered a clip of the Rey section with those lines removed and it works pretty well here too. Since Palpatine mentions Rey’s hatred in the next scene, cutting it here and leading into the empress line makes me not even miss the moved dialogue over to the Kylo scene. (P.S.- It’s not Rey ‘Palpatine’ in this version)

https://vimeo.com/424408966
fanedit

Exceptional creativity, man. This really does change some motivations, as you stated previously. Plus, it removes the prequel redundancy dialogue, which you really don’t need if you show Palpatine in the clone tanks. I don’t miss the callback at all by making the change. Well done.

JEDIT: It’s also interesting that going this route makes Kylo the true vessel. Palpatine has been grooming him for quite a while, but Kylo doesn’t want to be taken over, so he decides he’ll take Palps up on his offer instead…more ships, more power…all he has to do is kill the girl who is a threat to them both (and Palps would likely betray him later). This simple dialogue switch sets up motivations now for a good chunk of the movie and eliminates the silliness of Palpatine wanting Rey to kill him at the end of the film, seemingly out of the blue after he’s wanted her dead the whole movie. Now, we know much earlier why he wants this and that Rey is now Plan B with Kylo taken off the Sith board. Genius…

Wow, those concepts were executed and worked better than I could have imagined! Love how it takes out the redundant RotS line and how it brings those aspects of the Emperor to the front of the film.

On an unrelated note, I really enjoyed your Vader battle with Kylo Ren clip, that was very well integrated into the overall scene and I think it would be a great addition to the movie. Please go through with making the fully realized version of that moment. Even if not many edits would use it, I would certainly add it to my own definitive cut of the film.

I love this! Totally does a lot to make the KoR even the slightest bit more interesting, which adds a lot. Even if it is only a few lines, I could see this adding that “Boba Fett” appeal to the characters. I like the voice a lot, too. My favorites go as follows.

1. The first option is my favorite, as it sets up the teeth line best.
2. I like the Palpatine option, to keep his villainous presence constant in the film. They have enough personal character beats in the other clips.
3. I liked the traitorous scum bit.
4. Join your father is dark and great. I like the allusions to them being his old buddies and saying Ben.
5. I think what how is the only one that really works there.

Anakin Starkiller said:

Okay so I think we all agree introducing Palpatine at the start of TRoS was a mistake. But what are the alternatives?

1. Introduce Palpatine at the end of TLJ.

2. Introduce Palpatine at the end of TRoS.

3. No Palpatine at all (good luck).

Most of these options have been explored, but I haven’t heard anyone consider moving his reveal to the end of the film. Cut all of Kylo’s scenes at the start, and change the Resistance dialog to refer to Palpatine as dead when they talk of his fleet. Then Rey shows up on Exegol and guess who she finds?

To me, the seeds of Palpatine need to be rooted very early in the trilogy. I know it is a very “fanedit” thing, but I’ve always thought the best way would be to have Snoke talk in an ancient Sith dialect with subtitles. Establish it from his very first appearance that he is more of a Sith prophet than Kylo’s actual master. He should motivate Kylo’s journey by alluding to a “sacred army being forged” that he is destined to lead, and that he will be the essential part of the “dark lord’s” plan. Plenty of Palp teasing. Then, end TLJ on the cliffhanger of the first Palpatine scene.

Not to be dismissive, but I don’t love the clone idea for the sheer fact that nobody in the movie ever talks about clones. It feels like such an arbitrary change to me to then have an entire movie after the reveal that thematically and through character dialogue completely ignores the idea of cloning or Rey being a clone. It would just feel way too incomplete and way too much like a fanedit for my tastes.

Say what you will about Rey Palpatine, but atleast there is material there to work with.

RogueLeader said:

Thanks for brainstorming. If you removed any healing at all before Ben resurrects Rey, then I think it would feel out of left field, because nothing before that point would’ve shown Ben had that ability.

Since we see Rey use the power twice, and once on Ben himself, we can assume Ben learned how to do it too, just like Rey learned how to influence minds when Kylo tried to force Rey to show him the map in TFA.

I do think some more set up to elements in TROS would be nice, though. For example, I think it would be interesting if there was more set up to the Dyad concept. Kylo says, “Dyad” in TFA, and you probably can make Snoke say, “Dyad” somehow too, or if you dub him like you suggested. I think the dubbing idea you have could also be useful for the Oracle, if we get that deleted scene, and depending on its dialogue. Too early to say I guess.

Well that’s just the thing, though. If we went with the idea of using subtitles for Snoke, it would play out in the trilogy as an important part of Kylo’s sith journey. The idea of force healing would be referenced a few times in every film, recontextualizing Palp’s quote in RoS to make more sense than just being a reference. If done right, then Kylo using the ability at the end of the film would feel like a payoff, finally showing us the ability and showing him using something he acquired from his evil to do good. The power that has been teased since Anakin early in the saga is finally used in the climacting moment of the series.

Totally just an idea, though! I always love reading your input on this forum. I can’t wait to see what type of deleted material we get to use for this film.

To get rid of the issue with the force revival, would it sit better with anyone if Rey had never used it in the film, and then the power is used just by Kylo at the end to save her? This ties in with the idea that it is the type of manipulative “unnatural” power that only a Sith can have, and that Kylo uses the power he attained by doing horrific acts for some good in his final moments, somewhat redeeming himself.

I am always a fan of actually teasing and building to concepts that lead to actions, so to do so, I would have Snoke tease Kylo with this ability. In earlier posts, I have brought up how Snoke’s audio language could be changed and he could get new dialogue in the form of subtitles to tease the return of the Emperor. On top of that, you can also have Snoke tease Kylo once or twice about the ability of the dark force to reverse death.

Maybe you could tie this with Kylo’s longing towards the Vader mask, and portray early Kylo as wanting to revive his grandfather who in his own mind perverted by the Sith way he thinks could be a true father figure to him. Again, this idea could be pushed by a subtitled Snoke. This also recontextualizes “let the past die” to be a more literal theme for Kylo as he goes disenchanted with his Sith journey.

Anyways, the ability could be teased by Snoke maybe 2 times in Force Awakens, once in Last Jedi (before Kylo kills him), and then Palpy requoting his line from Episode 3 will feel like a continuation of this storyline. Then at the end, you get the payoff of Kylo having this ability that has been talked about since Ep3 of the saga, and he uses it to save Rey in his final moments.

Anybody like this idea? I’m just throwing stuff out there. I think it would be able to be pulled off without being too “fanedit-y” and cement a lot of the themes of Kylo Ren’s journey.

One aspect of the film that I really don’t jive with is how a scene is taken to explain just how the First Order troops are taken against their will at birth and trained to fight for a cause they had no say in, only for all of them manning the Destroyers at the end to get blown up and killed.

I think this can be knocked out along with the issue of how all the Destroyers got built by one thing. If someone goes the route of having the Emperor return and show off the Destroyers to Kylo at the end of EpVIII, we can take a bit of the crawl for EpIX to exposit that the Emperor has created his own clone army to bolster his numbers and erect the Final Order.

OR

If you went the route of turning Snoke’s dialogue into a Sith Dialect and creating new lines for him using subtitles (I really like this concept), you could have him allude to a secret army being constructed that is “the largest in the galaxy” and use it as a carrot on a stick to motivate Kylo Ren along his Sith journey, along with some teasing of an ancient dark lord to smoothe over the Emperor return.

I would love a PM so I can check this one out! Looked through all the vimeo clips and there’s a lot of great stuff. Last Jedi has a ton of interesting themes that get forgotten with all those odd scenes that you fixed. I’d love to see this.

I’d have to disagree on cutting Chewbacca getting the medal. Is it cheesy? Very much so. But at the same time, if this is really supposed to be the last moments of the whole saga, I want to see long time characters getting some sort of a moment. If anything, I wish there were more moments like it. I really feel that Rey and Ben ended up being the only characters that got a very proper ending. I felt like all the others really didn’t get to shine much other than sharing a big group hug. It would be hard to edit around it, but I wish Finn and Poe could have had their epilogue moments similar to Rey.

Long time lurker, I’m excited to finally join this community! I think we could really make something special out of the sequel trilogy.

I would say that it actually won’t be too hard to make Palpatine’s presence in the sequel trilogy more natural. Here would be my general layout.

Episode VII: Palpatine should never be explicitly mentioned in this one, but he should be strongly hinted towards. In order to gain this effect, I think we could use the classic fanediting trick of turning Snoke’s dialogue into a new language (a Sith dialect), and using subtitles to rewrite him and Kylo Ren’s interactions. Through these subtitles we would make it clear from the start that Snoke is more of a gatekeeper/messenger for some higher power. He can motivate Ren to continue his sith journey by dangling the carrot of meeting the “dark lord” or something along those lines, creating intrigue.

Episode VIII: this is where we need to see Palpatine so that his inclusion in the finale will feel not so out of left field. We would double down on Snoke bringing the mysterious figure up throughout the film, until Kylo finally kills Snoke and decides to go directly to him himself. We would then use the Kylo Ren and Palpatine scene at the end of this film, to build a major cliffhanger that leaves fans wondering what will happen in the finale while hopefully not feeling like Palpatine is an ass pull.

Episode IX: can mostly proceed as it was, and what we do with Rey’s background can go whatever way. If we want a better scene to establish Palpatine’s public presence, we could do a recut version of the Hux Nazi speech from TFA. Instead of Hux delivering his speech, we could have the first order army watching a hologram of Palpatine as he delivers his Fortnite speech. From there he could be the final boss that Rey and Ben overcome.