Dr. Krogshöj

I don’t really have any meaningful contribution to the edit, but it’s alway a good thread to post one’s scrawl ideas.

Yes, it’s political. I know politics in Star Wars is fashionable to hate, but I remember my first screening of TFA and being confused about the state of the galaxy for most of the film, which was made worse, not better, by the crawl.

Luke Skywalker has vanished.
In his absence, the peaceful
NEW REPUBLIC is vulnerable to
the sinister forces plotting to
overthrow the young democracy.

An evil warlord has unified
the supporters of the fallen
Empire under the banner of the
FIRST ORDER, and resolved to
build the deadliest weapon the
galaxy has ever seen.

Frustrated by the Senate’s
inaction, General Leia Organa
leads a brave RESISTANCE. She
has sent her most daring pilot
to a desolate world to find
traces of the last Jedi….

NeverarGreat said:

Sir Ridley said:

NeverarGreat said:

More work on removing the Death Star hologram from the planning scene:

https://vimeo.com/323037027

Password: fanedit

It’s not perfect, but if you’re not looking for the change I think it’s fairly seamless.

Nicely done. Do you think the lampshading of there being “another Death Star” isn’t needed?

That’s a part of it. Another thing was brought up by someone here (I forget who), saying that they originally thought that the Starkiller was built within a planet to save cost compared to the Death Star. When they then saw how the Starkiller’s weapon emitter alone was almost the size of the Death Star, it negated that bit of cleverness.

That got me to thinking about how we never saw the Death Star directly compared to the size of a planet in ANH. If it were shown in proportion to Alderaan (assuming it’s an Earth-sized planet), it would be laughably tiny in comparison:

Even though the audience on some level understands that it’s the size of a very small moon, the way it is portrayed as large and imposing in the shot sells the threat.

So by removing comparisons to any object of reference, it’s easier to imagine the scale of the station to be whatever size makes the most sense for a person’s individual view of the First Order and their abilities.

A year ago I suggested to shrink the Death Star further in the hologram and Sir Ridley included this change in his plans for Ridley’s Edit, however, this is a much more elegant solution because it doesn’t require FX work and it cuts out the not-so-subtle “It’s another Death Star” line.

Not a suggestion for V2, just an observation. I didn’t like the hangar scene in the theatrical cut. Before the explosion, they’re all at the same place, Phasma, Finn, Rose, the stormtroopers. After the explosion, Finn and Rose are at one place, and Phasma and her troopers are marching towards them in an orderly fashion from a completely different place. Poppasketti’s genius replacement solves that problem, gets rid of some ridiculous lines (“You’re a bug in the system!” “Let’s go, Chromedome!”) and a scene that is largely unneccessary for Finn’s character arc. In this version, he goes from telling DJ he’s wrong about war being just business to telling Rose they are going where they belong, fighting for the cause. (While, unbeknownst to him, being saved by Holdo’s sacrifice.)

I think the elevator scene with a stormtrooper recognizing Finn is a fantastic idea. It shows that the First Order is a dictatorship with a propaganda machine that kept Finn’s defection a secret from its troops. The dialogue itself isn’t bad either. There’s tension, there’s humour. The thing is… Tom Hardy just botched it. Sorry, but his delivery is awful. I bet that’s the real reason they cut the entire sequence.

I have no problem with Leia using the Force to get back to the ship. It doesn’t require mastery of the Force, just a little nudge really, since moving in vacuum and zero-g doesn’t take a lot of force. Probably less Force is required than for pulling out a lightsaber from the snow for an untrained Luke. And being near death is the perfect occassion to manifest every last bit of your abilities - that’s true for every human.

Also, it is possible to survive in vacuum for a minute or so. See here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/survival-in-space-unprotected-possible/. Therefore this scene didn’t bother me at all upon my first viewing, and trust me, there were quite a few scenes that did.

Maybe the scene can be moved to immediately after the explosion to imply that she spends very little time in vacuum and cut out the bit where she is unconcious?

Interestingly, my favourite change in this cut is removing Maz’s line “Yes, he can…”

Would you consider removing her remark about the “union dispute”? Maybe replace it with some audio from TFA that would imply she’s fighting those “beasts” of the First Order wherever she is. (Snoke’s “merciless legions” are supposed to be advancing in the whole galaxy after all.)

Since she’s so adamant about fighting evil whatever form it takes, it’s very out of character that she would concern herself with a union dispute a few days after that. Just another in the long list of disconnects between TFA and TLJ, I guess. Her whole TLJ appearance is an insult to her character and to Lupita Nyong’o in my opinion.

Also, could you please send me a link to watch it? 😃

Just watched Legendary V2 on the weekend. It was my third viewing of the film overall (first 2 were the theatrical cut a year ago) and something clicked. I now really, really like this film. Placing the Yoda scene where it is is probably the most effective fan edit ever made in the history of fan edits. I also like how you trimmed but kept most of the humor.

There’s only one thing that bothers me in the first act. Whatever sequence you end up with, Poe’s only waking up during the night following Rey’s and Finn’s escape with the Falcon. So he gets off Jakku, back to the Resistance and to Takodana while the Falcon flies from Han’s freighter near Jakku to Takodana. Which implies that it has a really, really, REALLY slow hypedrive at this point.

There is an exterior shot of the Finalizer just before Kylo Ren’s monologue to Vader’s helmet. Since you already plan to move that scene (as far as I remember), it might act as a buffer between the Interrogation and the Escape. The problem is, there’s Starkiller Base in the background so that would have to be removed, which is surely a time consuming project if it’s even possible.

NeverarGreat said:
-Poe arrives on the Finalizer, Finn is accosted by Phasma
-Poe is interrogated
-Rey’s day and finding of BB-8
-The Rescue
-Hux sends the squad to the wreckage
-Apocalypse TIEs
-Hux and Kylo bicker (work in progress)
-Finn awakens/sees Niima outpost
-Rey arrives at Niima with BB-8/Plutt bargains for the droid
-Finn arrives at Niima.

Are you still doing this resequencing, I hope? I fell in love with it the first time I’ve read your idea.

Hal 9000 said:

Yeah, that video essay is what gave me the idea to trim Finn firing on his fellow troopers immediately after tying to escape with Poe.
Not interested in the other trims, though, since they are much more peripheral and didn’t bother me. (I used a whole deleted scene for Ep2 about Padmé denying to her family that Anakin is her boyfriend.)

I agree, those two trims are enough. I once thought restoring the Finn meets the villager deleted scene but removing the watermark is troublesome, and it might disturb the flow of the sequence too much.

I’m glad there’s going to be a V3. Did you by chance see The Stormtrooper Paradox by Pop Culture Detective on YouTube? Because it seems to fix most of the issues with that.

The saber scene works well. I think tossing the saber would also work - if the score made it a dramatic moment instead of a comical one. (One of the edits, does this, don’t remember which). After all, this is not the first time Luke tossed his lightsaber.

I’ve just watch your edit, DigMod. It did not fit the cutlist in this thread, Cassian’s informant scene and the scene of Bodhi with Saw’s rebels were completely cut. And it worked. The first half of the film that I didn’t like before really came to life in this version. First, a new viewer could follow what the hell was going on, unlike the theatrical cut. Secondly, contrary to what I thought, Cassian’s character development worked really well. Congratulations, this is a great version of the film.

Brilliant beyond words.

The Expanse is the best science fiction series right now. I absolutely love the realistic nature of spaceflight and space combat in this series. If there is one show where “no sound in space” could work, it is The Expanse.

At least, that’s what I thought. The producers apparently tried it and they didn’t like it.

For those members savvy in sound editing, how much of an effort would it take to edit out the sound effects (but not the music) from those torpedo launches, PDC bursts and high G maneuvres? I might get into sound editing just to do this.

Wow, I’m credited! So proud, thank you, Hal-9000. Can’t wait for it to download, but congrats in advance. This will be the first edit that I will watch and the first time I see the movie since my second theater screening.

I fully expected Jabba to show up at the end as the criminal overlord, so I ended up liking Darth Maul’s appearance because it genuinely surprised me. Lighting his lightsaber was really excessive though, the only truly cringeworthy moment in the film for me apart from the “Solo” name explanation.

(I still don’t know why some fans were fascinated by Darth Maul in the first place, so much so that creators keep putting him in series and films. He wasn’t even a character in TPM, just a visual effect.)

I liked L3 as well, because I took her as a parody of social justice as opposed to social justice. Her lines about droid rights and organic overlords were clearly meant to be humourous, and so were her romantic fantasy about Lando.

Did any of you guys played Mass Effect by any chance? There was a human/cyborg romance there, between the human pilot Joker and the ship AI/robot EDI. Which I didn’t like exactly because it was took seriously.

Also, the ending with Qi’ra killing his former boss, then sitting at his desk and taking over his criminal empire reminded me of the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, in which Liara does the same with the Shadow Broker.

RogueLeader said:

This isn’t something totally necessary, but I noticed two minor things that I thought could be easily fixed. Though I’m curious if anyone else noticed these, or thinks it even requires these additions.

When R2 is showing Luke the original hologram, Luke calls it a cheap move, then R2 turns to give Luke a look. It cuts back to Luke, who returns to watching the hologram, and it then cuts back to the hologram, which is in the same place as before, even though we didn’t see R2 turn his head back around. I think it would be nice if R2’s head motor-sound could be added during the Luke shot, implying R2 turned his head back around. Not at all necessary but I thought it’d be a nice touch.

A similar situation, when we are introduced to DJ, we first see him with his jacket collar popped up. In the next shot of him, though, it is popped down. Also not a big deal, but I thought one could add foley of folding leather or cloth in the inbetween shot of Finn & Rose to help with this.

I think at least adding the R2 sound would be simple enough, but then again maybe it would draw more attention to the continuity issues.

You have a keen eye! By the way, only douchebags pop up their collars, so that should have been a clue to Finn and Rose right there.

Maybe people wouldn’t have minded the lightsaber toss so much if he did it like he tossed his green saber in ROTJ.

Hal 9000 said:

I think TLJ would have been a superior film if it were presented as a 3-hour Star Wars film

With an intermission, ent’racte music and maybe an overture as well. 😃

A nice plan. I like that you’re not making the film completely devoid of humor (too many people apparantly hate fun), while removing the jokes that don’t make sense, like Kylo’s cowl or the BB-ST (how did he get in the cockpit?) How about adding a joke - a porg getting impaled by Luke’s lightsaber when the other one plays with it? 😃

As for Snoke’s death scene, how about keeping his dialogue intact but removing the shot of Luke’s lightsaber being turned?

SilverWook said:

Andy Serkis speculates…
http://www.slashfilm.com/snoke-episode-9/

At the maximum, I would like him to appear in a Kylo flashback that shows how Snoke first approached him and tempted him to the dark side before Luke first sensed darknessg rowing him.

I agree. The heart of the movie was the interplay between Luke, Rey, Kylo and Snoke. And almost all of it worked for me. That’s why I like the movie overall, despite the fact I felt the other storylines were flawed and dragged it down somewhat. Whatever you think about the plot holes of the space chase or Finn’s prequely adventures on Canto Bight, you’re ought to love the movie if you feel the story of the “Force” characters were satisfying, and hate it if you don’t.

stickydixon said:

I second LordPlagueis’ recommendation of removing the “battle hardened” droids line. How does more combat help a droid? I don’t think they gain experience.

Well, in real life, machine learning has actually been quite big deal recently in AI development.