To me, the worst worst worst CG in TPM has always been the plains on Naboo where the battle takes place. They’re literally just rolling grass with no features whatsoever, which is what makes them look so odd and unnatural. They’re begging for paths, desire lines, other foliage, buildings, rocks, rivers… just, detail.
That feels very complete in terms of the goal of Starkiller not being a weapon. But with that goal in mind, I still feel like we need to feel the threat of the First Order (ideally, IMO, juxtaposed with Kylo killing Han), and see some largescale destruction they cause such as the earlier idea to have a dreadnought assault, which would necessitate VFX.
I like that, but it leaves Poe with a very light story in TLJ.
For the Hosnian attack by the fleet instead of Starkiller, Dreadnoughts do make sense, and they have those underside weapons for planetary bombardment which do fire a red shot.
I have a simple third option to resolve the eyebrow debate: Under Vader’s helmet he just has another, smaller helmet.
Regarding the Holdo hyperspace ram and the new hyperspace tracking, maybe these could be tied together. I like the earlier suggestion that hyperspace tracking requires something hyperspatial on the tracking ship (rather than the tracked one), but maybe that could become the weakness that the Raddus uses to attack it directly. Perhaps as Holdo prepares the attack, we could cut to a Raddus screen with some imagery making it clear that it’s locked on to the FO ship’s hyperspace tracker. Perhaps even with a further shot of the tracker itself, just to hammer it home. That would neatly explain why this technique hasn’t been used elsewhere, when it seems like such a powerful but accessible weapon.
You know, I’d never really thought about it much, but
It would actually feel like the First Order is invading various parts of the galaxy, like the crawl mentioned, if Maz is off somewhere else also fighting them. The last time we see Maz, her home and livelihood was destroyed by the First Order, and she even says that “we” must fight them. Plus, if she is going to be with the Resistance in IX, wouldn’t it make sense to have Maz already be fighting the First Order.
^ that may just have sold me on this being a necessary change.
Yup, that’s me sold too.
I always read Maz’ “union dispute” line as a joke, since she’s clearly not disputing anything. I figured she was just being sarcastic during a gunfight.
I love the Jakku and Takodana ideas. Worth testing the addition of wrecks/statues into a couple of shots?
One change from another fanedit which I always loved, was the idea of placing the Emperor’s Throne Room on the Super Star Destroyer instead of the Death Star II. The editor’s reasoning was that having everyone try to destroy a location which three of your main characters are on takes away some of the jeopardy. He’d changed a shot of the Shuttle Tydirium flying onto the DSII into one of it flying toward the SSD, then added some shots of the DSII flying past the window of the throne room in the background. Really effective.
The comics are a mixed bag - worthless at the worst, though fantastic when they’re good. There’s a sliding scale in fandom’s mind about what content is the most important, for adhering to canon, which goes something roughly like:
I’m a comic reader so I absolutely get a little mental niggle when I see some reference to canon which a fanedit I like no longer uses - like that Padme’s death one, or having Cornelius Evazan seen on Jedha when he’s not in my version of Rogue One. BUT, I’d always prefer to have a great movie which generates a niggle in a comic over having the movie slavishly adhere to every little element of canon.
I think the TV shows are important enough though to carry a lot more weight when considering whether or not to include something in your fanedit movie canon.
Sorry Hal, it’s not completely clear to me - are your EE versions avialable now?
Certainly interested in the finished version of this. The only thing I’ve seen no mention of which I liked elsewhere was colour correcting the CG replacement actors’ faces to give them slightly more natural hues.
And thanks to the supplementary media (comics, books etc) we now know that to be true. The intervening time period was lousy with ex-Clone-Wars droids being picked up and used by third parties.
^ Third vote in favour! It’s a lovely addition.
You could probably pull together a compelling enough narrative of the Ghost’s crew without Ezra in order to make a decent Rebels movie, then have his introduction later, perhaps reframed more as part of Kanan’s story.
^Or, perhaps, something akin to the Clone Wars TV-to-movie edits, but this time focusing on a different theme or two throughout. The beginning is largely Ezra’s story plus the introduction to the crew of the Ghost, but from then I could see you focusing on other characters or pairings more directly to make more solid movies, until the finale.
I’d also love a link!
Drop Maz’s sexual comment, but keep the milk scene! Luke’s a cantankerous old man now, and he’s trying to disprove some of his own myth.
Can’t wait for this; it sounds bang on.
Hal’s TLJ is for people like me who thought it was an impeccable film with just a handful of niggles. It makes some very smart little cuts just to shorten some of the more immersion-breaking humour (while keeping the film funny), and its main cut is the Fathier chase and other elements on the casino planet (the Finn story, as you mentioned). Well worth your time.
Too early to ask about Ep6? 😃
Edit: Should have been PM
Awesome, I look forward to seeing it!
Please update for V, now that it’s out. Also, you should change the period in the title to a question mark.
Done. And tweaked based on some feedback from smudger in the Fanedit forums. Once I’ve done my rewatch of smudger’s movies, I’ll also do a polish pass on this list. I’ll check the non-moviefied episodes for chronology and quality. Quality will be subjective but that can’t be helped.