Hal 9000

MrToad883 said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but was the lightsaber ignition sound for anakin/lukes saber accurate to the OT? it sounded different to me

This annoyed me too. The first time Finn ignites it, it sounds like Vader’s saber to me. I was on alert for this after having replaced two saber sound effects for my Ep3 edit that were wrong. Then again, the DVD remaster has the ROTJ saber ignition used in ESB, so I’m not sure what they’re smoking.

Lando will be in charge of an independent business in The First Order Strikes Back before Captain Phasma forces him to help her entrap our heroes there. Then he’ll die helping them escape. Rey will face Kylo, where it will be revealed that they are siblings.

Really been trying to get the wife into the theater so I can see it a second time and enjoy it rather than being preoccupied with apprehension about everything.
Opening night, she had to step out because all the sweaty nerds swinging plastic sabers and wearing who knows what caused her latex allergy to flair up real bad.

ANH: 10/10 - Wonderful standalone film
ESB: 9.5/10 - Only slightly lower because it leans on the prior film as setup; not a bad thing at all, and this one is still my personal favorite; cinematic alchemy
ROTJ: 8/10 - Somewhat hamfisted conclusion with some ANH retreading but gripping character interactions
TPM: 5.5/10 - Mixed bag of world building and flat direction; could have easily been much better than it is; less than what was expected but a fair film in its own right
AOTC: 4/10 - Given the film’s heritage, a very awkward film whose characters fail to resonate and plot to click into place, with overused CGI that prevents any engagement; lowers the bar for the franchise for the foreseeable future
ROTS: 5/10 - The film’s poor execution can’t rob it of its intrigue, though it’s still got the same problems as its predecessor
TFA: 7.5/10 - Wonderful characters and filmmaking works well to establish a new scene against the backdrop of an ANH retread that ‘might have gone too far in a few places.’ If I’m being fair, it’s just under ROTJ.

towne32 said:
Spoiler [for a rather crappy arc in the comic]: She was just part of a scam he was pulling.

A sincere thanks; now I won’t wonder since I don’t read the silly comics.

I agree about the soundtrack. Aside from Rey’s theme, it felt modern and low key. I wonder if someone directed John Williams to deviate from the grande style of prior films so we can transition into mediocrity (oops, meant modernity).
Though, I wonder if the slight hint at the Imperial March as we come upon Luke at the end means anything.

Well, I put it on Myspleen, so if you have access that’s the place to look.

Nah, I really don’t think anything about TFA made me rethink anything I’d done for my prequel edits at all. If anything, it would reinforce the goal of making the PT conform to the OT somewhat. However, Max Von Sydow made a vague allusion to balance of the force, so I wonder if that doesn’t get brought up again.
And once I saw Snoke onscreen, I thought, “Wow, that really could be Plagueis after all.” I still highly doubt it, but who knows.
I wonder if JJ wanted us to think the planet that got destroyed was Coruscant, or maybe just made it look like Coruscant so that we would take his meaning that he’s ‘destroying’ the prequels.

One of the links went down, so I replaced them and passed the updated info to the admin, who hasn’t responded yet. It’ll be up soon, and the other two formats should still be available.

Visit a strange little website called FanEdit.info.

I think it’s less a remake of ANH than TPM was, but it was striking. I really think the film would have been better off without the doomsday weapon, and if they had just landed to rescue Rey. We already would have had some X-wing action anyway by that point.
I feel like the film hinted at major story points that should have been more fleshed out, like Kylo Ren’s backstory, and even the political situation of the GFFA when we drop in on the action. (I know, I know. We aren’t supposed to want political stuff, but some context would have been nice.) As I was watching it, I felt like I’d have a lot of “summer reading” to do afterward to help make sense of the story I’m seeing. I suspect that newcomers not already invested in Star Wars may not have the patience to put up with it. The prior films were much more… linear, I suppose.

An uncritical comment: When the crawl started scrolling, it didn’t feel real. I guess I’ve seen so many fan projects that make their own crawls, that it was hard to believe it was really happening. I was also surprised by the sheer silence (save for applause) during the opening logos. As tiny a part as it is, I was mildly disappointed they didn’t have John Williams compose something to replace the 20th Century Fox theme.

EDIT: Really, I suspect I probably would have enjoyed the first viewing more if I had read the novelization first. Knowing myself, I fully expected that I’d enjoy the second viewing more than the first.

I think it comes down to luck, as far as whether the edits get taken down or not.
Thanks for that list, though, that’ll be great to keep a checklist. You’re right that an edit need only please its maker. I have just become a little sensitive to the little things after spending an inordinate amount of time doing this.

Wrkerr is exactly right. 😃

78

It’s still very early, and I may eat my words, but I feel like the Emperor has no clothes. The story was very light, and a lot of important character stuff is told and not shown. It’s markedly less self-contained than any other installment save for Empire.
For us sweaty nerds, we’ll be happy to hash out the meat and implications and piece together what we saw. But I’m afraid this film will not stick with someone who wasn’t already invested in what came before.

jedimasterobiwan said:

han is killled by his son ben aka kylo ren and luke is in at the end

I’m not sure what to make of you.

Anyway, I found TFA overwhelming on first viewing and need to see it again before I can really render any sort of assessment. It was full of surprises, to be sure, and raised an awful lot of questions. The ending was an enormous tease! I really could have done without the whole doomsday device component, because it felt tacked on.
Like I said, I’m gonna need to see this again to really process it.

ALLOL

Awesome, thanks! It’s always great to hear that you all enjoy what I’ve put together.
But no, I’m sticking with the purple Kool-Aid saber for a few reasons, including not needlessly contradicting past and future material and the FX work not being available. However, there’s still a chance that Hundsdorfex might implement my idea to sort of offset the weirdness of the saber by recoloring Ki Adi Mundi’s saber to purple and Plo Koon’s to yellow. It’d be a nod to the pre-AOTC EU, and not just have the actor Samuel L. Jackson be the special exception.

Shadester9 said:

what are your thoughts on redubbing Jar Jar with an alien voice (and subs) to make his dialogue not only bearable but good, like the Anti-Cheese edits?

It could be fun to try, and I’d toyed with doing an alternate version just to try it. But I haven’t, and I would not want to subtitle Jar Jar since he’s a supporting character who follows the core group around as opposed to a villain we see here and there (like Jabba).

The idea was that, because I use the Phantom Editor’s redubbing of Zam to cut short the toxic dart investigation, it’s clear that she is reverting to her true form as she gets her dying words out. If that wasn’t the case, I’d agree and allow it to be the effects of the dart making her disfigured. I do like it when edits do the “I think he is a she” joke.

Thanks! The scene in the dim room with Mace, Yoda, and Obi-Wan is indeed a deleted scene, and thus will look better in V4 using DrDre’s upscale. It does, however, replace a similar scene later that uses some of the same dialogue. I chose this one because it involves Obi-Wan.
I think my edit keeps more of the opening sequence than most, and I didn’t do anything to shorten the saber duel aside from microcuts to take care of things like the platform seeming to crush Obi-Wan’s legs. I’d keep more of the opening if it weren’t for those silly battle droids and their voices. I’d like to have kept the snippet where they fight the destroyer droids and board the elevator, but I can’t remove the high-pitched battle droid chatter and moaning as they get hacked.
The scene where we see the Emperor’s monster face is taken from Kerr’s edit (also used by L8wrtr), with the lights going down as the electricity starts, and coming back on to reveal a different appearance, implying that he was masking his true appearance all along. Sort of hokey, but it really allows for a better portrayal of Anakin’s decision than having Palpatine ham it up to the extreme.

The dialogue for the love pledge scene isn’t an a la carte thing for me because of the music. In V1-V3 I left in some terrible dialogue in the name of preserving the production value. For V4, I gave the scene a fresh attempt, and I think this combination of lines works better than the older configuration while having the music work perfectly.
Removing the creep line would really mean cutting the whole exchange, and I’d like to keep Anakin’s hesitancy about what he’s doing. Maybe look up Richard Cheese’s cover of Creep to take your mind off it. The Approaching Storm, if it had been what was released theatrically, would still not have been known for good dialogue.

PM sent

I appreciate the feedback! The group I watched the saga with this year (one film per month leading up to now) was also torn about the Yoda fight scene in Ep2. To me, an edit has to assume that the audience has not already seen the original version of the film, even though this will not be the case 99.9% of the time. Not that you should show her, but I wonder what your wife would have had to say about the romance had you watched the theatrical AOTC.
Sadly, V4 of Episodes II and III will not be out in time for TFA. Even if Schorman posted right now that his source material has been uploaded and is ready to go, there would be no time for me to implement it, export and upload for you all. V3 is just fine, though, so it’s not like you’re gonna see something that’s half-baked. V4 will be the finishing touches is all.

towne32 said:

I agree with the decision to use the family scene.

Also, didn’t you tweak end of the kitchen dialogue recently to make it a little more bearable?

I took Octorox’s advice in silencing the line, “Our relationship is strictly professional.”
I had already removed, “It’s obvious he has feelings for you,” and shortened the mother’s reaction shot.