Hal 9000

MINOR SPOILER FOR TFA

After seeing TFA for a second time, I noticed something subtle that may or may not merit making a redaction to the upcoming V4 release of Labyrinth of Evil.
When Rey responds to the beckoning of Anakin’s lightsaber, you can hear children screaming and protesting. It’s an appropriately striking allusion to Vader’s massacre of the young Jedi in the Temple. In light of this, perhaps it would be worthwhile to reinstate this short scene for my edit. I do like the removal of the younglings, and think it was done rather cleanly, but I do want these to be complimentary to what Star Wars goes on to in the sequel films. I’m of two minds on this question, so I’m throwing it out there for now and will consider it before deciding.
If I decide to, perhaps I could reorder the scene so that we cut from Yoda evading Order 66 to Anakin entering the room with the kids, then to the troopers fighting in the Temple with the children screaming from TFA overlaid.

I was FINALLY able to get in to see TFA for a second time. I was in a much better frame of mind to enjoy and appreciate it for what it was, which I did in abundance. The strong emotional moments had me mentally clinching, and the excitement was exactly what you want a Star Wars film to get out of you. It may not have been exactly what I would have done, but I really enjoyed it this time for what it was trying to be.
Being who I am, I couldn’t help but parse it for potential editing. Even hearing about the deleted scenes that might be included for home video, I really don’t think fan editing would improve anything. I’ve already drawn my line in the sand at ROTJ; I don’t want to edit any future films as good as or better than Jedi. Even if some of the deleted scenes end up working well when baked back into the film, an extended edition would be about all I’d want to do.
Maybe it’s a good thing I had to wait so long before seeing it again! I really got into the brilliant score, whereas the first time I didn’t even notice the music. It wasn’t fair what I said earlier about the music; I’m kind of a dumbass sometimes.

Didn’t you see the part where Luke explains it to Han in a drawn out monologue involving midicorians?

This looks to be footage from the DEed, which is pretty cool. The choice of shots suggests the editor was in the know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVVUfqy9yRs

The changes made to V4 can be found throughout the thread, and don’t really amount to a great deal from a bird’s eye view.
However, LOE differ’s from L8wrtr’s edit quite a bit. As I understand it, his edit restructures Anakin’s fall to have Palpatine seemingly predict the Jedi asking Anakin to spy on him, making him fall victim to confirmation bias. My edit shows Anakin have a single nightmare later in the film that originally, and does not tell anyone else about it, save Palpatine (and even then, it’s kept mostly in subtext).

FanEdit.info is the place to find them.
And I used Compressor 3 for all the encoding, if that helps solve anything.

Hal 9000 said:

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.

It’s been updated; all should be well with it.

Thanks for that, and I will consider it. Better stated, I figured it would be better to keep the changeling thing because of how her voice changes when she dies due to the Phantom Editor audio.

It occurred to me listening to the soundtrack that Kylo Ren’s march theme sounds like it may be an echo of Han and Leia’s theme.

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.