I tend to enjoy all of Star Wars. I grew up during the prequel era, and I loved it almost as much as the originals. And even though I don’t dislike the sequels (I like TFA, love TLJ and I really enjoy Hal’s TROS edit), the sequels are a mess.
I tried to edit them into a single movie some months ago, but gave up some days after, because it was going to be tooooooo long. But some days ago I watched Peregrine’s edit, which inspired me quite a lot.
Premise:
- Because the original cast appears, it needs to have a role in this single movie. Problem is that Han is important in VII, Luke is important in VIII, Leia is important in IX. This was one of my most problematic challenges in the first attempt, because I had to show too many scenes from all three movies. I tried to solve this by having the movie start when Han’s already dead, and show his death during one of Force-skype moments (something that usually doesn’t work, but here I hope it does because the movie itself revolves around the Dyad visions).
- With Snoke and Palpatine, the choices were: a) keep just Snoke; b) keep just Palpatine; c) keep both. But IMHO Palpatine HAS to appear, because he’s pivotal to Ben’s arc. Ben redeemes himself by resurrecting Rey, and Rey is dead on Exegol after defeating Palpatine. I don’t think you can have Ben not be redeemed and die on the DSII, simply because we don’t see him dying there. It doesn’t work, at least for me. In this edit I kept both of them. Snoke is a Grievous like character, he’s introduced like someone powerful and to be feared, but he’s killed of an hour later. And he has no relation at all with Palpatine.
- Rey is nobody. The importance in her is about the Dyad.
COMPLETE CHANGELIST (all credits for SFX to their creators):
- Movie starts with opening titles which quickly explain the presence of the FO, Luke in exile because “an apprentice” has fallen to the Dark Side, and Leia who sends a promising young girl to Luke, certain that he will train her. No map, no Starkiller. Movie starts with the Falcon going to Ach-To. It looks like Chewie works for Leia as taxi-service, but from this moment we wonder where Han is.
- End of TFA connects to Rey-Luke in TLJ. I tried to color correct the scenes from TLJ as much as possible. It looks ok, the problem is the totally different lighting between the two movies. But it’s not bad. We don’t really need an introduction. Rey is a Force sensitive girl which is sent by Leia to Luke.
- Then we cut to Kylo-Snoke. This scene actually works pretty well as an introduction to both of them. Their dialogue explains everything that we need. Plus, we find out that Ben killed Han. No hatred between Ben and Hux.
- When Kylo is ready to smash his mask, he hears Han’s voice.
- Then we cut to Rey and Luke. The whole Resistance-CantoBight stuff is gone. The Resistance is introduced way later with the Battle of Crait. No Luke drinking stuff and no Chewie eating Porgs.
- During the very first Dyad connection (when Rey awakens) we see Kylo killing Han, and that’s what triggers Rey into firing at him. Also, no caretakers.
- After the second Dyad vision, cut to Kylo going to Mustafar and then Exegol. In the opening titles I stated that Luke’s “fallen apprentice” has started searching for ancient Sith relics. It was just a line, but it justifies this scene, IMHO.
- Exegol is color corrected, like most of TROS scenes. Everything is grey, except for lightnings.
- No “I made Snoke” or stuff about voices. Palpatine is unrelated to Snoke or the FO. He still orders Kylo to kill Rey, because she’s a threat and a possible opponent. Some things that happen later, or some lines said by Kylo now have some sort of different meaning after this scene.
- No “She’s not who you think she is”.
- When Rey leaves with Chewie and is going to Snoke’s ship, she doesn’t mention Finn.
- As Rey enters the FO flagship, we see that it is attacking some Resistance shuttles. We see Leia for a moment. We don’t really need to know anything else. We know that the Resistance is fighting the First Order. I needed this not to have the Battle of Crait come out of nowhere.
- Slightly restructured Snoke lines to remove any mention about him bridging their minds. The Dyad is something “natural”, not created.
- During the duel and the lightsaber breaking scene, there’s no intercut.
- After Anakin’s lightsaber breaks, cut to black. Then I added TROS vision (the one at the end of Rey’s training), which is what makes Kylo awaken.
- Luke and Yoda scene is placed here, after Kylo Force chokes Hux.
- Then cut to the Battle of Crait. No introduction, no dialogue. There’s Crait’s planetview establishing shot and the battle. I think it works.
- No Finn’s attempted sacrifice. When Poe says they need to retreat, the FO weapon fires. Also, no Resistance trying to contact people and ask for help.
- After the battle, when Rey shuts the Falcon door, cut to black and start the TROS section with Rey’s training. Again, full color correction.
- The vision at the end of the training (used before) is replaced with the hangar scenes between Kylo and Rey, where Kylo doesn’t say anything about Rey Palpatine, but just explains that they’re a Dyad and they can kill the Emperor. There’s some defocusing effect and some whispers added to give the idea that this is some Force vision (especially considering that all the Pasaana/Kijimi stuff is gone).
- No First Order Spy subplot. When Poe and Finn arrive (this is the real introduction for them), they chat with Rey. But the scene is over when Rey asks Finn about bad mood, and Finn replies “Always”.
- Added Palpatine’s message. It’s still needed, because Rey’s the only one who is certain about his return (thanks to the Dyad visions), and the Resistance needs some proof.
- Thanks Peregrine for this idea. When Rey says that she’s going to restart Luke’s journey where he stopped, she doesn’t mention Pasaana. They all leave and go to the Death Star wreckage, making us undestand that this is where Luke’s trail went cold. A bit stretched, considering that the Wayfinder is in the Throne Room and that this is probably the first place Luke would go, but hey… nothing is perfect.
- No Dark Rey saying “Don’t be afraid of who you are”.
- No dialogue between Poe and Finn about Palpatine wanting Rey. Palpatine never had anything to do with Rey (except for now, now he wants her because Kylo ha turned back to the light side).
- Restructured Luke-Rey scene, with again no mention about her being a Palpy.
- Removed dialogue between 3PO and R2 about 3PO’s memory loss.
- No mention about the Holdo Maneuver.
- Palpatine’s plan is the same as the original. He wants Rey to strike him down, and taunts her by offering her the throne. When Rey refuses (“All you want is for me to hate, but I won’t, not even you”), he doesn’t reply; he smiles and shows her the Resistance being wiped out.
- Lambda shuttle replaced Tie fighter.
- Civilian fleet’s voices (your voices) added.
- Jonh Force ghosts (with blue saber) added.
- Chewie/Poe/Finn playing on Falcon, and Falcon leaving Tatooine as ending added.
Am I satisfied? Yes.
Is it perfect? Hell no. A LOT of things happen. But I still think it works. There are many movies where countless things happen. End credits start at 2:24 hrs, so it’s not even one of those 3 hours long edits. Rey, Kylo and Luke still have their arcs, and Han and Leia, even thought their screentime is reduced, have a purpose in the story. Poe and Finn are downgraded to side-characters, but this was inevitable.
I’m still not sure about Snoke and Palpatine. Considering that I think Palpatine is almost impossible to remove (unless someone gives me a closure to Rey and especially Kylo without the Emperor), I did what I could. Maybe I’ll try another edit without Snoke, with Kylo leading the First Order from the beginning and eventually finding Palpatine.
The edit will be released shortly. I’m still working on some color correction, and then I’ll have to render it (and my PC is from Ancient Rome’s time).
Again, it’s not perfect, but if some people have the courage to praise the Snyder Cut, then in comparison this is not that bad.
