LordPlagueis

I love this edit because it improves Anakin’s character and salvages the love story. That said, I have a few criticisms.

Continuity Errors

In your edit, Anakin never loses his lightsaber, but Obi-Wan carries it while hopping out of the speeder.

In your edit, there is an establishing shot of the Naboo lake retreat before Anakin meets Padmé’s parents. This creates two continuity errors. First, the capitol is absent in the establishing shot but present in the background when Anakin and Padmé are walking in the street. Second, there is a different shot of the Naboo lake retreat before the floating pair scene, suggesting that they are still at her parents’ house. There is an easy fix: Replace the establishing shot of the Naboo lake retreat with the long shot of Anakin, Padmé, and R2 walking down the side street which was in the deleted scene.

Editing Choices

Changing “several thousand solar systems” to “a thousand solar systems” in the opening crawl and in Dooku’s speech is unnecessary. There are 200 billion solar systems in the Milky Way alone.

The shot of Anakin free-falling is meant to parallel Luke free-falling to his doom at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. The same sound effect occurs in both instances, emphasizing a contrast: Anakin risks his life because of his hubris, whereas Luke risks his life because of his refusal to join Vader.

Yoda sensing Anakin’s pain is a call back to Luke’s failure at the cave scene in The Empire Strikes Back. Both Anakin and Luke enter through a round opening. They move in opposite directions on screen: Anakin left to right, Luke right to left. Anakin sees his mother, Luke sees a vision of his father. Anakin decapitates the Tusken Raiders; Luke decapitates Vader. Both films then cut to Yoda, reacting.

Anakin’s “I killed them all” confession is emotionally powerful. That Anakin feels guilt for murdering the sand people actually demonstrates he is a morally concerned character. Although some dialogue must be cut, L8wrtr’s edit saves the scene.

The Senate granting Palpatine emergency powers flows more naturally after Count Dooku implies Palpatine is a Sith Lord. The two scenes reveal to the audience that a Sith Lord now reigns as dictator. If the scenes are separated, the emergency powers resolution loses its significance.

I prefer the droid factory scene over the deleted scene “Dooku interrogates Padmé.” In the deleted scene, Dooku offers clemency if Naboo joins the separatists. But Padmé could no more withdraw Naboo from the Republic than a U.S. Senator could withdraw his State from the Union. Surely only the Queen could secede. The droid factory scene - or an alternate capture scene - is crucial to the plot. It explains why Anakin only wields a lightsaber in the arena once the Jedi arrive. Without it, Anakin and Padmé seem to willingly walk to their deaths.

Scoring Issues

There is a noticeable, sudden change in key at the end of the “Encouraged to Love” scene and in the middle of the Obi-Wan and Mace scene.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

LordPlagueis said:

Once Qui-Gon says, “I must speak to the Jedi Council immediately. The situation has become much more complicated,” cut to the Jedi Temple establishing shot. It is unnecessary for Palpatine to blatantly manipulate Padmé to propose a vote of no confidence; he subtly manipulates Padmé in the Senate scene later. Arguably, Palpatine’s reliance on blatant manipulation weakens his character, which would be stronger if he could manipulate Padmé into proposing the vote without directly suggesting it.

Hmmm. I hadn’t thought about this before. Are you suggesting cutting the entire scene? You would loose some info like setting up the republic (“is not what it once was”) and the senate (“full of greedy squabbling delegates”) that I think is necessary.

Cut “Without the Viceroy, they will be lost and confused” because it would be more accurate to say “Without the droid control ship, they will be lost and confused.”

Padmé should still mention the droid control ship in her plan because the whole military strategy revolves around it. I would recommend recutting the scene like so:

PADMÉ: We can enter the city using the secret passage on the waterfall side. Then we can enter the palace and capture the Viceroy.
QUI-GON: The Viceroy will be well-guarded.
PADMÉ: We have a plan which should immobilize the droid army. We will send what pilots we have to knock out the droid control ship orbiting the planet.”

This clarifies that capturing the Viceroy is the goal, but destroying the droid control ship is the requirement necessary to achieve that goal.

Hmm…what if the lines could be tweaked further to something like:

PADME: We will send what pilots we have to knock out the droid control ship…which should immobilize the droid army.

Her line “We have a plan” is so awkward and dull sounding…plus this makes it more condensed and to-the-point.

Although the scene is full of background information, cutting it would improve the pacing. Alternatively, I would recommend moving it to right before the senate scene.

I would not be opposed to cutting “We have a plan”, but the line “Without the Viceroy, they will be lost and confused” must go, and she should at least mention the Droid Control Ship.

A few suggestions

I would slightly revise your opening crawl:
“After a thousand generations of peace and justice under the protection of the Jedi Order, the Republic is in decay. A menace lurks in the shadows of the galaxy, plotting a reign of terror.
“Meanwhile, the greedy TRADE FEDERATION has engulfed the defenseless planet of Naboo with a blockade of deadly battleships, preparing to invade, enslave, and plunder.
With the newly crowned Queen desperate for help, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly sent two Jedi to settle the conflict…”

Cut all of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s conversation after “It’s not about the Mission, Master. It’s something elsewhere…elusive.”

It is illogical for battle droids to open a door to a room filled with gas. To solve this, restructure the opening action sequence:

The Trade Federation destroys the Republic Cruiser.
The Jedi leap to their feet and ignite their lightsabers.
Gas seeps into the vents.
Qui-Gon cuts into the door with his lightsaber, and the door disintegrates on the other side.
Battle droids approach the door.
Two lightsabers ignite in fog.
The Jedi destroy a few droids.
Then they go up into the ventilation shaft.

Cut the line “We’ve got to warn the Naboo and contact Chancellors Valorum.” It is impossible to warn of an invading army while accompanying an invading army.

Cut the flat “the negotiations were short” joke.

Cut Queen Amidala’s hologram speaking with Nute and Rune because the next scene delivers the same exposition.

Cut the reference to the “battle-hardened” droid army.

Cut “More did you spake?”

Cut “Yousa guys bombas.”

Cut “Coruscant, uh, wait, uh, that doesn’t compute.”

Cut Jar Jar summarizing the plot of the movie to Padmé.

Change the subtitles when Watto and Anakin speak Huttese:
“I was cleaning the bin.”
“Watch the store. I’ve got a deal to make.”
Revise this to:
“I was fixing the moisture vaporator.”
“It better be fixed, or else I’ll vaporize you.”
This introduces Anakin’s mechanical skills, characterizes Watto as a cruel slave master, and foreshadows Luke’s fate as a moisture farmer.

Cut “Are you an angel?” and open with Anakin bragging, “I’m a pilot, you know.” That sounds more natural and less cliche.

Cut Padmé’s “I can’t believe there is still slavery in the galaxy. The Republic’s anti-slavery laws . . .” She knows her people are in death camps; slavery would not surprise her.

You cut Palpatine’s reference to creating life in Episode III, so you might as well cut the line “There was no father. I carried him, I gave birth, I raised him. I cannot explain what happened.” In your edits, this is a setup without a payoff.

Restore Anakin shouting out “It’s working! It’s working!” above the pod engine. It is a rare moment of emotion.

Cut “Space is cold.” It sure is, but there is heat on spaceships.

Cut “The entire planet is one big city.”

Once Qui-Gon says, “I must speak to the Jedi Council immediately. The situation has become much more complicated,” cut to the Jedi Temple establishing shot. It is unnecessary for Palpatine to blatantly manipulate Padmé to propose a vote of no confidence; he subtly manipulates Padmé in the Senate scene later. Arguably, Palpatine’s reliance on blatant manipulation weakens his character, which would be stronger if he could manipulate Padmé into proposing the vote without directly suggesting it.

Cut Mace Windu’s line “We will discover the identity of your attacker.” This contradicts his later order: “Go with the Queen to Naboo and discover the identity of this dark warrior.”

But restore Mace Windu’s line “This may be the clue we need to unravel the mystery of the Sith” which is related to his earlier promise: “We will use all our resources to unravel this mystery.”

Cut Anakin looking for Padmé so he can say good-bye. Gifting her the necklace was a more emotional farewell.

Cut “Without the Viceroy, they will be lost and confused” because it would be more accurate to say “Without the droid control ship, they will be lost and confused.”

Padmé should still mention the droid control ship in her plan because the whole military strategy revolves around it. I would recommend recutting the scene like so:

PADMÉ: We can enter the city using the secret passage on the waterfall side. Then we can enter the palace and capture the Viceroy.
QUI-GON: The Viceroy will be well-guarded.
PADMÉ: We have a plan which should immobilize the droid army. We will send what pilots we have to knock out the droid control ship orbiting the planet.”

This clarifies that capturing the Viceroy is the goal, but destroying the droid control ship is the requirement necessary to achieve that goal.

Could you find a way to change the reason Finn and Rose are arrested? In the movie, they are bizarrely arrested for a minor parking violation. It would be more logical if they were arrested because they were identified as members of the Resistance.

If that’s possible, edit it so that Finn and Rose leave Canto Bight in the same ship that they originally landed.

darthrush said:

I’ve been playing around with the digital release and exploring ways to alter Canto Bight.

I’m trying out a less aggressive editing path first off which would be going from the prison cell conversation to them in hyperspace. I am curious whether it would be best to cut to a different scene after the prison or one right after the other to make it less confusing.

https://vimeo.com/260178085

-Cut from prison cell to hyperspace
-Used The Last Jedi OST to smooth over transition

This is a vast improvement. The Fathier chase sequence was the worst part of the movie.

You should cut Rose saying, “That’s how we’re gonna win: Not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love.” That might be the most clichéd line in all of Star Wars. It is also nonsensical. It is impossible to win a war without fighting what you hate.

snooker said:

ChainsawAsh said:

Sounds intriguing and super ambitious! Do you have plans for what you’re going to do with II and III (assuming you’re going to do them as well)?

Thank you for your kind words!

Episode II would have nothing to do with Clones, as the Clone Wars aren’t happening. It would probably start with an Acclamator Star Destroyer in space which is suddenly attacked and destroyed by droids. This would kick off the action of the plot, with Obi Wan investigating the last known location of the ship, which turns out to be Geonosis. Meanwhile Anakin is hanging out with Beru and Owen on Tatooine, he learns that his mom has been captured, that whole thing happens. Then the Geonosis Colosseum scene would happen except without 200 Jedi showing up. Obi Wan would finally confront Dooku, and Dooku escapes again. Anakin and Padme marry on Tatooine.

Episode III would start with the chancellor being captured by Dooku as a means to end the war. Anakin and Obi Wan rescue him, kill Dooku. The war is over. Then the rest of the movie would have Palpatine influencing Anakin without needing to mention his wife. I would also fix the bit of continuity with the OT where Obi Wan says “I haven’t gone by the name Obi Wan since oh before you were born.” by adding a timeskip after Anakin turns of a few months probably.

P.S: Here’s a proof of concept of the “old technology”

So we never even see the Clone Wars in your edit?

I am confused as to why Anakin turns to the dark side in your version of the prequels. If he is not afraid his wife will die and the war is already over, what would motivate him to turn to the dark side?

All well-told stories involve a main character and an influence character, who seeks to persuade the main character to adopt an alternative point of view. Whether the main character adopts this alternative point of view will determine if the story ends in success or failure and if the main character resolves his or her personal problems. Regardless, one of these characters will change and the other will remain steadfast.

For example, in A New Hope, Luke is the main character, and Obi-Wan is the influence character. Initially, Luke is driven to test his skills. Obi-Wan persuades him to stop testing himself and trust his feelings. In a leap of faith, Luke embraces Obi-Wan’s point of view when he turns off the targeting computer and shoots the proton torpedo into the main reactor, destroying the Death Star. As a result, he became a hero.

In Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Luke is the main character, and Vader is the influence character. Vader seeks to tempt Luke to join the dark side. Luke remains steadfast. In a leap of faith, Vader turns back to the light and destroys the Emperor to save his son. As a result, the Empire is defeated, and Luke fulfills his destiny.

In your version of the prequels, Obi-Wan is the main character. Without a character who forces Obi-Wan to wrestle with his inner demons and consider changing his point of view, the story will lack emotional resonance. Ultimately, this edit will be impossible to pull off because no prequel focuses on the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

Combine all three prequels into one movie played in reverse chronological order. Begin with Anakin becoming Vader and end with child slave Ani.

Hal 9000 said:

Sounds like someone needs to try their hand at this sort of thing, but I’m thoroughly finished after I put out the new version soon. I can’t keep doing this with these three odd movies anymore.

Fair enough.

I am guessing one of the first scenes in The Rise of Skywalker will be Leia Organa’s cremation.

I love this fan edit. The political context is clearer, Anakin is actually likable, his romance with Padmé is actually believable. The dialogue is a thousand times better.

My only problem with it is without the droid factory scene it seems almost as if Anakin and Padmé are purposefully walking to their deaths without a fight, and it seems weird Anakin never pulls out his blue lightsaber in the arena. I preferred L8wrtr’s treatment of the droid factory scene in The Republic Divided.

All in all, this is my go-to edit.

Considering Adywan no longer plans to edit the prequels, here is my wish-list:

1. Redub the Neimoidians.

2. Pick up the pace. After Qui-Gon tells Obi-Wan to focus on the here and now, cut to Sidious ordering the Neimoidians to kill the Jedi, then the gun turret firing on the Republic cruiser.

3. Restructure the opening battle. After gas fills the room, Qui-Gon should pierce the door with his lightsaber.
   On the other side, chunks of molten metal should drop away, and the door should collapse. Then the battle droids should be waiting to gun them down. After the Jedi destroy a few droids, Nute should order, “Send in the Droidekas.”

4. Cut Qui-Gon telling Obi-Wan, “We’ve got to warn the Naboo and contact Chancellor Valorum.” It is impossible for them to warn of the impending invasion when it is already underway

5. Cut Nute and Rune’s conversation after the Queen fades off.

6. Cut Captain Panaka calling the droid army “battle-hardened.”

7. Redub Jar Jar Binks and the Gungans.

8. Restore a condensed version of the visit to Otoh Gunga. When the Gungans appear for the first time at the climax, it feels like a payoff without a setup.

9. Cut Panaka saying, “They need her to sign a treaty to make this invasion legal.” A treaty signed under duress is not binding, and talk of treaties is boring.

10. Restore Panaka saying, “They’ve knocked out all our communications.” This is a logical response to Qui-Gon saying it is urgent they contact the Republic.

11. Cut the battle droid saying, “Coruscant? Uh, that doesn’t compute. Uh, wait, uh…”

12. Cut Sidious asking, “And Queen Amidala, has she signed the treaty?” and saying, “I want that treaty signed.”

13. Cut Jar Jar Binks summarizing the first act to Padmé.

14. Digitally remove Jar Jar from all the Tatooine scenes.

15. Change the subtitles to Anakin’s conversation with Watto:

WATTO: Where were you?
ANAKIN: I was fixing the vaporizer.
WATTO: It better be fixed or else I’ll vaporize you.

16. Cut Anakin asking Padmé, “Are you an angel?” Start the conversation with Anakin saying, “I’m a pilot, you know, and someday I’m gonna fly away from this place.”

17. Change the subtitles to Anakin’s conversation with Watto:

WATTO: Outsiders, they thought they could swindle us.
ANAKIN: The girl seemed nice.
WATTO: You’re done for the day. You can head home.

18. When Anakin runs off, cut to Anakin offering Qui-Gon fruit, then seeing his lightsaber.

19. Trim Darth Sidious’s line, “you will then have no difficulty in taking the Queen to Naboo to sign the treaty” to “you will then have no difficulty taking the Queen.” This changes the meaning: Sidious is ordering Maul to take the Queen’s life, not to force her to sign a treaty.

20. Restore this scene:

KITSTER: (to ANAKIN) You don’t even know if this thing’s gonna run.
ANAKIN: It will.
QUI-GON: (approaching) I think it’s time we found out. Here, use this power charge. (hands charge to ANAKIN)
ANAKIN: Yes, sir!
QUI-GON: (to Kitster) Come on, Kitster. Let’s move away.

ANAKIN toggles a switch. The podracer starts up as ANAKIN grabs the controls. The engine turns and flames leap from the exhaust. The podracer hovers, rocking with the power of the engines. PADME smiles. QUI-GON looks on.

ANAKIN: (shouting above the noise of the engine) It’s working! It’s working!

21. Cut the dawn before the race scene.

22. To replace the Neimoidians ordering the battle droids to take away Sio Bibble, consider shooting new footage of the battle droids massacring innocents or forcing civilians to mine plasma in order to enrich the Trade Federation. The characters repeatedly refer to the people of Naboo suffering and dying, but this is never displayed onscreen.

23. Cut Padme saying, “Space is cold.”

24. Restore Anakin giving Padme the Japor Snippet. It is a touching moment even if the payoff is removed in your edit of Revenge of the Sith.

25. Reorder the Coruscant scenes. After Qui-Gon says, “I must speak to the Jedi Council immediately,” cut to Qui-Gon briefing the Jedi Council. After Palpatine persuades Amidala to propose a vote of no confidence, cut to the emergency session of the Senate.

26. Cut Anakin visiting the queen’s quarters.

27. Cut Palpatine saying, “They’ll force you to sign the treaty,” and Queen Amidala replying, “I’ll sign no treaty, Senator.”

28. Cut “Wesa goen ho-o-o-o-o-o-me!”

29. Cut Sidious saying, “I will see to it that in the Senate, things stay as they are.”

30. Cut Padme’s saying, “Without the Viceroy, they will be lost and confused.” It would be more appropriate to say the droids will be lost and confused without the droid control ship.

31. Cut Jar Jar’s antics in the Battle of Naboo.

32. When Padme says, “Now, Viceroy, we will discuss a new treaty,” cut the word, “new.”

33. Restore the deleted scene where Anakin lands and says, “I’m not going to get in trouble, am I?”

I think the primary problem with The Phantom Menace is the tone. The innocent, childlike tone is inconsistent with the rest of the prequel trilogy, which is a dark, tragic tale.

I would tell the tale this way.

• Darth Sidious never appears in holographic form. Darth Maul pulls the strings of the Trade Federation.

• Battle droids slaughter all who resist occupation. They force the rest to work in labor camps, mining plasma to enrich the Federation.

• Fierce racial tension exists between the humans and the Gungans.

• C-3PO is Queen Amidala’s protocol droid, not Anakin’s creation.

• Obi-Wan, not Qui-Gon, discovers Anakin. Obi-Wan is astonished a little boy is able to instinctively use the Force without any training.

• Anakin is a traumatized child slave. He is already able to use the Force but is not able to control his powers. Anakin’s slave master abuses him and his mother.

• Obi-Wan orders Anakin to stay on Coruscant, but Anakin disobeys him and stows aboard the ship. Anakin purposefully destroys the droid control ship, saving the day.

• Yoda reluctantly permits Anakin to be trained out of a fear that without the influence of the Jedi Order he would become more dangerous.

Of all of my problems with the Prequel Trilogy, the only thing that irks me more than the dialogue is the technology. In the original trilogy the hologram of the DS II is the most advanced non-weapon tech we see, yet in the Prequels we see holograms and hovering stuff everywhere. To make the Prequels seem more like they take place many years before the Originals, the Naboo ships will no longer be extremely polished and the display screens will show dots and lines! Instead of making OT tech comply to the prequels, prequel tech will comply to the OT!

In a totalitarian dictatorship such as the Galactic Empire, it is only logical that all non-military technology would decline.

A small band of rebels fighting an evil Empire could hardly be expected to have state of the art military equipment!

Hal 9000 said:

Since TFA establishes that they discovered the location of the Resistance base and TLJ relies on that, seems better to keep that plot point if at all possible. V1 felt off, and it was in part due to the Resistance just keeping on their attack for seemingly no reason when they ought to retreat. V2’s structure lets the movie stick closer to the theatrical TFA while keeping all the intended gains. I suppose one could make an argument for the ‘revenge’ angle, but I feel it’s more complete the way we did it for V2.

Okay, you have the better argument. I was not considering continuity with The Last Jedi.

Jake Skywalker said:

Hello there!

2. The rebels won the war
   They won. Period. We can’t accept to see that nothing changed. That the OT characters and their efforts lead to NOTHING at all. We can’t be satisfied with just a line in the TFA’s crawl saying that “the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire” to make us watch the same Empire Vs Rebellion story we already saw. I, personally, find depressing seeing the New Republic been destroyed in ten seconds, compared with the great ad “historically accurate” Palpatine’s rise to power we see in the prequels.
   What should be done: contextualize the First Order as the reorganised Imperial remnant, a second grade power in a galaxy changed since the OT.

I agree the idea of an Empire 2.0 is highly depressing. So was World War II. I think it was meant to be depressing.

5. Inconsistencies with the depicting of the Force
   No one can use the Force without training. Not even Anakin could.

Logically, one person must have been the first Force user in the galaxy if you go back far enough. That person must have taught himself without training. Right?

DougieP said:

I have more or less the same feelings as the OP and yeah, there is barely any explanation on what’s going on politics wise etc. I had no idea where the First Order came from or why the New Republic and the Resistance weren’t part of the same team.

The lack of political context irked me at first. Eventually, I realized the relationship between the Republic and the Resistance is at least roughly analogous to the relationship between the French Resistance and Free France in World War II. This is an imperfect analogy but the closest historical example I can think of at the moment.

The Republic and the First Order each occupied a large part of the galaxy. Wary of an arms race out of a fear it could provoke war, the Republic signed a disarmament treaty with the First Order, which reneged on the agreement. The Republic secretly provided indirect support to the Resistance while publically denying this.

Hal 9000 said:

In this version it is implied that it gets multiple shots out of “the Sun” it has drained, so something different is going on to prepare for the second shot than the first.

That seems logical. In my opinion, introducing a second target after the first target is destroyed so late in the film still feels off, almost like a second climax. But that is a relatively minor issue compared to all the problems you fixed in this edit. I cannot wait to see how you tackle The Last Jedi.

ChainsawAsh said:

LordPlagueis said:

I would delete the scene of Hux informing Snoke he found the location of the rebel base because it never affects the plot in this edit.

That’s in so we know the base is the weapon’s next target, which gives the Resistance a little more reason to keep fighting rather than just retreat and lick their wounds. In V1 it was mostly an unspoken sense of revenge for the destruction of Hosnian Prime, which didn’t work quite so well.

I think continuing out of the unspoken sense Starkiller Base will continue to be a threat to the galaxy works better.

In the end, Starkiller Base is still destroyed right when it is about to fire on the Resistance Base. This fact draws attention away from the failed attempt to save the Republic from destruction.

Also, in this version, Starkiller Base requires much more time to charge before it fires on the Republic than before it is about to fire on the Resistance Base.

I love this edit much more than the official version, but I would still cut Hux informing Snoke he found the location of the rebel base as well as the “prepare to refire” scene.

This is a masterpiece of film editing.

When I saw The Force Awakens in theater, I was on the edge of my seat until the First Order destroyed Hosnian Prime. After that, the stakes fell from saving the Republic to saving a Resistance base. At that point, I realized the film would end in a rehash of the rebellion destroying the Death Star before it fired on the rebel base. I honestly stopped caring about what happened next and began texting on my phone.

When I watched this edit, I no longer had to question why the Hosnian system was visible to the naked eye from lightyears away after mere seconds of screen time.

The plot still largely borrows from A New Hope but the fact the Resistance fails to destroy the superweapon in time to save the day draws attention away from the similarities. I still hate the Rathtars - which look comically like flying spaghetti and meatball monsters - but that sequence likely could not be cut. I would delete the scene of Hux informing Snoke he found the location of the rebel base because it never affects the plot in this edit.

Overall, this edit saved the film for me.

That doesn’t sound like a ‘light’ edit at all.

If you hate the title Darth for characters other than Vader, then cut Darth but not Sidious. If you cut the entire line altogether, it is hard to understand why Luke believes the legacy of the Jedi is failure. Those who have not seen the prequels will assume Sidious is the Emperor’s birth name.

I would bet that all future unnumbered Star Wars anthology films will lack an opening title crawl and have text on the planet cards in the style of Rogue One.

Many fan edits have improved Attack of the Clones to varying degrees, but none, to my knowledge, fix one major flaw: Padmé Amidala appointing Jar Jar Binks as her temporary replacement in the Senate, a horrendously foolish decision. Would it be feasible to edit Jar Jar out of the film altogether? Perhaps a different senator could propose granting the chancellor emergency powers. How difficult would it be to replace one computer-generated alien with another computer-generated alien? Can it be done?

adywan said:

ROTJ: REVISITED – PRODUCTION BEGINS & DONATION DRIVE

Maybe remove most of the end celebration (all planet celebrations are going anyway). Have a small portion of the Ewok celebration which then leads to the funeral pyre scene. This is where the Force Ghosts will appear and the film will end with Luke being alone (which in turn foreshadows TFA).

It’s not my edit, but I dislike the idea of removing the planet celebrations entirely. I grew up with the 1997 special edition VHS of Return of the Jedi and always loved the planet celebrations at the end (other than gungan screaming “Wesa free,” and the crowd surfing stormtrooper).

I strongly disagree with the idea of the film ending with Luke all alone. That would not be emotionally satisfying.
Return of the Jedi is meant to end on an uplifting note, not on a somber note. The closing shot should be of Luke and his friends. I see no reason to change it.

TV’s Frink said:

Watched again in preparation for TLJ. Definitely a bit rehashy (especially the control room scene where they make their plans to attack Starkiller Base - that’s a bad scene, no two ways about it), but overall still an excellent Star Wars movie. Once again, I simply cannot understand how anyone could rate a prequel above it…especially if they’ve actually seen a prequel recently. TFA feels like a Star Wars movie, from the characters to the look, it’s Star Wars. The prequels feel like an entirely different franchise, one that probably would have been cancelled after the first (and absolutely after the second).

8/10

If you prioritize likable characters, dialogue, and fan service, The Force Awakens is superior to any of the prequels. But if you prioritize realistic character flaws, strong villains, lightsaber duels, originality, worldbuilding, and political drama, any of the prequels is superior to The Force Awakens.

The main problem with The Force Awakens is the unoriginal story. If I wanted to watch a movie where

1. A droid is carrying top-secret information on a desolate desert planet,
2. A Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed villain commands his subordinates to find the droid,
3. Stormtroopers wipe out a desert settlement,
4. The enemy tortures a hero to extract the top-secret information,
5. A Force-sensitive orphan on the desert planet acquires the droid and later receives Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber,
6. The heroes narrowly escape an imperial attack aboard the Millenium Falcon and enlist the help of Han Solo and Chewbacca,
7. Han Solo owes a debt he must repay
8. The heroes visit a shady cantina with alien creatures,
9. The masked villain in black captures and interrogates a damsel in distress aboard a planet-destroying superweapon,
10. The planet-destroying superweapon fires on a planet or planets sympathetic to a rebellion against fascist control,
11. The heroes infiltrate the planet-destroying superweapon, disable a tractor beam or shield generator, and rescue the damsel in distress,
12. The protagonist watches a wise old mentor die at the hands of the masked villain in black, and
13. As Princess Leia watches from a control room, X-wings fly through a trench on a planet-destroying superweapon in order to exploit its critical weakness and blow it out of the sky,

then I would simply watch A New Hope.

Of course The Force Awakens feels like a Star Wars movie. It is a shameless ripoff of Star Wars with no original story to tell. The protagonist is more similar to a superhero or a goddess than a flesh and blood human being with actual lifelike flaws. The primary villain is an emotionally disturbed teenager who throws temper tantrums with his lightsaber and is absolutely unintimidating.

0/10