Matt.F

I’ll stick my neck out and say the section of Grogu caring for Mando was my favourite part of the film. It was the only time the film did something different and original (the rest of the film was okay enough, but boils down to watching CGI things hitting or shooting other CGI things).

Those puppetry part with Grogu, and also the Babu Frik band of brothers, felt magical to me like watching an 80s Jim Henson movie, Labyrinth or Dark Crystal. If the whole film had been more like that it could have been really rather special.

Yes, it will be interesting to see where they go with the Gandalf Vs Dark Wizard plotline now that Nori and the Harfoots are no longer involved (in truth the actress playing Nori looked visibly older in Season 2, and would probably have looked fully adult by season 3!).

It seemed Tom Bombadil’s part with Gandalf was also concluded so I wonder if Gandalf will be alone or if they’ll bring in some new sidekick or foil for him to interact with. Ian McKellen was awesome but the chap they’ve found to play Gandalf is also rather good, and Ciaran Hinds hasn’t been give much to do yet but he’s always solid.

In any regard, I look forward to seeing what you come up with in your Part 3 edit!

Vranir, I’ve just watched Part 2, Udun. I probably should have read your notes before watching it as I wrongly presumed this was ‘Season 2’ the movie cut, but it’s more like half of Season 2. It does feel like less was cut from the TV show for this Part 2 edit, and that’s understandable as it was generally a stronger season.

So Udun doesn’t feature the Dwarves storyline nor any of the Halbrand + Celebrimbor. It was an enjoyable edit, but due to the plotlines you did follow it feels rather smaller and more intimate than your Part One movie. The big showstopper sequence of the siege of Eregion has been saved for the next film - I kind of want to see that one now!

Great job, I certainly enjoyed it more than the TV show and I thought in particular the Rhun and Numenor plotlines were better served the way you presented them with less interruption and cutaways. It felt like it had a proper emotional ending with Gandalf finding out who he is and saying goodbye to Nori (and then that final ‘tease’ of Halbrand showing up on Celebrimbors gate).

Vranir, I’ve just watched ‘Shadows Of The Past’, the Season 1 edit of Rings Of Power and wanted to say thank you for transforming a rather clunky, overlong and divisive TV show into a single coherent movie that feels like it can stand alongside the Peter Jackson films.

To use a cliche, you’ve accentuated the positive and eliminated the negative to make a really entertaining 3.5 hours of Middle-earth goodness. The trigger to watching it was the announcement that the series is getting a physical bluray/4K release, and seeing all the negative comments on social media about how awful it was. This fanedit will be my default watch going forward, and I wish that it could have a wider release as I suspect many people would be swayed to think more highly of ROP seeing this cut.

I like that the whole first act of your edit is devoted to Galadriel’s and Nori’s storylines. It certainly centres the movie around those two principal characters rather than the kitchen sink ensemble approach of the show. A lot of material is cut to achieve the 3.5hr running time but to your credit it never feels choppy or incoherent. Even the elements that depart from the plot, such as Lenny Henry’s Saddoc not being present in the fight with the three mystic women are resolved elegantly (spoiler: Saddoc lives!).

On the negative there are a few little micro glitches during transitions, and your decision to eliminate gore (whilst totally valid as a personal choice) does reduce the impact of the infected cow scene and some of the fight sequences.

Bear McCreary and Howard Shore’s excellent music gets to shine in this edit. I like that you didn’t use the TV show intro sequence, but we do still get to enjoy the main musical theme as an ‘intermission’ around the halfway point. The use of ‘This Wandering Day’ for the end credits is also genius, as the Peter Jackson films all used lyrical tracks in this capacity.

I’m looking forward to checking out Part 2!

SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD - do not read till you’ve seen the film.

I just saw The Mandalorian and Grogu, and thought it was mostly decent with a sprinkling of genuinely outstanding moments, design work, and excellent music… (particularly enjoyed the Phil Tippett robot mini-bosses outside the Hutt’s throne room). But could be improved further with a bit of a fan edit.

A few tweaks I’d personally suggest…

-The credits at the start! Wow, did this feel wrong for a Star Wars movie. There was actually some pretty good atmospheric footage during the credits but scrub the credits away so we can really enjoy the visuals!

-The bullet dodging at point blank range from 3 AT-AT Walkers, it stretched credibility beyond breaking point. This could do with toning down.

-Rotta the Hutt. Probably a bigger task, but a completely new vocal is needed. Star Wars has always been strange and otherworldy and an American sounding Hutt was straight up bad.

-The throne room with just the two Hutts in there? No dancers, no entertainment, no flunkeys? What on earth were the two of them doing just sitting alone on a dais all day. It felt budget constrained and strangely small. However I guess it would take quite some skills to try and populate the throne room.

-Maybe cut the Amani fight in the pool and go straight to the white serpent. Or perhaps cut the later Amani ambush in the overgrown ship. Felt like overkill and in a film with a lot of fights these were the weakest.

Just my thoughts… What did you think?

Adywan, well done that’s an epic new shot of the rebel base - looks big and cinematic!

Yes Mac I like the sound of that shot - it follows the classic cinematic trope of establishing ‘menace’ - going back to silent film, when you had a damsel in distress tied to the train tracks whilst the locomotive barrels towards her.

Plus a few more seconds of Death Star can only be a good thing!

Hello Adywan, I was wondering how the upcoming restored versions of the Original Trilogy are impacting what you are working on with Revisited?

Looking at your change list on page one it looks like the restorations could tick off a bunch of those changes for free as it were (colour grading, removing SE additions, etc) and allow you to progress with fresh elements like adding the B Wings to the battle, enhancing the Super Star Destroyer explosion, and that type of thing.

Be interesting to hear if the announcements and the leaked restored images are a great help to your project and have enabled you to reduce or reorder the job list?

It’s fantastic news, and the restoration looks like the best and most detailed picture quality yet seen. I’ll be there opening night, and buying the 4K.

Like Omne above, I’d also like the restoration to be applied to some sort of definitive edition because there are many small elements within the Special Editions that I would miss (the scene with Biggs and Red Leader, the rebel fighters approaching the Death Star, the open vistas of Cloud City, the Bantha herd before the sail barge). But there’ll never be an official new cut that keeps the good bits and jettisons the bad bits (or even unilateral agreement on which SE bits are good or bad). I guess that’s what fan edits are for…

That already looks much better in the screenshot, and as you say it’s got plenty left that could be done with it. Restoration tools and techniques have come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years, and are only going to improve further with each passing month. If you do further restoration of this scene Phase3 please do share!

exitzero said:

Any deleted scenes you want to use for fan edit but the quality was lacking, may not be off the table-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlqN4h40dt8

I really hope that the deleted scene with Vader telepathically reaching out to Luke in the cave at the start of the film could be restored and reinserted into ROTJ:Revisited. It’s a scene that should never have been cut.

I think that scene recontextualises the whole movie for the better, it adds some depth and gravitas (which the film could do with to be honest), it rightfully places the Father/Son relationship front and centre, and makes the final act even more epic and impactful.

It’s certainly better condition footage than the deleted scene linked above with Luke using his binoculars, that one was far rougher. It would be quite a coup if the Vader and Luke scene could be sufficiently restored to add back in to Revisited, and for me it would be the single biggest improvement that could be made to ROTJ.

Lionsgate have just teased the release of a new 4k steelbook for Jacob’s Ladder later this year… hopefully a last chance for some extra footage?

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=36634

Well done - it’s actually a nice little bridging moment that allows the movie to breathe and for the viewer to ease into the new location. There’s also a rather nice syncopation between the footsteps across the Death Star hangar and the red lights on the elevator lighting up - it segues very well into the existing footage.

If this had been included in the original cut I’m sure we’d all have considered it an essential shot to keep. If AI can make it look flawless then I don’t see any downside to adding this moment into the movie. Good stuff.

I also like the sound of the 3 part edit. Episodes 1-6 as part one, 7-9 as part 2, and 10-12 as part 3.

I think that structure plays to the strengths of the season, and will give you three coherent and really excellent movies.

Episodes 1-6 of this season would trim down to make a fine 2 hour fan edit movie.

Episodes 7-9 really just want the start and end credits removing, they were gold right through!

Mocata said:

Not sold on the “oh wait we gotta bring this horrific thing along with us so it’s in RO” part, but that’s just me, could have been more natural. There’s my nitpick.

At the start of Season One, we’re told that Cassian’s modus operandi is stealing Imperial Tech - the plot ramps up because he has stolen an ‘Imperial Starpath Unit’.

This episode he’s just about to get on his ship out of Ghorman and there’s a KX Droid just waiting to be stolen, he needs a hand lifting it but an opportunist like Andor has got to take it!

Season 2 thoughts after 6 episodes…

I find Forrest Whittaker’s performance as Saw endlessly engaging to watch. Every scene with him in is unexpected gold. The same goes for Ben Mendelsohn’s Krennic and to a slightly lesser degree Skarsgard as Rael.

The stellar dramatic performances and nuanced script are what is keeping Andor Season 2 afloat, but I wish there were just one or two action set pieces to add excitement and rewatchability (like we had with the Aldhani Heist, Narkina 5 prison breakout or Ferrix riot in Season 1).

Personally, I didn’t need to see repeated scenes of Bix moping around getting high in the safehouse - I understood what her state of mind was without that repetition. I would have preferred that instead they elaborated on her and Cassian’s infiltration to assassinate Dr Gorst - that could have been the exciting set piece which ended the episode 4-6 arc. But that’s just me, and I trust Gilroy knows what he is doing (and hopefully we will get some of that hi-octane action pay off in the remaining episodes).

Smudger, it looks like you’re putting your mind to Season 2 of Andor - but I’ve just finished watching your Season 1 edit (as a primer for Season 2) and wondered if you’d like feedback?

Overall it’s brilliant - you’ve really accentuated the positives and kept the core of the plot streamlined and easy to follow (except for one instance which I’ll come to). Without the episode breaks and with your choices of shots and moments to keep or trim it now feels more cinematic - like watching a pair of movies (the reintroduction of the 20th Century Fox fanfare is a cool little touch too!). I own the 4k series set but I cant see myself watching them again, as your pacier edit appeals more to me (I’ve always preferred movies over TV series, and that’s what your edit provides).

The one thing which doesn’t work… the removal of Andor being arrested on Niamos. I can see why you did it, as it removes a good 5-10 minute chunk of runtime but imho it compromised the edit too far.

Movie one ‘Spark of Rebellion’ ends with Cassian as one of the most wanted men in the galaxy after the Aldhani heist, and then movie two ‘The Reckoning’ begins with a crawl which simply says “Andor has been arrested for treason” and the first time we see him is entering Narkina with the other cons. It’s a massive leap for audiences and leaves you head scratching WTF? It also makes all the ISB conversations about ‘where is Andor?’, ‘we need to arrest Andor?’, become baffling as it appears to all intents he has already been arrested?! Furthermore, we even see Andor in Niamos at the end retrieving his stash from the hotel room - this scene no longer makes any sense without the context of the earlier footage.

I’d really suggest reinstating some abridged version of Andor on Niamos at the start of the edit, as without it ‘The Reckoning’ opens in a confusing and unsatisfying way. You could always save a few minutes elsewhere by cutting the scenes with Nurchi betraying Andor on Ferrix as they’re somewhat redundant to the plot (we already get two or three other references of why the ISB believe Andor is going to be at Ferrix for the funeral).

This is very much meant as constructive feedback rather than criticism as I really think you’ve done brilliantly to turn this TV series into something that feels much pacier and more cinematic, and I look forward to seeing what magic you can work with season 2!

Yes please - could I have a link?

Be great to watch your Andor edits prior to Season 2…

Hal, I watched this edit for the first time last night and just wanted to thank you for your hard work.

I think it’s a good edit, and overall subtly improves the film. If this had been the theatrical release I believe older fans would have liked it a little more (and it would have cost Disney a lot less to make - that extended Fathier stampede must have cost an absolute $$$ fortune to shoot, and your edit proves it really wasn’t needed at all!).

Even with the shortened run time The Last Jedi still rather overstays its welcome - and by the time we get to Crait you feel audience fatigue settling in. It doesn’t help that the exciting Throne Room sequence is the movie’s dramatic highlight, and everything after that feels a bit of an epilogue.

But well done, you’ve done what can be done with the material, and if I do revisit TLJ again in the future this will be the cut I watch.

Thanks very much for the link Spence, I just watched it this evening and really enjoyed it. The pace is considerably improved and more kinetic, and having only seen the film once before I didn’t have exacting knowledge of what you cut but for the most part it wasn’t missed and the movie still ‘worked’ in its shortened form.

There were just two exceptions where it felt like we went from A to C without passing B. Dementus (now ‘The Red’) showing up to attack the Citadel (which we’re seeing and hearing about for the first time), that lost me a bit and maybe needed some explanation. Later the scene with Praetorian Jack saying he’d teach Furiosa, and then the next scene he says words to the effect of I’ve taught you all I know - I wonder if there was a way to add a sense of ‘passage of time’ to better bridge those two scenes?

I liked what you did near the end of the film by repurposing the war montage, it now played out as Dementus’ forces being wiped out by Immortan Joe in one fell swoop. At the films very end I felt you could go even further with the cuts, it still feels slow with too much monologuing. Perhaps it could work well that after Furiosa snips the teddy off his groin you segue straight into the final shot of withered Dementus with the fruit tree growing out of him? Just a thought.

Regardless of these small suggestions it’s an entertaining and very effective edit. It keeps all the good stuff and modestly trims a bit of the fat, thanks for putting the effort in, it’s a big thumbs up from me!

Brilliant - I’d love to get a link and watch this asap?

Sounds great Spence, and I’ll look forward to seeing the final cut when you’re ready!

I’ve only seen Furiosa once at the cinema, and my memory is that it did run a touch too long (particularly at the very end, the ‘multiple deaths of Dementus’ as you call it).

It felt like binge-watching four or five episodes of a show back-to-back, and if your edit can make it feel more like a single propulsive movie (as you say Fury Road and Mad Max 2 were so lean and mean, really no fat on them) then it would become more in keeping with the hi-octane visual storytelling of those two classics.

I think I’m in a minority as someone who thinks The Phantom Menace is the best of the three PT.

Qui-Gonn and Darth Maul the two best characters of the trilogy, and both killed off in the first film!

A rather unresolved and unsatisfactory finale, especially for Jod (and SM-33 and KB for that matter).

Jod was a self-serving rascal throughout, rather than a villain, more of a Cap’n Jack Sparrow archetype. Imho it would have been more satisfying for the viewers if he worked with the kids in the final act to defeat the pirates (who were the real ‘baddies’ of the show).

Once Jod accessed the vault it would’ve made more sense from a plotting and character perspective for him to double-cross the pirates and want to keep the gold himself. A stronger resolution might have been that after he lightsabred the Supervisor it unexpectedly brought the barrier down, and then he had to work with the kids to get the cannon working and bring down the rampaging pirate ship. Then when the Republic swoop in to clean up the mess, the kids help Jod and SM-33 sneak away in their ship (Jod gifts Wim the lightsaber with a heartwarming goodbye, and of course we also see he’s cheekily pinched a pocketful of gold).

This family genre (Goonies, ET, Pirates of the Carribbean) relies on a triumphant feelgood ending, and the screenwriters didn’t really make me feel anything much with Skeleton Crew’s resolution (and I say this as someone who thought the series has been mostly excellent).