I’m re-configuring this thread, because my new edit of AOTC shares plenty of the same ideas and I don’t want to have two AOTC edit threads.
I want to preface this thread by saying: This AOTC edit is so not going to be everyone’s thing.
This was just something I put together over the holidays for my little cousin, who absolutely loves Star Wars, but who I know doesn’t have the attention span for Attack of the Clones. To be frank, I don’t think I do either.
He loved Rise of Skywalker - which I didn’t - but that inspired me to think about how the prequels, in the context of how disappointing the Sequel Trilogy was to me, had some merit. Kind of. Its problems are obvious and have been talked about for nearly two decades at this point, but no edit has actually made them fun to watch if you weren’t already trying to like them. From the earlier edits to Hal’s edits, the biggest thing in many prequel edits is making them more coherent. Make them make sense, less goofy/cringy, and just less excruciating to watch.
In light of Rise of Skywalker: What if I made Attack of the Clones, just, dumber?
What I mean by that is - the politics and context, what if I just threw it out? TROS and the ST at large didn’t care and the movies were fun! When it wasn’t using pure nostalgia, the ST (save for TLJ) relied on the likeable characters going on a fun galaxy adventure thing. And AOTC has some interesting, if not dated, fun setpieces. The speeder chase through Coruscant, rain brawl, asteroid field dogfight, Geonosis arena, the battle… I remember fastforwarding to those parts on DVD when I was like 10, but I couldn’t sit through all the between. When I say dumb, I mean it in a fun way.
Making this for my cousin was a fun experiment in ST-ing/modern blockbuster-ifying AOTC. Just like in the ST, any set-up for the next movie doesn’t matter. Any context for the galaxy or how things work is only just mentioned. It follows Padme/Anakin/Obi-Wan almost from beginning to end, minimizing any cutaways to Mace, Yoda, or the Senate. There are virtually no scenes in the Jedi Council or Senate Hall.
Now, that sounds easy, but it was more than just excising scenes. My cousin is a smart kid, and it takes more than just cool sci-fi shit to keep him entertained. The story and characters still have to make sense in the broadest of ways, even if the pacing is much quicker and more exciting.
And a big challenge was in how I don’t have access to the charisma TROS was working with to take the audience from beginning to end. Making the characters likeable and seemingly charismatic enough to carry an otherwise empty film was the biggest goal. (This is where my NCC philosophies came into play).
CUTS AND CHANGES:
- New crawl that tries its damnedest to make this Seperatist movement and voting business sound exciting. Removed any mentions of Count Dooku because who cares. We’ll meet him when we meet him. He’s the bad guy!
- Cut the misdirect from inside Padme’s ship.
- Maybe just one explosion from the ship ambush.
- Cut political discussion/recap of crawl between Jedi and Chancellor from scene in Palpatine’s office, it jumps straight into the Senators coming in after Palpatine ends a vague conversation with Yoda.
- Padme now warmly chuckles at Yoda’s warm and compassionate greeting to her, instead of ignoring it for business. Weird to introduce one of your main protagonist’s in such a cold, stand-offish way btw.
- Everything about disgruntled spice miners or Count Dooku or who he is, is cut, Palpatine jumps straight into suggesting protection in light of the previous scene. Which is also a good way to take Padme from the mood Yoda might’ve put her in a few seconds ago.
- Transition straight from Palpatine saying “Master Kenobi” to the introductory elevator scene.
- Anakin and Obi-Wan friendly banter is made friendlier, I hope.
- Retained Jar Jar’s enthusiastic greeting because kids like weird aliens, and I’ll take any warmth in such a dry movie.
- Cut any “more beautiful, for a senator” awkwardness
- Removed Obi-Wan uncomfortably scolding Anakin in front of everyone. He just corrects Anakin.
- Padme’s “perhaps merely your presence will reveal more…” is last word before cutting to Zam and Jango. We don’t need to see her walk all the way to the end of the damn room to retire for the night, and there’s no conversation afterwards that matters. It’s also good to imply that they talked a little more than just business afterwards.
- Some dialogue trims to Zam/Jango interactions.
- Anakin isn’t a creep at all in this. He doesn’t tell Obi-Wan he wants to dream about her, no implication that he wanted to watch her sleep.
- Him and Obi-Wan’s interactions here come off as more of a caring relationship. Obi-Wan reassures Anakin of his anxieties and that his dreams will pass, and it doesn’t lead into a political debate. No politics here! (Even if they are pretty interesting context for Star Wars to tackle.)
- Doesn’t mean Anakin is less of a reckless swashbuckler. I wanted to convey the joy and fun Anakin has in being this hero. Replaced some of his authoritative lines with more laid back Hayden ones, and a few joyous “WOOHOOs” and chuckling as he pilots the speeder in the chase. Obi-Wan is a little exasperated but not completely annoyed with him. He doesn’t lecture or scold him, just tells him to slow down and think a bit. Especially since Anakin doesn’t lose his saber here.
- I added some cantina-ish music to the club scene to liven up the feel. There really is no music here in the original for whatever reason. It’s a bar in Star Wars and there’s like nothing to work with! Even the aliens are just people with antenna headbands. Oh well.
- Anakin doesn’t angrily interrogate Zam, in fact with the line I did leave in from his questioning, it comes off as more of a comforting thing. “You can tell us” to a dying bounty hunter who was just doing their job.
- I don’t remember which edit this originates from, but the “Kamino system” edit from Octorox/Hal’s is here.
- At this point, I don’t think we’re 20 minutes into the film, so that all works as an opening.
- Removed the Jedi Council meeting. No politics! Aside from it contextualizing the world a bit, there’s not a lot that’s needed to be known about what the pair do for the rest of the film. Obi-Wan goes straight into investigating, Anakin escorts Padme out of the capital. We don’t need to see them ordered to do that, and I think the idea that they can work independently of the council’s influence makes them stronger characters. They have autonomy and they decided to do this themselves! That Master and Apprentice came up with this plan between each other also strengthens their relationship. Especially when earlier, Obi-Wan didn’t necessarily outright refute Anakin’s investigation mandate like in the original.
- Because of the previous, no Anakin/Palpatine scene. Because Revenge of the Sith doesn’t matter, there’s no point in slowing things down for payoff that only comes in another movie! Who’s Snoke? Not my problem!
- So straight off Zam’s murder, Obi-Wan’s investigation starts with the youngling scene but trimmed. Obi-Wan can’t find the Kamino system Zam just mentioned, Yoda/younglings helps, and the missing archive mystery is referenced, but not as deeply foreshadowing anything since Dooku is just going to show up and we’re just going to have to deal. (I’m sorry but that library scene is bad. Not using it. At least here, the kids are cute and Yoda is endearing as fuck. I think the “investigation with the help of eclectic allies” trope is also inherently a little more exciting than a man going to a library, too.)
- Padme packing her bags is the next scene. This is where you can essentially figure out what Anakin and Obi’s plan is, without the previously cut scenes.
- Cut all of Anakin’s petulance and creepiness here.
- This leads us to Padme and Anakin’s departure as refugees. Obi-Wan doesn’t express his concerns to Anakin’s face, he just warmly says “May the force be with you” to Anakin, demonstrating a less toxic relationship. He trusts Anakin enough.
- Wipe to DEX’S DINER, baby. That’s right. I don’t use all of the scene, because it is mostly bad, but again, it’s that “investigation with the help of eclectic allies” trope. Obi-Wan’s got contacts and old friends! He’s a fun guy with interesting stories to tell! And I mean, this movie is so so dry, a fun weird alien in a 50’s diner gives it much needed Star Wars-esque life. And the edit can afford it at this pace. Hell, it needs it. Anyway, the scene leads us from Dex’s ominous “how big your pocketbook is” straight into Obi-Wan landing on Kamino. I thought that would be an exciting transition.
- Obi-Wan meets with the prime minister of Kamino. Removed mentions of Sifo-Dyas because it is genuinely confusing and unanswered. Obi-Wan is edited to be more visibly confused but intrigued throughout the conversation. The way it’s played in the original, it’s kind of hard to tell that Obi-Wan is bullshitting so I just minimized that aspect of it. Another somewhat intriguing end note, it ends on “This army is for the Republic.” Less than 30 minutes in and the plot has progressed quite quickly.
- Wipe to Anakin and Padme discussing love and compassion on the transport, and straight into their landing on Naboo. This is where I allowed the film to breath a bit, because I think we still need to buy Anakin and Padme’s relationship. I inserted the extended versions of them walking through Naboo for the first time where they open up to each other like real human beings. Besides, Obi-Wan’s plot is moving every other scene, it’s okay to have the slower character development sandwiched in between, when it pays off later. It’s not like they’re that long or boring either.
- Padme meeting with the Queen is trimmed a bit to remove any specifics of the politics. No throwing out of random names of different factions we don’t know anything about. Just a broad reminder of what Padme is actually trying to accomplish, and we’re out. No Anakin/Padme bickering.
- Obi-Wan is introduced to the Clone Army and I mostly kept it all in. I think I removed Obi-Wan asking to meet Jango because they won’t really talk to each other in this edit.
- Anakin and Padme meet the parents deleted scene. It’s pretty short and contextualizes their relationship a bit more. I tried to make Anakin actually charm the family a bit with some added Hayden lines and chuckles from them. I removed the uncomfortable turns the conversation takes.
- Obi-Wan is now about to brief Mace and Yoda, and leave Kamino. I cut the Jango/Obi-Wan having a conversation scene because it doesn’t do anything but pose more questions for the audience. And the mental game is like nonexistent but they’re acting like there is one? It’s just unnecessary especially for the purposes of this edit. We’ve got to get to the action, man!
- Which is what we do. After briefing Yoda and Mace, Obi-Wan and Jango have their little battle in the rain. This is the first time they’re coming face to face. You’ll find I didn’t cut a lot of the action or slapstick.
- Anakin/Padme at the waterfall, cutting Anakin’s fascism, which leads us into a montage of sorts where they fall in love. Aggressive negotiations, swimming entire damn lakes, and even sand can be heard over “Anakin’s Dream” from the ROTS score. But Anakin and Padme actually don’t kiss! Padme pulls away at the last second. One of my favorite scenes in this entire movie is them kissing on the chariot going into the arena. Wouldn’t it be even better if that’s the first time they kiss onscreen? The montage ends with Anakin and Padme rolling around in the meadow after he faked her out with the giant ballsac creatures.
- Jango v. Obi-Wan asteroid dogfight here! Those sound effects rule! Although, it cuts to the next scene before we can see Obi-Wan’s fighter behind the asteroid. We see Jango’s ship land on Geonosis as the closer.
- From black, Anakin wakes up from this dream he has, and then tells Padme they’re going to see his mom.
- Obi-Wan is then revealed to be alive and lands on Geonosis, finding the factory.
- Wipe to Anakin and Padme landing on Tatooine. They talk to Watto. Some trims to make Anakin less angry.
- Cut to Obi-Wan eavesdropping on COUNT DOOKU and OTHERS. I let all the factions talk about themselves and what they’re doing at this point as a quick way to wrap up whatever mystery was still being had from Obi-Wan’s subplot. Audience, meet bad guys. Bad guys, audience.
- Anakin and Padme are now at the Lars Homestead. They reunite with 3PO, (made Anakin slightly happier to see him) meet the step-family and then we cut to Obi-Wan trying to contact Anakin from Geonosis to Naboo. R2 picks up the message, but we have to get back to whatever happened to Shmi! Cliegg tells Anakin what happened with the Tuskens, but Anakin doesn’t go out to find her.
- I placed Anakin sulking in the workshop/garage here. In the original this happens post-Tusken massacre, but I edited it to not reference any of that. Anakin is just sad and angry that his mom is probably dead. (You’ll see what I do with the Tusken massacre). It’s now just a quiet, melancholy scene. Not sinister. I also like the idea that Anakin doesn’t just immediately and coldly fuck off from these people to find his mom. I think there’s something to be said about how he chooses to stay with these people despite not having to, that might make it work with what we know about Anakin/Lars family in the Original Trilogy.
- Shmi’s “funeral” is placed here, although I suppose they don’t have the body yet. Anakin, like the Larses, assumes Shmi is dead. I cut Cliegg’s eulogy because who??? R2 comes out with the message and…
- Cut to Obi-Wan’s message to the council and Anakin on “Does that mean anything to you?” from 3PO.
- Mace then tells Anakin to stay where he is. However, instead of Anakin actually trying to follow those orders and arguing with Padme about it, in this edit Anakin is actually going to go try to save Obi-Wan himself. He tells Padme to stay with the Lars family because they’re good people (using dialogue from when he was going to find the Tusken camp) but she decides she’s going to go and that’s the end of that. They leave. I don’t get why Anakin was so adamant about following orders and forsaking Obi-Wan in the original, so I changed it. Less unnecessary drama.
- Dooku and Obi-Wan have a face to face and this is where we get exposition for who Dooku is. First time Dooku is mentioned or addressed by name at all, tbh. Better to have a face to the name rather than vice versa for something like this I think. I don’t actually know what we lose by having it be this way, and without Sifo-Dyas it resolves a mystery.
- Wipe to Padme, Anakin, R2, and 3PO in the factory, baby! That’s right! It’s here. As a dominantly action-focused film, I left it in. Closest thing to classic Star Wars adventure and excitement in the prequels is 3PO and R2 fucking around.
- I more or less kept the rest of the film the same until the ending, to be honest. Dumb things like “Around the perimeter” are removed, but for the most part - even 3PO’s nonsense - is kept in. I’ve come to find that campy stuff charming and fitting for Star Wars, especially when it would be so so dry otherwise. And I made this for a kid so…
- When Padme falls out of the gunship, I made Obi-Wan less of a dick about Anakin wanting to save her. He basically just says “I need you!” and “WWPD?” and Anakin agrees to do his duty, which I hope pays off a bit later.
- Anakin v. Dooku now doesn’t look like a dance.
- Personal preference to have a non-lightsaber wielding Yoda, but we can see about re-adding it if it works for something that aims to be kind of dumb.
- Instead of Anakin/Padme’s marriage, it cuts back to the Lars Homstead, where it’s implied Amidala/Skywalker returned. He’s going to find his mom. It’s a bit of an epilogue and might feel too long but the last thing we see in the movie before the wipe to credits is Anakin’s lightsaber tearing into the screen. Presumably a Tusken. This accomplishes a few things. Anakin throughout this edit has like almost no darkness in him. Well, here it is! Some of that Darth Vader foreshadowing, but in like a really heavy-handed Marvel-esque way. “Oooohhh you excited for the next one? Darth Vader~~” But more than that, the theme of duty vs his passions leading Anakin down this path is stronger when the events of the film prevented him from saving his mom on time. The same thing is in the original, but it might land more after it becoming text via Obi-Wan/Anakin on the gunship, and him literally leaving Tatooine to do something else. Idk. I also like the further, somewhat OT-consistent Skywalker/Lars connection him returning implies.
Oh, and there’s a color grade to make it look less sterile and more filmic, because why not.
So I should have some workprint tomorrow. But I really only wanted to share it because I do have some radical/new ideas in here that I would want to put out there for the community in editing AOTC. They don’t just have to work in the context of an edit aping JJ. Feedback would be appreciated and I’d love to discuss any other ways I could turn AOTC into something actually fun and stupid.
Original Post:
NFBisms said:
So, for those of you who have kept up with my RotS edit, this is my episode II!
Obviously, I’m partial to the interpretation of Anakin Skywalker as described to us by Ben Kenobi in the OT and presented to us in the 2008 Clone Wars series, so to fill in the blanks between TPM and TCW/RotSNCC, this edit of AotC aims to lighten Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship, and make Anakin Skywalker a more genuinely likeable person. While the prequels are incongruous in a lot of ways with the OT, I believe the characterizations and arcs should stay consistent across all canon.
The approach here is a little different than in the New Canon Cut for RotS. Anakin won’t be a decorated general or that mature. In fact, my AotC kind of aims to age Anakin down a bit, a tad closer to the sweet boy Ani we met in TPM. That’s not to say he will be annoying, but what I did here was make Anakin more willing to be a student. Theatrical Anakin is in a hurry to grow up, and thus tries to act like it to the point he sounds whiny, immature, and entitled. Obi-Wan is pretty much done with his shit, and thinks Anakin is a bit of a trouble student. Anakin in my AotC is reframed as more or less a good student with a bit of a playful, rebellious edge; he knows and embraces his place as still just a padawan and Obi-Wan is more seemingly fond of him, trusting him much more.
I think there’s a contrast between that young student and the decorated general in my RotS that just makes the fall in RotS more tragic. The trajectory is now set up where Anakin’s arc is more or less him on his way to growing into being like Luke by the end of ROTJ (maybe even better), but he ultimately fails to grapple with his attachments and passions.
In that vein, Anakin is much more mellow and less cold in this edit. Specifically in the scenes where he’s interrogating, Anakin doesn’t become intense or irate. He’s patient with Watto, softer with Zam, and I’ve removed his coldness towards his step-family.
I’ve tried to make Anakin and Padme’s romance a lot less creepy and weird. Anakin not being obssessed with her from the jump was a good place to start with that. Anakin here has a little crush, sure, but he doesn’t talk to Obi-Wan about dreaming about her, flirt awkwardly, promise to find her assassins obsessively, or anxiously jump to conclusions about her forgetting him completely. The scene where he talks about his dreams about his mother with Obi-Wan ends with Anakin nodding in agreement to “dreams pass in time” instead of him shifting the conversation to dreaming about Padme and defending her even if he hasn’t seen her in 10 years. It feels more like Anakin is here to do his job for an old friend, rather than primarily try to score some points towards getting laid. His crush is tertiary to his duty as a Jedi, and as a friend.
Padme falling for Anakin is more straightforward and streamlined. They don’t bicker, and there are no real barriers to hurdle in terms of her being comfortable with how she knew him then and now. Anakin is just more boyishly charming in my cut. He confidently chuckles as she does instead of doing his “grown more beautiful for a senator” thing, and I’ve moved up the “if you’ll excuse me” to replace him imperatively telling her to “stay here” after Obi-Wan jumps out the window. The traces of creepy are all replaced with an Anakin straddling the line between boy next door and charming rebel.
I used Octorox’s and Hal’s edits as my base. PM for first version, and I’ll add a full cutlist later. Feedback would be cool. There’s a lot more to the edit than what I described.
