This whole thing is a fantastically creative idea that fixes so many issues at once. I’d love to see it integrated into Ascendant if it can be sold believably in editing (I can’t view the Mega clips at the moment, so that’s not a judgement on any current efforts).
“The Princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan, but there is another.”
It’s like poetry, it rhymes.
And as for ambiguous setups, we’ll know he has another plan, but only when Rey arrives will we learn that he meant “another heir.”
You could keep the “Leia in vain” stuff too but it’ll take moving some shots around.
That Janna scene is beautiful! So glad something could be done for Finn.
That image looks great, Nev!
I agree that the “you are family” doesn’t gel with Rey’s loneliness throughout the rest of the movie, especially the festival scene.
As for Poe’s briefing, have we considered the possibility of a cutaway during that scene? After he says “His followers have been building something for years,” insert a brief shot of the Fleet itself, taken from some other part of the movie (maybe a wide shot sans-Xwing when Rey arrives at Exogol later in the movie, so that the audience has plenty of time to forget the reused visual). It could buy a little more time for the speech and make the scene more visual for the audience instead of just exposition.
You could also (or alternatively) insert a cutaway shot to showcase the dreadnought cannon when he talks about how the ships have been modified. In fact, we’ve already got an unused shot for that: the planet destruction sequence that was cut from Ascendant begins with a ~6 second uninterrupted slow zoom that shows a full shot of a ship, steadily zooms in on the cannon, and has the cannon begin to glow a menacing red as it prepares to fire.
The AI voices are pretty noticeable to me, though I haven’t been able to test it on anyone else (I’ve seen various cuts of this movie too many times). Poe does sound a bit off, and Rey’s lips didn’t seem to match when she said “ram” instead of “skip,” but maybe not a deal breaker?
I think Kylo’s early AI line might stand out most to me, though. For one, I personally dislike Kylo calling Palpatine a “rotting clone.” I guess I was in the minority on that during the earlier chats on it, but it still feels awkwardly expository and weirdly knowing of Kylo, like he read the script before coming down here. “You’re a ghost” gets the same idea across when combined with the earlier red vats of Palpatines while sounding more theatrical, like “ghost” is also referring to Palpatine being an old has-been and not just “you are a literal specter possessing a body.”
But besides that, while the AI voice does sound like Adam Driver, it doesn’t sound like Kylo in that scene; his follow-up “what could you give me” sounds much deeper and echo-y, almost like he’s wearing the helmet, and having those two lines in basically the same sentence really makes it stand out. If the new line couldn’t be made to match the old one, I wonder if it would have sold better redoing the old line in AI as well.
Sorry how negative this all sounds; a lot of great work has been put into this edit already, but AI voices were always going to be one of the harder sells as far as “would this have worked in the theater,” at least for me personally. Even the professionally done ones with Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian/Boba Fett really dragged those episodes down for me. But this edit is still a fantastic achievement.
You’re compelling me, that’s really something there.
“You’re a Phantom, a failed Clone. Out for Revenge.”
Kylo: “You’re a Phantom, in a failed Clone. What could you give me?”
Palpatine: “Revenge.” starships rise from the ice
“Palpatine, it’s you!! You’re The Phantom Menace?!!”
What about: “You possess dying clones… what could you give me?”
Maybe something more poetic, less bluntly scientific?
“You’re a phantom,” or “You’re a shadow” or “You’re a ghost.” Just something to imply he’s spiritually a remnant of Palpatine while not being physically the original. It also still works with Kylo’s dismissive tone.
I’m definitely doing a trilogy watch once v3 is out.
Same! I wish I could convince my friends to join me though. Unfortunately they each fall into polar opposite camps of either “I only want to watch the real versions, warts and all” or “I disliked them enough that I don’t want to watch them again, even edited,” and those feelings extend to the Prequels too.
No appreciation for the impact a cut can make. Heck, TFA was a generally well-received movie, and yet the central change to Restructured was so effective it’s completely replaced the theatrical for me.
Is there a set “to do” list/list of changes for v3 yet?
And if the crawl is good, I won’t rewrite it!
Oh for sure, I’m hoping nothing will be needed, but Lucasfilm’s track record with crawls has been kinda weird.
I’m a bit curious what they even mean by “crawl,” actually. Like, is it the crawl exactly? Solo had a kind of fake one. Are all of these new movies gonna have “A long time ago…,” trumpets blaring, slanted scrolling, the whole shebang? If anything is off, it’s possible that even if the writing is all good, the whole thing would need to be reformatted to pass as an Episode X.
If it is the real crawl, it’ll probably be the first to not have an episode title since before Star Wars was called “A New Hope.” That’d be kinda nostalgic in a way, at least on first viewing.
Most title crawls post-OT have been fairly unhelpful in setting the stage of their movie, or in some cases are actively confusing and misleading, and usually get rewritten in most fan edits. The Last Jedi’s was probably the best and even that got tweaked in these edits. I hope this movie won’t be need it (besides adding “Episode X”) but I guess we’ll see.
I am curious if this movie will have anything that necessitates going back to undo changes in TROS Ascendant. I doubt it, as nothing in TROS that was cut for Ascendant felt important enough to be referenced 15 years in the future, but still…
Also, just to throw in my 2 cents on the movie: I’m not sure I like the wording in the announcement that made it feel like Rey is just starting her order. Fifteen years feels like a long time to wait to start your new order, especially when you’re the only one. If Rey had a heart attack or slipped getting out of the shower, that’d be the end of the Jedi, haha. They did something similar with Luke in the new canon, having only seemingly teenaged apprentices nearly 25 years after RotJ, and that felt weird too.
That said, I’m all for more stuff with Rey and the New Republic, and a Jedi Order movie that isn’t the Prequels. I hope Finn is a proper Knight by Rey’s side, because again, 15 years would be a bizarrely long time for these characters to make no progress. It’d feel like the original gap between RotS and ANH, where everything at the end of RotS landed exactly where it is at the start of ANH and we’re just to assume the characters were in stasis for two decades.
maybe my commentary track sheds light on it around that part of the movie.
Yes, it does.
Your reason was that it seems weird to show a scene where Yoda sense Anakin’s pain only for Yoda to then do nothing about it.
I’d say that’s true, and you implied this, both from a character perspective and from a storytelling perspective. Obviously it’s strange to see that Yoda knew Anakin was suffering (and doing terrible things) and never acted on that information in the future, but it’s even stranger that there is no payoff to the scene of any kind, as if the scene was just thrown in at random.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Kenobi necessitates an update of LoE. The kid-killing scene in RotS is so unintentionally comical that it might be better to, in the limited context of your edits, leave the idea that Vader killed child Jedi as a dark revelation that happens in Kenobi. After all, Kenobi does treat that scene as a dramatic revelation already, just for a character other than Vader.
I got a translation already, but I appreciate the offer!
‘Rey Nobody’ is 100% live and available in the usual places. 😄
OP updated with changelist for this alternate version.
Congrats Hal! With this and the TLJ fix uploaded, would you say that all of your current Prequel and Sequel uploads are in their “final” state for the foreseeable future?
Really it’s just an unnecessary EU-esque silliness. Luke’s aunt and uncle were old and overprotective and a bit distant (they don’t have a parent-son relationship), and their death is a tragedy but also frees Luke to go on his adventure. Including a detail that implies they were inexplicably capable in combat in their final off-screen moments adds nothing to the story of the film or how the audience is intended to react in the moment.
For ROTS, it’s worth pointing out that continuity with The Clone Wars pretty much requires the original “Plot to destroy the Jedi” scene at the war table.
I wouldn’t say it’d required. We can just have two different scenes in two different media, instead of the same scene appearing in two media. I don’t think anything’s invalidated by saying both scenes happened in this “canon.”
Notes after skimming through to look at the changed scenes:
Will Rey still be taking the Skywalker name at the end of the movie, or will she remain a Nobody throughout?
He could just be referring specifically to FO troopers flying, not troopers in general. And nothing from the Clone Wars matters because 3P0’s memory was wiped by Bail Organa at the end of RotS.
The only problem I’ve ever had with the line was Finn repeating it as a question, like he wouldn’t know. That implies more heavily than anything that FO jet packs are a very new tech in TROS, which EU lore will probably disagree with at some point. If only 3P0 says the line, I think that’s fine, as I don’t imagine he’s seen the front lines often during his time in the Resistance.
It is a shame that modern Lucasfilm doesn’t finish the special effects on all their deleted scenes like they did for the prequels. Of course, after TROS, I guess we’re lucky we got any deleted scenes.
I’ve got mixed feelings about that scene. It doesn’t really add brand new information regarding Luke’s motivations, it just lays them out a bit more obviously. It’s also yet another scene of subversion and comic relief in an already long movie that’s already packed with both.
More than either of those, though, it’s a bit odd tonally to imply that not only was Luke not alone in his exile (a big reason Hal removed the caretakers in the first place), but also that they had a monthly party while he was there. It only makes it look more like Luke is running away from his responsibilities for purely selfish reasons, when really his self-exile is supposed to be a form of tragic sacrifice (he’s determined that the Jedi only make things worse, so he’s carrying the burden of the religion to a lonely grave).
Also, just to nitpick, this is technically a continuation of the second lesson scene, not a third lesson. The third lesson never officially occurs, which I think is a deliberate decision on Rian Johnson’s part to leave things open to interpretation. Perhaps the third lesson is the one Rey has to learn for herself when she leaves, or the third lesson is one that Luke himself has to learn from Yoda, or maybe it’s when Luke returns to the light and teaches Rey and Kylo something with his sacrifice. Heck, with TROS, maybe the third lesson is literally when Rey returns to Ach-To and Luke gets to teach her one last time.
Anyway, if Hal decides to add that scene back in I won’t mind terribly, but I don’t think Rian was wrong for cutting it. Much like the alternate Phasma death scene, it’s arguable that it distracts more than it really adds.
Hey Hal, I noticed that the current TinyEncode version of A New Hope is a much smaller file than all your other current TinyEncodes, and its thumbnail doesn’t match ESB or RotJ. Any particular reason for this?
Just curious; they’re all playing fine.
Legendary’s more conservative take has always been more my speed. The only big thing I really miss is Finn vs Phasma (Finn’s only “win” pre-9), but I get cutting it for pacing reasons at least, and it’s done cleanly enough with the deleted scenes and new special effects that it doesn’t hurt the cinematic experience. As opposed to, say, Rekindled’s handling of Finn & Rose on Crait, which is a terrific effort for a fan edit but doesn’t quite feel like something the theater would have shown.
It does now!
Ha, it never ends for ol Hal. Will this one still be marked as v5?