NeverarGreat

All the way back to Star Wars, really.

Coming back to the final act of this film with over six months of distance, I am definitely feeling that the complexity in the Starkiller sequence does it a disservice. Right now the sequence is:

Han dies
Chewie detonates the charges
Leia sad
Lightsaber fights
Poe’s failed run
Ackbar and the 2 minute countdown
more lightsabers
weapon fires
Oscillator explodes
lightsabers stopped by chasm
Hosnian destruction
Leia sad again
Rey finds Finn
Hux talks to Snoke
Chewie and the Falcon

It’s just too complicated, the intercutting too fast for anything to land. In light of this, I definitely see the appeal of reverting the Starkiller sequence back to something more akin to Restructured 3.0.

I would remove the concept of the weapon recharging though, since I think it’s worth reassessing the idea that Poe and the pilots shouldn’t be taking ‘revenge’ on the Starkiller for the Hosnian destruction. It actually makes a lot of sense for Poe to be continuing the attack on Starkiller even after the mission has failed, since it is a straight line from that to TLJ’s “You start an attack, you follow it through.” A lot of the reason for this recharging plot point was due to considerations made before the release of TLJ, and I bet people would feel differently about this if it were being considered today. Furthermore, in my version Rey is being clearly driven towards a darker place with the destruction of her friends, and placing the Hosnian destruction alongside Han’s death mirrors this character movement for Poe.

So here’s a rough idea of a new sequence set to the Hosnian destruction music:

Han dies (cue Hosnian destruction music)
Han falls off bridge, weapon rumbling and possible exterior shot of weapon heating up
Chewie immediately detonates the charges where he stands, engulfing the wall in fire
Ackbar warns that the Oscillator is still functional, the Resistance officer says only “Admiral…”
First Order techs give Hux manual control, he orders the weapon to fire
Weapon fires, Poe and pilots react
Hosnian destruction
Leia reacts
Exterior of Oscillator, Finn and Rey running to the Falcon

If the crystal was truly beyond repair, that would at least be a reason for Rey to bury it in the final scene.

I don’t know if that’s necessary, I’m quite content with Finn taking the short path and Rey taking the scenic route. 😃

Another small thing for this edit, in the workprint I use the audio of Hux shouting ‘FIRE’ over the wide shot of the base firing, and this never felt ideal. I think this version, with a bit of audio from the LEGO game, works better:

https://vimeo.com/439473560

Password: fanedit

Maybe lighten the ear as well.

dgraham414 said:

kewlfish said:

Alright all, here is Rey’s training scene. The Pasana clip was low quality footage, but I used the actual movie footage for this one. Let me know the issues that y’all see with it and I will continue to refine it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pKYCyA_32BLEWYfCi-Zz2XTV4xLY0OOu/view?usp=sharing

The only moment that looks odd is the wife shot of Rey balancing on the log with the visor. The saver just looks too thick. But the rest of it looks amazing!

There are several shots in which the blade looks too thick. I also wonder if there’s a way to give more variation to the distortion, right now it’s a bit uniform across the blade.

Overall, though, it’s a really cool improvement!

idir_hh said:

In that scene, Rey seems to be running quite a long distance before she reaches the ship whereas the ship is right next to the castle. Perhaps a different model could be used or the ship could be rotated/reversed/recoloured?

Well the point is to use the ship that Finn was boarding so it is implied that Rey will go with him (Yes, she probably would have no idea which one it was, but maybe she knows ship types, the Force told her, or at worst she’s just getting on the first ship she sees, whatever). I figure that she took a more scenic route as well, since she’s viewing it through the trees. Finn probably just used the path.

My original thought with this was to have her approach the front, but I have been able to find exactly zero usable reference material for the Meson Martinet. It might be for the better though, since it’s pretty unmistakable which ship it is.

Okay, here’s something new:

https://vimeo.com/439115290

Password: fanedit

With Finn being added to her vision, removing her saying ‘Luke’ in response to Maz, and this shot, hopefully Rey’s sudden departure from the castle makes more sense.

JEDIT: Updated for more polished video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JdFRMnTqzU

Thanks for the clarification!

Pretty cool. The back is definitely too wordy though. Perhaps there could be one small paragraph for each of the trilogies to let people know what they contain.

Also, using Despecialized for the OT feels a bit strange considering the PT and ST are both fanedit series by Hal, and he has a series of edits for the OT (special edition) as well: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Custom-Special-Edition-That-Almost-Wasnt-But-Then-Was/id/61930/page/1

I guess the question I have is what is your goal? Is it to showcase a variety of impressive edits? In that case Adywan’s ANH and ESB would be shoe-ins, and Popasketti’s version of TLJ as well. Or is your goal to present a cohesive version of the Saga from Hal?

There hasn’t been much done, but I have gotten back to it a little and started applying some final adjustments. Rey’s final confrontation with Kylo now has almost no voices, now it’s just subliminal echoes. Snoke’s final appearance is given a bit more time to breathe, his final added lines have been adjusted, that sort of thing. The big unfinished elements of this edit still have to be done.

It’s really good. The only thing that’s slightly odd is the blue (such as Luke’s ghost) turns a little to the purple side.

If you did this in Photoshop, I know that the CC versions of it have the ability to export your settings as a LUT which someone else could apply to the entire movie.

There should be a proper release of the 1977 Star Wars at this point

“We should be able to see it by now!”

A good test I’ve found for these scenes is whether or not Threepio’s leg remains silver. It looks a bit gold here, so I’d keep an eye on that going forward.

oooooohsnap

Ebkas said:

Mon Mothma: A Star Wars Story, using deleted scenes from ROTS, clips from R1, and TFU cutscenes.

I’d watch it.

I also feel like the clouds on the left are really booking it out of frame.

jedi_bendu said:

I know this is kinda an old discussion now, but I’m new to originaltrilogy.com and for my first post I might as well rant a bit about my least favourite SW film. Negativity bias and all that.

To me, Rise of Skywalker feels more like a corporate product instead of an artistic vision. It does so much pandering and backtracks on themes from The Last Jedi, the WORST thing they could do for this already incoherent trilogy. It also seems like a film afraid of its audience, an example being Chewie’s fake-out death; although that scene actually impressed me, I would be OK with it being a ruse IF they gave the reveal when the characters find it out. But instead they do the reveal at the earliest opportunity, a captured Chewie accompanied by a joyous flourish that’s the musical equivalent of “hey look, he’s alive guys! “We didn’t kill him! Please don’t be angry!”

Bringing back Palpatine and a secret fleet of death-star-level warships - which still do nothing for the film’s low stakes - is the cheapest move since, um, The Force Awakens’ story structure. I don’t even enjoy Ian McDiarmid in this film, that’s how bad it is. His existence WOULD somewhat ruin the ending of Return, only I hear he’s a clone - and what says ‘desperate’ more than having a clone of a previous villain as the main antagonist? I’m not even mentioning the death scene. TROS tries to copy Endgame in so many ways to make the same profit it’s painful to watch.

There’s also the issue of the self-indulgent fan service that featured in Force Awakens being blown up in this movie. By self-indulgent, I mean while The Last Jedi featured nostalgic OT things that furthered the plot, this film doesn’t (I’m thinking Yoda’s theme as Luke lifts his x-wing, and Chewie’s medal). A recurring problem in JJ’s films is things that make sense to the audience but not in the context of the story. Here, it’s Chewie’s medal (Jesus Christ) and that after Chewie’s ‘death’, the characters seem to quickly get over him. There’s no more Rey-Poe tension, which I liked, or anything.

In general, I didn’t like most of the over-saturated cinematography or the over-the-top finale. I actually enjoyed Rise of Skywalker on a first watch, carried along by the revelations, but soon decided that it’s so much about constantly driving its video-game plot that it loses the special moments that really make Star Wars, and is just not a rewatchable film. It’s like it’s designed to be seen - or ‘consumed’ - once, then forgotten.

These seem more like nitpicks than a negative review, I just wanted to say more niche things that MAYBE haven’t been mentioned here. Please understand that I now view The Rise of Skywalker as a black hole of garbage that sucks in even John Williams’ soundtrack, which mostly amounts to previous Star Wars themes in the weirdest places. Also, sorry for writing so much, it feels nice to put my thoughts out in a purely SW-fan website/discussion.

This is all correct.

For people doubting the studio meddling, of course there was. The studio threw out Trevorrow out of fear and brought in JJ because he made them money on the first film…ignoring the fact that he’s never been able to finish a story.

They almost certainly meddled in the script that JJ and Terrio made to make it more ‘safe’. I won’t pin the bigger script mishaps on studio meddling, but there’s no way that this wasn’t an issue.

They absolutely cut out much of the connective tissue of the film before release, to the point that JJ basically gave up on it.

This isn’t to defend JJ’s terrible choices - a good ending would have survived all this meddling - but credit where it’s due, the problems came from all sides.

Salvador said:

McFlabbergasty said:

Disclaimer: I’m not an endocrinologist, so I might have no idea what I’m talking about.

For about a decade, since my early teens, I’ve had an ability to induce a set of sensations within myself at will. First I feel like there is something in the back of my head that tenses just a little bit, then I feel a tickling sort of sensation throughout the backs of my legs. From the back part of the upper thighs down to the ankles. Sometimes I can’t quite control the intensity. I get carried away and the tingling gets to be too much and I spasm for a second to let out the steam. I can repeatedly activate and disable this mechanism several times a second. My best guess so far is that I can somehow release small amounts of adrenaline into my system at will.

Does anybody else experience this? Any explanations?

Hi mate. Experiencing exactly the same thing since 15 yrs ago… was looking in the net if anyone knows what this is and i spotted this post. Interesting thing is that i use it when i am too sleepy and it gives me a boost and wakens me up for abt 15-20 mins. Would appreciate if you have found what it is.

The OP hasn’t been around since 2016, unfortunately. I do hope someone else can chime in if they’ve had a similar thing happen to them. The closest thing I’ve experienced to that was when trying to induce Out of Body Experiences. A popular method that I tried was to focus on the nerve endings in various parts of my body as I was falling asleep in order to produce the feeling of buzzing energy which could facilitate the altered state. It was occasionally effective at OBE’s, at least.

Best of luck in your search.

And who would even be fighting them over Jakku, Bespin, or (in the original) Endor.

Don’t think about this movie, please.

Cinefy said:

Hal 9000 said:

Here’s my inventory of things left unresolved as of now.

• Need opening crawl from Sir Ridley

• Need the two vision scenes, desert extension, and “Ben, come home” line from DominicCobb

• Two shots from poppasketti for the squeaky wheel scene

• Luke’s ghost with haircut and less blue, from jonh, as well as Ben Solo’s ghost for the end of the movie

• Once axlanian and krausfadr’s Knights of Ren voiceover is finished, I’ll consider what of it to use

• Add Naboo to end celebration montage as recently described (no one has been assigned this task)

• Need Coruscant added to the exterior and/or window of the briefing scene on Ren’s destroyer (no one has been assigned this task)

• I will try the OST for an alternate musical accompaniment to the added establishing shot of Ach-To

As you can see, there aren’t too terribly many things that remain, at least for the main version. Rey Nobody can then wait until things are fully ready for that as well.

Am I the only person who didn’t mind Rey Palpatine?

Probably?

SWOTFAN25 said:

L8wrtr’s Star Wars Prequels
Clone Wars
Rebels
OT Despecialized
Force Awakens Restructured
And Last Jedi

I really can’t consider Rise of Skywalker Canon right now. I just can’t. Maybe some day but not now. Sorry JJ.

This, except that it’s Hal’s Prequels for me. TROS is an insult.