NeverarGreat

Sorry I haven’t responded yet, but I’ve had to take my mind off the hook for a while regarding Star Wars in general and this edit in particular. After TROS, everything’s felt a bit surreal. It’s the sort of movie that I feel like pushes the ST into such a campy, turn-your-brain-off direction that any work these fanedits could do is practically meaningless. I suppose that there is still value in them as standalone projects, but those are the feelings I’ve been grappling with. In addition, the total sum of work I’ve put into Starlight has, for me, not been equal to the result. Many things about it are a mixed bag, as your excellent feedback has pointed out. Not that I am opposed to criticism, quite the opposite! But I know that a lot of work must still be done to make this the edit that you have all been hoping for, and I’m not sure that I’m up to the task. But let’s get to the specifics!

I’ve read all of the points but there are so many from quite a few people on the forum and in PM form that I should probably just go through the big issues at once:

BB-8’s scene after the interrogation - I’m still hoping to turn this into a more developed little scene. Otherwise I’d have to revert to the sequence of events in the original which is rather nonesensical.

Rey’s pre-interrogation dream - I’m on the fence about this. Maybe I can make it good enough to work, but on the other hand perhaps less is more here. There are a lot of dreams and visions going on with this edit, and this is the one that is least integral despite setting up the final scenes of the movie.

Rey’s final dream - Several people have mentioned that the TLJ clips are too out of place, and I’m inclined to agree. If the previous dream stays in, my intention is to remove the TLJ moments and simply rely on the iconography of the island. This will probably be enough to avoid whiplash with this new ending.

Starlight vs Restructured on Hosnian destruction - The consensus here seems to be that Restructured did this best, putting it right after Han’s death. Since I edited that sequence for Restructured, I will consider that a compliment 😉 But seriously, I’m actually leaning toward keeping the Starlight version, reason being that this version satisfies one of the goals of the edit - that of tightening the logic of the film - where Restructured bends the time logic even more with an extended death and destruction sequence with a cutaway to Leia before Chewie fires on Kylo. The original theatrical version took me out of the events with just the Leia cutaway, so Restructured is actually worse in this regard. Also, despite being a slightly more effective one-two gut punch, this requires the weapon to charge again and has a plot-jolting scene with Hux and Snoke to reset the tension. Hopefully I can get some new dialogue for the Hux countdown scene and re-include it. As for Leia’s cutaway, I think it might be good to cut down the Oscillator explosion even more to get more quickly to her reaction, and smooth the music where the cutaway originally happened.

Speaking of sound, that seemed to be the source of a lot of issues. I’ve already done some work in this regard post release, but your comments on sound issues are very helpful since I have trouble identifying all of them.

On a more positive note, I’m glad that people have responded so well to many of the changes such as the regradings and small tweaks throughout. The voices before Kylo kills Han started off as a weird little idea that few people remarked on at first, but seems to be a hit. I also haven’t heard anything about quite a few things I’ve put into the film or removed, and I’m curious if that’s because they’re not worth commenting on or whether they’re so seamless as to avoid detection. Probably the first, but I can always hope that in a few cases I’ve performed a magic trick 😃

So I know that this started out a bit pessimistic, but I’m glad people have overall enjoyed the work and want me to continue. And it will, maybe not right away but at some point when TROS has settled and we can get to work on that as well.

Thank you all so much! You are really the reason I enjoy doing this, after all 😃

DominicCobb said:

NeverarGreat said:

But that vision of Rey wasn’t in the final film, right? He just got a bunch of images from previous events and such.

I believe in one of the flashes you can see Dark Rey on the throne.

Heh, I watched it twice and still didn’t catch that, even when looking for it the second time. Probably should have been more prominent than blink and you miss it.

But that vision of Rey wasn’t in the final film, right? He just got a bunch of images from previous events and such.

Is the oracle scene the one where we see the vision of Rey and Kylo on the throne? Because that was referenced several times in the final film and surely seems like something we should have seen, right?

RogueLeader said:

This might be a cheat answer, but I absolutely loved this new theme by John Williams that shows up in a few different tracks. I like to call it the “Family Theme” since it usually plays when Rey is on screen with her found family.

That whole track is the best.

Hal 9000 said:

I’m not going back to TLJ, and am not interested in substantial alterations to suit this movie.

I’m feeling cynical about this movie right now, and I’ll be trying to brew tea using cow urine. This movie might just be best enjoyed with a few drinks and laughter.

“They got Chewie! They got him!”

bahahahaha

Indeed. I had perhaps an optimal first viewing, going on 2 hours of sleep, and in that way it was hilarious. But even at its best it essentially ridicules the viewer for attempting to find greater meaning in the rest of the ST.

I haven’t touched any of my fanedit projects since it was released and that disinterest isn’t abating. Maybe something will change if they release a director’s cut of TROS, and I’ll probably finish Starlight and remain a part of this community, but even so this movie feels like the end of an era, and not in a good way. It makes me feel silly for caring about Star Wars. I could feel gutted and bitter, but it’s more fun to laugh.

Every frame is so dense.

Lightspeed skipping is like the Bayhem or action scenes from Roland Emmerich disaster movies, like driving a plane through a collapsing skyscraper as the world blows up around it. At a certain point the tension caused by the bending of known rules and physical laws is released and you simply have to sit back and watch the madness wash over you. And that’s not terrible. I enjoyed TROS mostly because of how willfully it destroyed tension in service of action schlock. There’s nothing wrong with that, and Star Wars has dabbled in that realm many times before.

But compare any of those Bayhem scenes to, say, the Langley heist from the first Mission Impossible movie. That is a scene which takes place in almost complete silence with a single guy on a wire. It takes a good ten or fifteen minutes and it’s one of the most creative, tense, rewarding ‘action’ sequences I’ve ever experienced. The reason it’s so good is that the movie establishes clear rules and is careful never to exceed them.

Again, Star Wars isn’t MI nor should it be. But the point is that rules breed creativity and tension within a movie and breaking them releases this creativity in favor of imagination and breaks tension in favor of spectacle.

I hate the lack of creativity and tension in TROS.
I love the imagination and spectacle of TROS.

That is all.

Anything to lessen or remove the lightspeed skipping would be a plus. It’s the most patently absurd part of the movie, and that’s saying something.

Might be weird with the festival part, but otherwise would work.

Although I think B works well, 4D is also really nice in terms of keeping everything. It still feels rather abrupt though. Maybe it would work if you seeded the idea of Palps trying to contact Kylo earlier in the film. Maybe it could be tied to the Force Skype idea in general; since Rey is connected to Palps through blood it makes some sense that Palps would be in on these calls to some extent as well. Maybe when Kylo is having his scar stitched there could be the sound of electrical interference and maybe a small spark from the medical droid, causing Kylo to brush it away. Or when he’s standing before the walkers in the hangar there could be the sound of a distorted intercom. It could be very subtle, but just something that keys the audience into the fact that strange things happen in their real world as the Force connection is made, and that these things are becoming more pronounced as they connect more and more.

It would also play into TROS with actual object teleportation.

Great work in any case!

https://i.imgur.com/dh0KoVC.mp4

DuracellEnergizer said:

This discussion is funny, but not “ha ha” funny.

Watch a 2-hour critique of a movie you love/hate/have mixed feelings on/indifferent towards or don’t. Whatever.

Truth.

With the Sith Wayfinder in TROS it would be really cool to see an illustration of it in the Jedi Texts in TLJ. It wouldn’t be too terribly convenient either since Luke was supposedly looking for Exegol before going after the First Jedi Temple, so he would have reason to turn to that page.

Hello there.

Dew it.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Alright, I can run with clone madness being inherent in Force-sensitive clones. Vader’s persisting handicaps remain unresolved, though (or is Palpatine just that huge a dick?)

Isn’t it obvious?

Vader’s replacement parts would have to be Midi-compatible, and thus would individually go insane. Have you ever had a psychotic pair of lungs or a pyromaniac left leg?

https://imgur.com/gallery/4Yth7Ep

Making Jakku Tatooine would at least go some way towards explaining some of the more coincidental aspects of the ST, such as why a group of Jedi adherents looking for Luke are camped out there. People on Tatooine would have a greater than average interest in the Falcon as well, so a Junk dealer like Plutt would probably want to buy it just to put it out front and attract more business with a famous ship. Also, Rey’s Palpatine parent might have been drawn to Tatooine because of its closeness to the two people who overthrew the Emperor and be drawn to it through the Force.

Finally, Rey’s final scene would have special significance to her since it’s a return to her beginning as well.

Of course I don’t think any of this is feasible due to the amount of times Jakku is name-dropped in the ST.

I also think the radio is a bit odd. Maybe if we got an indication that this radio broadcast was something only Kylo could hear, it would tie into the ‘voices in your head’ line from TROS. But really, in order to not reuse shots and make the scene feel like it’s cohesive, I think it will have to be just about Kylo/Rey or just about Kylo/Palps. The Kylo/Rey scene, as much as it is good on its own, has a finality about it as if Rey is shutting the door on any relationship they could have had, which feels weird based on TROS. So maybe cutting the Kylo/Rey bit would do more good than harm.

Or maybe it would shift between blue and white or blue and yellow to reflect the unstable crystal and Rey’s pull to the Dark Side.

jarbear said:

Need the lightsaber toss though, not only is it necessary to show why Ben does not have a lightsaber when he visits Palp Tower … but it’s symbolic as heck.

It will also be important in Episode XIII when Kylan Gebo finds and uses this saber to become the master of the Knighted Confederacy of Ren.

Resurrection is one of the few things about this movie that makes it feel like a thematic conclusion to the Saga to me, so I’ll fight to keep Rey’s death.

Sure, but why not have it that her parents never came back? This genuinely feels like a mistake on Rian’s part, whereas almost all of his other departures from expectation were motivated by an important thematic reason. But regardless, we’re kinda getting off topic.

Kylo’s line ‘They’re dead in a pauper’s grave on Jakku’ makes me think that nobody making TLJ or TROS bothered to rewatch Rey’s vision from TFA.