SilverKey

I was thinking that even though TPM is supposed to be the first movie in a series, it never really introduces us to anything. It just assumes we all know what Jedi are or what the Force is. Even Yoda, a character who turns out to be a big player throughout the saga, is never introduced as the important character he is.

Maybe it's an idea to have Qui-Gon explain the Force at some point in the movie, and not the Midichlorian talk he has with Anakin before they leave for Naboo.

It might work if Qui-Gon explains the Force to Jar Jar, while they're riding the sub. It might make the ride in the sub a bit more useful, and expand on Jar Jar as a character. He could be more of a curious character than a clumsy one, and his curiousness is what keeps getting him in trouble and banished.

Dialogue for this scene could be taken from Qui-Gon's original scene with Anakin, and there might be some useful Jar Jar dialogue in the Clone Wars animated series.

Could Geonosis be made a lot more interesting, at least visually, with some new matte paintings? Adding in more strange rock formations and those spires could do the trick to set it apart from Tatooine more.

Nice mockup coinilius. I'm not really sure, but at some point, I think Anakin says "Hey wait" or something like that during the movie. Maybe you could put that into the scene as he follows Qui-Gon after he breaks up the fight.

Maybe I missed it, but why the change in Anakin's introduction? What's wrong with the one as it is (yippies and Jar Jar's antics aside)?

And why so keen on introducing Anakin in a fight scene? TPM Anakin is the only true "good" Anakin we get. He's a brat in AOTC and serial killer in ROTS. I'd like to think that at least at *some* point Anakin was a good guy :p

I agree Sidious' reveal could have been a bit better, but I like how the current version plays out.

I guess we were all kind of expecting a big 'reveal' with Sidious pulling back his hood to reveal Palpatine's face, but I kind of agree with the point (I think) Fishman is trying to make: Palpatine mentions being a Sith Lord quite casually because he's goading Anakin into seeing things his way. He doesn't even call himself a Sith Lord until Anakin calls him out on it. He is trying to distort Anakin's views so much (like he did in the scene in the opera house), that being a bad guy doesn't seem all that, well, bad.

The scene could have been written better, I very much agree with that. The writing here is very clumsy. It's like Lucas wants to have all Palpatine's exposition out of the way before Anakin finally comes to the big realization. But this takes so long that Anakin just seems dumb.

I agree Quackula, I never disliked CG Yoda either, except in the fights, which simply shouldn't have happened.

The TPM transfer isn't very good, but of the prequels it feels like the most like a Star Wars movie to me. Might be because of the use of more real world locations and sets, but also because most of it wasn't shot digitally and the film makes the movie look more 'alive'. Everything in AOTC and ROTS, no matter set, model or CGI looks plastic.

Some very interesting ideas Mrbo, but do you think they'd be possible with the material there is?

Personally, I like that the Clone Wars were orchestrated by Palpatine. It's one of the better executed elements of the PT, I think. I agree with you though that a more coherent storyline over the three movies would be better, but I think a focus on Anakin's fall would be better. Why should we care about an organization we don't know that much about to start with? At least we've seen Anakin's rise (somewhat) through the movies.

My idea for the PT would be this: make the Trade Federation in TPM the first Separatists. They blockade Naboo because they want to use the planet's resources for the war they plan to wage against the Republic.

In AOTC, we learn that despite Naboo's victory over the Separatists, the movement has only grown and an arms race has taken place: the Separatists are upping their production of droids and the Republic has created a clone army. The vote Amidala returns to Coruscant for is whether or not to deploy the army on Republic worlds.

ROTS would play out pretty much the same.

A few concepts I'm thinking about (some I picked up in this thread):

Remove the virgin birth and Midichlorians, but keep the Prophecy. I think it adds a bit of mythology to the PT. The PT has no "history".

Have Jango Fett be nameless in AOTC and have him be hired by Sidious to lure the Jedi to Geonosis to start the war, to take away any confusion about what was actually Palpatine's plan, and what was coincidence.

Show Sidious' "Emperor" face in the holograms to add to the surprise that Palpatine is Sidious.

Have Bail Organa be the one to give Palpatine emergency powers. It would make his character a bit more integral to the story, but would also give him a motivation to start the Rebellion in ROTS.

A wild guess, is it from Metropolis, Angel? Anyway, love what you did with it. Nice blend between the concept paintings McQuarrie did and the Coruscant from the movies.

If it's got a thread of its own, it's radical :p Thanks for the tip Frink.

Yep, worth thinking American Hominid. To take your idea a little further: why not use the prequels as flashbacks and integrate them into the OT? Maybe it could work like Watchmen did, where we gather bits and pieces of the past through extended flashbacks.

Love the Vader statues in Palpatine's office Bob! I suggested this in another thread too. Maybe you could keep the statues idea in your edit, only use more stylized Vader shapes over the more obvious ones you used. It might make the appearance of Vader's suit less random, and give it some context in Sith legacy.

I don't mind Owen and Beru not having big parts in the PT, nor do I think we really have to see Obi-Wan telling them what happened to Anakin. What I think would be necessary to see is some interaction between Anakin/Padme and Owen/Beru. 

Some scenes like this were written for AOTC. Most importantly, there was a scene in the garage where the four of them receive the message from Obi-Wan, and Anakin and Owen have a discussion about Anakin leaving. Just like Obi-Wan mentions in ANH. That scene was later reworked in Anakin and Padme receiving the message in Padme's ship and just taking off. I really hope we get to see stuff like this on the Blu-ray release.

Something I have been thinking about: in TPM, Qui-Gon presents Anakin to the Council, and says he thinks he is the Chosen One, while also pointing out that the Sith might have returned. Since the prophecy is about the Chosen One bringing balance by destroying the Sith, it would seem logical for the Jedi to understand that there is something bigger going, even though they never do. This is probably due to the prophecy not having been thought out at that point, but it's another thing that makes the Jedi look pretty dumb.

So how about we change some dialogue to "You refer to the prophecy of the Chosen One who will bring balance back to the Force [and destroy the Sith]. You believe it's this boy?". I'm sure we can grab that extra bit from one of the other movies, and it would also explain what the Prophecy exactly means, which now we only learn in ROTS.

It might also be nice if we could conclude TPM with the Jedi realizing that the Sith have indeed returned and that they must train Anakin so he can destroy them, but I don't see how we could actually do this.

Any thoughts on this?

Not that I agree with everything in his reviews, but it's cool to see that RLM's dissection of ROTS has started up the discussion again and has everybody thinking about stuff in new ways.

One thing that Plinkett brought up that I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see in ROTS was the effects of the war on Coruscant. I understand that it was probably the safest planet to be during the Clone Wars, but the opening crawl states Grievous "swept" into the capital, so we should see some effects of that. Maybe we could take out some of the traffic in the skies and show some columns of smoke here and there. Maybe even show some burn marks on the Senate building. It's nothing too big and difficult to create, I think but would get the message across.

^ LOL

That was awesome Bob. How is the rest of the edit going?

Just when I thought Bob couldn't be any cooler, he comes up with this story :p Witwer seems to like your work Bob, but what would Lucas think? :p

Great work on Palpatine and Dooku, Angel! I can't stand anything about Palpatine after his transformation, but you did a great job on bringing his look a bit closer to his OT look. Maybe it's an idea to make the wrinkles less dark so his face looks less like a mask?

I also like the color adjustment you did on Geonosis in the Dooku pic. There was a brief discussion on radically recoloring Geonosis, but I think what you did here is just perfect. It looks a lot more natural, which is in my opinion especially what this planet of bluescreen and soundstages needs. Once again, great job!

I've always liked the way the PT posters looked. The AOTC poster is my favorite of the entire saga. Too bad it depicts an epicness the movie can't live up too :p

I don't think you really added anything to the TPM and AOTC posters, but I liked what you did with the ROTS poster, if only for replacing that terrible image of Padme that was used on the original poster.

The ROTS poster has always been my least favorite. I don't like the images of the cast that were used and it always seemed a bit too crowded for me. And the composition is weird in that it kind of feels like it should be a landscape poster but not really. You are right in saying that Struzan was asked to put Vader on the poster after he was done with it, so that may have been part of why the composition is a bit forced.

Could some scenes be rearranged to make Anakin's turn a bit more gradual?

Imply, but don't show Anakin killing the Sandpeople, and don't have him confess it to Padme. That might make him a bit more of complex character, and might add an extra layer to his quest against death (wanting to help out his clone wingman in the battle, hesitating to, and regretting killing Dooku, not wanting to leave Obi-Wan behind, trying so save Padme): he's doing it out of guilt.

Then in ROTS, Anakin watches Palpatine kill Windu, but doesn't actually take a part in it. He sides with Palpatine and is sent to Mustafar to kill the Separatists. The Separatists have been the bad guys the entire trilogy so Anakin killing them would still be his first dark deed as a Sith Lord, but still be somewhat ambiguous.Then the fight with Obi-Wan takes place and Anakin is injured.

When he wakes up, Palpatine tells him he has lost everything, and that's when the true Jedi hunt (Order 66 and the raid on the Temple start).Maybe those scenes could be the climax of the movie.

I'm not really sure how and if it would work, but I think it might make Anakin's turn a bit more gradual and layered.

The Force push is a nice idea Bob, and it looked pretty good in your mock up. As others have pointed out, there is the inconsistency with Anakin's robe.

I also agree that Anakin pushing Mace out of the window would be taking it the situation a bit too far. At that point, Anakin is only trying to stop Mace, he wants Palpatine arrested, not dead. If Anakin pushes Mace out of the window, he just flat out murdered him.

Some already mentioned that they felt it was already too much for Anakin to chop off Mace's hand. So how is this for a solution: one of the posters here (Davnes or SSWR if I remember correctly) made a mock up off the scene where Anakin blocks Mace's saber right in front of Palpatine's face, just like how Vader blocks Luke's saber when he swings at the Palpatine in ROTJ. In the mock up, Palpatine uses Mace being distracted and blasts him out of the window.

It's a good idea and I don't think the actual time cut from the movie would be missed. I just think we'd miss a lot character introductions. The material doesn't really support it either.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with going back to the planet, it fits in the traditional story arc of resolving a problem that was set up in the first act.

It would be nice however if we could see some change on Naboo: blastmarks on the buildings or (partially) destroyed buildings, grazed meadows, burnt down forests, stuff like that. That would really drive home the seriousness of the queen's plight throughout the film.

That's really cool Bob. ROTS is my favorite prequel as well, but I'm very curious about what you'd do with AOTC, because in my opinion, that's the worst Star Wars movie of all 6. I'd love to exchange ideas with you on that one, when the times comes.

Right now, I'm more excited about your ROTS edit than I am for Ady's ESB:R. I especially love how you removed Dooku's ridiculous salto and your take on Palpatine vs the Jedi. Keep up the great work!

I never noticed those were two different sabers. Oh well, the issue stands, there is nothing special about the saber.

Of course I can imagine him just picking up the saber somewhere, but wouldn't it be a little random? And him picking it up somewhere on Coruscant is in my view no different then picking it up on the lava bank.

Anyway, Bob did a good job and it's an inspired idea, but I just don't really think it works. Still looking forward to the edit though!

Good points, Bingo and rpvee. I especially agree with Bingo's point: there is no legacy to Anakin's saber at all. It would have been great to have seen Anakin construct it, and carry it with him throughout the saga, and as rpvee put it so nicely, change the fate of the galaxy.

Maybe it would be an idea for an AOTC edit to show Anakin with a green lightsaber, and have him have a blue one in ROTS, so we can assume he built a new one? The one he has in ROTS now is just the spare he got on Geonosis.

I like Bob's idea to give Anakin a red saber, but I also agree that it's not really needed for the story. Sure it would look cool, but only if it can be made to work. As cool as Bob's work is, I don't really see it work.

Also funny how everybody is saying that it's ok to just assume Obi-Wan just retrieved Anakin's saber at some point between ROTS and ANH, while everybody was all over Lucas when he forgot to film Obi-Wan picking up the saber. And when would Obi-Wan get the saber? If we'd go Bob's route, the saber would be on Coruscant, and Obi-Wan was stuck on Tatooine at the end of ROTS.

Too bad you're "leaving" SSWR. BingoWings already said it all, but I too really enjoyed your ideas and videos. I hope everything is alright :)

brash_stryker said:

SilverKey said:

As meaningless as it is, I think the Yoda vs Dooku duel is the best we get in AOTC. They put way more thought into that one than in editing the one with Obi-Wan and Anakin. 

You're kidding, right? Lol. Sorry, but whilst the Dooku vs Obi/Anakin duel might be boring and lacking in any emotion, the Yoda duel is freaking terrible.

Aside from looking ridiculous, it completely undermines what Yoda is all about.

Nope, not kidding. I think that as an action scene, maybe even as the traditional climactic lightsaber duel, the Yoda/Dooku duel is far more exciting than that hack and slash job (by which I mean the editing) of the Obi-Wan and Anakin vs Dooku fight. It was also a big crowd pleaser.

That doesn't automatically mean that it was right, but I thought it worked way better and was more pleasing to watch.

I don't really think the Obi-Wan and Anakin vs Dooku duel can actually be fixed unless someone breaks into LucasFilm's archives and steals all the footage that was shot for the duel. None of the edit really work, because there is nothing to work with.