smpearce1981

I love the visuals from 4A…ie the Rey/Kylo moment but with the more subtle radio message from 4b…ie no laughter (in my opinion it’s just too on the nose)

I personally feel that Kylo should really be questioning what he heard Or if he even heard it and so he might even be questioning his own sanity considering that he has just lost everything:- His father, any ties to his mother, Snoke and his budding human connection with Rey

He’s lost it all apart from the First order…but in his first command as Supreme Leader he has just been made to look quite incompetent and he knows it, hence I quite like the subtext that he might question what he’s hearing as his self doubt in that moment might make him wonder if he can hold it together under the pressure

Hence why I think a ‘less is more’ approach to the signal would be more psychological than it being spelled out as a very definitive radio or force connection.

“What was that? Who was that? Was that the radio? Did I even hear it?

It came and went so quick I can’t be sure and I never heard it again…but I’m sure I heard a voice…’his’ voice and now it’s like a splinter in my mind”

'Luke Skywalker has vanished!

In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire and plots to rule the free Galaxy once again.

Having Failed to convince the NEW REPUBLIC to take action against the emergent threat, General Leia Organa has formed a loyal RESISTANCE to strike back against the First Order as it moves to complete a devastating new weapon that will force the galaxy back into a new period of fear and tyranny

Desperate for her brothers help, Leia has sent her best pilot on a covert mission to Jakku, where an old ally holds a clue to Luke’s whereabouts…’

or a similar variation of the same thing but with a few changes:-

Luke Skywalker has gone into exile!

In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire and moves to complete a devastating new weapon that will enable them to rule the free galaxy once again.

Having Failed to convince the NEW REPUBLIC to take action against the emergent threat, General Leia Organa has formed a loyal RESISTANCE to strike back against the First Order before it plunges the galaxy into a new reign of fear and tyranny.

Desperate for her brothers help, Leia has sent her most trusted pilot on a covert mission to the remote planet of Jakku, where an old ally holds a clue to Luke’s whereabouts…’

Or you could mix and match any of a million different combinations…or just leave the original as it is 😃

Just building on Eddy’s idea for an opening crawl?

‘The sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire and plots to enslave the galaxy once again.

Having Failed to convince the NEW REPUBLIC of the emerging threat, General Leia Organa has formed a loyal RESISTANCE to strike back against the First Order as it moves to complete a devastating new weapon that will force the free galaxy back into submission…’

EddyMerkxs said:

Hal 9000 said:

Fair points, especially that last one; hadn’t considered that. I’ll have to consider that as I mock it up.

Eddy, do you have any specific ideas about the crawl? I like what we have now, but would hear you out.

Ah sorry, this hidden in an earlier post, my changes in bold:

The sinister FIRST ORDER plots its return to power, hidden in the ashes of the fallen Empire.

Failing to convince the NEW REPUBLIC to investigate this emerging threat, General Leia Organa mobilizes a covert RESISTANCE while the First Order completes a devastating new weapon.

Your crawl is far far better than theatrical, but I still felt it could be tweaked a bit to set the stage. Po is surprised to see the First Order ships, but we don’t know that should be surprising.

As you know, we don’t get any conference table scene describing the state of the galaxy till TROS, so I thought stronger language could make it clearer. But also your crawl is close enough, either way thankful for the edit.

Hi Snooker!

Loving the look of this.

I strongly dislike AOTC, primarily because I think there was a huge disconnect in how it looked…which I attribute/attributed to GL’s switch to filming the movie in digital (which back then was in it’s infancy)

On top of your colour grading, have you added some artificial film-esque grain?

If so it looks great!!!

…if not, IT STILL LOOKS GREAT!!

Beautiful work, I look forward to watching this.

As a subpoint do any of you guys remember the way back when this was being shot, the leaked storyboards for the Obi-wan and Jango fight on Kamino and the Jango/Windu/Reek sequence in the Arena?

I remember being gutted when the film released and both sequences were missing some great shots of action choreography that were storyboarded, but what made it worse was how obvious it was that they must have been shot but must have been butchered out during editing because of how poorly parts of the fight flowed from shot to shot where those pieces were missing.

I never could understand what forced the cuts and it’s a shame no cut footage from those sequences ever saw the light of day otherwise they’d make great material to be reinserted back via fan edits

I don’t dislike TROS, in fact I really enjoyed the feel of it tonally. However it’s the first SW movie I’ve come out from the first viewing and immediately had things that I could pick apart/question and wish there was more

My primary issue with the whole thing is that, when so many larger ‘A’ plotlines from the overall series needed further exploration or resolving why the movie wasted so much of it’s precious runtime introducing new ‘B’ plotlines that it didn’t even resolve within the movie itself.

As a result the whole movie felt rushed and incomplete. Not BAD just hugely…unsatisfying?

We could go into the ‘why’s’ of it forever, but the fact remains that we got what we got and so as a a SW Fan edit community what can we collectively come up with to hopefully improve upon it?

For me, most of my hope is resting on what deleted or extended scenes we get on the home release, as I don’t think the main problems with the movie are found in what is in the movie, it’s in what isnt’t??

I’d love to be more constructive in what ideas I could throw out to the talented editors out there, but without a sniff of what deleted scenes might get released it’s very hard to do, and I’d be extremely reluctant to suggest making more cuts bar the odd line here or there.

All/most references to Fin’s apparent ‘force sensitivity’ and especially his attempts to confide in Rey are an obvious one I suppose as it’s all goes nowhere.

I don’t like how the Zori and Poe angle also goes nowhere, but I suppose we get a little bit of background on Poe’s character so it might still justify it’s existence?

Jannah and Fin, is the same. Goes nowhere…there might be some scope to play around there.

But unless we get some extra content on the possible Jannah and Lando connection, Lando’s ‘let’s go find out’ has to get thrown out.

(I’m not even sure how that line even made it into the final cut considering that the film makers clearly binned off everything else relating to that plot line?)

I’d really hope there’s more material from Mustafar, Exegol and generally more Rey and Kylo scenes both separate and together.

They have been the central focus of the new trilogy and so they deserve more robust plot lines that we really didn’t get in the theatrical release.

I appreciate that none of what I’ve written above is particularly constructive, but I’m just not scene by scene familiar with it enough yet to properly suggest changes, and I’m really hoping we get more meat in the home release to fill out the existing holes.

Hi HAL,

Personally I’d vote to leave the holochess alone.

Fan service or not, it’s a nice call back and it doesn’t impact on the movie in any negative way.

In my opinion the strength of your edit’s is in not being overly brutal and only cutting or restructuring areas where there are narrative weakness’s or more effective means of strengthening or clarifying plot points or contrivances.

I would argue that when it comes to holochess existing within the movie, there wouldn’t be any significant benefit to the outcome or pacing of the scene to warrant it’s removal…at least not in my opinion based on my interpretaion of your vision for this particular project (which is to gently restructure rather than look at ways to cut it to the bare bone?)

In it’s current form TFA:AGR is my go to version of this movie and as per the above: even if you did remove holochess, that wouldn’t change my opinion on the larger body of work, so I’ll respect your decision either way.

My advice would be to just go with your gut on what you feel suits your vision best.

poppasketti said:

Ok, here’s a pass of a less subtle hood appearance as the two shadows merge.
https://vimeo.com/382919336
pw: fanedit

I used a shot from ROTJ to get the motion, but I wonder if this is a little too explicit. To me, it’s obviously Palpatine, and I wonder if I should dial it back.

@Poppasketi

I just want to chime in on some of your ideas you’ve been playing with/demonstrating since ROS released.

I LOVE them!

With regard to the Palpatine radio signal. YES!! This is absolutely amazing, and I wasn’t all distracted by the ‘repeated’ Kylo reaction shots. I don’t think they were overly obvious or overused.

Adam Drivers reactions in this scene are so still and internalised with his emotins conveyed through his eyes that there’s no motion that makes it too obvious that there’s a repeated shot.

I understand what some are saying about whether the radio broadcast is the right play or not, but I think it totally works, considering that by the opening crawl of ROS it’s revealed that Palpatine has used a broadcast to reveal his return.

However, to play devils advocate, maybe it’s possible to play for ‘the middle ground’

Have maybe the radio display twitch at either the beginning of the message…or the end (or both?) but otherwise remain static.

Maybe the readout just twitches for the ‘static’, but not the message?

The implication being that it sounds like Palpatine is coming through the radio but neither Kylo or the audience can be completely sure…which plays into whether it’s all in Kylo’s head?

To address your sith whispers and the new hooded silhouette, these totally work for me.

Whether this is retrospectively obvious or not, I don’t think any us could claim we would 100 percent notice this if we were watching TLJ for the first time, and we (as in the fanbase) would only start to scrutinise and analyse on later viewings…before we started frothing at the mouth as we all questioned what it meant. So I really think you should own it and go all in on the idea.

I LOVE your edit of TLJ as it is already. It’s always been a close call between you and HAL but it’s totally your work on the removal of Phasma and the battle of Crait with the new the ‘shoot down’ elements that edge it for me.

I’m keeping a keen eye on all of your future versions of your edit, because at least in it’s current form it’s my go to version of the film, and everything you’ve demonstrated post ROS has got me even more excited.

(Just as a sub-point whilst I’m talking to you, though:- Did you see ‘TiMartyn’s’ TLJ edit?

What he did with Poe’s intro and the complete removal of the dialogue between him and Hux was astounding from a pacing perspective…it really carried the pace and tone from TFA straight into TLJ before the movie naturally slows down after the bombing raid goes wrong…

TiMartyn’s choices here REALLY worked for me…as I felt it really heightened Poe’s kamikaze/devil my care nature as a pilot and just got the movie off to an immediately exciting start.

I thought it might be worth you taking a look and maybe considering whether that approach or something similar might fit your vision or not?)

Anyhow, please keep up your amazing work,

…I’ll be watching your career with great interest 😉

Amazing!!

Hal 9000 said:

Whenever I get the chance, I will play around with removing the high pitched Minis Morgul-ish sound at the end of the foley as Luke looks into Kylo’s mind, in order to lay down an Emperor laugh that is still subtle while being a bit easier to make out.

What DV-330 said!

I added some commentary as to why I think this is a genius idea on Hal’s Legendary board.

Now that someone has mooted the idea/concept, I can’t help but think it’s an absolute must

Quote from Hal’s TFA: A Gentle Restructure board:-

I think adding the Palpatine laugh is a great idea and in my mind it works on at least two levels:-

1. On one hand even IF the addition is not not directly linked in TROS, it could give a bit of extra weight to Luke’s mindset that caused him to actually consider killing Ben:-
   The surge of Paranoia caused by seeing a vision of Ben turn and then associating him with becoming as cruel and evil as his former foe.

It’s that which ultimately triggers Luke to ignite his saber, almost as if it’s an instinctive response triggering by PTSD

…by the time he gathers his senses and decides not to give in to his fear, it’s too late.

2. Or if TROS goes down the path that we are all thinking it will:-
   It’s a more literal indication/foreshadowing that Palpatine was/is still pulling the strings from beyond the grave and able to extort his influence over both the heroes and villains in order to position all of them into doing everything he needs them to do in order to execute his return to power.

In this case, even in ‘death’, Palpatine was able to capitalise on Luke’s fear/weakness and manipulate him into pushing Ben away…which subsequently cemented his turn.

And this brings us back to what he said back in the throne room during ROTJ:-

‘Everything That Has Transpired Has Done So According to My Design’

Morning TiMartin

Thanks for the link to this yesterday.

So I’ve watched it through and thought I’d give you some feedback on your excellent work:-

Firstly - The editing/soundmixing/quality surrounding all things technical is absolutely top notch!! It’s all Seamless and well executed. The new musical cues are also excellently mixed so a full 10/10 for this side of things, I can totally see that you’ve spent a lot of time just working this into a finsihed product. Amazing work!

Now onto the actual Story, now there are probably lots of little beats and changes that I’ll fail to mention. So what I would say is this, if I don’t mention it below then the changes were so seamless they escape all scrutiny for good or bad…so that in itself means it’s good, right? 😃

Ok, so:

1. Poe’s new entrance. EXCELLENT!

This is obviously quite an aggressive edit, and I’ve seen a few edits that have omitted the humour but kept the original idea of Poe stalling Hux.

This version where we jump straight in to Poe’s assault REALLY works. Especially as we don’t know it’s Poe until we get the close up of him ‘Wooooh’ing’ it’s a really solid ‘hero’ moment and really captures the character but also carries the breakneck pace from TFA over into the beginning of this movie.

Love it!

2. Luke’s saber drop. I really like it!

Technically it’s totally sound but obviously due to the limits of the source material, I think it’s just missing something. Whether it’s a pause, or a shot of the saber hitting the floor, I don’t know…I think the footage just needs to hold somewhere for another second or two to reflect the drop.

I know that this isn’t really possible considering the source material and that such a change takes some serious work in itself, let alone trying to make something else out of nothing.

3. The Kylo not firing/no bridge explosion edit. I like this, it works around the ‘Leia Poppins’ problem but from this point I think this choice is the start of revealing the compromises you had to make with regard to cutting out and subsequently around larger pieces of the story.

4. The Rose/Fin/Leia/Holdo cuts- The Resistance Storyline

Ok before I dig in to this, please let me tell you how (as above) all of the technical elements totally sell the edit, but from a story perspective the aggressiveness of this edit starts to make the overall movie feel like there are fundamental pieces missing (which of course they are) but I would say that the bits you have cut (although they are the most openly criticised creative decisions within the original cut, are so fundamental to the structure, now that they are gone, leave holes in the narrative that are too big to cut around) I totally acknowledge why and the job you have done to get it to where it is, is AMAZING. But I think the aggressiveness of this edit is probably a touch too much for it hold it together and not present new questions to the audience - Who? Why? What?

I know why you cut Rose and Fin and everything that relates to their trip to Canto-Bight (the lead in, the trip itself and the aftermath) and it’s all fine, but now we just have major characters that disappear for such a long part of the movie (this includes Leia, Poe and Holdo) that when we do catch up with them, as an audience member it’s jarring and everything about where, they’ve been, why they are evacuating, who Holdo is and why she might be important (because she is played by Laura Dern and all of a sudden gets such an massively dramatic death scene) left me with more questions than the frustrating part of the original plot relating to her inherited leadership and her relationship with Poe.

As I’ve said, I know why all this has been cut, I would just offer that maybe it’s just not fully possible to be this aggressive, structurally speaking?

None of this is meant as criticism of your work. I hope I’ve already explained enough above to outline that your editing skills are top drawer!.

I also totally acknowledge that maybe my own personal view on what constitutes the lesser of two evils between keeping the story elements that generate so much debate or the questions presented by their removal sadly falls in favour of the original cut?

However, I fully recognise that it’s all subjective, but maybe there’s a middle ground somewhere?

(Some of the most interesting edits I’ve seen to get around some of the issues with the original creative decisions or structure/pacing of the movie are:-

• Luke using the Force the rescue Leia after she is sucked into space - although I’d like to this in better quality and with a less bombastic - more John Williams-esque score.

• Edits that deal with Canto Bight in a ‘they get in and get out’ manner before heading off to meet the First Order in a similarly less bloated manner - These versions seem to keep the movie from having large holes where the audience then has to fill in the gaps, but also just get the worst parts of this movie out the way in a quicker and more efficient manner)

5. Snoke’s death

This worked, I’d argue it was a little too aggressive? But there is nothing here that doesn’t work. It’s definitely on the more aggressive side of what a lot of people have been doing with removing all of the telegraphing that Kylo is about to kill snoke, and maybe it lacks a little bit of the tension due to it occurring a lot quicker with less smack talk from Snoke, but it’s efficient and it certainly works.

6. The battle of Crait.

This was another part of the movie where I just felt that the omission of Fins sacrifice left a hole somewhere.

What you did worked from an editing point of view, but there was no crescendo to the action.

6. The Porgs on the Falcon

The reveal of Chewie as he roars is clearly cut a moment short in order to remove the Porg and it’s own battle cry.

The shorter cut is the one cut in this movie where I feel I noticed the edit itself due to the placement and pacing of the shot. A bit like Luke dropping the saber at the beginning, it’s the abruptness of the shot ending that makes it stand out.

7. The ending/Final shit

I really LOVE your new ending shot, just the remainder of the heroes on the Falcon, rather than the ‘broom kid’
The composition reminds me of the final shot of ROTJ, and so the iris out feels totally right here and is a lot better than the original version IMO

There is a LOT to love here, I love your pacing, to get all of the major/important beats into a concise 1.5hr movie is a tremendous feat, and you should be really proud of the job you have done, especially from a technical perspective.

There are some compromises within the structure and story, but this plays like a TLJ greatest hits, all of the fun, none of the dross with some serious improvements in there too.

I’d love to see your approach with a slightly more conservative cut just to balance it out a bit, but otherwise this is a really really solid and accomplished effort and I really enjoyed watching it.

Many thanks for all of your hard work, you are a really talented and accomplished editor to do what you did with it.

Thank you so much.

Kindest regards

Hi Hal

I think adding the Palpatine laugh and outright ‘owning it’ is a great idea and in my mind it works on at least two levels:-

1. On one hand even IF the addition is not not directly linked in TROS, it could give a bit of extra weight to Luke’s mindset that caused him to actually consider killing Ben:-

The surge of Paranoia caused by seeing a vision of Ben turn and then associating him with becoming as cruel and evil as his former foe.

It’s that which ultimately triggers Luke to ignite his saber, almost as if it’s an instinctive response triggering by PTSD

…by the time he gathers his senses and decides not to give in to his fear, it’s too late.

2. Or if TROS goes down the path that we are all thinking it will:-

It’s a more literal indication/foreshadowing that Palpatine was/is still pulling the strings from beyond the grave and able to extort his influence over both the heroes and villains in order to position all of them into doing everything he needs them to do in order to execute his return to power.

In this case, even in ‘death’, Palpatine was able to capitalise on Luke’s fear/weakness and manipulate him into pushing Ben away…which subsequently cemented his turn.

And this brings us back to what he said back in the throne room during ROTJ:-

‘Everything That Has Transpired Has Done So According to My Design’

So in the words of Palpy himself: ‘Do it’ (?) 😃

Well no, but still, you deserve to be recognised on account of your own excellent work too! 😃

Urgh!!!

HAL9000, HAL9000, HAL9000, HAL9000, HAL9000!!!

I TOTALLY KNEW THAT!!

Total oversight on my part…HUGE APOLOGIES TO HAL!!! 😕

Thankyou for this!!

I loved V1!

Adywan’s TFA: Restructure and your TLJ: Rekindled are my ‘go to’ versions of these movies, sounds like the small refinements only add to the polish so I’m excited to check them out so I’m currently downloading the 34GB bad boy to potentially replace V1 😃

Big thanks, Poppasketti

Well, this TFA edit stands apart from any other ‘fan edits’ I’ve watched before.

I always like seeing well done fan edits, if for no other reason than just to see other peoples ideas

…this however goes beyond that.

It takes what was already there and restructures it into what I (and seemingly a LOT of others) would argue is a more effective narrative structure.

BUT…it’s more than that! …the glue you have used to bind your vision together is nigh on industry standard…or at least in how it appears…so you deserve to be very proud.

I’m also a huge fan of the changes you made to TLJ! I could say the same about that edit as well if I’m honest.

I’m an unapologetic fan of Disney era Star Wars. I think with TFA and TLJ at least the basic content is there to play around with, shuffle, edit, cut, rework and so if you have the skills and resources that you clearly do, I think some of the issues a lot of us fans have with them in their original forms, can be worked with or around.

Funny what you said about EP3 though:-

I’ve been through all of your Prequel edits and I’ll say this:

All of them are exponentially better for your work on them, but it’s so easy to see how little there is to really work with to make them better movies.

Whether it’s the awful expositionary/hollow dialogue and/or poor acting, the ageing CGI (which has held up less well in 20 years than the practical effects from the OT have over 40), the sloppy editing and non-existent cinematography and how all of that combines to make the entire trilogy one huge missed opportunity (well thats MY view on the prequels as a whole)

The jump (at least chronologically) between EP3 to EP4 is jarring enough just on account of the 25 odd years between them…forgetting CGI, even in just how they look (one shot on film and the being shot on relative early digital cameras)

One looks and feels like a FILM, the other looks sterile and artificial, cartoony but without any real ‘joy’.

To this day I still think TPM looks and feels the most Star Wars out of the PT…despite it’s many missteps I think it still holds up, and I really do think that’s because it was shot on film.

Don’t get me started on EP2 though, it’s just the worst. In every way.

Your edits of these have at least got rid of some the intolerable guff and sharpened up some of the narratives across all 3 Prequel movies, but I can fully appreciate how that must have been really hard just on account of having so little to really work with in order to make any of them GREAT in their own right?

So to me your Ep3 (LOE, right?) edit isn’t at all controversial. I think it takes a ‘less is more’ approach, keeps things tighter and more in theme with what we thought we knew when we just had the OT.

Hi HAL

As I was just saying to RogueLeader

I haven’t even begun to pick apart what would be involved and even if those idea would work.

The closest I got was ‘skipping the chapter’ on the player to get a worse than rough idea on whether it could flow.

I hadn’t even got to the point where I trimmed the pieces and placed in a rough edit to see if there was anything there, so I’m not even talking from a place where I’ve means tested these ideas. They really were just the start of some thoughts.

You are the one who has laboured over this and picked it apart and put it all back together again so I’ll happily accept that you might just know what you are talking about here 😃

Thanks again.

Hi RogueLeader

Thanks for the response!

Funnily enough, the exit hyperspace sound from TLJ was EXACTLY what I had in mind too, as I said, something as ‘simple’ as just a sound cue, to just give some context to why people might be gathering to look up at the sky.

With regard to both of those observations I made, I haven’t picked it all apart enough to have even a rough idea of what would be involved. ie working around wipes and fades, sound and music mix either side of the edits etc.

Please know that I am VERY aware that it’s very easy for someone like me to throw ideas and suggestions around when I’m not the one who has spent months/years labouring over the project.

I totally appreciate that me sitting here from the comfort of my desk without the relevant software/hardware/general skills and having the nerve to make recommendations is a bit rich…

If I did have the kit, I’d definitely see what I could throw together just to ‘give back’ a bit, especially when HAL has clearly busted his ass to make something so near to perfect (and lets be honest the actual ordering of the main scene in question is inherent to the original cut, not so much as a creative decision made by HAL)

However, considering the effort that has gone into EVERYTHING here, editing, VFX, sound mix etc…I think anything I’d add or shuffle would just look and sound amateur and the product would ultimately be worse for my involvement with (MUCH!) less skilled execution.

If/when HAL does chime in, please know that I only brought these ideas to the table BECAUSE the product is so damn good well thought out and executed that these ideas are only supposed to be suggestions relating to last ditch house keeping/refinement/polishing rather than anything that needs changing.

I love your work. Thanks again for all of your effort.

Hi Hal/Community

So I watched this in it’s entirety last night.

What an amazing effort not only from an editing/story structure perspective, but also technically!

I’ve lurked on the periphery of the fan edit community for years…albeit I’ve been on a lengthy hiatus, but to come back into the fold and see how works like this have evolved is just jaw dropping!

The work here really is pretty seamless. I may have to rewatch this a few more times to really absorb it but on initial viewing this may be my ‘go to’ version of TFA from now on. It just seems to be so logical that it would be structured this way.

If I had any ‘critisism’ or observations to make at all (and I’m scraping the barrel here)…it would be that there might be a few more avenues to explore with regard to restructuring/reordering some of the original scenes.

Because I was watching this with an overly critical eye (which is a polite way of saying that I was LOOKING for/expecting flaws) a scene jumped out at me as being questionably placed (with regard to it’s timing within the story)

I cross referenced it’s placement against the original cut and its placement is the same (although the scene in question has been trimmed/edited as part of the restructure) and so I thought this may be worth a look if/when you ever go back to the edit on this (which I’m aware you have said you will not - unless Ep9 requires it)

Anyhow the scene in question:

Immediately following the Rathtar escape and the Falcon jumping to Hyperspace, the ‘Death Gang’ leader puts out the APB on the Falcon with instructions to inform the First Order that BB8 is in the possession of Han Solo.

Cut to:-

The revised Snoke and Kylo scene.

The scene plays fine, but I think by removing Hux and his dialogue in order to facilitate the overall Starkiller restructure, the scene now runs quite short and so when Snoke reveals to Kylo that Han Solo has entered the fold, to me it doesn’t feel like there has been enough time within the time frame of the actual movie for the message from Death Gang leader to have been transmitted, received at the highest levels and then have Kylo be called to Snoke to be informed.

Considering that we then immediately cut back to the Falcon having troubles in Hyperspace and the scene where the heroes 'get to know each other’ and generally bring the audience up to date on what’s gone on with our OG heroes these last 30 years, the Snoke/Kylo scene and the nature of that discussion seems like it could be shuffled over in order to be more effective?

My first thoughts are this:-

The Falcon escapes the Death Gang/Rathtars.
Death Gang Leader orders his crew to inform First Order.

Cut to:-

Falcon in Hyperspace. Heroes have their scene/dialogue – Up until Han mentions that they have arrived at Maz’s planet and walks off toward/enters the cockpit

Cut to:-

Snoke/Kylo Scene – Plays and ends as before

Cut to:-

Falcon dropping out of Hyperspace and then the Takodana arrival and subsequent scene plays and ends as before.

I feel that the extra time aboard the Falcon would allow the audience to catch their breath and spend more time with characters we know/like and also allow for more ‘in movie’ time to pass so that the Kylo/Snoke scene has had more time to generate itself within the context of the movie?

(especially now that Hux and Snoke’s dialogue has been removed and the scene serves no other purpose than to inform Kylo that his father is involved in his pursuit of the Heroes)

The only other part that I though needed ‘something’ was on Takodana when the First Order Star Destroyer arrives.

This is such an amazing replacement for the original Starkiller sequence and works perfectly….as I said above, I think it’s actually better.

But if I could nitpick just a few of the details, the only thing that seemed ‘unearned?’ or just missing a piece, is when the First Order arrive at Takodana.

Not when Fin looks up to see the Star Destroyer, as that can be put down to instinct/luck/intuition/seeing it out the corner of his eye…despite the First Order arriving stealthily.

It’s the following shot of Han and the Crowd gathered outside Maz’s Castle looking up and reacting to the arrival.

What drew them all out at that moment?

I feel there needs to be some sort of sound cue/tremor/commotion that would actually cause everyone to go outside, together and see what’s up at that exact moment?

Obviously the original cut had all the drama relating to the Starkiller weapon, but without that in this edit, I feel there just needs to be something that catalyses the gathering of a crowd outside?

Anyhow, those are my only two pieces of (hopefully) constructive feedback in what is otherwise an exemplary piece of work.

Thanks so much for all of the time and effort you put into your edits, I’m REALLY enjoying them