Review from Insolent Fascist Dong Bedwetter (I don't think I'm doing that right):
What an experience. Life and all that. This edit shows a lot of what fanedits can do at their best: turn a great movie into an alternate great experience. Ssj has done a masterful job subtly transforming this movie. Some very smart cuts lead to not only a more "stream-lined" experience (not necessary to change) but to a more Star Warsy experience.
But screw all that. The biggest compliment I can give is that my 10 year old came in 20 minutes in and watched the whole thing. This is a kid who thinks stuff I show her from the 90s "look old as crap." There has only been one other black and white movie she watched in full and really liked (I'm counting this as I caught her up and she was on board from 20 minutes in) and that is the Elephant Man. Great company. She said "that actually looks really good even though it's black and white." The Star Wars elements were definitely her portal into this masterpiece of a film.
Working in Kanjiklub made me giggle, as did many other dialogue changes that I won't list/spoil. I know that mono tracks are a total bitch to work with, so kudos for that. I know this necessitated leaving some original score in certain scenes but truthfully I think it was better off for it. The original score is very good, they blended well and it avoided fatigue on the new scoring (I wouldn't know anything about that *ahem* *NBK*). The TFA tracks sounded surprisingly old in feel. Listening to the commentary track was awesome but also I really liked your explanation of how that happened. As much rescoring as I do sometimes, I rarely mess with the new audio itself, so thanks to you and Throw for teaching me something. I always enjoy when something works and you don't know why but then somebody teaches you why. There was some soft video in a couple spots as well as a contrast/saturation shift at 1:27:58 but I believe you from the commentary that it wasn't your fault! It's been quite a few years since I've watched the original so I'll take your word for it. There was only one audio transition I found a bit abrupt, at 37:47.
Since the rescore was the main focus of this edit, I'll just list a few of the times the new music really worked for me:
- Riot scene
- When our two idiots first find the gold
- Scene when princess as an uki is discussed
- Rey's theme
- When the smoke is coming from the fortress
- I was waiting for Duel of the Fates in that scene and I was absolutely not disappointed. Care was taken to match the action with the music and it showed
- Music throughout the climax was pitch perfect
The only subtitle change that really didn't work for me was the Princess line about the Yub Nub song. Her speech is so great, and the actress is just on fire, so to have that at the end of it felt a touch deflating from the poignancy of what she was saying.
Thank you so much for making this edit, and giving my daughter an in to a classic. We both enjoyed it immensely.
Also, my wife said "that guy has a killer voice. He should be a soothing therapist or on NPR or something" so there's that.
Hate to look like a blind lover of my favorite editor's stuff, but I really couldn't justify dropping any of those categories to a 9.
