IFDB Review: Star Wars: Episode I - The Silent Menace:

[MCP]

First, I applaud Luke for taking a somewhat bold approach to this edit. He brings some very new and never-before seen ideas to this movie, by rewriting most of the script and adding in new elements that change major elements of certain characters and certain aspects of the plot. Video/Audio Quality Given that this is a slight step above SD, the quality was for the most part excellent. Visual Editing I found that sometimes the subtitles were flying by a bit too quickly, but for the most part, this was not a big problem. This edit is also restricted to non-TV viewing, as the subtitles will be cut off on the bottom on some TVs. Otherwise, the visual editing was very well done. Audio Editing I think the strongest aspect of this edit is the almost complete rescoring of the score. For the most part, Luke has done a terrific job using John William's beautiful music from various soundtracks (mostly from the extended edition of TPM itself,but also from other Star Wars movies). It was a joy to listen to, and he lined it up very well with the visuals. The only issue I have with the audio is that it became inconsistent in two places - the Pod Race and the Obi-Wan/Darth Maul battle, where the movie's sound effects were included. The rest of the movie did not include the sound effects, and thus it felt a bit jarring to have an established convention (the total silence except for a soundtrack) be broken. Narrative While I liked almost all the new elements Luke introduced into the plot in order to make the story work better, I felt the narrative began to suffer as elements would be introduced but not fully integrated into the main story arc. It began to feel like new ideas were used to fix problems locally. There were so many new ideas that it ended up being a bit too much, and nothing really tied things together. Since a lot of the original text was still included, the new elements seemed to jump in and out of the original storyline, only being used to "fix" issues that the editor wished to address, while leaving other areas untouched. In the end, I felt like the new story had it's own problems. Perhaps not as big as the original, but I'm not one who likes a lot of loose threads. Overall, I felt like I was reading a draft that needed a bit more revising in order to make all the various elements tie together and provide the viewer a sense of one story being told that had a real beginning, middle, and end. Enjoyment In the end, there were a few elements that prevented me from really enjoying this edit as much as I would like. First, the pod race. It feels too long, and also it has the aforementioned sound from the original mixed in, so you hear sounds from the aliens as well, which can be annoying. Second, there's too much Jar-Jar antics left in for my taste. And they really aren't connected or explained at all...they just happen, like they do in the original. Third, some of the new subtitles were not quite as well written as the others (though this is just a handful of them), using modern slang in places that felt out-of-place. Overall, I applaud this edit for it's boldness, and I think if Luke revisits this project sometime in the future after having more experience, this truly could become something special. And even as is, I think it has some very nice qualities. Nice job, Luke!

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