Return to a galaxy not mired by politics, complicated plotting, and unfunny CGI characters. Return of the Sith is as close to the spirit of the Original Trilogy as possible.
Original film name: STAR WARS: EPISODE I â THE PHANTOM MENACE
Film studio name: Lucasfilm
Film release date: May 1999
Original runtime: 136 minutes
New runtime: 90 minutes
INTENTIONS:
Simplify the story to make it an exciting and entertaining introduction to Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi at the peak of the Republic. I also plan to keep the identity of the Emperor secret until Episode III, to make the Sith and their presence more mysterious and menacing.
EDIT DETAILS:
To sum up the main features about this edit:
* Jar-Jar is cut to the absolute minimum, even the underwater city visit is completely gone;
* The complicated plot of Lord Sidious controlling the Neimodians as well as the Senate is gone, since Lord Sidious is cut from the edit;
* Politics in general have been greatly reduced; Queen Amidala almost acts on her own accord in causing a vote for a new chancellor, and Palpatineâs role in engineering it is much more subtle;
These choices end up creating a very streamlined, quickly paced Episode I, clocking in at 90 minutes. Other more common edits include:
* No midichlorians, âchosen one,â virgin birth
* Bad acting of Jake Lloyd has been reduced as best as possible;
* Pod race greatly shortened, and only follows Anakin around the track;
* Anakin purposefully flies the ship at the end (though Padme still captures the Viceroy on her ownâ¦she deserves to share in the victory)
CUT LIST:
SL DVD
Original film name: STAR WARS: EPISODE I â THE PHANTOM MENACE
Film studio name: Lucasfilm
Film release date: May 1999
Original runtime: 136 minutes
New runtime: 90 minutes
INTENTIONS:
Simplify the story to make it an exciting and entertaining introduction to Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi at the peak of the Republic. I also plan to keep the identity of the Emperor secret until Episode III, to make the Sith and their presence more mysterious and menacing.
EDIT DETAILS:
To sum up the main features about this edit:
* Jar-Jar is cut to the absolute minimum, even the underwater city visit is completely gone;
* The complicated plot of Lord Sidious controlling the Neimodians as well as the Senate is gone, since Lord Sidious is cut from the edit;
* Politics in general have been greatly reduced; Queen Amidala almost acts on her own accord in causing a vote for a new chancellor, and Palpatineâs role in engineering it is much more subtle;
These choices end up creating a very streamlined, quickly paced Episode I, clocking in at 90 minutes. Other more common edits include:
* No midichlorians, âchosen one,â virgin birth
* Bad acting of Jake Lloyd has been reduced as best as possible;
* Pod race greatly shortened, and only follows Anakin around the track;
* Anakin purposefully flies the ship at the end (though Padme still captures the Viceroy on her ownâ¦she deserves to share in the victory)
CUT LIST:
⢠new opening crawl
⢠initial dialog asking permission to board. Now the first line by a human is âI have a bad feeling about this.â
⢠The Trade Federation is now just âThe Federationâ
⢠Lord Sidious does not appear in the movie. The Federation has apparently acted on their own accord in trying to take over Naboo.
⢠Neimodian dialog trimmed down to make them more threatening and less dumb/scared.
⢠Battle droids do not talk.
⢠Trimmed throne room scene to get to the point that this is an invasion
⢠Jar-Jarâs lines and antics are extremely cut down throughout the movie. Basically, if it could be cut without affecting the plot or damaging the visual/audio, it has been cut.
⢠Trip to the underwater Gungan City is completely cut. There is only one plot-point for thi scene, and it is to have a reason why Jar-Jar sticks around for the rest of the movie. I have tried to accomplish this using Jar-Jarâs declaration of being Qui-Gonâs servant, as well as keeping a trimmed down version of the Padme-cleaning-R2 scene where she point blank asks him what are you doing here?
⢠Palace Stair scene is cut (how will you explain this invasion to the senate?)
⢠Dialog outside the hangar no longer includes boring talk of treaties, legalized invasions, and the senate.
⢠No scene where R2 gets commended by the âqueenâ and then orders the real queen to clean him up. (nice.) This also gets rid of the redundant dialog of declaring they are going to tatooine.
⢠Landing on tatooine happens in the early evening instead of broad daylight becauseâ¦
⢠Darth Maul lands on tatooine directly after the Jedi do, which is also at night.
⢠âNo more commands from Her Highness todayâ cut. I donât recall any commands, so I find the line nonsensical.
⢠No Jar-Jar antics in Wattoâs shop.
⢠No âyipeeâs from Anakin.
⢠Reinstated the Anakin Fights Greedo deleted scene, but placed it after Qui-Gon talks to Obi-Wan over the transmitter regarding what assets they have left. The scene replaces the whole Jar-Jar trying to eat the chicken sequence.
⢠âHeâs a protocol droid to help Mom.â Help Mom do what, exactly? Deleted.
⢠Trimmed dinner scene at Anakinâs home. Beyond removing Jar-Jar antics, Iâve made the discussion about Anakin entering the pod race just between him and his mother, without interjections from padme and Qui-Gon.
⢠Removed Watto saying Qui-Gonâs ship is a Nubian, since he already said that the first time they met (a few hours before?)
⢠No Chosen One / Virgin Birth / Midichlorians
⢠Removed the group of kids, and Jar-Jar antics from the starting-up-the-pod scene.
⢠âThis is so wizard, Ani!â
⢠Pod Race announcers are not shown onscreen. Some commentary can still be heard, where appropriate, to maintain the âwe-are-watching-a-sports-TV-eventâ feeling.
⢠Sebulba doesnât sabotage Anakinâs pod, and their pre-race meeting is cut.
⢠Pod race is significantly shortened. No introductions, and no Anakin âspinning out of controlâ sequence. The action only follows Anakin and not the other racers.
⢠No quadinaros stalling/exploding, and no ody mandrell making a pit stop
⢠No alien selling animals to the crowd
⢠When Anakin has engine trouble, some shots of Anakin looking goofy are cut
⢠No final shot of Sebulba sliding to a stop
⢠No awkward high five by Kitster and Wald
⢠Anakin saying âYou mean I get to come with you in your starship???â
⢠Qui-Gon saying âWill you be all right?â Like, what is she going to say to that?
⢠Anakin saying to 3P0 âand Iâm goinâ away in a starshipâ as well as âYouâve been a grrrreat pal!â
⢠When saying goodbye to his mother, he doesnât say âI canât do it, Mom. I just canât do it.â He also doesnât say he will come back to free his Mom. The scene is much stronger without these lines.
⢠Reinstated the Goodbye to Jira / Probe Droid scene, which leads directly to them running to the ship. So the Probe Droid talking to Darth Maul scene is cut.
⢠âQui-Gon, sir, wait! Iâm tired!â So he runs all that way and within 50 feet of the ship he decides to ask to take a break? Cut.
⢠âTell them to take off!â â Anakin doesnât do it, and Obi-Wan tells them to take off as if he thought of it himself, so why keep it.
⢠âMy guess is it was after the queen.â Cut this to help keep the focus on Maul/Sith vs the Jedi.
⢠Trimmed scene where Anakin gives Padme the necklace; removed some of Jar-Jarâs muttering, as well as some of the political talk of the senate. Also removed âjapor snippetâ as if the audience would actually understand that. Finally, removed Aniâs âI care for you too, only Iâ¦â and Padmeâs response. Now the scene ends on Padme telling Anakin her caring for him will remain.
⢠Palpatineâs line about âthere is a question of procedureâ â too political (e.g., boring info)
⢠Jar Jar calling a 14 year old âpitty hotâ (creepy George, creepy)
⢠Trimmed Queen/Palpatine scene to tone down the politics, and also tone down Palpatineâs obvious push for the Queen to oust the Chancellor.
⢠Removed scene where Anakin looks for Padme to say goodbye before âhis training.â The scene serves no purpose and slows things down.
⢠In the senate, removed as much of the political jargon/dialog as possible. Palpatine simply introduces the Queen, and the Queen is quickly interrupted. We do not see Palpatine talking to the Queen; instead we only see the Queen until the Chancellor asks her to defer. Now it is the Queen by herself that reacts and decides to call for the no confidence vote. Finally, we donât see Palpatine after that, talking of a new Chancellor to be elected. This all makes the scene much more focused on the Queen and makes her stronger, I think.
⢠Cut mention that Anakin is too old. Luke wasnât, so Anakin isnât either.
⢠Cut Qui-Gon saying to Obi âYou still have much to learnâ seeing as moments later he says Obi is ready for the trials, and even later tells him he is much wiser then Qui-gon.
⢠Trimmed scene where we find out Palpatine has been nominated; the Queen does not ask who else has been nominated but goes right to telling Palpatine she has decided to return to Naboo.
⢠Removed the hint of a smile by Palpatine during the transition to the Jedi Temple.
⢠Removed line about the Federation will arrest the Queen and force her to sign the treaty.
⢠Removed line about the Jedi not being able to use their power to help. What does that mean, of course they use their powers all the time. I guess they canât if it interferes with Georgeâs scripting.
⢠Jar Jar doesnât come out of the lake. So we never really know where the Gungan city is.
⢠Removed Boss Nass bringing up that the Naboo think they are better than the Gungans.
⢠The planning scene is trimmed; Boss Nass doesnât make Jar-Jar a General.
⢠When the battle begins, we see the Federation approach before the Gungans stop and put up their shield.
⢠We donât see the droids activated from the space ship, they just become activated.
⢠No âouch timeâ line.
⢠All Jar-Jar silliness is excised from the battle.
⢠âMy guess is the Viceroyâs in the throne roomâ â already said during planning.
⢠Anakin silently decides to activate his ship, shoot the destroyers, and take off into space. Thereâs also no autopilot.
⢠No ascension guns.
⢠The battle sequence is rearranged to not jump around the three locations as much.
⢠Once everyone is captured, the sequence is simplified so that we first see the Queen capture the Viceroy, then we see Anakin enter/destroy the droid command ship, and finally we see the rest of the Jedi battle with Maul, starting with the first time they are trapped in the force field.
⢠Obi-Wanâs killing of Maul is faster, so it doesnât appear like Maul just waits to be killed.
⢠Qui-Gon doesnât speak to Obi at the endâ¦he is already dead.
⢠After all the battles, we donât have the discussion with the Viceroy about explaining things to the Senate, and kissing their trade franchise goodbye.
⢠During the funeral, Yoda doesnât say âno more, no lessâ about the number of Sith.
⢠The ending celebration is greatly trimmed down; we donât see Jar-Jar doing any of the silly activities, nor do we see the Gungans waving to the crowd, either from the animals or walking up the steps. Boss Nass doesnât yell out nor does Jar-Jar.
⢠initial dialog asking permission to board. Now the first line by a human is âI have a bad feeling about this.â
⢠The Trade Federation is now just âThe Federationâ
⢠Lord Sidious does not appear in the movie. The Federation has apparently acted on their own accord in trying to take over Naboo.
⢠Neimodian dialog trimmed down to make them more threatening and less dumb/scared.
⢠Battle droids do not talk.
⢠Trimmed throne room scene to get to the point that this is an invasion
⢠Jar-Jarâs lines and antics are extremely cut down throughout the movie. Basically, if it could be cut without affecting the plot or damaging the visual/audio, it has been cut.
⢠Trip to the underwater Gungan City is completely cut. There is only one plot-point for thi scene, and it is to have a reason why Jar-Jar sticks around for the rest of the movie. I have tried to accomplish this using Jar-Jarâs declaration of being Qui-Gonâs servant, as well as keeping a trimmed down version of the Padme-cleaning-R2 scene where she point blank asks him what are you doing here?
⢠Palace Stair scene is cut (how will you explain this invasion to the senate?)
⢠Dialog outside the hangar no longer includes boring talk of treaties, legalized invasions, and the senate.
⢠No scene where R2 gets commended by the âqueenâ and then orders the real queen to clean him up. (nice.) This also gets rid of the redundant dialog of declaring they are going to tatooine.
⢠Landing on tatooine happens in the early evening instead of broad daylight becauseâ¦
⢠Darth Maul lands on tatooine directly after the Jedi do, which is also at night.
⢠âNo more commands from Her Highness todayâ cut. I donât recall any commands, so I find the line nonsensical.
⢠No Jar-Jar antics in Wattoâs shop.
⢠No âyipeeâs from Anakin.
⢠Reinstated the Anakin Fights Greedo deleted scene, but placed it after Qui-Gon talks to Obi-Wan over the transmitter regarding what assets they have left. The scene replaces the whole Jar-Jar trying to eat the chicken sequence.
⢠âHeâs a protocol droid to help Mom.â Help Mom do what, exactly? Deleted.
⢠Trimmed dinner scene at Anakinâs home. Beyond removing Jar-Jar antics, Iâve made the discussion about Anakin entering the pod race just between him and his mother, without interjections from padme and Qui-Gon.
⢠Removed Watto saying Qui-Gonâs ship is a Nubian, since he already said that the first time they met (a few hours before?)
⢠No Chosen One / Virgin Birth / Midichlorians
⢠Removed the group of kids, and Jar-Jar antics from the starting-up-the-pod scene.
⢠âThis is so wizard, Ani!â
⢠Pod Race announcers are not shown onscreen. Some commentary can still be heard, where appropriate, to maintain the âwe-are-watching-a-sports-TV-eventâ feeling.
⢠Sebulba doesnât sabotage Anakinâs pod, and their pre-race meeting is cut.
⢠Pod race is significantly shortened. No introductions, and no Anakin âspinning out of controlâ sequence. The action only follows Anakin and not the other racers.
⢠No quadinaros stalling/exploding, and no ody mandrell making a pit stop
⢠No alien selling animals to the crowd
⢠When Anakin has engine trouble, some shots of Anakin looking goofy are cut
⢠No final shot of Sebulba sliding to a stop
⢠No awkward high five by Kitster and Wald
⢠Anakin saying âYou mean I get to come with you in your starship???â
⢠Qui-Gon saying âWill you be all right?â Like, what is she going to say to that?
⢠Anakin saying to 3P0 âand Iâm goinâ away in a starshipâ as well as âYouâve been a grrrreat pal!â
⢠When saying goodbye to his mother, he doesnât say âI canât do it, Mom. I just canât do it.â He also doesnât say he will come back to free his Mom. The scene is much stronger without these lines.
⢠Reinstated the Goodbye to Jira / Probe Droid scene, which leads directly to them running to the ship. So the Probe Droid talking to Darth Maul scene is cut.
⢠âQui-Gon, sir, wait! Iâm tired!â So he runs all that way and within 50 feet of the ship he decides to ask to take a break? Cut.
⢠âTell them to take off!â â Anakin doesnât do it, and Obi-Wan tells them to take off as if he thought of it himself, so why keep it.
⢠âMy guess is it was after the queen.â Cut this to help keep the focus on Maul/Sith vs the Jedi.
⢠Trimmed scene where Anakin gives Padme the necklace; removed some of Jar-Jarâs muttering, as well as some of the political talk of the senate. Also removed âjapor snippetâ as if the audience would actually understand that. Finally, removed Aniâs âI care for you too, only Iâ¦â and Padmeâs response. Now the scene ends on Padme telling Anakin her caring for him will remain.
⢠Palpatineâs line about âthere is a question of procedureâ â too political (e.g., boring info)
⢠Jar Jar calling a 14 year old âpitty hotâ (creepy George, creepy)
⢠Trimmed Queen/Palpatine scene to tone down the politics, and also tone down Palpatineâs obvious push for the Queen to oust the Chancellor.
⢠Removed scene where Anakin looks for Padme to say goodbye before âhis training.â The scene serves no purpose and slows things down.
⢠In the senate, removed as much of the political jargon/dialog as possible. Palpatine simply introduces the Queen, and the Queen is quickly interrupted. We do not see Palpatine talking to the Queen; instead we only see the Queen until the Chancellor asks her to defer. Now it is the Queen by herself that reacts and decides to call for the no confidence vote. Finally, we donât see Palpatine after that, talking of a new Chancellor to be elected. This all makes the scene much more focused on the Queen and makes her stronger, I think.
⢠Cut mention that Anakin is too old. Luke wasnât, so Anakin isnât either.
⢠Cut Qui-Gon saying to Obi âYou still have much to learnâ seeing as moments later he says Obi is ready for the trials, and even later tells him he is much wiser then Qui-gon.
⢠Trimmed scene where we find out Palpatine has been nominated; the Queen does not ask who else has been nominated but goes right to telling Palpatine she has decided to return to Naboo.
⢠Removed the hint of a smile by Palpatine during the transition to the Jedi Temple.
⢠Removed line about the Federation will arrest the Queen and force her to sign the treaty.
⢠Removed line about the Jedi not being able to use their power to help. What does that mean, of course they use their powers all the time. I guess they canât if it interferes with Georgeâs scripting.
⢠Jar Jar doesnât come out of the lake. So we never really know where the Gungan city is.
⢠Removed Boss Nass bringing up that the Naboo think they are better than the Gungans.
⢠The planning scene is trimmed; Boss Nass doesnât make Jar-Jar a General.
⢠When the battle begins, we see the Federation approach before the Gungans stop and put up their shield.
⢠We donât see the droids activated from the space ship, they just become activated.
⢠No âouch timeâ line.
⢠All Jar-Jar silliness is excised from the battle.
⢠âMy guess is the Viceroyâs in the throne roomâ â already said during planning.
⢠Anakin silently decides to activate his ship, shoot the destroyers, and take off into space. Thereâs also no autopilot.
⢠No ascension guns.
⢠The battle sequence is rearranged to not jump around the three locations as much.
⢠Once everyone is captured, the sequence is simplified so that we first see the Queen capture the Viceroy, then we see Anakin enter/destroy the droid command ship, and finally we see the rest of the Jedi battle with Maul, starting with the first time they are trapped in the force field.
⢠Obi-Wanâs killing of Maul is faster, so it doesnât appear like Maul just waits to be killed.
⢠Qui-Gon doesnât speak to Obi at the endâ¦he is already dead.
⢠After all the battles, we donât have the discussion with the Viceroy about explaining things to the Senate, and kissing their trade franchise goodbye.
⢠During the funeral, Yoda doesnât say âno more, no lessâ about the number of Sith.
⢠The ending celebration is greatly trimmed down; we donât see Jar-Jar doing any of the silly activities, nor do we see the Gungans waving to the crowd, either from the animals or walking up the steps. Boss Nass doesnât yell out nor does Jar-Jar.
SL DVD