I apologize ahead of time for the overly long and rambling nature of this post (I guess George Lucas and I have something in common afterall).
I have to admit something up front: I loved The Phantom Menace when I saw it at the cinema. In fact, I saw it five times. I couldn't understand why people didn't like it. I even went so far as to buy the $100 Japanese LaserDisc. I was so excited. Then I watched it again and something changed. This wasn't the movie that my Star Wars fevered brain had loved. What was this? I heard about The Phantom Edit and I immediately sought it out. I eventually had to buy a copy off of eBay on VideoDisc and, like The Phantom Menace before it, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. This version was perfect. The VideoDisc eventually stopped working and I was stuck once again watching the official version on DVD. A few years ago, I had a hankering to watch it again and did a search on the film. That search led me to FanEdit.Org and a free DVD version of The Phantom Edit. I was ecstatic. Then I watched it again and it didn't quite live up to my memories of it. What was with this movie? Every time I fell in love with a version of it, I would eventually fall out of love with it. The problem was that, in the subsequent years, I had become more and more annoyed with Menace. The Phantom Edit had seemed great at the time because I had never seen anything like it. Now, the flaws of Menace that were still present stuck out like a sore thumb. Since then, I've tried, in vain, to find a fanedit of this film that removed all of the cringe-worthy moments that I felt had ruined the film for me. Apparently, The Phantom Edit is sacred because so many people still consider it a masterpiece and when I expressed disappointment in it, I was told to edit my own version if I thought I could do better (I can't; I'm not a good editor). I eventually gave up, became busy and I haven't really been back to the site for a long time.
My wife and I decided to re-watch the original Star Wars trilogy but she had no interest in re-visiting the prequels. I was (I always feel compelled to complete a series) but all I had to choose from were the official DVDs and the Phantom Editor's versions (and I had nothing for Revenge of the Sith). This led me back to FanEdit.Org, in search of the elusive "perfect" Phantom Menace edit. The first one I tried out was JasonN's Attack of the Federation. It's a great edit and his editing of the podrace is especially inspired. But, out of no fault on JasonN's part, this edit still wasn't quite what I was looking for; not aggresive enough. That's when I stumbled across Shadow of the Sith. I was intrigued by the running time (in my opinion, when it comes to the prequels, shorter is better) and the fate of Darth Maul. I'm an unabashed Darth Maul fan. I feel like he should've survived Episode I and remained the Sith apprentice throughout the prequel trilogy. I love Christopher Lee and all but Count Dooku is no Darth Maul. But, at the very least, if you're going to kill off my favorite new character, don't have him die like a little bitch. No other fanedit that I've seen (granted, I haven't seen them all) has even addressed this. He still just stands there like a chump and literally lets Obi-Wan slice him in half. With that changed, I knew that I had to see this edit.
Despite the fact that I had just watched Attack of the Federation on Tuesday, I decided to once again watch a version of The Phantom Menace on Thursday afternoon (I'm masochistic that way). The opening crawl is completely new (a fairly common trait for these edits) and is fabulous, except for the final line. I felt it was clumsy and unnecessary. The first time that I knew that this edit was headed in the right direction was when Qui-Gon was cutting through the blast doors. In the original (and every other edit that I've seen) there is the annoying line where the Neimoidian says "This is impossible!" I always hated that line and I thought I was the only one but I guess not. That pretty much sums up my feelings of this edit. For once, it finally felt like someone had the same problems with the film that I had. I'm not talking about the overall obvious things, like Jar-Jar Binks and Anakin's whining but the little details that every other faneditor seems to overlook. I continually kept saying out loud "He cut that too! I love this edit!" "What do you think you are, some kind of Jedi?" Hahaha, Lucas, that's so funny and it sucks. Gone! Jar-Jar's antics in Watto's shop as Qui-Gon says that they're leaving ... gone! Padme saying "Well, I don't approve" after Qui-Gon tells her "The Queen does not need to know." Gone! Sebulba's stupid bit at the end of the race where he slams his fist and says something that sounds like "Poojoo!" ... gone! Anakin's painful "I don't know. Yes. I guess." when his mother asks him if he believes he will ever see her again ... you guessed it ... gone! The list goes on and on and involves removing several Jar-Jar and Anakin moments / lines that were left in every other edit I saw (such as Anakin stating that he's cold to the Jedi Council ... shut up, we get it). As has been stated before, though, the true brilliance of this edit takes place in the final act. The four-way battle has been completely and uniquely edited. The Gungans have almost no place in the battle and are quickly defeated like the idiots that they are. Padme and her crew are captured and never escape (this removes the painful "This one is decoy" scene). Even the beloved lightsaber battle gets a few trims here and there. And, most importanly, Anakin saves the day ... and not by accident. Plus, c'mon, Darth Maul doesn't die like a chump. Oh, and no stupid parade scene either (seriously, what is that glowing ball!?). The new ending may be too abrupt for some but I dug it. I tried it with both musical choices and I feel that the original Star Wars theme works better. I understand that it doesn't fit the mood but it feels wrong to end a Star Wars movie without it.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the good always comes with, in this case, just a teeny-tiny bit of the bad. While this is, without a doubt, the best version of The Phantom Menace currently available, I still found myself wishing that something would be missing only to find it still there. One of my least favorite parts of this film is the "Are you an angel?" dialogue exchange. I understand that removing this completely would ruin Anakin and Padme's first meeting but, surely, something can be done to shorten it. At the very least, the line of "They come from the moons of (insert place that I can never understand here) ... I think." needs to be cut. It's painful. I also hate the line "I'm a person and my name is Anakin!" but that is his introduction of himself to her so I'm not sure what can be done there. For the most part, I love what L8WRTR has done with the podrace in this edit. Two things: 1.) Leave in Sebulba sabotaging Anakin's podracer but can we cut their exchange after? Anakin's "Don't count on it, slime ball!" isn't annoying in, and of, itself but Jake Lloyd's delivery of the line is terrible. 2.) I could do without the Jawa cameo as the podracers fly by them. Boss Nass still has a few annoying tics during the scene where the humans go to them for help. Also, why do they still make Jar-Jar a general? He doesn't do anything during the final battle in this cut. And, lastly, Jar-Jar still has the "They all brokey!" line during the end battle. I bring these three things up because all three were missing from Attack of the Federation so I know they can be edited out. Also, the Virgin Birth is still annoying and I wish it were gone but I won't begrudge L8WRTR his overall vision for the trilogy. The midichlorians are gone and I'm fine with that.
All in all, this is about 98% of the movie that I want it to be. If George Lucas had released a 96 minute Star Wars movie to theaters in 1999, fans would've ripped him apart (more than they already do) but that's only because they would have no idea what was contained in the missing 40 minutes. What L8WRTR has done here is nothing short of brilliant. Not only had he made a version of Episode I that I can sit through, he's made one that I actually thoroughly enjoy. Unlike the original version or The Phantom Edit, this cut is here to stay.
Side note: the commentary is a great idea. L8WRTR is passionate, knowledgable and informatative. I wish more fanedits would do this. My only complaint is I can barely hear him. I just downloaded this on Wednesday so it should have the corrected version but I still found it hard to make out what he was saying several times (and, even when I could make it out, the movie audio was still too high).