Star Wars - Episode III: Dawn of the Empire by L8wrtr

[Mike Kerns]

Watched the AVCHD version and it looks clean. Is the plan to release AVCHD's of SotS & TRD still in the plans?

 

[L8wrtr]

Watched the AVCHD version and it looks clean. Is the plan to release AVCHD's of SotS & TRD still in the plans?

Yes, both are in the works. Unfortunately the recent Mediafire debacle has slowed down the release of those project, but fear not, they are progressing.

 

[Kal-El]

I only have a few qualms with this edit, and they all have to deal with the ending:
1. Padme doesn’t name the newborns. I don’t really mind this, but it means that this edit is meant to be watched as part of a 4-5-6-1-2-3 order, which, again, I don’t mind. In any other order, it’s just a little confusing, because it’s never explicably stated in this edit that the second baby is Leia. If you watch in chronological order, you know the whole time Luke has a sibling, but whether or not you know it’s Leia depends on how well you were able to pay attention and deduce from this edit. It doesn’t really work for a Machete order because, like chronological, the viewer may or may not know the other baby is Leia.

But if it's never specifically stated, and you watch L8wrtr's trilogy as a part of the full saga, you find out about Leia, along with Luke. Lucas killed that emotion himself, by showing who the second baby was. Now, that initial feeling of surprise is retained, just like what a shock it was to find out Darth Vader was Luke's father. In a way, Lucas blew that one too.

 

[stretch009]

Yes, both are in the works. Unfortunately the recent Mediafire debacle has slowed down the release of those project, but fear not, they are progressing.

Mediafire Debacle? Just last night I downloaded an edit without any problems with Mediafire.




-

 

[QuickCut]

Mediafire Debacle? Just last night I downloaded an edit without any problems with Mediafire.

That must mean that... there were never any problems with Mediafire in the first place! Gasp of shock and revelation!

 

[TV's Frink]

Actually it means he didn't read a single thread in the past week because there was someone in each thread complaining about it. :x

 

[Rogue-theX]

Actually it means he didn't read a single thread in the past week because there was someone in each thread complaining about it. :x

:focus:

 

[Mike Kerns]

Yes, both are in the works. Unfortunately the recent Mediafire debacle has slowed down the release of those project, but fear not, they are progressing.

Outstanding. Glad to hear it.

 

[kaine23]

looking forward to watching these and love the cover art! Any chance of cover art to fit the 3 discs in one triple dvd case?

 

[L8wrtr]

looking forward to watching these and love the cover art! Any chance of cover art to fit the 3 discs in one triple dvd case?

Thanks Kaine! All props to Rogue on the cover art. I'm pretty sure he would have liked to thrown me in a river of lava by the time I was through

Regarding a 3-disk cover yes I will be working on that building on what Rogue accomplished with the 3 individual edits.

My thought is to a 3-in-1 cover for a 3-disk case that is still the standard spine width (I think that's 14mm?)

But would love ideas on what formats would be most wanted. Also same goes for the BD set.

 

[steelio2006]

congrats. i got it today. gonna probably watch it tonight. then i'll rewatch the Saga and see how it works as a whole and probably write a review for this one, as well as a Saga edition one.

is Ep II gonna be rereleased as a dvd5 by chance?

 

[kaine23]

Seconding that for Ep 1 and 2.

 

[Neglify]

But would love ideas on what formats would be most wanted.

I would like something like this:

 

[steelio2006]

okay. i watched this yesterday. have to say that this by far is my definitive version of episode iii now. teh changes that were made help strengthen the story. dont wish to spoil it for those that haven't seen it. but i'd highly recommend it. i give this a 10/10.

 

[L8wrtr]

Thanks Steelio!

The overall reaction has been beyond gratifying and I'm grateful for all of the positive reviews and declarations. To say that expectations seemed to be running fairly high would be an understatement. This project was by far the biggest labor of love in terms of my fanedits to date. I made very specific choices throughout, both in terms of what I removed, as well as what I kept in - SW fans can be exceedingly difficult to please and leaving in just one offending clip can sometimes really turn a die-hard viewer off so, but I had to stick to my guns in terms of what edit satisfied my personal needs in order to create a Prequel Trilogy that I could enjoy when viewed as part of the full Saga. Several reviewers have commended the love/care that went into this edit and that observation couldn't be more accurate and so I glad that this comes through in the edit itself.

So again, thank you to everyone who has downloaded this and enjoyed it. I'm glad that this project helps revise the PT for so many left wanting by the original.

May the Force be with you

 

[TomH1138]

(Spoilers ahead- as well as a very positive review!)

OK, I have now finished L8’s prequel trilogy.

My reaction to the first two edits were pretty much the same: L8 is super-talented, and the films were definitely much improved, but it may just be that no one can fully save George Lucas’s pieces of hack work.

But everyone was gushing about L8’s Ep. III, so I had to see it.

And everyone was right.

L8, you did an absolutely amazing job. This version of Ep. III flows significantly better than the theatrically released one. I was never bored once.

What especially surprised me was not just the removal or trimming down of scenes, but the actual restructuring of what order many of the scenes came in. Moving the scene with Palpatine and Anakin at the concert to earlier in the movie was a great idea. The story flowed much better, and a lot of unnecessary stuff could be cut (both from that scene and from the surrounding scenes). I would have to watch the original again to be sure, but I’m almost positive that even some of the dialogue within the scene was rearranged so that there was a better flow. Whatever the case, it’s the best version of that scene I’ve ever seen.

Again, there were brilliant choices about what cut scenes to restore. Nearly all of Padme’s scenes where she works with Bail Organa to stop Palpatine’s rise to power have been restored. Now she’s no longer the passive, pathetic character she devolved to throughout the course of the series in Lucas’s version. She’s the strong character that she originally was thanks to these restored scenes. (And the bonus is that Mon Momtha gets to appear in the movie!)

I believe that the scene of Yoda, Obi-Wan and Mace talking in private was also added from the deleted scenes. In the original movies, the inaction of these characters against Palpatine, when they know he’s strong in the Dark Side, is baffling and inexplicable. This crucial scene – where they note that they still need legal proof before they can expose Palpatine to the Senate, and that’s what they hope to accomplish with Anakin’s spying efforts - make the whole story make so much more sense. For once, I’m not yelling at the stupidity of the characters on the screen; I’m nodding my head in understanding. That’s nothing short of a miracle.

During the first half, I was curious as to how the action scenes contrasted with the talking scenes, so I kept track. Usually, there was about 15 minutes of talking before a new action scene – a healthy ratio. By the second half, I was so wrapped up in the movie that I didn’t even bother keeping track.

I appreciated the changing of the voice for that creature that Obi-Wan rides when confronting Grievous. It’s such a noisy creature that it makes no sense that Obi-Wan would ride one when trying to hide and sneak around. But with the alteration of the sound, the creature is significantly quieter.

I also appreciate the removal of Grievous’ line about being trained by Count Dooku. Lucas introduced the ridiculous “Rule of Two” in Ep. I, but then had three Sith running about in this movie. L8 kept the “Rule of Two” and then eliminated Grevious’ inexplicable line. Nicely done.

The action scenes are immensely improved across the board. At the beginning of the film, having Anakin quickly kill Dooku and then have second thoughts – that’s something I never would have thought of, but it works so well. Most of the silly stuff with R2 is gone.

The editing on the Mace/Palpatine/Anakin scene is fantastic. Most of the ridiculous moments are gone, revealing that there was indeed a tense, exciting, scene buried in there somewhere. Also, Anakin’s lack of waffling (i.e., “What have I done?&#8221 makes his following actions against the Jedi all the more believable.

L8 also did an amazing job on the Yoda/Palpatine duel. In Ep. II, L8 cut out all of the lightsaber bits between Yoda and Dooku, which immensely improved that scene. I was hoping he would be able to fix this one, too, and he didn’t disappoint. Gone are the stupid lines that weigh the scene down and make the audience beg for them to just get on with it already (i.e., “Not if anything to say about it have I&#8221. The fight itself is considerably cut down to its essentials. But most importantly, Palpatine clearly wins the duel, making Yoda’s escape understandable. Yoda is no longer a coward in this version.

The Anakin/Obi-Wan duel is also significantly trimmed so that it no longer lasts for an eternity. But best of all, Anakin’s “jump” (where Obi-Wan lops his legs off) is handled way better here than in the original.

I am soooo glad that Padme no longer dies of “a broken heart.”

I’m thrilled that after we see Vader in full costume for the first time, the scene quickly fades out.

With the addition of the family scene in L8’s Ep. II, Padme’s funeral scene finally means something. It’s no longer just a collection of extras (and Jar Jar) walking alongside her. I almost teared up for the first time watching this scene.

In short: Wow. Just an amazing edit through and through. This will be my definitive choice for when I watch Ep. III. Not only that, but in the edit I’m working on of the prequels, I’m going to use L8’s cutting of the fight scenes as a guide for how to improve my own (with proper credit given, of course).

Sorry I’ve gone on so long, but the work was so tremendous that I had to gush a bit. Terrific job, L8! It looks like we may have another Star Wars fan edit as the winner of May’s contest.

 

[TomH1138]

Originally Posted by Infamous TC
Please direct me to an edit that preserves the surprises, because I haven't found one yet.

I'm working on one. But it's a long ways off.

In the meantime, I can't wait to see L8's take!

Sorry - I misread the earlier posts the first time around. I want to preserve the surprise of who the twins are, which L8 nicely accomplished himself. I don't think there is any coherent way of preserving the surprise of Vader.

Also, now that I'm re-reading this thread with full knowledge of the edit, I see that I praised L8 for some things in his edit which he got from other editors. Still, he made the right choice in following suit with good previous edits.

 

[Dwight Fry]

The upcoming Q2 prequels preserve the (Vader and twins) surprises.

 

[TomH1138]

The upcoming Q2 prequels preserve the (Vader and twins) surprises.

Nice! I look forward to seeing how he pulls that off.

If watched 1 thru 6, I prefer the revelation about Leia to wait until 6. But if watched in the Machete order (4-5-2-3-6) then I actually prefer Padme's revelation. Luke just kind of figures it out, out of the blue. But to already have a connection with Luke and Leia through 4 and 5, and THEN have Padme drop the bomb on you in 3 before going into 6 . . . that's really a fantastic way to do it.

That said, I really like L8 leaving it out altogether.

Having finished the entire thread (reading the posts I skipped the first time), I now see that I repeated some of the things that other people pointed out. But I think (and hope) that L8 will still enjoy reading what things I specifically liked.

 

[TomH1138]

The first shot of Mustafar: This is a really odd choice. You cut to the planet without an establishing shot. Suddenly we’re somewhere that we’ve never been before, we don’t know where it is or anything. I don’t know what this is like in the original, but it seemed very jarring and very non-Star Wars! Does any other scene in the saga do this?

To be honest, one thing (of many) that I think the Star Wars prequels have waaaaay too much of, is ships taking off and landing. We know it's a space movie. We know they're going to different planets. We don't need 3 minutes of footage of ships every time someone leaves or arrives at someplace new, just so George Lucas can show off his expensive CGI software. This is part of why the released prequels are such a boring slogfest, IMO.

I liked all of L8's cuts, and in fact, there were a few places where I thought he could have cut more.

Yoda vs Emperor.
Firstly, having cut out all three previous scenes of Yoda using a lightsaber (Dooku, Order 66, arriving on Corruscant) I don’t think it works to suddenly cut to him fighting Sidious with a lightsaber. If you’re going to go down that route then I think you need to prepare the audience, not just drop it in there.

I think we've seen plenty of other scenes with Jedi of all different species fighting with a lightsaber to assume that Yoda uses one, too.

Also, I like the notion that there are no troopers handy to kill Yoda. One thing that bugged the crap out of me in the released versions is that Yoda has enough Force awareness to sense that he's about to be ambushed, but none of the other Jedi - including the highest-ranking members of the Jedi Council - have the Force ability to sense the very same thing. The only reason why Yoda survives Order 66, when no one else does, is because the OT already determined this.

By L8's cutting of the earlier sequence, the audience can assume that all of the troopers are preoccupied at that moment with fighting the battle droids to break away and kill Yoda. Yoda senses the deaths of everyone else and makes his getaway. A much smoother choice, in my opinion.

Besides, if we're using the argument "Why isn't Yoda's ability to use a lightsaber set up earlier?" - one could take that argument to an absurdly logical extreme. Why wasn't there setup for Yoda's Ep. II battle by having him use a lightsaber earlier in that movie? Why wasn't Yoda's use of a lightsaber in Ep. II set up in Ep.I? And so on. (I know you don't mean it that way; I'm just saying that's a path that could be followed from that line of thought.)

Secondly, the scenes that you use of Yoda duelling Sidious is simply horrible. It’s even worse than when he fights Dooku, so I don’t see how you can cut out the former but keep the latter. Maybe they’re all bad and I just haven’t seen it in a while, but its so cartoony and silly. Ugh.

I agree that the scenes are cartoony and silly, but I'm not sure he can do anything about that entirely. He picked the best shots he could find. For that matter, I think all the duel scenes in RotS are ridiculous and cartoony with massive unneeded CGI, but there's only so much one can do.

In the edit I'm currently working on, I slow the duels down to about 85% speed - 70% in a few moments! - to make the movements look more believable and human. But I'm working on a silent edit with a new soundtrack and subtitles, so I have a luxury that L8 doesn't.

As much as L8 cut down the Obi-Wan/Anakin duel, a lot of it just needs to be there for continuity purposes, and the Yoda/Palpy scenes help to break up the other duel a little bit.

But thirdly and most importantly, this scene really hurts the character! Yoda is built up to be the equal to the Emperor, he is supposed to be the strongest and certainly wisest Jedi: this fight is the two most powerful characters is the universe fighting. But you have shortened their fight so much that it starts *after* Anakin and Obi Wan are already fighting and it finishes *before* Anakin and Obi Wan are even close to finished fighting. Basically Yoda and Sidious go at each other for like a single round, after which Yoda *gives up*. We then spend the rest of the scene, while Anakin and Obi Wan continue to fight, watching Yoda *run away*. I do not doubt for a second that Obi Wan – even though he absolutely is not willing to kill Anakin, would still *fight to the death* to try and beat him. With such high stakes, only a coward would run away from the fight. And the fact that you have reduced the amount of time that the Yoda fight takes up to barely a few minutes, and then juxtaposed it with Anakin and Obi Wan’s epic duel, it really emphasises Yoda’s weak character. Now I must ask, is this your intention? If it is, I don’t really understand it. It goes beyond making Yoda a flawed character, it in fact makes him one of the weakest characters in the series. His decision to run away shows no strength of conviction,

See, I think that Yoda is all of those things in the theatrical version of the film. Yoda is a coward because he runs away when he isn't even losing. He's matching Palpatine point for point; one could even argue he's winning. And then . . . what? He has one fall and gives up?

Even if Obi-Wan had wound up dead in his battle with Anakin, he wouldn't have just given up and run away like that.

Also, I don't see it anywhere stated that Yoda and Palpatine are on the same level. If that was the case, why wait for Luke? Yoda should have just come back for a rematch over and over again until he won. Even Luke can't beat the Emperor; the only one who finally can is Anakin/Vader.

In L8's version, the Emperor handily kicks Yoda's butt, and he does so quickly. Yoda now has reason to run. He realizes that he's outmatched. He doesn't know if Obi-Wan is still alive or not. If Obi-Wan doesn't come out of his struggle, then Yoda is the only one in the universe who can pass on the knowledge of the Jedi to future generations.

I haven't seen the edits where Yoda doesn't go to face Palpatine at all, so I'll withhold judgment until I see them. But I really like L8's version.

And that's the fun of fan edits (and these discussions): There is no one perfect version for everyone, so we get to have these fun discussions about them.