I hear you brother. They had a STORY. I really suspect that. I think LucasArts saw them as competition. They would have made FANTASTIC films. Especially the Revan story??? Gah…
He’s working in his 80s, doing the work he presumably loves, on a franchise that is or was beloved to millions of fans, including those of us here, and we get to hear one more body of work from him… sounds pretty positive to me!
I mean, let’s face it, he can still deliver. I expect there will be at least one stand out theme in the new score.
So @z22 mentioned in the Game of Thrones thread that the no-cheese cuts of the Prequel movies showed that editing can make a huge difference to the final product. It took me a while to finally track these cuts down. There’s a lot of rabbit holes and methods mentioned on the internet that don’t work anymore.
Anyway, I kept using Google and finally got there. Here’s my impressions so far:
Phantom Menace anti-cheese cut
Pros:
I will not deny that the editing makes a huge difference here. Jar Jar binks now speaks very briefly in an alien language with subtitles to show you what he’s communicating. The under-sea city is completely gone, and there’s many other changes. One unexpected result of all these changes is how much easier it is to follow the plot of this movie now. There’s a very straight through-line now between the Senate sending the Jedi to resume trade-talks between Naboo and the trade federation, and how the Federation just wants to take over the planet. The Jedi sneak in and smuggle out the Queen so she can go appeal to the Senate. Only they get hit so they have to set down on Tatooine to make repairs. And that’s where they meet Anakin and pick him up after he helps them get the parts for their ship repair. Why am I repeating all this stuff you already know? Because in the original edit, there’s so much goofy stuff going on that’s distracting, I kind of didn’t ever follow along with this bigger plot before. By editing a lot of the goofy distractions out, the main plot becomes so much clearer. They also took out most of Anakin accidentally winning the day at the end in a space ship, and made his actions look more deliberate.
Cons:
Unfortunately, the movie also loses a lot of its fun. It becomes a little too serious without all the goofiness. Above all Phantom Menace was just a blast for me because it’s goofy and fun. Yes, this is contrasted with the more serious scenes at the end when Darth Maul fights with the two jedi, but the overall flavor of the movie just isn’t as light-hearted anymore overall, and I would say that this makes this cut of the movie an actual down-grade over the original.
Attack of the Clones - Ok, this is the movie (IMO) with the biggest room for improvement. So how is the Anti-Cheese cut?
Pros:
I love that most of the really cheesy lines said by Anakin and Padme have been taken out. I was really kind of surprised at what a big difference this makes. Honestly, their relationship is the core of this movie, and the fact that it was handled so poorly makes Lucas’ cut almost unwatchable at times. But with the most egregious scenes now gone, I have to admit that I liked the movie a lot more. I was also paying more attention because of that, thinking that perhaps what Count Dooku was saying to Obi-wan was true: that a Sith Lord has taken over the empire, and maybe the trade federation is actually the seeds of the rebellion that will form later. Of course, by the end of the movie that turns out not to be true. Count Dooku is in league with the future Emperor, and was just trying to lure Obi-Wan to the cause. That’s kind of a shame. It would have been interesting if the droid army and trade Federation had turned out to be the seeds of the eventual Rebellion against the Emperor.
Cons:
You know, I can’t think of any right now. This is just flat out better than Lucas’ cut in every way I think. There’s still some scenes left in that bother me, but they are pretty essential to the plot overall, I guess.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten. And, I’ve only seen Revenge of the Sith on opening day at the theater. I honestly don’t remember much about the movie except for the ending fight “it’s no use, I have the higher ground”. Apparently the Anti-Cheese cut doesn’t change this movie much, but I wouldn’t know what the changes are anyway, since I don’t remember it.
But I’m hoping, in spirit of this positive thread, that since this is my first time watching the Prequels as a Star Wars fan (thanks to the love for the franchise inspired for the first time by The Last Jedi), that I’ll appreciate the positive aspects of Revenge of the Sith this time.
Btw, I didn’t remember this until I saw this cut, but @CraigM, Darth Maul doesn’t just fall into a bottomless pit, he gets sliced in half! I didn’t remember that part! Even more reason for me to eventually watch Clone Wars to find out how Darth Maul survives, I guess.
Four letters: hate
Slightly longer less spoiler: the reintroduction is clumsy, and basically amounts to the writers saying ‘screw it, we like the design and idea and are just going to make it happen by writer fiat’. Everything after that, however, is fantastic. There is an arc there, and he becomes an actual interesting villain, rather than just the idea of one.
I totally forgot I made this thread. But I’m glad I did! I feel like the anti-Emperor - let the love flow through you!
Good overviews Rock8Man.
It’s worth mentioning that the original goofy voices of many aliens (trade federation) are change to alien voices with subtitles.
One of the other major changes to Clone Wars was the removal of the now terrible cgi arena fight with the critters.
I was also surprised he didn’t remove the “I have the high ground” line in Revenge of the Sith. Bad line!
But good meme.
And with the recent release of Jedi Starfighter a for X-wing miniature, a very common one
https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/vp/009c8bada32386bcf20d4d02b08a9844/5D6CF480/t51.2885-15/e35/s480x480/54247939_189388308696415_4417570921774635613_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com
I watched this yesterday, and unfortunately the fight with the critters is still in the movie in the anti-cheese cut. Maybe you’re thinking of a different edit? I’ve heard of other edits that are better, specifically when I was searching around the internet for this one.
I was really surprised at how bad the critter fight CG looks now. Why did I not notice this in the theater on opening day? Maybe the CG is meant to be seen in a theater with that type of different lighting.
I watched the anti-cheese cut of Revenge of the Sith, and sadly the main cheesy scenes are still in the movie in this cut. I think it’s because the scenes are so pivotal to the plot, there’s no way to exorcise them with re-shooting it.
The main one I was bothered by is the scene with Mace Windu, Palpatine and Anakin. It’s the definition of cheese, that scene. But it’s the most important scene in the movie, so you can’t edit it out like he did with a lot of scenes in the first two movies.
The only thing that really stood out on this second viewing of the movie is how badly Lucas treated Padme’s character in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. She just has nothing interesting to say and is just a love interest prop for Anakin. That didn’t bother me the first time since the movies were separated by years. But seeing them back to back for the first time, it really stood out and bothered me.
I have to admit though, going back to the spirit of this thread, that the rest of the movie was pretty good. Watching these movies back to back, and with the anti-cheese edit, Palpatine’s main plot, the “thousand year Sith plan” really comes into view. Not a bad plan for taking over a whole galactic-wide Empire. However, the Senate is always shown as being so incompetent, I’m not convinced that Palpatine actually needed such an elaborate plan to take over this galaxy.
Since I found these last two movies surprising entertaining this time around, I wanted to continue chronologically. And I guess re-watching Solo is next chronologically, unless I can track down the TV shows next. But unfortunately those animated shows don’t seem to be available on any subscription services right now.
I looked online to make sure Solo was next:
This has a pretty good timeline analysis.
- 32 BBY: The Phantom Menace
- 22 BBY: Attack of the Clones
- 19 BBY: Revenge of the Sith
- 12 BBY: Solo
- 0 BBY: Rogue One
- Year 0: Star Wars
- 3 ABY: The Empire Strikes Back
- 4 ABY: Return of the Jedi
- 34 ABY: The Force Awakens
- 34 ABY: The Last Jedi
(BY is year 0, the battle of Yavin in the original Star Wars, so this is Before BY and After BY).
I watched Solo and Rogue One again. Man, watching these for the first time as a Star Wars fan, it really feels different. I really enjoyed many aspects of each movie.
I think my favorite scene in Solo this time was when Han and the others are going through the narrow band between gaseous debris, and there’s suddenly a Star Destroyer blockading them. And Han says something like “Trust me, I was one of these guys, there’s no way they’re going to spare a Tie Fighter for the sake of one lonely freighter”. Cue the Star Destroyer launching about 4 Tie Fighters.
Also, I love the way the movie kept me looking for someone to betray Han, and then when it finally came, I still didn’t expect it.
One thing I really appreciated about Rogue One and Solo this time is just the rich visuals. After Lucas’ prequels, both movies just look so good. Obviously the CG is much better, but also you can immediately tell that there’s so much more actual physical things that they built in these instead of relying so much on CG like the prequels.
I also love how both these movies add to the tapestry of what’s been going on since Episode 3’s end. You see one seed of the rebellion in Solo, and then you see what the Rebellion has evolved into in Rogue One, and how even the Rebels aren’t just plucky heroes, but jaded men and women having to follow orders, hoping that the people above them are making the right decisions.
Hopefully Disney+ will let me watch the series Rebels, I’m really curious to see more of this time between Episodes 3 and 4.
Up next: Star Wars. I only watched the first scene, but man, I love how smoothly it transitions from the end of Rogue One to the start of Star Wars. The opening crawl basically just repeats what we just saw in Rogue One, and it goes from there.
This looks like a fun talk. My eyebrows raised when I saw that Marcia Lucas herself will be participating.
I have no idea what this is in reference to. I must have blacked out entire portions of this movie.
Heheh. Don’t worry, I’m here to remind you. In Attack of the Clones, remember the part where Anakin and Padme go to Gyonosis to rescue Obi Wan after they relay his distress call? They end up in a video-game factory sequence where they’re avoiding pistons and such, and then they get captured and strung up next to Obi-Wan in a giant arena where 3 critters are released into the arena to attack our heroes.
Come to think of it, that’s a very common theme in Star Wars. I guess people in that universe really love seeing people mauled by creatures.
I think one of then hopped up on a post like the Karate Kid.
That arena did have kind of a nice soundtrack behind it though.
I liked that part. I guess I suck.