Has anyone ever looked at the re-edits of the Star Wars movies? There are apparently quite a few versions of the prequels. I am personally a great fan of MagnoliaFan's work on episodes one and two. The editing has been tightened, making the entire movie flow better. The music has been changed, and all of Jar-Jar's lines have been subtitled and changed. Basically, they make the movies much more enjoyable. Before episode three came out, I showed them at my school to some friends, and everyone thought them quite the improvement. It looks like Darth Editous has already redone episode four, attempting to recreate the original cut of the movie in DVD quality. Unfortunately, torrents of it are hard to come by.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
I've been trying to get a hold of The Phantom Edit (and Re-Edit) as well as Balance of the Force for over a year now, but my torrents always die.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Have you checked out myspleen.net? That's where I got mine, but it was a while ago.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Ohhh I mentioned this a while back - I've always wanted to see the Phantom Edit - were they get rid of most of Annikin's cutesy stuff and subtitle Jar Jar to make him sound more wise - or something. Which it better - TPE or TPRE?
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Seems like you get to pick your Jar-Jar: non-existent, wise, or Solo. I like Solo, personally.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I recently watched the two Phantom Edit movies ("re-watched" in the case of Episode I). I would, though, like to see the ones where they change Jar-Jar's lines. Haven't found any of them, though.
[ July 11, 2006, 07:12 PM: Message edited by: TSN ]
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
In a related vein, the best writing advice I ever got was from one of my scriptwriting professors. He said, "if you don't like something you've watched, don't just bitch about it -- get the script and rewrite it. See if you can do better." To that end, I've re-written a lot of things, from Star Trek II & III (minor, I promise) to Star Wars Episodes I, II, III, and VI. Oh, and Nemesis (*shudder*).
For TPM, I fused Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon into a single character, aged Anakin by about six years, had all the Gungans speaking in subtitles, and replaced the "Neimoidians" with Duros. I'm still working on titying up the ending so you're not having to follow three different plot threads climaxing simultaneously (woo!).AotC was mainly minor tweaks, the exception being the Geonosian origin of the Death Star. That had to go. RotS was the trickiest, as I had to have Anakin become Vader without the audience knowing it, so as to preserve the shock of the revelation in Empire.
Jedi was fun, though. I preserved a lot of the stuff from earlier drafts of the script. I didn't see them as the problems George did. There were two new Death Stars being built over Endor, which was a nature preserve moon orbiting Coruscant -- er, Imperial Center. The wookiees being used as slave labour to build the space stations were housed on the moon and denied any technological accoutrements, explaining their primitive state, etc., etc... I kept Wicket and Teebo, of course, as a couple of Wookiee cubs (or whatever they call their kids).
I, and others I've shown my work to, like what I've done. I have no hope of making them as movies, but I'd love to find a good Star Wars comic artist and turn him loose on 'em.
--Jonah
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Hmmmm so - I wonder if anyone could re-edit any of the Star Trek movies... Star Trek V?? Nemesis??
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
I don't know if you could salvage STV without reshooting some things, it would be a huge effort. Nemesis, however, I've long held could be a terrific movie with some editing (primarily the B4 shit).
I've seen the Phanom Edit. I thought I still had a copy of it, but I apparently lost that drive. It helped, but maybe not as much as I'd hoped. Among the better things was the subtitling for the Trade Federation. The audio tracks for those were garbled and reversed, but to my ear, they just sounded garbled and reversed and so not like an alien language. It was distracting. I'd be curious to see it with that dialogue replaced with some real voice acting.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I actually saw a re-edit of Star Trek V once. It was called "In Thy Image", I think. They edited the movie down to the length of an episode, as if it were the pilot for "Star Trek: Phase II". Unfortunately I'm not sure where I found it. I think it was the same place I got "The Matrix Dezionized", which made Reloaded and Revolutions into a single three hour movie by removing all Zion scenes. Worked quite well, really, aside from a couple really poor transitions.
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
"In Thy Image" was the original title of the story that became Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I've seen a few people edit that down (back before the Director's Edition) to make up for the bad pacing and clunky scenes of the original theatrical release.
Are you sure you mean Star Trek V? The hijacking, the laughing Vulcan, the search for God, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and all that?
--Jonah
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Yup, that one. Sybok is no longer Spock's brother, and the entire camping thing is gone, as are the rocket boots. Admittedly this loses some of the better character moments, but it's still a better story that way.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Yeah...the rocket bots were baaaaaaaad.
The scene with nakd old-ass Uhura has to go- as does the "scotty bumps his head" crap.
Hmm...the more I consider it, the entire thing is shit and should be replaced with...anything else.
Even the new KBOP bridge with it's periscope is awful.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Hmmm, would love to have a crack at this...
Don't know which angle to play up - that the entire movie after they go to sleep in Yosemite is ACTUALLY a collective dream??
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
well, there Is the Vader Sessions...
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
Not all of that, but a lot of that was fucking funny.