Star Wars Prequels Anti-Cheese Cuts

Has anyone else watched these?



I watched the anti-cheese cut of The Phantom Menace last night and was very impressed at how much some judicious cutting improved the movie.

A few of the changes:
1. The Trade Federation guys now speak alien gibberish, with subtitles that have better dialogue than the originals. It makes them seem much more formidable and less clownish.
2. All instances of battle droid humor are removed.
3. Jar-Jar Binks also gets a new alien gibberish voice with subtitles, and it makes him much more tolerable as a character. Nonetheless, most of his scenes have been radically cut and *all* of his really dumb scenes are excised completely.
4. By clever use of Jar-Jar's subtitled dialogue, the whole trip to underwater Gunga City is cut out, and that not only gets rid of a lot of Gungan asshattery, it also speeds up the plot, as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan no longer take a looooong diversion on their trek to Queen Amidala.
5. No mention whatsoever of midichlorians.
6. No talk of immaculate conception.
7. No "yippee!"
8. The first metting with Sebulba is removed; the second meeting is still there and is sufficient.
9. All of the eye-rolling foreshadowing of a romance between Anakin and Padme is removed. (No "are you an angel?" scene, no "We are sure that her heart goes with you.")
10. We meet Boss Nass and the rest of the Gungans only when Amidala begs for their support. Boss Nass has a new. more serious gibberish voice and subtitles. His head-shaking growl is totally excised.
11. The Gungans' battle with the droid army is completely exorcised of Jar-Jar's antics.
12. Anakin's destruction of the droid control ship is cut to look deliberate, and not some accident.
13. The peace parade at the end is cut entirely; the film ends on the "But which was destroyed: the master or the apprentice?" and the long hold on Palpatine.

For the most part, these cuts just plain work better. There are a few instances where the removal of materials takes out a dramatic pause between events (after Maul defeats Qui-Gon, the fight with Obi-Wan commences immediately) and there are a few scenes that seem a bit abruptly curtailed, but the improvements far outweigh the minor flaws.

I'm watching Attack of the Clones now (about 1 hour in) and can report that so far it, too, is hugely improved. The cuts of the worst aspects of the Padme/Anakin romance now make the romance seem plausible and unforced. Anakin is no longer a creepy stalker, and Padme seems more interested. Astonishing at how much can be changed solely through removal of material.

I've seen them all.
The TPM one totally fixes things.
I would actually cut more from AOTC.
AOTC and ROTS curtail the sappy romance as much as is possible, but the relationship has to be there, so there's still sprinkles of it.
ROTS cuts the "this is how liberty dies...to thunderous applause", line which I actually liked.
ROTS cuts killing younglings, which I never had beef with.

I like that line, too. In a movie that extols democracy, this is the most damning indictment of it.

I haven't gotten to that one yet, but that's too far. Anakin's killing of younglings is the real proof of him crossing the line to the Dark Side.

Nice... watching the Phantom Menace now. I'm only about 20 minutes in, but it has been definitely improved just this small amount in.

Sure, post these at the END of my week off.
Not sure when I'm going to get to look at them now.

The editing highlights just how choppy the dialogue was in these films. But still, the editing of the TPM alone made for a far superior film despite that.

Yeah, but you could've made TPM a better film by setting it on fire and using it to roast marshmallows.

Not sure I like the ending.

I absolutely love it. It draws your attention to the titular phantom menace. Although every fan knew that McDiarmid's character was Darth Sidious, this really drives the point home for anyone who didn't get it.

I finished Attack of the Clones and thought that was at least as much improved as Phantom Menace. The love story now plays believably and all the "comical" bullshit with C3PO is excised.

Okay, saw ROTS edition. It doesn't cut Anakin's visit to the younglings, only a couple subsequent mentions of it. Unnecessary in my view because not cheesy.

For the most part, big improvements. I love that all the awful dialogue during the Anakin/Kenobi duel is cut and that the godawful "Nooooooo!" by Vader is cut.

One cut I didn't like: the "Welcome, Lord Vader. We've been expecting you." line right before Anakin goes to work on the Separatists. The scene loses something without the acknowledgment Anakin is there.

I'll give these a go. Might be good until Adywan completes his version of the PT.

TPM was much improved IMO; I enjoyed most of it in this version. (Dubbing Binks was genius!) AOTC was unsalvageable; I still couldn't get through it. Will try ROTS at some later point.

I took a quick look. They're an improvement no doubt, but the fundamentals of those movies are just so painfully bad that I don't think they can be repaired.

Yeah, definite improvement and makes them more watchable, but still these are shit movies.

I watched the first few minutes. It's an improvement, but I still don't want to sit through that again. The best thing about the prequels are the Plinkett reviews.

That,and Dual of the Fates was one of the best pieces written for any of the seven films. Too bad it couldn't have been used during, say, Rey and Ren's inevitable showdown.

Also,the pod racing game for the N64? Badass. I bought another copy when I found one at my local pawn shop.

Si, Duel of the Fates may be Williams' best piece, like, evah.

Such a complete waste that it was used in TPM (a movie which, by the by, doesn't actually exist).

Seriously? Better than the march, the Rebel theme, or the Indy theme?

Don't they say that more than 50% of good directing is editing.

I wonder if the same could be done with the Abramverse Star Trek movies.?

I don't know about directing, but editing is the most important part of visual storytelling.

This.

Sadly,this edit can't make the actors move more than a few feet at a time or compensate for Lucas's lazy as two camera filming.

Hm. Maybe I've just heard all those others so much that they don't affect me as much any more. But hey, eye of the beholder, to each his own, etc. I wouldn't argue with all four of them swapping places on the list now and then, along with other Williams cues. But Fates really hit me as gloriously symphonic and beautifully bombastic. I haven't listened to it enough for it to have worn off.

Superman, for fuck's sakes!!!!

Seriously, why is this even up for discussion?

John Williams made too many great scores for me to pick just one. I will say I was disappointed that his Superman score wasn't used in MOS.

I actually like Zimmer's score better than Williams, but perhaps that's because it's fresher.

Still no answer to my question here? What is the deal?

Halfway through the Phantom Menace cut. Ya know, with all the Jar-Jar hijinks cut out, all he does is walk around or stand in the background and barely say anything. Hard to figure out exactly why they brought him along!