For those that don't know, "Fall of the Jedi" is a fan edit of the prequel trilogy meant to improve the prequels and refocus the narrative in them a bit. they have been around for a while now, but it wasn't until recently that I was able to dig up copies and get them watched. Now that I have, I wanted to hear what other people thought.
(spoilers, I guess?)
I didn't like the Phantom Menace cut very much, but I think that is more to do with the movie than this specific edit. Before, I never really minded Phantom Menace very much. It wasn't great but it wasn't unwatchable either. But now I think that was because all the really annoying bits made the rest of the movie look better by comparison. By taking out all the REALLY bad stuff, it just highlights that what is left is still pretty bad.
Because of that initial reaction, I think I had difficulty judging the other two objectively. I think I will like them a lot more when I rewatch the entire saga without ep.1 (in the Machette Order).
http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/
Most of the the stuff it cuts out of Eps.2&3 I heartily approve of though, and totally understand why it was done. One thing that really surprised me though was how completely he removed Darth Sidious. Taking out his scenes in TPM I totally understand, the focus should be on Darth Maul and the immediate threat he poses, then, at the end, Yoda says that there must be another sith out there... dum dum...dummmm. Then, in Clones, "hey, here is another bad guy, even more dangerous than Maul!" plus, I don't think Sidious had much presence originally, so nothing is missing, but I really expected the final scene of Dooku and Sidious on Coruscant at the end to be included as a big surprise reveal, ala "I am your father". THAT really threw me for a loop, and then a lot of the Sidious stuff was cut from Revenge as well, but not so much that it wasn't blindingly obvious at the end that Palpatine was the Emperor, so I am not sure what the intent was there. I do approve of removing Yoda's fight with Palpatine, the focus should be on the Anikin/Obi-Wan duel, but I liked the battle in the senate chamber, so I was a little sad to see that go, even though it was necessary.
One thing that really impressed me was how much battle droids are improved by removing their dialog. I would not have thought that it would have made that much of a difference, but without the keystone cop dialog the battle droids are actually pretty bad ass.
I loved adding in the scene with Mon Mothma and the other senators, have always thought that was a great scene that should have been in the film to begin with. Less sure about the clip at the end of Padme on Alderaan, crying over Leia. Obviously in there to try and reconcile the prequels with Leia's line from Jedi, but without some other, supporting scenes, I have difficulty believing that Padme would be willing to split up the twins, and it is annoying that the 3 old men decided what should become of the children without discussing it with their mother. That's kinda a catch 22 for the editor though. He could either reconcile the ending with Jedi, but reduce Padme to a triviality, or keep both the tragic end to Padme's story and the continuity error with Jedi. Oh, well. Makes me wonder what someone could do with it who was willing to put more time and money into it like Adywan is doing with the revisited edits of the original trilogy.
edit: oops, meant for this to go in off topic. Sorry.
Edited by Forgottenlore