Fanedits

This may be old news to some, but I just watched The Phantom Edit and Attack of the Phantom for the first time recently. For those that don't know, basically a rather talented fellow took the first two Star Wars Prequels and made them less shitty through some clever editing. The first movie, Attack of the Phantom, is a large improvement, but still comes out as an average sci-fi film. Must of the edits involve a noble attempt to turn Jake Loyd's Anakin Skywalker into a compelling character, and a large reduction in "comical" aspects of the film (Jar-Jar is still present, although much reduced. In fact, you actually don't mind him as much when he's not in your face all of the time.) It turns out that when alot of redundant dialogue is cut, Qui-Gon becomes a bigger bad-ass, Obi-Won becomes competent, Anakin becomes appealing, and the funny parts become funny. It's a marked improvement. Attack of the Phantom, on the other hand, goes from a shitty movie to a good one, albeit one with embarrasingly stilted acting at times (because blue screen acting sucks, as a general rule. Acting is reacting, and it's hard to react to nothing.) Thanks to the Phantom Editor's alterations, Anakin goes from whiny brat to a tragic character that, while still a total creepster thanks to Hayden Christensen's leering, the audience can at least identify with. The love story actually works, ironically because almost all the scenes involving "romantic" dialogue have been excised. Less is more, and all that. Best of all is the commentary track where the Phantom Editor explains all of his decisions. It's intelligent, fascinating, and really makes you appreciate how important the editor is. Most of the fan edits that followed were basically people making Star Wars "they way they want it," but The Phantom Edit and Attack of the Phantom are all about applying George Lucas' original principles to his own films. Check them out. I can't really link to them because an overweight man in a stormtrooper costume will likely come on behalf of lucasArts to kill me, but you're all savvy internet peoples. Just be sure to try and find the DVD (4 gig) versions, as those have the commentary, which I feel is pretty important.