Star Wars Phantom Edit

The Phantom Edit. The Phantom Edit is a re-edited version of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, that removed elements of the original movie considered by most fans of the original trilogy to be unsuccessful. The purpose of this edit, according to the editor, was to create a stronger film than what was released by George Lucas. The “Phantom Editor” was eventually revealed to be Mike J. Nichols, a professional film editor and Star Wars nut living in Southern California. He described his fan edit as a work of “constructive criticism,” often citing that in George Lucas’ early years as an editor, he would often provide an alternate cut for the director, usually. Phantom Edit Remastered. I'm a hobby editor who's just completed work on a remastered edition of the original Phantom Edit of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This cut has much of the child pandering merchandise making content removed from it. Much of this film is a faithfully matched cut-for-cut of the original Phantom Cut with the exception of.

Star Wars The Phantom Edit Youtube

What is “Star Wars: The Phantom Edit”? And why are so many “Star Wars” fans so interested in it?

Spoiler-free Movie Review of Star Wars: Episode I.II – The Phantom Edit: Fanedits are great fun. While I truly venerate original works, I have always been fascinated by the classical music conept of “variations on a theme”. 'Star Wars' - The Phantom Edit Robert Siegel talks with Andrew Rogers who writes for Zap2It.com about a recut version of the film Star Wars Episode One, The Phantom Menace that's making its rounds.

“The Phantom Edit” is an alternate version of writer-director George Lucas’ mega-hit “Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace”–but it definitely doesn’t emanate from Lucas, Lucasfilm or Twentieth Century Fox. It’s something new in alternative versions of already released films: a fan’s cut. A copy of the “Phantom Edit” found its way to me recently from a source in California.

Star Wars The Phantom Edit Dvd

Its genesis is interesting–and an object lesson in the passion of movie buffs. We’ve had numerous alternate director’s cuts (many now widely available on DVD) and even a few “writer’s cuts” (screenwriter A. Martin Zweiback’s alternate version of the 1986 Katharine Hepburn film “Grace Quigley”). But this is the first widely discussed fans’ cut–and, watching it, you can tell that it was done by someone with a gift (and equipment) for editing and a love of the “Star Wars” series–but a strong dislike of Jar Jar Binks.

Star wars edits phantom menace

How did it all happen? It all goes back to the mixed critical reception of the wildly popular 1999 “Phantom Menace.” Lucas, techno-wizard and maestro of the “Star Wars” series, may have connected mightily with the mass audience when his long-awaited “Star Wars” prequel piled up the second highest box-office grosses of all time ($431,065,444, just behind “Titanic,” which was itself “edited” by some video store owners to eliminate a nude scene). But he alienated more than a few critics, and at least a few of his own die-hard fans. Annoyed with the saturation publicity, the marketing tie-ins–and possibly with Lucas himself, returning as director after a 22-year hiatus–many reviewers blasted the movie as over-hyped and overblown, a bloated superspectacle coasting on Lucas’ past success.

Critics and some fans vented their displeasure about the movie’s length (133 minutes), pace, budget and especially on some of the characters: notably a hapless virtual supporting alien named Jar Jar Binks, a languid, floppy-limbed, screechy-voiced space-creature who moved like a West Indian Robert Crumb cartoon and was spoken and modeled by “Stomp” star dancer Ahmed Best. Others disliked child actor Jake Lloyd, a cocky tot who played the 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker–the lad who grew up to become “Star Wars” hero Luke Skywalker’s father; and also, under his other name, the infamous black-clad supervillain Darth Vader.

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The critics went on to try to slay other box-office giants. But one of the fans–the anonymous “Phantom Editor”–decided to do something. Using a VHS copy, he re-cut the film, creating a new 113-minute version he called “Star Wars 1.1: The Phantom Edit.”

I liked it. The new outlaw version, shorn of at least one major scene and many moments involving the detested Jar Jar and the irritating Anakin, has been circulating underground for a while and avidly discussed on the Internet–and some fans have proclaimed it superior to Lucas’. I don’t agree. But though I personally prefer the richer, denser Lucas version (Jar Jar and all)–there’s no doubt that this bandit cut plays somewhat tighter and faster.

No new footage has been added, but one of the cuts is large. The Phantom Editor eliminates the entire underwater scene in which Jedi Knights Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and sidekick Jar Jar travel by submarine through the depths of Naboo, pursued by big fishes who try to devour them and get eaten themselves.

As for the rest, most of the excisions involve Jar Jar and his goonier comedy and the often obnoxious Anakin, who can be just too supertalented and arrogant for his own good. Some of the cuts, though, are subtle and slight, like the nervous reaction shot of Anakin added during a conference scene with Yoda and the elite, or the elimination of some of his boyish whooping.

The overall effect of the new edit is to give us a film that’s slicker, occasionally more exciting, but most of all, slightly more in tune with the faster tempos modern audiences are used to. Even “The Phantom Edit” is a slower, statelier film–with longer camera takes and more leisurely dialogue scenes than are normal in the Michael Bay (“Pearl Harbor”) era.

Why didn’t Lucas make these cuts himself? Why did he inflict so many of Jar Jar’s fey antics on us? Perhaps because he didn’t react the same way as the critics–who wanted a more sophisticated film, perhaps not geared so strongly to children. But perhaps also because he had spent so much time, money and effort on the backgrounds, design and detail of all these scenes and images that he was loath to part with any of them.

Star Wars Episode 1 Phantom Edit

And I can see why. Back in 1999, I was one of a relative handful of critics who defended “Phantom Menace.” Watching it again, in both the official and unofficial cuts, I’m convinced I was right. Both cuts work well. And there are too many extraordinary things in the film–the creation of a fantastic, multilayered world and all its many parts–to get overly hung up on one actor’s screechy accent or one little hero’s immaculate conception.

Star Wars Phantom Edit Torrent

Star Wars Phantom Edit

But people do, of course–and that’s why we need good editors. And even occasionally Phantom ones.

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