Synopsis:

Return of the Jedi: Possessed is edited to be closer in tone and pacing to the classic Episodes IV and V. The story beats and plot are all the same, but it is less silly, campy, and cheesy.

Intentions:

I have wanted, and attempted to make this edit, for over a decade. I finally decided to go for it. Basically, I was never satisfied with Return of the Jedi as the conclusion to the trilogy. It was frustrating, because I felt it had the potential to be truly great, but that all the greatness was bogged down by unnecessary campiness and cheese. I didn't want to make the film too dark or joyless, I just wanted all of the things that were distractingly silly to be cut away. Taking great inspiration from the famous edit Attack of the Phantom, I decided to try to make Return of the Jedi as great as it deserves to be by cutting away the elements that were holding it back.

Change List:

Basic cutlist, though incomplete: *All lightsaber blades and blaster shots are reanimated, as well as a few VFX enhancements courtesy of Telecine7. *Very light color regrade. *Salacious Crumb no longer has any cutaways or close ups of him laughing at the character. You can still see him in the background and hear him laughing with the crowd a few times. *Many cuts and rearranging of footage for the entire Jabba's Palace portion of the film to make it less silly, and conceal some of the bad muppet looking creatures. *The Sail Barge battle is completely re edited. It is more intense now. *Rebel briefing scene edited heavily to remove campiness. *Han and Lando's scene together removed. I hated to do this because it was their only scene together, but it just wasn't a good scene. *Heavy trims to the scenes aboard the stolen shuttle. *Leia's scene where Wickett discovers her removed. Her appearance is a surprise to the audience as well as Luke and Han. *Many trims to the ewoks and endor as a whole, especially the battle, to be less campy, silly, and make the ewoks more menacing and less cutesy. *Various trims throughout the entire film to improve tone and momentum, but I was very careful not to make the pacing too fast. *A few new surprises.

Additional Notes:

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Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Telecine7 for re animating the lightsabers and blaster shots ChainsawAsh for creating the cover art Collipso for helping me screen it.