Would an "Extended Edition" version of The Last Jedi be worthwhile? [Challenge]
What if Disney treated The Last Jedi like Lucas did the original films with his VHS Special Edition release? Or more specifically, what if they treated TLJ closer to one of the Lord of The Rings Extended Edition films? Very few takes would be re-shot, and with the film weighing in at 2:32 there's less than 28 minutes of new content that could be justified.
Structurally, any changes would have to take into account the emotional goals of the film and its pacing issues. For the sake of the franchise, conflicting expanded universe details can be safely ignored, but things would need to end in more or less the same way and leave The Rise Of Skywalker completely unaltered.
What would you do if you're a Disney editor/writing team that has to toe the line between refurbishing this film and keeping it intact? This re-release needs to be sold to your bosses as a marketing opportunity and not a blatant admission that TLJ failed much of its audience. Disney has to come out looking like the good guy to their shareholders and the fanbase while weathering a firestorm of criticism around Director's Cuts and corporate opportunism. Do you think it's impossible to make an extended version of the film that would make most fans excited for Rise of Skywalker?
For a while now, we've had many interesting re-imaginings of TLJ, including today's The Last Jedi Reimagined is live: a storyboard edit. This discussion isn't about that. We have to work with what we have.
Practicality
From a marketing standpoint and for salvaging public perception of the brand, I have no idea why they haven't done this. It seems straightforward: Rian Johnson's Star Wars has some neat ideas but it strays too far from fans' emotional connection to many characters and ideas. No mere edit will change that this film is in some ways throwing a rock through the window of Star Wars. Johnson took some bold moves and Disney is mindful that Star Wars has gotten stale to many of us who grew up with it. But Star Wars is not fast-and-loose arthouse cinema, it's pulpy space fantasy, so a lot of the intentions of the new film either were poorly executed or wildly off-target for Star Wars' audience.
Disclaimer: I'll be direct. I'm less of a fan of Star Wars and more of a fan of storytelling that pulls the rug out from under me, leaving me in the tiny minority who loved TLJ. Plenty of writers discussing the film acknowledge what it attempted to do, and how it fell flat. I'm not right, you're not wrong, many of us disagree about which aspects of the film were worth it. Which is partly what this sub is about and the same sort of mentality that has lead to over a decade of prequel re-imaginings. My questions are about what could feasibly be done, but I'm well aware that not utterly butchering the film keeps a lot of aspects I like that you may not have. An Extended Edition can only do so much.
Working from an existing final cut, you would have to be frugal about anything you retcon. What would you do with 28 minutes? (That's 25 minutes of storytelling, another 3 in credits for additional crew and SFX talent.)
Some examples of what can be done with about 25 minutes of new content
Admiral Holdo's distrust of Poe rubbed audiences the wrong way, but is more justified if there's a clear and constant fear that there is a mole in the resistance. Poe is clearly loyal, but he's impulsive and loose-lipped. Maybe Poe has more trust there isn't a mole than Holdo does, maybe Holdo has dealt with traitors before. Maybe Holdo, being the newcomer aboard a crew that acts close like family is suspected by Poe of being a spy. Depending on how this is done, I think it could be snappy and add less than five minutes or even just require a few new lines here and there.
Luke Skywalker is only shown as a pacifist or in past moments of failure. Show him training youngsters or New Republic guards, show him on a past quest. Yes, the CGI youthfulness may bother some folks but this is really the only big add I think the film absolutely requires. It can't leave much to be interpreted as character-assassinating Luke like the original release was perceived as doing. These flashbacks and stories he's telling Rey could be up to fifteen minutes, basically taking up all time not spent on vital alterations elsewhere. For structure's sake, the flashbacks would have to tie into foreshadowing plot aspects of Rise of Skywalker that we don't know yet and in our timeline will probably feel like are coming out of nowhere (like Palpatine surviving).
Restore the "Rebel Scum" scene with Finn and Captain Phasma. I'm guessing Phasma is a series of clone troopers, but she hasn't done anything of note so far besides look cool. Finn bringing up that she leaked intel and should be dead seems like a bizarre scene to cut in any case. It was already shot, the scene mainly just needs post-production. This is a brief sequence.
I'm not sure what could be done to make people like Finn and Rose's arc more but the actors have chemistry if there's any new cuts needed when rearranging scenes around the new ones for pacing. A moment of Rose being a mechanic doing mechanic things could be nice, but this arc could be left untouched if Disney's priority is showing clips of Luke being a badass.
And lastly, if Disney had considered this before shooting Rise of Skywalker they could change Luke's fading to a force ghost so he can have a physical body in the last film. I'd extend the scene and have him reinflate his cloak a bit and groan "not yet" as an Obi-Wan voice or ghost warns him that he can't hold on for long after merging with the force. Sure, it swaps the man evaporating with some kind of zen cancer but it leaves fans more opportunity to say goodbye to the character in an emotionally compelling context.
What am I wrong about? (besides loving the film, we don't need to discuss my faults)
Can you balance storytelling and marketing better than I? I hope so, maybe your approach is way more fun for audiences.
Would it be worth it? Would it be popular? Would it be profitable enough that Disney would extend the Prequel Trilogy in the same way? I mean, we already got some controversial Extended Editions of Star Wars films. Since it's already been done and it's a saga I don't have the same worry about it that I do towards Director's Cuts obscuring film history, especially if it's making the saga as a whole stronger. Is this already Disney's strategy for the boxed edition of the new trilogy or Disney+?
Posted Sep 15, 2019, 1:46 AM UTC · edited