DVD Deleted Scenes (AotC)

[ray gower]

DVD Deleted Scenes

The DVD version of the film includes 8 deleted scenes.

1. Padme addresses Senate
   Filmed to prove how and why she was opposed to the creation of a Federation army
   Cut because: It was too slow, too poilitical and done quicker elsewhere.
   I may have missed this point in the film. But not sure I care, considering they were looking to her to lead the motion to allow the creation of one
   
2. Jedi Temple Analysis Room
   Obiwan attempts to get the dart that killed the assasin analyised.
   Cut because: Done elsewhere
   See the bureacracy that holds the Jedi together. It might have made a couple of comments from Obi-wan's discussion with his 4 armed friend a little more understandable 'Them droids only look at symbols'
   
3. Obi-Wan & Mace on the Jedi Landing Platform
   Before he heads off to find the clone army, Obi-Wan and Mace discuss their fears.
   Cut because: It interfered with the action
   Most of this was moved to an earlier point in the temple room, but some of it showing how serious the situation was was deleted altogether
   
4. Extended Arrival at Naboo
   Annakin & Padme say how nice the capital is, how young Padme was when she became queen and relieved her term was over
   Cut because: It was done elsewhere quicker
   
5. Padme's Parents' house
   Padme takes Annakin home to meet parents.
   Cut because: No relevance to the film
   Added depth to Padme, Added yearning and time to the romance. Besides who doesn't remember the first time they took their boy/girl friend home to meet the folks "Mama, This is Sam(antha) we are friends". "No you aren't, you're in love"
   
6. Padme's bedroom
   Annakin and Padme talk in her bedroom. More foundation for Padme. How she grew up, pictures of relatives and things she has done
   Cut because: No relevance to the film
   
7. Dooku Interrogates Padme
   Dooku attempts to persuade Padme to join his rebeillion to save the Federation.
   cut because: it slowed he film reintroduced to tempt Obi-wan
   
8. Annakin & Padme on trial
   Kangaroo Court. Threat to support Dooku or die
   An attempt to add some mystery to Dooku (Is he actually good or bad?)
   Cut because: After the previous one was removed there was no where for this to go.

I'm not going to be daft enough to suggest that all of these should have stayed in. Or what should have come out in their place. I'm not the editor.
But I wonder if overall some of the slower scenes may have helped balance the rest, which almost everybody agrees was too stop/start.
Also a lot of the Padme/Annakin scenes were cut out because "She is not important to the story". Now it strikes me she is essential to the story of how Darth Vader is created. The history and depth they portrayed showed why there was so much awkwardness between them and how it thawed. Rather than the switch like events that made the final cut. It also goes someway to explaining the rather stunted dialogue (they are both feeling guilty)

 

[Diamond9697]

I think the scenes between Annakin and Padme should have been left in personally. It would have added more depth to the characters and I don't know about the rest of you but I think they could have used it.

*snorts and mutters* not important to the story...nooo....she's simply the mother of Luke and Leia and possibly one of the reasons Anni turned to the dark side but important? Perish the thought.

 

[Dave]

The 'Parents House scene' and the 'Bedroom scene', do add to the backstory for Padme. Her denial to her sister that Anakin is her boyfriend, and that her life is in danger, make her connection with Anakin, and her love for him, much clearer. Anakin is shown pretending to be cool to her in public, whereas in the other scenes that stayed in he is always swooning. They would have made the Love story subplot work much better.

They would have slowed the action down even more though, and the other scenes are almost irrelevant to the main story. The 'Jedi Temple Analysis Room scene' is purely to explain why Obi-Wan goes to Dex's Diner.

 

[Tabitha]

I would vote for keeping quite a few - especially the one where Padme addresses the Senate, I really found this helpful for understanding what was happening politically. I have made complaints to this effect before, but I found the background political situation and conspiracy very very hard to understand.

The extended arrival at Naboo was also interesting, and the scene at the parents house was also great for showing us the evolution of Padme and Anakin's relationship, but I found the kitchen scene a little painful because it looked like it had been decorated from ikea! A fairly minor nitpick, but this is supposed to be happening in a galaxy far far away, not in a homes and gardens issue

Droid analysis was pointless, and McGregor shockingly bad delivery of "I know who could tell me" was reason enough to keep the scene out of the final cut.

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Dave
They would have slowed the action down even more though, and the other scenes are almost irrelevant to the main story. The 'Jedi Temple Analysis Room scene' is purely to explain why Obi-Wan goes to Dex's Diner.

Overall I agree about the Analysis Room Scene and the landing platform being left out.
By the time of Padme's interrogation we are impatient for something to happen. So from the point of view of watching it was better that they were trimmed. Refocusing the interrogation onto Obi-Wan possibly made it more poigniant.

But I think I would definitely leave the Padme scenes in. Yes, they slow things down a little, but like those funny speed limits on the M25, it would have kept things running.
As it is, somewhere on Naboo (possibly), somebody pulled a gurt big switch. Padme and Annakin were all over each other and everything stopped as one tried to work out where it all went and what was missed.

 

[Tabitha]

I agree Ray - it was very strange that one minute Padme was telling Anakin that he was still a little boy in her eyes, the next she was gently teasing him about being a Jedi (on the transport to Naboo), and all of a sudden this passion came out of nowhere.
I would have kept all the extra Naboo scenes, plus the Senate scene, and the whole would have been more satisfying. It is a shame that we don't have the option of watching the movie with the cut scenes intact.

The Geonosis scenes didn't really do much for me. As Lucas says before the courtroom scene, he wanted to keep a little of Dooku's ambiguity until Tyrannus meets Sidious at Coruscant - I think this was done very well and wouldn't have been as effective had the Geonosis scenes with Dooku, Padme and Anakin remained.