Hi, LVVK,
When you say "falter" do you mean stuttering or freezing? What is the format, frame rate, and resolution of your video clips.
Here are some things to try:
Deleting Preferences
Try opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that
appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your projects.
New Project
Another thing you can try is to copy your media into a newly created project and see if that cures the problem. To do
that, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the media in your project and then Edit/Paste it into the newly created project.
Safe Mode
You could also try booting up in Safe Mode (see Finder menu for instructions) and, after everything loads,
immediately shut down and reboot in normal mode. Then see if iMovie works properly.
--Rich