I’ve seen the 1979 original - several times in 79 in the theater and countless times in the decades since. I ubernerded it that year. Books, articles, etc. I still vividly remember my VHS of it just a few years later. I’ve listened to the soundtrack regularly since 79. Honestly, almost weekly, even now.
Because the original is a permanent Top Ten for me, there was never any chance I’d bother with a sequel. It’s a complete and finished story (for me).You…seriously… have never watched The Empire Strikes Back this entire last 40 years???
No. I last watched it in the late 90s. Let me be a bit more clear on Empire. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t care about the story enough to watch it with any regularity. It’s fine as a film and as a sequel. It just doesn’t interest me because I didn’t care what happened after 1977. It answered questions I wasn’t asking.
Some standout moments to me; Any scene with Lando, the asteroid field, and Luke hanging under Cloud City. Those were all moments that I thought were very well done. Again, not enough to watch it, but if the OT is ever released in it’s theatrical version(s), I’ll buy and watch Star Wars for sure and maybe even The Empire Strikes Back.
I don’t know how to explain it any more clearly. Two things figure into it. 1. It’s been 40+ years since this was topical for me. Life is SO much more than a film.
2. Lucas contaminated things so badly that I’ve lost interest. I’m on this board fighting the good fight for nearly 20 years. Lucas won. He has successfully denied me - one of the teenagers who made him wealthy in the 70s - the ability to watch and escape in that very 1977 film.
I’m typically fairly neutral or nice(ish) about his mental illness, but at the same time my thoughts are about what a piece of shit he really is. Who the fuck goes to battle against the very people who gave them fame, fortune, and power?