Anyone else think Empire Strikes Back's Special Edition is actually better than the Theatrical Cut? — Page 5

Ehh…there are some good changes, but I really can’t get past the anachronistic CGI. It takes me right out of the movie whenever I see it.

Gandalf the Cyan said:

Ehh…there are some good changes, but I really can’t get past the anachronistic CGI. It takes me right out of the movie whenever I see it.

agreed, about the only thing I feel is improved is the backgrounds inside Cloud City. It’s a HUGE change though.
I would love to see a cut of the movie where that’s the only addition made to the theatrical cut.

I’ll at least watch the ESB special edition, whereas I avoid Star Wars and Jedi’s special editions like the plague, but at the end of the day, I will almost always go for the unaltered version. I want to see things how they were interpreted in 1980 when the film was released, not how they were interpreted decades later.

although i like most changes in ESB i prefer watching 4k80 in it’s grainy glory

The SE version of ESB is the only one I can watch the whole way through. But the stock footage of Vader arriving at Death Star 2 trying to be passed off as Vaders star destroyer is laughable and a little insulting to the most devout fans. Nevertheless it’s great to see Ian as Palpatine but I miss Boba Fett´s original voice. But if I had to choose I’d pick the theatrical because it is a monumental film and historic.

I haven’t seen the 4K cut of 2020 SE. I was doing a run through of the films on laserdisc I couldn’t be bothered to finish 1997 0r 2000 sets. I did watch a bit of the 2004 Empire Pal DVD but it’s not fresh in my mind. I did watch some of 97 35mm of Empire, scratches and some wobble a bit of dirt. Nice color though much nicer than anything on home video.

I think my favorite is probably somewhere between 70mm Empire premiere cut and 35mm 4k80. Harmy is good for a super clean modern edit of the original. An approximation.