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AMine

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Join date
25-Jun-2019
Last activity
2-May-2022
Posts
17

Post History

Post
#1287785
Topic
Help Me Understand Empire Strikes Back?
Time

Mocata said:

AMine said:
This time, I watched it on our living room TV and with the occasional taking the dog out for a few moments even then, I now better understand the story and the reason it was so loved and praised by many.

Empire is such a mood movie for me, itā€™s dark and mysterious and spends time more on real characterisation than anything of the others. Itā€™s also strange and ambiguous in places, are there any particular moments that you have in mind? SW is still my favourite because itā€™s lighter and fits that adventure movie arc, but theyā€™re almost on equal footing.

Well, I meanā€¦ personally I find the stranger parts to be the most entertaining to me. If you mean scenes like the introduction of Yoda, or the Ewoks beginning to worship C-3PO, then I have to say those scenes seem like they add alot of character to the surroundings. Maybe that sounds weird. šŸ˜›

Post
#1287750
Topic
Help Me Understand Empire Strikes Back?
Time

Shopping Maul said:

AMine said:

Gave Empire Strikes Back another watch, as requested. This time, I watched it on our living room TV and with the occasional taking the dog out for a few moments even then, I now better understand the story and the reason it was so loved and praised by many. I do still believe Star Wars '77 is my favorite, but this does fall close behind! Thank you for your help! If anything else wants to be discussed here, then let me know!

Well, Iā€™m keen to get your take on Return of the Jedi!

I watched Return of the Jedi immediately afterwards, and I missed a few scenes do to having the walk our puppy and such. I loved the ending and the ewoks! Its right under the other 2 in the original trilogy!

Post
#1287669
Topic
Help Me Understand Empire Strikes Back?
Time

Gave Empire Strikes Back another watch, as requested. This time, I watched it on our living room TV and with the occasional taking the dog out for a few moments even then, I now better understand the story and the reason it was so loved and praised by many. I do still believe Star Wars '77 is my favorite, but this does fall close behind! Thank you for your help! If anything else wants to be discussed here, then let me know!

Post
#1287453
Topic
Miniature Star Wars '77 VHS Cover / Video Rental Library
Time

So I make papercraftsā€¦ .and miniaturesā€¦ thatā€™s another thing about me. The good news about this particular one is that I did my best on the small scale to make it somewhat accurate. The bad news is I havnā€™t made the actual tape for it yet, and even I did, the case cant open anyways. paper doesnā€™t seem to like working that way šŸ˜• And sorry about my fingers being weird, theyā€™re smudged up from the glue that has yet to dry even still. Just thought Iā€™d share this with you guys!

-EDIT- Iā€™ve completed the tape for Star Wars '77, and also completed the first VHS release of ESB, including the tan top piece of the tape. Return of the Jedi is coming soon, and Im glad you guys love these so far! If you want to see ant of the other releases in mini paper form, let me know! I might even make an original trilogy box ser if I can find the resources!

Star Wars (Rental '82): https://imgur.com/a/FM5ucEA

Empire Strikes Back (Retail '84):
http://imgur.com/a/G1ZsAj5

Return of the Jedi (Retail '84):
(Not complete yet šŸ˜•)

Hopefully itā€™s cool?

Post
#1287204
Topic
Help Me Understand Empire Strikes Back?
Time

Shopping Maul said:

Wow, your post is so interesting because TESB is my favourite movie of all time (alongside Conan '82) so itā€™s really hard for me to step outside of my own inner echo-chamber here.

The only perspective I can offer is the one of having been there at the time. If you can picture a moment where there was only Star Wars itself - there was the awesome spectacle of this incredible movie with its robots and lightsabers and tie fighters and all that stuff - but there was no ā€˜Vader as fatherā€™, no Yoda, no Han and Leia romance, no Hoth or Asteroid field or Cloud City or Lando or Boba Fett or the Millennium Falcon doing 360 spins between Star Destroyersā€¦

I mean Star Wars II could have just been Star Wars II - a new adventure in the same style as the first - but TESB changed everything. It had an edge and depth to it that we simply werenā€™t expecting. The rebels were decimated, Han got the girl (not Luke!), the bad guy was possibly the heroā€™s father, the Force was now this heavy space-Buddhism and Luke was really struggling with it and possibly risking his soul, Obi Wan had potentially lied to him, Hanā€™s fate was uncertain, Luke had a potential replacement in the wings if he blew itā€¦I mean it took these characters that weā€™d fallen in love with in '77 and put them through hell! It wasnā€™t joyless - there was humour and great lines and fussy robots - but it was heavy and gave the whole thing weight where it couldā€™ve just been ā€˜the further adventures ofā€¦ā€™.

There were the visuals and set pieces too - Hoth with its armoured Walkers, Dagobah with its weird vision-cave, Vaderā€™s huge ship, Cloud City etc etc. It was just such an exciting and crazy next step for what had started out as basically a fun adventure.

I was 8 when I saw Star Wars and 11 when I saw TESB. I didnā€™t think about why I loved TESB, I just loved it. Looking at my respective ages there, itā€™s easy to see why I responded the way I did, just as itā€™s easy (now) to see why ROTJ didnā€™t quite work for me at age 14. Thatā€™s a big part of it of course, but as time has gone by Iā€™ve really come to appreciate the artistry of TESB. Some movies from childhood donā€™t date so well, even if you still like them subjectively. Star Wars and TESB never diminished in my eyes. The older I get the more I appreciate the greatness of these films and really see just why they struck the chords in me that they did.

Of course we like what we like, and itā€™s absolutely fine to not like/love TESB! Iā€™m curious to get your feelings on ROTJ and the prequelsā€¦

Believe it or not, when I was around 10 or so, Phantom Menace was my favorite of the films. This was all before I even knew that the first film was actually ANH, and even before I knew how much hate it got. When i was at my dadā€™s or one of mt momā€™s friendā€™s houses, I would always ask for TPM to be turned on. And mind you, Iā€™m currently in my late teenage years, so im part of the newer generation i guess.

After I heard about the original trilogy a few years into my teen years, I got interested and watched it with my best friend since he had a box set of the trilogy. We only had time for one of them, so he was happy with showing me ANH. I kept the Phantom Menace on a little bit of a high mindset though, and just a bit lower were Episodes 2 and 3.

Iā€™m going to be honest, I got into a lot of other things after that, so Star Wars wasnā€™t the first thing to come to my mind, but I still watched ANH when there was an urge to. And if youā€™re still following along, that means ESB and ROTJ were the last to really be seen by me.

Ive seen ROTJ only a few times, as itā€™s my least viewed. So thatā€™s probably another topic for another time when i try that one out again. So yeah, if anything, that probably makes this topic that much more interesting to you!

Post
#1287203
Topic
Help Me Understand Empire Strikes Back?
Time

SteveE said:

I was born in 77 and watching TESB on TV in the 80s, I thought it was just meh to be honest. Just couldnt get into it.

Star Wars for me was the bombastic space battles, lasers flying everywhere, but TESB was just dirty. I watched it around xmas time too so next to the tinsel and xmas lights, it just seemed dirty and gritty.

However Iā€™m now in a place where I totally understand itā€™s greatness and I guess for me, the point is that if ANH was the wonderment of putting on a new pair of shoes and ROTJ was a jazzy pair of trainers. TESB was sinking into something you already owned and discovering new things about it at your own pace.
It adds to the star wars mythos without being a rehash of the original film and itā€™s totally comfortable in itā€™s own skin.

It also has one of the best soundtracks too, exemplified by the bit at the end credits which is just epic.

Thatā€™s definitely a good way to see it, and even though I have yet to rewatch it (as I mentioned above), it will help set the tone for sure! Part of me believes Star Wars from 77 was good enough to be itā€™s own stand-alone story. If it failed, and no sequels were considered, then Star Wars still had a beginning and ending to a story. Maybe thats whats making it seem odd that im not a big fan as ESB as others are. Could be, or could not be the case.

Post
#1287168
Topic
Help Me Understand Empire Strikes Back?
Time

alexp120 said:

You havenā€™t said how have you seen this movieā€”on a laptop, smartphone, a small TV screen, tablet?

If that is how you watched it, I donā€™t blame you for not getting into. Most of the special effects in it deserves to be seen on a larger canvas.

Iā€™m a Gen Xā€™er and the first time Iā€™ve seen this movie was on the big screen at the time that it came out. Being that it was my first Star Wars film, I totally enjoyed the Han and Leia bickering, 3POā€™s prissiness, the running gag on the Falconā€™s mishaps, and the music score. The more I watched it, the more discoveries Iā€™ve made.

However, I totally understand why you would feel indifferent about a movie where many people you know praised it. I have that same feeling with ā€œDo The Right Thing.ā€ I saw it once, I hated it, and I never saw it again, despite the honors the film got over the years.

On the other hand, I saw ā€œAlien 3ā€ on the big-screen and I didnā€™t like it because I expected to be at the level of ā€œAliens.ā€ But, because I liked the Elliot Goldenthal music score, I saw the film again a few years later and, somehow, I enjoyed the filmā€™s ā€œkilling its victims, one-by-oneā€ approach, like in the first ā€œAlienā€ film.

So, I wouldnā€™t worry about youā€™re not liking ESB. My advice is to take a long break from this movie and let it disappear from your memory.

If this ā€œyour-not-liking-ESB-but-others-doā€ thing still bothers you, then schedule a time to watch the film, once more. This time, take some friends along, and go to a theatre to see it on a big-screen, preferably from a film print. If that is not option, then find a concert venue where the film is shown while a large orchestra performs the music score on stage. Maybe with all the scenery being enlarged, and with high fidelity sound, the film can finally speak to you.

To answer your first question, the only place Iā€™ve ever watched it was actually on my laptop. So thatā€™s something I guess. and I have a week to myself coming up soon, so I may rewatch it then. I would love to see it with friends, but the only problem with that is that most of them are quite busy or on vacation. I do have a DVD of it, as well as Harmyā€™s Despecialized. I donā€™t have the biggest TV, but i meanā€¦ I donā€™t know if its big enough to be the large scale viewing youā€™re referring to. Iā€™ll definitely give the film another watch. Thanks for the advice, Iā€™ll post again here afterwards.

Post
#1287152
Topic
Help Me Understand Empire Strikes Back?
Time

Before you say anything, the answer is yes, Iā€™ve seen all of the original trilogy. My current favorite is the original Star Wars from '77. The thing is, every single site and friend that Iā€™ve seen and talked to about their preference has always been Empire Strikes Back. I agree there are so many memorable moments, even the major reveal near the end, but I feel like Iā€™m missing a feeling or something that everyone else got after watching it. Itā€™s a great movie for sure, but i guess for me it just seemed either too fast pacedā€¦ or too slow pacedā€¦ the plot was hard for me to follow. Though Iā€™m honestly not sure if thatā€™s the case. Iā€™ve tried re-watching it multiple times, but it never caught my interest after the first scenes before they evacuate the Hoth system.
I also understand at how hyped up it was in 1980 when they began showing it, so the history even is there in my head, saying with them that " This movie should be FANTASTIC!" and then everyone else says it is and I guess I donā€™t know what happened?

So given this, thanks for reading that long essay (sorry about that), and maybe thereā€™s something Iā€™m missing?