Pulp Empire

I said God Damn!

I was fairly certain going into this that it would be the most bad ass fan edit of all time, and let me tell you, NJVC did not disappoint.

"Empire" is essentially my favorite film. So typically an edit of it would make me leery, but this is not a typical edit. Quentin Tarantino is one of my all time favorite filmmakers, and I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of his films are his musical choices. In fact, I love his musical choices so much that I take musical inspiration from him whenever I edit one of my own short films. So imagine my pleasure when I learned that NJVC would be doing that same Tarantino musical treatment to "the Empire Strikes Back!"

Of course the Tarantino inspiration doesn't stop there. He's got character title cards, subtitles, black and white segments, an animated segment, chapter splits, split screens, slow motion, fades, montages, and whatever have you. Basically all the things that make my spine tingle whenever I see a Tarantino movie. And they're all used perfectly.

But how is that music? It's awesome. It's just seriously very awesome. Pretty much perfect choices all around. Being familiar with the music in Tarantino's films, on a number of occasions a song would come up, and I would realize what NJVC was about to do with it, and I wouldn't be able to keep myself from smiling (the use of the Mercenary soundtrack in the carbonite scene comes immediately to mind).

Now for the negative, unfortunately. Like I said pretty much perfect choices all around. The songs make perfect sense for their respective scenes. But they don't always work together. This is probably more true for the Battle of Hoth chapter than the others. It's just that, in that chapter, there's little flow between the songs. It's not as cohesive as one might hope, though on the other hand, some have argued that Tarantino's use of music isn't cohesive either. Anyway, it's really only a problem in that second chapter, other than that it more or less works.

Unfortunately there are sometimes, when you can hear John Williams, but I know how hard it is to replace a SW movie score, and I think NJVC did an impeccable job working around JW. There are also some scenes where I do wish the replacement music could have been louder, but I was happy for the most part.

The real issue with the edit is the narrative. I really do love the non-linear story, and the flashback montages to the previous films. The story, however, seems like it could be rather confusing. And by that I mean, I wonder if I would understand it had I not seen this movie previously. Of course, it's hard for me to know for sure what this theoretical version of myself would and wouldn't be able to understand; but watching this edit it just felt like the narrative wasn't all there. What I did love is how the film almost feels like it's telling two parallel stories, the hero in one being Luke, the hero in the other being Han. (I suppose the original film is the same, but I just never looked at it that way. This edit actually made me notice a lot of things I never though I hadn't noticed in a film that I've seen a million times). What's also interesting is that these two heroes barely even share a scene together in this edit.

Few other thoughts:
- I liked the animated sequence, but there is a little bit of a what the hell factor to it Though this is probably intentional, I kind of wish Yoda would acknowledge it or something.
- Like others said, this edit starts slow. It really does get awesome as it goes along. If I were to rank the chapters, it would probably start with six and go in descending order down to one. Which is awesome. I love movie that get better and better as they go along.
- I'm flattered to see that I'm in the credits! Thanks NJVC!

Anyway, the negative thoughts are more or less nitpicks. I keep using the word awesome and there's a damn good reason why: this edit is awesome. Watch it now. Seriously, do it. I'm thinking about doing it again right now. And then again later with my friends. Great stuff NJVC.

Overall I thought it was a good edit. Some great ideas and good editing there but also a fair amount of bad choices (based on my opinion), with some ideas i didn't really dig. But despite that i enjoyed it and i am glad i saw it. it was a bold edit from njvc and i congratulate him for his effort here.
The split screen in many scenes was nicely done and well implemented. Yoda speaking Chinese (or whatever it was) was really awesome and seamlessly implemented as well. Vader gave me a 70ies porn vibe that for some reason worked great and gave his character a nice new twist. Also i loved the use of the clone wars animated fight in the cave scene! A moment of brilliance there by njvc and easily my favorite moment of the entire edit. Also sound replacement was done great, and the music choices were really cool and really fitted the Tarantino vibe.
On the bad side, many scenes felt very much like a music video montage, instead of part of an actual movie. They gave a very video-clip/youtube-tribute kind of vibe. They contributed to the edit not having a good story structure at moments when it needed it and instead it could even feel kind of random. And another contributing factor to that was the non-linear structure of the edit. The first black and white vader-luke clip was nicely placed at the very beginning building up nicely the rest of the movie, but after that, the whole chapter-thingy felt unnecessary and in my oppinion it didn't help the story in a good way, and it made some things confusing. I think a straight narrative would have made the edit stronger, the story more focused and more to the point.
Some minor criticism is that njvc uses too many fades. Some of them made sense in places like the flashback introductions, but others felt completely unnecessary and distracting. Also not exactly a criticism but at many parts the edit was border-lining to going into Tarantino parody territory. I know the point was not to make a Tarantino Star Wars movie, but more of a tribute to him and his style. But at points the edit felt that it was pushing it too much or trying a little too hard.
I probably have gone a little overboard with all my negative comments, but don't get me wrong. This is not a bad edit. Far from it. Is it a classic though? Nope. But it is a Bold and Well made for the most part edit that i recommend to any star wars fan. I felt that for every thing that i didn't like there was always something there good to counteract it and for me to enjoy. And for the majority of the edit it was the good thing that left the biggest impression to me.
Great Job njvc!

That was just super damn impressive. Initially, I thought we were gonna get Empire Strikes Back with some Tarantino soundtracks instead of Star Wars soundtracks, but this was sooo much more. The soundtrack was indeed great and well thought out. All of the sound editing seemed right on to me and I didn't pick up any mistakes or problems. In certain scenes, some of the voices sounded echoey, but I think that was a deliberate choice by the editor and I liked it.

The editing was first rate and not only seamless but the addition of fades between scenes was very effective. Everything just seemed to fit together so well. The use of slo-mo was effective, although possibly a little overdone in some parts. When the Falcon was flying over Bespin, the slo-mo combined with the special effects didn't look too good at some points. Everywhere else in the edit, the slo-mo looked great.

I only watched this on a computer in DVD format, so the picture wasn't as crisp as possible. (Definitely not the fault of the editor) I just say that because it makes me want to upgrade to Blu-Ray and watch it on the big screen.

The story really flowed well and most of the unnecessary plot points and scenes were removed, such as Chewie's recovery of C3PO from the pig-men (I don't know what they're called)

Couple of nitpicks:

- I thought the pacing kind of got unnecessarily slow when the falcon was in the cave/space slug and found myself wondering if some or all of that could have been effectively cut.

- I found the return to Dagobah a little confusing and wasn't sure whether Chapter 1 was intentionally placed out of chronological order or whether Luke went to Dagobah twice. (Still not sure.)

- I would have liked to see a lot of Ben's appearances minimized for some reason. I just thought it might have helped the story flow better.

I really appreciate editors that don't just try to add or subtract the parts of the story they do or don't like, but instead take a movie and make it their own creation. This editor definitely took ownership of the material.

My new OT: War of the Stars, Pulp Empire, and Ep VI Spence Final Edit. Do they match up? Do they tell a cohesive story? No & no, but damn they're fun.

Great job and thank you.

UPDATE: I changed my scores after viewing V2. Well done.

I just finished watching this and all I have to say is, if Epic and Awesome had a child it would be called Pulp Empire.

I'm not a huge Star Wars guy, to me they're just another set of movies, so it takes a lot to get my attention when it comes to a Star Wars edit. TMBTM did it with A New Hope Grindhoused, and now NJVC's done it with Pulp Empire. The idea of breaking down The Empire Strikes Back into chapters, ala Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds, and replacing the score with songs from and inspired by Quentin Tarantino's library of films was genius. Not only does it completely change the look and feel of the film, it also changes the tone of it as well.

You might ask yourself, "Isn't the use of songs from Tarantino's movies going to be distracting? I mean, these are songs that you automatically associate with the various movies that they're from. Isn't it going to take you out of the movie.". In short? Fuck no, dude! lol The use of these songs only helps cement the feel of a Tarantino movie. A few of the non-Tarantinoverse songs did seem to be a strange choice, but they worked really well with the scenes they were added to.

I'll be honest, the first chapter in the film was a bit slow, but when Chapter 2 starts you'll be glued to your seat. The opening credits were awesome, and I loved the character introductions and hero moments. The use of "Down In Mexico" for Bobba Fett's scenes was pure genius. And like BionicBob, I too thought that the final chapter was a masterpiece. In fact when the song "Old Man" starts and the film moves into a Luke/Anakin montage I got goosebumps. The animated sequence was a nice touch as well.

I cannot recommend this edit enough. This is the first NJVC edit I've seen and it is clear to me that this man is a master of the craft. Download and watch with confidence my young padawans, for you will not be disappointed. And if you are I only have one thing to ask. What the fuck is wrong with you? lol Seriously though, congratulations on an amazing edit NJVC. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

BOLD.

That was the first word that came to mind after watching this Tarantino-style fan edit of The Empire Strikes Back.

Bold to edit the one Star Wars movie in the entire series most fans agree is close to perfect.

Even more BOLD to then restructure it Pulp Fiction style, replacing the entire soundtrack with music from/or inspired by Quintin Tarantino movies.

Does it work?

More Yes than No.

The non-linear structure works surprisingly well. It is impressive.

NJVC attempts to manipulate the film Tarantino style works for the most part, though for me, I think there was a bit too many slo-mo shots and cross fades.

I loved the Hero montages. Darth Vader's intro was FANTASTIC. The new Death Proof engine sound for the Falcon made me smile endlessly. The Battle of Hoth was Brilliant. The Carbonite scene was very powerful. And the final chapter, Battle Royal is a MASTERPIECE!!! I was riveted throughout Chapter Six. A wonderful piece of editing! BRAVO!

I found the voice replacement of Yoda both good and bad. It was a cool idea, though it was distracting that the editor decided to keep some of Frank Oz's voice like the "hhmphs". Also, there is a very noticeable background buzz whenever the voice replacement is used.

Which brings us the main contention of the edit, the new soundtrack. I enjoyed the majority of the selections and they complimented and enhanced many of the scenes. You could definitely feel the Tarantino vibe! There were times where I thought the new music could have been louder; for example the astroid scene and the scoundrel kiss scene.

But the main issue I had was in many of the scenes you can still faintly hear bits and pieces of the original John Williams soundtrack, particularly underneath many dialogue heavy scenes. NJVC has done an incredible job cutting/removing most of the original soundtrack, I hate to even imagine the number of hours and headaches he went through to get the edit to this point -- I do not envy him. But the fact remains the ghost of John Williams haunts the audio of this edit, and on occasion when it appears it would break my suspension of disbelief.

The video quality is excellent. The skills of the editor are masterful. If Tarantino's had directed The Empire Strikes Back, I can easily imagine it looking something very much what NJVC has accomplished. It is only the frustration of the some the original music overspill which prevents me from giving perfect 10s across the board. But I still highly recommend this edit. If you are jonesing for some exciting Star Wars, forget all those Prequel edits, and check this baby out!

Thumbs Up!