Pulp Empire

For me, this is the kind of project that fanediting is all about, the kind I can share with people who don't know anything about fanediting. It's also the kind of project that gives me that feeling of seeing something the first time, even though I've seen this movie way too many times to count.

I'm no more than a casual fan of Tarantino, I've enjoyed all his movies to varying degrees but none of them are movies I feel a strong urge to revisit. But here is a movie that he easily could have made that I will come back to several times. It's all style, but in a good way. The visual tricks, the non-linear narrative, the fantastic music, it all adds up. And the fact that no trademark Tarantino over-the-top violence and language was used is a big plus in my book.

Yoda's new dialogue, the split-screens, the constant fades, the Falcon's engines, the hero moments, and the attention to detail were my favorite things about this edit.

I did have a few minor nitpicks. The audio work is well done, but there are moments where things from the original ESB sneak through that were too noticeable, mostly snippets of Williams' score. I can't complain too much, as I (more than most) completely understand how hard it is to work around this stuff in a Star Wars edit, and I know Mr. jvc put a ton of work in to minimize it as much as possible. But it's only fair to mention it.

The other audio thing that jumped out at me was Yoda's new dialogue. There was a hiss (or noise, I'm not sure how to describe it) present during his dialogue that was absent when he wasn't speaking. I know it came from the source and was impossible to remove, but it might have been possible to find some of that hiss from the source that was clean of any dialogue, and repeat it under the Yoda scenes to keep it consistent and less noticeable.

The Clone Wars animated footage was a great surprise to me (in a good way), but I wish Anakin hadn't been named. I was thinking that he was meant to be Luke until that point, and I thought it would have made more sense if he was Luke.

The video quality (watched the mkv) was fantastic. I will say I wish there were some things from the SE that weren't there (the Praxis ring explosions and Vader's pink lightsaber core being the main issues for me), but that's a necessary evil when using the HD source (THANKS GEORGE!). Down the road, once Harmy is done with his HD reconstruction of ESB, I'd love to see those elements replaced, but that's just a wish on my part that need not come true for me to recommend this edit enthusiastically.

One last nitpick - prequel footage? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!1!!11! Completely unnecessary in my opinion.

I've spent more time on the bad than the good, but believe me when I say this is a wonderful edit, a great testament to the power of creative editing, and a strong contender for various site awards. Hurry up June, so I can vote for this thing!

I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was but a boy, and a fan of Tarantino since I was but a teenager. So, naturally, when I saw this I was instantly excited.

The quality of the MKV I watched was really, really nice. I didn't notice any blocking or anything of that sort. The audio was good, too. There were a few times that I had trouble hearing dialogue over the music, but that could have been the set up I was watching on. More on the audio later.

The visual aspect of this edit was nearly perfect. Not a single rogue frame to be found. I'd have to say my favorite sequence was the duel with Darth Vader at the end. It was incredibly well done and worked well with the music you selected. The splitscreen were also great to watch. They worked quite well at compressing time! I did have a few minor peeves, first being that the slow motion effects weren't always that smooth. I understand that you can only slow down 24fps so much (which is to say not a lot) before it starts looking kinda derpy, but I feel that it was overdone a few times throughout. The second was that during a number of the fades between shots was that the scene that was being faded out or into would change shot midfade. I found it to be a mite distracting, and it's something that I try not to do while editing.

The music selections were pretty good, however, there were a few instances where I felt they didn't quite fit. For example, when Han is getting frozen, the music used was from the scene in Kill Bill Vol. 2 where the Bride is digging herself out from the ground. It's a rather upbeat and almost heroic piece, and it doesn't quite fit with the action on screen. There were also a few times when the music faded out to nothing, not quite suddenly, but it didn't particularly sound right, either. That said, I really enjoyed hearing the Pai Mei dialogue dubbed over Yoda. The lipsync on that was spot on. Very clever, very well done.

The narrative, I felt, wasn't quite cohesive. There's one instance when Luke is rescued by Han that we see him recovering in the bacta tank, but we don't get that scene afterwards where Han and Leia ask him how he's doing. It's an important character moment that helps to build Han and Leia's relationship. My main concern for this edit is that it was a lot more style over substance. The addition of a sixth chapter felt wholly unnecessary - that bit could have very easily been woven in with Chapter Five. And while I enjoyed the character title cards that introduced Luke, Han, and Leia (Darth Vader's was great, by the way!) I was half expecting a second credits sequence. In a Tarantino-esque edit, character should be numbers one, two, and three. While his ecclectic music selections are certainly memorable, they play to the characters, not just because they sound cool (although Rule of Cool is always a consideration).

If you plan on revisiting this (which I do hope you do - revision is always a good thing) try to give the story a bit more time to breathe. A few times it felt like things were rushed along to try and keep the length short. Don't worry about how long or short it is. Remember, a great film will always feel too short, and an awful film will always feel too long. I do hope you don't feel as though I'm poo-pooing your edit. It was a marvelous technical achievement, it really was. I look forward to seeing what else you produce in the future!

(and, for what it's worth, this has inspired me to do a similar type edit for Return of the Jedi)

NJVC is a BAMF. This is an example of the rare fanedit that breaks boundaries and really shows what this community is capable of. High creativity and technical skill mesh to create something truly remarkable. My only complaint is that the audio mix runs the full gamut of jaw-droppingly incredible to downright awful in spots. It is a minor complaint considering just how much fun this edit is. If you haven't seen it, do it now. Every year there are a small handful of fanedits that stand out from the crowd and really show the audience something incredible - this is one of them.

A fun concept, giving a great new vibe to Star Wars. Not being a Star Wars fan, only having seen original movie twice in 28 years, sort of allowed me to see it untainted with star wars fan ferocity.
The Tarantino style introduction of characters and titles was brilliant. The Yoda/Pai Mai voice over, worked perfectly, very enjoyable.
And this brings me to the music. Tarantino obviously has a great ear for soundtrack music, which has led to the songs being over used in popular culture. The Music in Pulp Empire often felt shoehorned in, didn't fit comfortably within the film.
"Tarantino Cuts" are a fun novelty, but the music is ultimately distracting when trying to enjoy a film.

I would say that the genuine idea for this is pure and so any form of this idea I will support, but this cut is rough.

It does a few things right, battle of Hoth is cool, opening scene is wicked cool, there's other great stuff like Han and Leia in the tunnels. My favorite remix was with Yoda and Luke in Degobah. The music bed change creates more a samurai/jedi feel to it, it really enhances Yoda's journey in relation to Luke.

All that said, I feel like the edit kind of kept getting in the way of a Tarrantino vision. His work is much tighter and dialogue is much snappier and the stories are more intertwined and layered thru the use of time. This cut was pretty much just the movie with some major music changes. I would have liked to see a tighter more destructive edit than this. I feel this cut it far too loyal to original EMPIRE, which I've seen a gazillion times. There were painfully long scenes that could haven been trimmed or re-ordered QT style. It's fun for sure, but there are a lot of missed opportunities.