Pulp Empire

The opening of this edit really surprised me. Opening a Star Wars movie in medias res is a new one - and it fits the Tarantino style perfectly. I actively felt myself wondering how we got here. Even though we already know, the movie forces you to look at the narrative in a new way. Probably the best opening scene to a fan edit I've seen yet.

The majority of the film is pure QT style. The music choices and editing style are a near perfect match, and provide a take on Empire that's equal parts humorous and legitimately cool. Some portions of the film feature an abundance of slow motion and montage - the purpose appears to be to maintain sync with the musical choices. It may be a tad jarring in places, but the artistry of these sequences is very good. They may disrupt the pacing a but, but in and of themselves, they're quality. The use of title cards and a nonlinear narrative really complete the experience. The way Yoda was handled was nothing short of inspired.

But the real standout of this edit is the ending. The Empire Stikes Back has one of the most powerful endings in the history of cinema. I like this version better. I don't say that lightly. The way in which it is presented here adds a tremendous emotional punch that surpasses the original film. I was amazed. I sat in silence, jaw agape as the credits rolled.

You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't set some time aside to watch Pulp Empire.

Just watched it. I actually applauded at the end of Battle Royale. I applauded. In my own lounge. On my own. Yes, it was that good.
Nit-picks: The animated scene was a stretch, and then the call back to the cave in the Battle Royale didn't work (seemed pretty random). Probably would have been better to segue the animation into the entrance of Vader in the Cave. Or use the footage of Anakin vs ObiWan, instead of the animation?
I also found the immersion was ruined by leaving in the Star Wars music cues with the mynoks (or whatever they're called) in the Space Worm. It pulled me out of the Tarantino experience.

Genius to use Empire, by far the strongest film, and genius to use the flashbacks etc., character intros, oh man, this was creative brilliance. Up there with War of the Stars.
:applause!:

WATCH THIS...NEXT!!!!
REVIEW 101...and ANOTHER I thought I had reviewed...but had not...

PULP EMPIRE, more than ANY other edit opened up my eye to what could be done beyond extended editions, fixes and trims!

THIS WAS THE FIRST TRUE GAME CHANGER for me.

It was one of two edits that brought me back...coz I wanted to to dive in again.

The audacity, creativity, taboos and holy grails that this masterpiece just slices through is just astonishing.

WHO...in their right mind would not just tamper with a perfect film, but actually, turn it inside out, rescore it, change the entire feel, grindhouse it while actually making it even better (in its own mystical way), add a foreign language, GIANT CAPTIONS, and Ennio Morricone to boot...?!?!

When anyone asks me which fanedit they should start with, or recommend...PULP EMPIRE is my ONLY answer.

I'm not going to bore anyone with spoilers or the technicals...this is just perfection.

Seek it out...throw away your preconceptions....and go for the ride of your life.

I L O V E T H I S !! ! ! ! ! !
XXXXX

This edit was everything I could have hoped for. I really enjoyed the beginning and end of the movie. The middle felt a bit like empire was just re-organized but the audio effects reminded you that you're watching an edit. I thought the animated scene was a good touch, the introductions to all of the characters was fantastic and the ending was spectacular. Overall this edit was amazing and I highly recommend watching it.

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.