Pulp Empire

Yes, I read other reviews before I got this. And no, the slo-mo did not bother or distract me. The multi panel shots were terrific. Battle of Hoth was a standout sequence.
The loose narrative structure applied quite well to grindhouse cinema of the 70s, which is what Tarentino has made built his career aping. The new jumps in plot also kept me on my toes throughout. I did not notice plot holes so much as missing characters. Uhhh ... Wedge? That was acceptable, however, as it kept the focus on lead characters, and a couple supports. Really nice job juicing Boba Fett's role, by the way.
Music was hit n miss. Sorry, but that last song should have been tossed.
Overall, I really enjoyed this and gave nice reviews on several forum boards, including a link for the trailer.
Quality edit.

So right off the bat I want to say that this edit is utterly incredible and such an intensely cool way to reimagine a classic and make it fresh and interesting again. Pretty much every positive thing I could say has been said already.

There were just a couple of choices that really jolted me. First, and this is the more minor one: why didn't Lando get a cool funked-out montage? I mean, Fett gets one and Lando doesn't?

Second, and this was the bigger deal to me, was the way the final scene played out. The Neil Young song felt more than a bit on the nose, while at the same time not quite hitting the appropriate note musically or lyrically. What was meant, both in the original film and in the edit, as a moment of utter despair, ends up just feeling like...not much, really, because all we have is this sort of lazy, plodding classic acoustic-rock track. And lyrically, it seems simultaneously like an extremely obvious choice (old man/young man, father/son, etc.) and like an incorrect one. After all, it's Vader pointing out that the two men are father and son, that the two men are not dissimilar, not Luke.

I also might have liked to see some reference to the Dark Side cave in this scene. I understand not including it in the Dagobah chapter, but I kept expecting some form of flashback to it. Without any indication that Luke experienced anything other than a hallucination of his father as a young man, Yoda's request that he not bring his weapons with him, and his subsequent disappointment, don't make a lot of sense.

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.

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!

I absolutely loved this edit. The split screen in the battle of Hoth was a masterpiece. After viewing I noticed from the stats that more than 30 minutes were removed from the film. I have not seen the original in more than 10 years, and I honestly cannot say that I recalled anything important missing. The intro scenes for Darth Vader and Boba Fett are brilliant. What would I have changed? I needed to be softened up a little before getting hit with Neil Young in the last chapter, but it grew on me as the montage progressed. This is an inconsequential nitpick though. Thank you for a wonderful time, NJVC!