Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back: Revisited

empire is in my top 5 movies, ever. and adywan's has become my definitive version. the sfx inclusions are incredible, and subtle, which is a must when we muck with pieces of film history like this imo. the level of craft here is extraordinary.

the real prize for me is the synthesising of the best parts of the theatrical ESB and the special editions: empire with ian mcdiarmid, jason wingreen, "bring my shuttle.", and the bespin balconies is magical. thank you adywan!

my only complaint is that the changes to yoda's face bother me. the degobah sequences are the best part of this film and i love the rough-around-the-edges stuff for yoda. this is the only change that isnt seamless and takes me out of the movie.

Adywan does it again with Empire Strikes Back. I don't know how one person fixed all the issues in this that a whole studio couldn't with 2 official rereleases, but my God, Disney please hire this dude. You can see how passionate this editor is, and it really is a night and day difference between this and the original. You're doing God's work Adywan, thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into this.

A near-perfect edit of "The Empire Strikes Back", and I only say "near-perfect" because there needs to be an edit without Luke and Leia's incestuous Sweet Home Alabama kiss! Other than that, it is technically flawless, and a wonderful marriage of the best of the original and the best of the Special Edition with even more VFX improvements. Dare I say, what the Special Edition ESB should have been!

Highly recommended, and my go-to ESB from now on!

This is probably the most ambitious fan edit of all time! A thrilling take on ESB with astounding new VFX. I only wish there were an alternate version with Temuera Morrison's Boba Fett Dub.

The faneditor's fanedit, this is one that the pros will really appreciate. Sadly, even though I tend to call myself a Star Wars nerd, I noticed probably less than a dozen of the 208 edits made to this film. As near as I can tell, they mostly relate to continuity and visual effects, issues which I'd never really noticed before because I tend to get swept up in the story and not be examining the frames of film.

Even for a rube like me, this is clearly a much better looking and sounding edit than any official release. Everything is crisp and clear and the engines and lighting effects in particular all jump out in a vibrant way. Of the other more obvious changes, there are a few completely new images added, of a swamp creature in Dagobah and of AT-STs in Hoth. A few frames of the improved Special Edition wampa are left out as well. I didn't really need any of these changes, although they do make the scenes feel arguably more intense and ominous. If I'm honest, I think I'd prefer Hoth without "scout" transports. They know the rebels are there, and it's a broad, open field. I suppose if the Empire wanted an all-out assault and had some of them available, why not throw them in the mix? But it just seems to raise unnecessary questions to a scene that had nothing wrong with it.

Overall though, this is a great compromise between the advances of the Special Edition release and the things you love from the Original release. There's no good reason not to have this be your default way to watch ESB, as I think it will be mine.