Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back: Revisited

Just the other day, I was saying to my stepson how I enjoyed Adywan's first effort, but I felt somewhat wistful about the fact that the task of completing the other films has been such a grand effort that he'll probably never be able to finish any more of them.

I could not be more happy to be wrong! After 9 years, Adywan's latest is upon us, and it does not disappoint.

In my review of the original, I noted that the changes were so small that I couldn't even notice them until I actually looked at his edit list and was blown away at the amount of effort put into it. Once again, that statement holds true. I just felt like I was watching "The Empire Strikes Back" with no changes, even though he's painstakingly restored this film, even reshooting certain elements himself in a few cases to make sure that viewers have the best possible experience.

Last time, Adywan somewhat controversially snuck in a couple of prequel elements to better tie the film series together as a whole (specifically, adding a battle droid on the Jawas' ship, and adding the "Anakin vs Obi-Wan" music for the Vader/Ben duel). Those were probably my favorite moments in that edit, but he got a lot of controversy for doing that, and later had to release a "Purist" edition. This time, Adywan has avoided any prequel elements altogether; even though I miss those little touches, he went for probably the wisest route -- a choice that may make this edit even more beloved than his last one.

I was glad to see that Ian McDiarmid's Emperor is still in place -- a change put in with Lucas' own Special Editions -- but that his looks were somehow made to resemble his appearance more from "Return of the Jedi" than "Revenge of the Sith," and that the scene was recut to match the original script instead of the Special Edition changes. (In the SE script, the Emperor reveals to Vader for the first time that his son is alive, and Vader is astonished -- even though he's already been openly and vocally pursuing "young Skywalker" for half the film up to that point! Now the conversation makes sense again.)

A few commenters have noted that Yoda has some different expressions in some scenes, but I honestly didn't even notice.

Thanks to Adywan and his team for delivering such a great gift to the Star Wars and fan editing community!

Brilliant!

(Spoilers for this edit)
It was a long wait, but The Empire Strikes Back: Revisited is finally here. This is a great fan edit loaded with lots of new surprises. The battle of Hoth is phenomenal. The enhanced FX throughout the film are so seamless that shots will slip by you as if they had been that way all along (The Force Awakens bunk nestled on the back wall of the Falcon is just one example). Two new embellishments I really liked were the Snowtroopers repealing down from the AT-ATs and Mcquarrie's giant white spider from his early concept art of Degobah. The physical models used in place of the outdated background mats looked fantastic. Every laser bolt and light saber is gorgeous. This is the best version of one of the greatest movies ever made. Adywan has a dream of doing the revisited treatment on episodes 1 through 6. If you are a Star Wars fan, after watching this edit that will be your dream too. Get this edit, watch it, enjoy it, then be sure to donate at least the price of a movie ticket to help support Adywan and his crew.

The Citizen Kane of Fanedits

It's a shame there are no 11's to score, coz this just can't fit on a scale of 1-10 compared to virtually all edits out there.

This is beyond any reasonable expectation. I still recall the 70mm version which had many differences to the wide released 35mm prints coz I saw it a dozen times in theatres. I'd love to see that again, but give a choice between that and Adywan's masterpiece, I'd keep this for sure.

It's not just the restorations of lines, foley and more that make this soooo special. It is clearly a labor of love second to none.

I won't spoil it with specifics, however, I had to look many many MANY times to pick out the model work incorporated seamlessly into this. And the hologram work, displays, extra everything and yet NONE of it jars at all (unlike the special editions).

EXCEPTIONAL:
W

Pros:
- Fixing many errors in the original movie.
- Re-rotoscoping all of the laser blasts and light sabers for consistency.
- Re-editing of many scenes.
- Complete color correction.
- And much, much more!

Cons:
- None!

Conclusion:
The Empire Strikes Back is the single best Star Wars movie out there (if not the best movie ever made), and this is currently the best way of viewing it! I could only find a 720p version, but this didn't influence my enjoyment in the slightest. I do wish there was a 1080p version somewhere so I can watch this on my big screen. The editing is on par with the original crew itself. The music, the sfx, everything about this screams a 10/10 for me. Not just because it is ESB, but because of all the stuff this editor did. If you are going to watch ESB for the first time, or for the 100th time, do yourself a favor and watch this version. Bravo Adywan and team, Bravo!