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“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Watching the Star Wars films
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<blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 324224" data-attributes="member: 23"><p style="text-align: center"><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">The Empire Strikes Back </span></strong>(1980)</p> <p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn7.bigcommerce.com%2Fs-uolwqmm3ak%2Fimages%2Fstencil%2F1280x1280%2Fproducts%2F341%2F724%2FEmpire-Strikes-Back-Poster-845F__66931.1530431405.jpg%3Fc%3D2%26imbypass%3Don&f=1&nofb=1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 539px" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p>It’s forty two years to the week that <em>Empire</em> received its very first public screening at The Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road (May, it seems, was a key month for vintage <em>Star Wars </em>films). It would be nice to say I was there. That I’d seen it over the summer, or on TV or home media in the years since. As it is, the film was barely a blip on my radar, despite being the hottest topic in the school playground with its beautiful iconography (and that gorgeous Roger Kastel poster artwork) appearing regularly on many of my school-friends’ polyester t-shirts and plastic lunchboxes.</p><p></p><p>Watching a hit film for the very first time all these years later there are outside influences that will colour how I view it. Importantly, there are the inevitable spoilers. Between conversations overheard, pop culture quiz answers and satirical references, I doubt there’s anyone who isn’t aware of the film’s big revelation. I’ve actually seen frame by frame reenactments of key <em>Empire</em> scenes in cartoons.</p><p></p><p>There’s also the film’s reputation as - depending on your source - the finest of the <em>Star Wars</em> series (though as this thread proves, not everyone feels that way); one of the top film sequel examples in existence; and one of the greatest films of all time (THE greatest, according to a 2015 <em>Empire</em> poll). Not that this film has a lot to live up to or anything.</p><p></p><p>While I try to keep an open mind, it’s fair to say that hopes were high for this film.</p><p></p><p>As with <em>Star Wars</em>, the opening act didn’t really do much for me. Once again, it felt quite aimless, but in a different kind of way. <em>Star Wars</em> had been deliberately aimless, with numerous scenes of the droids literally wandering around. <em>Empire</em> seems to attempt to fix that by going for action, action, action. But it felt like all action and no character. Just noisy scenes of people flying round, their shouting and John Williams’s bombastic score competing with each other and ultimately cancelling one another out. JW, by the way, is a composer I consider to be truly brilliant most of the time, but his scores need room to breathe. When it’s all-out action for scene after scene his music can sound terribly generic to my ears. He has some wonderful moments in this film… but they come later.</p><p></p><p>I mean, you know there’s too much action and too little character when the mind starts wandering and you find yourself thinking that C-3PO actually has quite a nice little bum.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately (for all of us) it got better.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>continued…</em></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Spells & Karma, post: 324224, member: 23"] [CENTER][B][SIZE=6]The Empire Strikes Back [/SIZE][/B](1980) [IMG width="539px"]https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn7.bigcommerce.com%2Fs-uolwqmm3ak%2Fimages%2Fstencil%2F1280x1280%2Fproducts%2F341%2F724%2FEmpire-Strikes-Back-Poster-845F__66931.1530431405.jpg%3Fc%3D2%26imbypass%3Don&f=1&nofb=1[/IMG] [/CENTER] It’s forty two years to the week that [I]Empire[/I] received its very first public screening at The Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road (May, it seems, was a key month for vintage [I]Star Wars [/I]films). It would be nice to say I was there. That I’d seen it over the summer, or on TV or home media in the years since. As it is, the film was barely a blip on my radar, despite being the hottest topic in the school playground with its beautiful iconography (and that gorgeous Roger Kastel poster artwork) appearing regularly on many of my school-friends’ polyester t-shirts and plastic lunchboxes. Watching a hit film for the very first time all these years later there are outside influences that will colour how I view it. Importantly, there are the inevitable spoilers. Between conversations overheard, pop culture quiz answers and satirical references, I doubt there’s anyone who isn’t aware of the film’s big revelation. I’ve actually seen frame by frame reenactments of key [I]Empire[/I] scenes in cartoons. There’s also the film’s reputation as - depending on your source - the finest of the [I]Star Wars[/I] series (though as this thread proves, not everyone feels that way); one of the top film sequel examples in existence; and one of the greatest films of all time (THE greatest, according to a 2015 [I]Empire[/I] poll). Not that this film has a lot to live up to or anything. While I try to keep an open mind, it’s fair to say that hopes were high for this film. As with [I]Star Wars[/I], the opening act didn’t really do much for me. Once again, it felt quite aimless, but in a different kind of way. [I]Star Wars[/I] had been deliberately aimless, with numerous scenes of the droids literally wandering around. [I]Empire[/I] seems to attempt to fix that by going for action, action, action. But it felt like all action and no character. Just noisy scenes of people flying round, their shouting and John Williams’s bombastic score competing with each other and ultimately cancelling one another out. JW, by the way, is a composer I consider to be truly brilliant most of the time, but his scores need room to breathe. When it’s all-out action for scene after scene his music can sound terribly generic to my ears. He has some wonderful moments in this film… but they come later. I mean, you know there’s too much action and too little character when the mind starts wandering and you find yourself thinking that C-3PO actually has quite a nice little bum. Fortunately (for all of us) it got better. [CENTER] [I]continued…[/I] [/CENTER] [/QUOTE]
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“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Watching the Star Wars films
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