What was the initial reaction to The Empire Strikes Back?

I’ve seen supposed Star Wars fans defending TLJ by shitting on Empire. Because showing the shortcomings of a much superior movie will show them just how much better the new one was.

I was pumped and sad leaving the theater. Poor Han. Did not believe Vader.

Don't remember any polarization.

I was super little when it came out and was a bit traumatized to see Han be betrayed and go down in Empire - at the same time the Vader reveal and Luke defeated expositions were stunning. It left you a ton to think about as a child and it made the redemption in ROTJ seem amazing to me when it came out.

In retrospect, I think only parts of ROTJ were really good, but (after Empire) it was clearly a common vision with the major characters maturing in a way that was very satisfying to me as a child.

TLJ disregards the metaphor of Luke's character growth (among other things) - a character who children spent three movies growing with and learning from as fairy tale lesson about learning from your elders, learning to become a better person, and improving upon your imperfections. It wasn't that he succeeded alone either, his character growth was the point and the part that made him more admirable than anything else. To see that character be subverted into something that isn't just debatably evil, but is also contemptibly weak and inconsistent is just a statement on how much the maker of this movie despised the original character.

There are a bunch of other basic things about what they do to the science fiction (warp drives) and the fantasy (ways in which people including Rey, Leia, and Yoda) can use the force) which also make the first trilogies nonsensical in retrospect. Training is at the core of Star Wars mythos, but is now not necessary if you are talented enough - apparently a young Anakin born of the force and a Luke powerful enough to defeat him were just substantially less talented than Rey (and Leia), and the Emperor much less powerful than Snope, and space jedi ghosts can now intervene directly - which raises the question of why Yoda and Ben became less relevant after death in the first trilogy or why Anakin killing Jedis mattered in the least as a power move for the empire. And hey, the flying through space training thing would have been a neat trick for a super powerful person like the Emperor when Luke threw him to his death.

Very little in TLJ works in the Star Wars universe.

Don’t be fooled. I was there for Empire in the theaters. We were all blown away.

No one walked out disappointed. The big question was whether to believe Vader. We couldn’t believe how the good guys got so beat up, but everyone thought the movie was great.

I was a kid but went and saw Empire in the theater. IMO, it was the best one of all 3. I dont remember any critical reactions to it but again I was just a kid and didnt pay any attention to that stuff.

It wasn't as well-received, critically, as the original Star Wars film was. But the fans seemed to love it.

I was 12, I remember it being incredibly frustrating, but that was because of the cliffhangers, not because it was bad or disappointing.

Like someone else pointed out- poor Han. He was my favorite (and lots of others, too), so his fate crushed me.
Also, Vader being Luke's dad was out of left field (understand that this includes if you were spoiled by reading the book as I was)- just that concept didn't sit well with me.

There was a lot to process, and then confirm... and you had to wait 3 damn years to resolve it. Star Wars was exhilarating and told a self-contained story that was complete at the end; Empire leaves everything incomplete. Maybe a better way to set up the next film, but was irritating at the time.

That all said, Empire was far and away better than TLJ, there's really no contesting that. Nobody is coming out of TLJ saying they can't wait to see the finish, and that they were brought almost to climax only for the film to end prematurely. It will be seen, at best, as filler leading to the finale, no matter how that goes.

For all of Empire's "wait for 3 years" frustrations, we got to see the development of Han and Leia in a very satisfying manner, and they addressed a couple of complaints about things (Artoo plugging into a computer socket and solving their needs; in Empire he plugs into a power outlet instead and gets fried).
Plus, the advancement from SW to ESB on a visual level was amazing.

I think that was his point.

quote:

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Don’t be fooled. I was there for Empire in the theaters. We were all blown away.

No one walked out disappointed. The big question was whether to believe Vader. We couldn’t believe how the good guys got so beat up, but everyone thought the movie was great.

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This. The only backlash was that it ended with a cliffhanger, something we weren't used to. But it was a minor backlash. We couldn't wait for for the next movie.