re: What was the initial reaction to The Empire Strikes Back?

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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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Ditto. Well said, I was there too.

ESB had same Director as Raid on Entebbe

Empire is GOAT and ain't even close. The end when Vader asked if Hyperspace was deactivated on Falcon to only see them jump to Hyperspace was brilliant. Vader shaking his head that he was surrounded by idiots was just masterful.

But as to my initial reaction? When I first saw it I was probably eight or nine years old. I had not been exposed to Star Wars before watching the original trilogy so the twist about him being Luke's father took me completely by surprise. I thought he was lying. That and the fact that Han was frozen in carbonite and the fact that the Rebels actually lost kept me from watching Return of the Jedi for the longest time. I was too afraid to see what happened next!

I was scarred by The Empire Strikes Back! So scarred, in fact, that I was hesitant to re-watch it for the longest time. It wasn't until I was in my pre-teen years that I got over this phobia that I had developed with Empire.

nm

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

...(stuff)...

Plus, the advancement from SW to ESB on a visual level was amazing.


All this exactly...except I was 10 not 12.

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Ok, let's get right down to it: for the original fans, story and acting were fun and ok enough to get by.

It was the VISUAL experience that made Star Wars tick.

Star Wars- nobody ever made a sci fi up until that point, that the effects weren't leaving a lot to the imagination. They just couldn't do it, that was the reason Disney emerged so long before- certain imagery was just impossible to see in live-action.

Star Wars pulled it off. We finally had a film where space flight and space combat looked every bit as real as, say, Midway for WW2 air combat. Great visuals, and the real key of the escape scene was the impression of speed while trying to gun down the Tie Fighters... "they're coming in too fast"
Remember Star Trek, when all we got was a static shot of the Enterprise, sometimes firing phasers or torpedos? This gave us movement.

Empire elevated that, now the ships darted around, the Falcon barrel-rolled and veered around crazily.

Jedi kicked it up a notch.

The prequels- Phantom Menace gave us fluid and graceful lightsaber fights, while cleaning up the space action a bit.

AOTC gave us s 5th Element planet with Jedi able to freefall for literally minutes, and super-Yoda. Also gave us an impressive battle scene as the Clone Troopers arrived.

ROTS gave us a proper naval battle with broadsides.

What did the new series give us so far? TFA has the frozen blaster fire, and Poe's too-agile X Wing (that was a little too jarring, compared to everything else we've been able to view. I felt the turns were just TOO much).

R1 gives us another space battle that was ok, but not new; but it also gave us the imagery of the Star Destroyer hovering low over the city, and it gave us a little Vader fan-service.

What did TLJ give you that is new, and groundbreaking? The lightspeed crash? Cool, but immediately made me think of Samurai Jack for some reason. Nothing else was WOW I have never seen THAT before.

If you take the story away, you must at least continue to push the bubble with visuals.

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What was the initial reaction to The Empire Strikes Back?

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Saw it when I was 17 and was blown away. I remember sitting there when the music blasted with the credits and thinking how friggin' awesome this movie is. Couldn't wait for Return of the Jedi. Still the best of the whole lot.