Empire Of Dreams

I'm running out of Star Wars stuff.

Literally, after season 7 of Clone Wars and an In Retrospect of The Rise Of Skywalker, that's it for Star Wars here until season 2 of The Mandalorian. I am not brave enough to watch the Ewok stuff so this is the end. But I have to say this is a fine documentary, the first I ever watched concerning my favorite movies. It only centers on the first trilogy, mainly the first film, and with a run time of 2 and a half hours the information that you get is good and seeing the formation of this franchise is entertaining, enlightening, and really puts this whole series in perspective. I am going to say this once and only once, I hate how people take Star Wars for granted. I could rant for hours about how people take this so seriously, and this is coming from a die hard Star Wars fan. This really and truly does put the entire franchise into perspective, people always assume, oh Star Wars was planned from episodes 1 to 6 immediately and never had to be revised or changed, oh Star Wars was widely accepted during production and didn't have any problems or trials to overcome, oh the special effects were done with a mass of materials to be used. No! Noooo!! Damn you a thousand times no! This might be an odd thing to say but this is a documentary that flat out tells you the truth, there is no bullshit here and they tell you how Star Wars came to be in the most un-dramatic, straightforward, and sometimes even humorous way. The "script" for Star Wars was a very basic cliffnotes version of the story we know that was radically different than what we got on screen, the production was a huge hassle that hardly anybody believed it would have even gotten half of it's money back, the special effects guys for this film are absurd with how they didn't have a single thing to work on beyond sketches and artwork and made some of the best special effects ever like friggin' EVER, the imagination and creativity they had to make this passion project a reality is nothing short of unbelievable. Like man, if one single aspect of that finished film was off....Star Wars would not be here today. It would have come and went with zero fanfare, zero fans, zero recognition. And you know, there are some unsung heroes in this that deserve recognition, Alan Ladd Jr. is the man who made Star Wars possible cause without that guy George Lucas could have never made the movie. Period. Not with the kind of budget he got. Ralph McQuarrie has been getting more recognition through the years but it was his initial paintings and artwork that got people onboard for this science fiction movie in a time where such a film would have been laughed out of every studio and theater in America. Just...I have to give props to the editors, producer, and visual effects team so much for getting this film finished. Yes George Lucas deserves huge recognition for his ideas, ambition, and the scale he wanted this movie to be but I really, truly, very much believe this film wouldn't have gotten anywhere without these people. Star Wars didn't have a road map, not really, because as time progressed ideas and concepts changed, shifted, were dropped, or improved as the scripts were being rewritten and all for the better in my opinion. In fact there is a comic series I believe it is just called The Star Wars where the original original story that George Lucas penned, design choices and all, was published and booooy is it out there. Thankfully you can find the documentary totally free on YouTube, and it is worth the time to watch. I got a little choked up seeing Carrie again, just being her ridiculous awesome self and it brought up points I knew, I never knew, I knew but then I forgot, it's absurd how much this simple story grew in now over 40 years. It's a big reason why I think people need to chill the f*** out over the sequel trilogy, it really ain't all that bad when you get right down to it. We've seen worse in this series and The Last Jedi ain't one of them examples and I'm talking everything here, not just the films. But what the hell do I know? Maybe I'll make a review in 10 years time that will start something like this: "Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker was the most disappointing thing since my son. I mean how much more could you possibly f*** up the entire finale to Star Wars? And while the prequels aren't bad on paper, the unfortunate reality is that the sequels will be around. Forever. It will never go away, it can never be undone. If you're someone under the age of 20 and say you don't remember a time when Disney didn't own Star Wars and that you thought all of them were good, then I suggest you turn this review off right now before I carefully explain how much of a f***ing idiot you are.". But as of now, I very much like the sequels, I love the original trilogy, and I like...parts of the prequels. But Star Wars is bigger than that and no doubt will entertain the world for decades to come. But take a look at the source and how it all came to be, if only to appreciate where we are now. May the Force be with you always.

The Empire Strikes Back

You know, now that I have watched this movie again, I do have to agree with people when they say it's better than the original Star Wars.



I've even heard people call this movie a coming to age film, and I have never thought about it that way. But yes, The Empire Strikes Back is a superior film to the original Star Wars with no doubt about it. The stakes are raised higher than before, our heroes go through the darkest chapter of their story, and we get a revelation that shocked everyone in 1980 and still shocks people to this very day. So our story takes place six months after the end of Star Wars and the Empire is relentlessly hunting down the Rebels, because no one destroys the Death Star without turning a few heads and pissing off some people. The Rebels are hiding on a snow planet called Hoth, and the Empire is sending out probes throughout the galaxy and soon finds our heroes. They commence an attack which gives us the iconic battle of Hoth where the Imperial walkers are being fought by Snowspeeders, and it is a fantastic battle that gives us more vehicles that we haven't seen before and is quite intense at moments. So the Rebels are defeated and they have to retreat from the planet, but our main hero Luke has a vision of his old mentor Obi-Wan telling him he must travel to the Dagobah system to learn from the Jedi master Yoda. So Luke travels to Dagobah and starts learning more about the Force from his new master. Meanwhile Han Solo and his crew are being hunted down by the Empire and they eventually have to hide out on the planet of Bespin where they meet Lando Calrissian an old friend of Han Solo's played suavely by Billy Dee Williams. But the Empire soon finds them even there and captures them. Luke senses that his friends are in grave danger and leaves his training to save them, but before he even gets there Han Solo is frozen in carbonite and taken by a bounty hunter. When Luke finally arrives he has an incredible lightsaber duel with Darth Vader which results in Luke losing his right hand and learning some world shattering news. In my opinion this lightsaber duel is the greatest, probably of all the Star Wars movies, it makes the first lightsaber duel in the original Star Wars look like the most boring lightsaber duel in Star Wars history. One of my favorite parts of this fight is in the beginning, Vader treats Luke like he is no threat and single handedly fights Luke but near the end of the fight, Vader's breathing hard and he's really swinging at him and he's not one handing his lighsaber anymore because he knows Luke is a formidable opponent. There are tons of great moments in this movie, some even considered to be some of the greatest moments in cinema. The battle of Hoth is great, and the Imperial walkers are just such a huge threat and they move like machines because they were made with stop-motion. But another scene before that is also just awesome, so Luke is trapped in this cave and the only way he can get out is with his lighsaber, problem is it's just barely out of reach, so he closes his eyes and reaches out his hand and you just barely see that lightsaber just inch it's way towards his hands very slowly, which is awesome because in the first movie Luke really doesn't use the force until almost at the end. There's an unforgettable line of dialogue by Han Solo right before he gets frozen, because this is a big moment for the characters because they think this is the last time they will ever see him, so Chewbacca is freaking out throwing Stormtroopers left and right and Leia finally breaks and she says, "I love you.", to which Han Solo replies, "I know.". That is a badass, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not even going to touch the big secret in Empire Strikes Back for those of you who have not yet seen The Empire Strikes Back, but I will say this, when I first saw this movie when I was either 2 or 3 years old, I freaked a little bit. I've heard stories of people who saw this in the theater in 1980, so the third movie didn't even come out for another three years and people flipped and I can understand why!


So that is my review of The Empire Strikes Back, tune in tomorrow where we will finish the original trilogy, and then we can understand why for the most part the prequels were unnecessary and kinda pissed people off a bit.