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Rewatching The Empire Strikes Back
Nov. 6th, 2006 06:03 pmIt's easy enough to say that, by rejecting all dislike for the "uncool" characters (as difficult as this might seem to be for some, of course) and focusing again on all of them as opposed to the more military interpretations, great chunks of the Star Wars saga become much more enjoyable. However, beyond the odd sort of pride that just might dwell in declaring myself able to appreciate The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Return of the Jedi, the "saga" interpretation also improves my take on The Empire Strikes Back. I can finally step away from the more exclusionary praise of it, and the seemingly lurking lamentations about it being The One They Could Never Live Up To Again, or even The One Betrayed. While I would still remain untroubled by spotting an old negative review of it... I'm perhaps not quite as darkly fascinated by them as I once was.
That's the theory, anyway. One thing I did become conscious of when rewatching it, one thing that had evaded me more successfully when rewatching Star Wars just last week, was that I had seen the Vintage Edition of it quite recently. After its example, though, I was ready to appreciate the digital compositing, and intent on erasing all ambiguity when it came to the slightly extended scenes (and their tweaks to the soundtrack, which I've begun suspecting hinges more on listening to the CD versions a lot than on some deep-rooted memory of the Vintage Edition)... but I felt a bit more conscious than usual of the slightly "busier" sound effects.
However, having recently been irritated by another flat upholding of "puppet Yoda" over "CGI Yoda," I was a little relieved to not be bothered by those scenes. Too, perhaps, I placed great stock in the juxtaposition between the stop-motion-animated tauntauns and the location shooting using the mechanical beast. With all of these reactions to keep track of, I almost didn't have time for further contemplation of my recent awareness that there's something that looks an awful lot like a doorframe down in the Dagobah cave. Still, the long journey is almost over, and I for one am interested once more in where everything is leading.
That's the theory, anyway. One thing I did become conscious of when rewatching it, one thing that had evaded me more successfully when rewatching Star Wars just last week, was that I had seen the Vintage Edition of it quite recently. After its example, though, I was ready to appreciate the digital compositing, and intent on erasing all ambiguity when it came to the slightly extended scenes (and their tweaks to the soundtrack, which I've begun suspecting hinges more on listening to the CD versions a lot than on some deep-rooted memory of the Vintage Edition)... but I felt a bit more conscious than usual of the slightly "busier" sound effects.
However, having recently been irritated by another flat upholding of "puppet Yoda" over "CGI Yoda," I was a little relieved to not be bothered by those scenes. Too, perhaps, I placed great stock in the juxtaposition between the stop-motion-animated tauntauns and the location shooting using the mechanical beast. With all of these reactions to keep track of, I almost didn't have time for further contemplation of my recent awareness that there's something that looks an awful lot like a doorframe down in the Dagobah cave. Still, the long journey is almost over, and I for one am interested once more in where everything is leading.