It sucks that you guys hated this movie so much. I know none of you wanted to hate it. That's a bummer.

I'm saying I was born in 1980. So I have no personal anecdotal memories of how it was received. But my parents, aunts, uncles, etc (as well as general perception: blogs, reviewers, historians, fans, etc) talk all the time about how ill Empire's reception was. It's pretty standard knowledge at this point that the movie was a disappointment to fans (and critics) and it wasn't until much later that the movie became the best film in the franchise.

Again, I can't speak to that personally. This is just based on everything I've ever heard about the movie. Pundits and reviewers and bloggers all talk about that. My whole life, the story I've heard, the conventional wisdom, is that Empire was poorly received at first and then over time became the best movie of the franchise. If that's inaccurate, then I can't dispute that. But that's the story I've always heard, and it was mentioned over and over again when TLJ started getting the brunt of its backlash.

George Lucas was also critical of the dark nature of the film through the 80's - arguing that ROTJ's higher box office tally proved it was the superior movie.

That was my brother's experience as well, not his personal experience - cause he loved it (I was 6 so I don't really remember my initial reaction). But he's long said that many people didn't like ESB when it came out.

I think you are reinforcing our point here Dane. So people initially didn't like ESB and many maybe even heard many poor reviews - which might have led to its early poor performance. But as time passed, and knee jerk reaction faded, it did much better on re-release.

I don't know if that is what is going to happen with TLJ, this is just SPECULATION, but it seems reasonable to think, given the number of people (including folks on this thread) that after seeing it a second time - liked the film much better, that TLJ may have a similar re-bound.

This isn't a regional thing, and it's not a political thing. When you've got a 50/50 movie, it would take a major statistical outlier if anyone with any sizeable group hit 100% agreement.

I sincerely doubt that you're experiencing that.

Whatever. I have absolutely no reason to lie about this. Again, I'm not claiming the backlash isn't real, i just have only seen it online.

I remember my initial reaction, which wasn't good. The 14-year-old me walking out of the theater thought it was ****ed up and depressing. I liked the original and ROTJ much better.

And yes, I realize that Empire is a better movie than Star Wars or ROTJ. The English Patient is a better movie than Aliens, too. Which one do you think I've watched a hundred times?

Interesting.

I saw The Empire Strikes Back at the Midland Theater and man, was it an experience after seeing Star Wars at the Glenwood a dozen times. I loved Empire from the first viewing and was always disappointed with ROTJ, mainly due to Jabba's Palace and the Ewok storyline.

I do remember seeing ROTJ at the Glenwood on opening night back in 1983 and the second Vader emerged from the shuttle, the crowd went beserk, screaming and cheering for Vader. It was the first time I realized that he was an Anti-Hero.

LMAO

What's the ETA for when this will show up on any of the streaming services I use?

Can't really see the need to pay for a ticket with how much the flick has been lambasted.

Sure you do. You're trying to buttress your position.

This line is your attempt to dismiss those who are disagreeing with you, and it's not credible, because of the statistical probabilies.

The rumor is that it’s supposed to be released on Digital on March 27th and BluRay/DVD shortly thereafter so it’ll probably hit Netflix in the summer.

For what gain?

No, this line was my acknowledgement, that the backlash is a real thing, but not in my circle of the universe.

Some people are ****ing stupid. I can't imagine seeing any movie multiple times at the theater, much less a movie you hate. But some people are ****ing stupid.

I haven't seen it, been avoiding spoilers pretty well. But I have caught the overall drift of the reviews. Probably wait for video.

As far as ESB, I remember thinking it was ****ed up they left it so up in the air with Han in carbonite, Luke looking at his new hand, etc. Seemed like it kinda ended in the middle of the story. Which sucked back then when it was like 4 years between movies. Thought it was good. Just didn't want to wait 4 years to see what happened.

Man, I went into this thread with high, high hopes, enjoyed all the speculation, was confused when I first saw it, liked it better the second viewing, and have now had that wear off and just feel flat about the movie. This sucks, because I think the movie in and of itself is a really good movie, but it just flies off the tracks when lined up with the others. Bleh.

I'm going to fire up Netflix, load up Rogue One, and fast forward to the scene where the rebel fleet drops out of hyperspace.