The best Star Wars film ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (10 August 2004)

The first sequel is the darkest and the best ever made. (I know that episode III is still to come out but i dunno...) My own theory for the success of The Empire Strikes Back is that at the time of it's release audiences believed it would be more of the same as the first film but bigger and better, what they got also was a great storyline, developing characters both good and bad, blazing action sequences and John Williams Empire/Darth Vader score that was to return in the next movie.
My personal favourite character in this episode has to be Darth Vader. Alfred Hitchcock once said if you make a thriller or suspense drama and there are bad guys in your story they HAVE to be interesting and dangerous, in Vader's case his introduction on his star destroyer when we first see him standing with his back to us gazing out at the empire's fleet of cruisers, you hear his heavy breathing, the film is saying to us 'No introduction necessary!' After that he starts murdering commanders who fail to catch the rebels in the Millennium Falcon with a wit that is darker than his cape, i also loved the part where he has an audience with the emperor, that scene is dripping with evil, Vader perched on a podium while a huge hologram of the emperor beams over him and they plot to lure Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side, this scene also suggests that Vader has purpose for wanting Skywalker to live, as we later find out.
The memorable duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker is one of the most defining moments of the trilogy. I remember seeing this film on it's special Edition re-release in the Glasgow Odeon in 1997, when Vader states 'The force is with you young Skywalker...but you are not a Jedi yet.' Luke climbs those stairs to face his nemesis, the audience just shut up.
What I'm saying is THIS moment is the fight the fans were all waiting for and the outcome was so surprising and cliffhanging that people could not believe that a space fantasy film had come to such a conclusion of uncertainty for the heroic rebels.
The Empire Strikes Back is not only the best star wars film but quite possibly one of the greatest films ever made in over a hundred years of cinema history.