More Powerful Than You Could Possibly Imagine

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 1999)

Who'd have pegged Irvin Kershner as a likely candidate to take over George Lucas's trashily popular STAR WARS franchise? Luckily, the decision was made and Kershner turned in what is, by a long stretch, the best of the series. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is a breathless chase movie but, unusually for this series, plot is allowed to intrude on action and the actors seem to have suddenly found some character. The whole thing is infused with a wonderfully dark operatic quality, greatly assisted by the rich and imaginative visuals. Movies like this need a good hissable villain and Dave Prowse and James Earl Jones as (respectively) the body and voice of Darth Vader turn him into a truly frightening nemesis (rather than the cardboard cut-out he is in the other films), all of which serves to give the whole enterprise a weighty centre that was completely absent from its predecessor.
A grand and sweeping addition to both the STAR WARS canon (and sci-fi cinema generally) before the disappointing plunge into 2-dimensional characters and cuteness that was 1983's RETURN OF THE JEDI and the flashy CGI emptiness which became the trademark of the series by the time the trilogy of prequels ended in 2005.