Enormous Progression from A New Hope; This Is the Melancholic Act 2.

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2008)

The grace, the sophistication, the darkness, the comedy, the baldness and the psychology of George Lucas' epic saga Act 2, the Empire Strikes Back is truly, truly phenomenal; this is a sequel of the highest order, coming close second to Coppola's Godfather Part 2.
The universe of Star Wars is wrapped, and the characters are more than ready to develop as the actors are comfortably settling their parts. And the emotional intensity starts off early with Luke being separated from his allies through to the very end were they're still separated by war. John Williams' breathtaking score sounds like a Wagner opera: dark and epic, Darth Vader never appears as frightening as he does here - and few movies throughout cinema history has dived so brilliantly into the psych of good and evil as Lucas did here. The Jedi-philosophy challenges Luke as he must fight the urges of anger and emotion to find the true path - and in the series' most complex scene we see Luke descending into a metaphorical nightmare in which he confronts Vader, decapitates him before revealing that he sees his own face beneath the mask - this is dark stuff. Nothing in the Star Wars-canon betters this.