best of the trilogy

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 1999)

STAR WARS, obviously the most inspired, barrier-breaking science fiction/adventure movie ever made (thus far), showed us that you could fit your three acts in three separate movies. I think the first one was spectacular, an invitation to a fantasy world unlike any you have witnessed before or since. A very good first act, a very good introduction.
But EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, in my opinion, is the best in the trilogy. Why? Let me break it down:
1) Yoda. What more can I say? An ancient alien midget. A wisecracking Jedi Master. Where Han Solo gives us the irony of the series, Yoda gives us the muppet-ized hilarity of it.
2) Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian. The only brotha in the future it looks like, but the dude is bad. He also gets more acting skills and character conflict here than he does in RETURN OF THE JEDI.
3) Han Solo and Princess Leia. It's so funny when you look at STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE, and you think that she loves Luke. Han and Leia are so cute here. Bickering, fighting, kissing, and in the end, admitting of their true feelings. And Han always knew. What a lovely intergalactic romance.
4) We first learn of Darth Vader's true identity and his relation to Skywalker.
5) Awesome light sabre showdown between Vader and Luke that served up what we couldn't get from Vader and Obi-Wan's confrontation in HOPE. Unfortunately, it was rehashed into an overlong, boring one in JEDI, inserted between an even more boring starship battle.
6) Oh, and speaking of starship battles. There are none! I think these are the main flaw of all the film containing them. They are cool to witness for the first few minutes, but they go on and on without doing anything different or interesting within the long time.
7) Luke loses his hand. Throughout EMPIRE, you feel this dark dread, but this is the icing on the cake. A lost battle of Luke's. But the war is not over.
8) The set pieces are out of this world. The icy snow in the beginning. The misty, marshy swamp of Yoda's home. The heavenly blissful City in the Clouds. Even the Death Star looks better than the last one! Not to mention Darth's suit looks MUCH better, as do R2D2 and C3P0, most likely to do with the gross earned from the first one.
9) There are so many cool creatures and machines here. Like the elephant-like tanks in the beginning or the llama-like creatures used for horses around the snowy desert.
There is a flaw however. A very annoying one, in fact. Chewbacca moans too much! You get so tired as he goes on and on about the desperate situation. I guess it was meant to go with the ongoing dread and unease you feel throughout the film. After all, this is the ACT II, the conflict of the trilogy. Still, I believe Episode V to be the best of this trilogy. Now to see which will be the best of the first three episodes....