Just as good as the first!

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2007)

Since its release The Empire Strikes Back has gained a lot of popularity, and it is now widely considered to be the best of the series. Initially many people were disappointed with its cliffhanger ending. I know I wouldn't want to wait three years for the answer to the "big question" that was surely on everyone's minds! Anyway, I think Empire has become widely respected for its maturity in comparison to the other Star Wars movies. It's much more dramatic than A New Hope, and it doesn't have the cutesy aspects of Return of the Jedi. Until Revenge of the Sith, Empire was the darkest Star Wars movie. Empire clearly beats it in the execution department though. All of the characters are put into the worst situations imaginable and have to fight their way out.
I think Empire's greatest strength is the character development of Luke, Han, and Leia. Luke faces his greatest fear (confronting Vader) and a romance blooms between Han and Leia. While the script and the performances are not Oscar worthy I do think this Star Wars movie has the best performances in the series. I believe this is largely due to Irvin Kirshner taking over the director's helm for Lucas. Lucas is notorious for not being very good with actors; his trademark instructions are "do it faster and more intense." Kirshner and Producer Gary Kurtz made sure a lot of care went into the character moments. Personally I don't think Lucas would have done that. Another aspect I like is the fact that the character development is very well balanced, so it doesn't feel like any of the principle characters are just tag-alongs, like in ROTJ. Darth Vader becomes the ultimate bad ass here in his hunt for Luke. My favorite Vader line: "The Force is with you young Skywalker... but you are not a Jedi yet." The lightsaber duel is my favorite of the series as well. There was something evil about the Carbon Freezing Chamber, perhaps it was that red glow.
Empire brought us to some of the best locations in the series, such as the swamp planet Dagobah, the ice planet Hoth, and Cloud City. This happens to be the only Star Wars movie that doesn't have Tattooine. The snow speeder battle contains some excellent stop motion animation which holds up very well today. It certainly was unusual to put the major dogfight scene in the beginning of the movie rather than at the end, but I don't think many people complained.
We are also introduced to new characters like Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch), and Yoda. Frank Oz's performance is nothing short of amazing. He deserves a great deal of credit for turning a rubber puppet into a living, breathing person. Like Lucas said, if that puppet hadn't worked the whole movie would have been lost.
One valid criticism of Empire is that the action really just stops once Luke lands on Dagobah. I can't say I was ever bored by Empire's middle act. I found Luke's Jedi training and Han and Leia's moments to be thoroughly entertaining. However, I can perfectly understand why a casual moviegoer would be bored by this act. Either way, EBS is still a must see for any film buff.