Striking Distance...

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 2020)

Luke, Han and Leia find themselves waging war against the Empire, along the way they meet the Emperor, Lando, Yoda and find out Luke's hereditary tie to a certain Darth Vader. Again as I said in my review for a New Hope, film criticism from me is practically irrelevant since I love the original 3 movies. The Empire Strikes Back is still one of the most shocking film experiences of my life, mainly in how it ended, in which the good guys lost, Darth Vader was Luke's father and it ended on such a somber note. It also led to extreme debate as to where they would go from here and many kids at the lunch table wondered how this twist came to be. I still stand by A New Hope being my personal favorite, but this is a better overall film, the snow walkers in particular are still breathtaking and Cloud City while not as spectacular in 1980, still holds up really well. At the time this was out of this world and I left the theater crushed at the film's finale, but eagerly anticipating Star Wars 3.
**** Out Of 4-(Excellent)