Star Wars doesn't get any better than this.

Rating: 10/10 (1 December 2013)

You've gotta admire George Lucas' moxie. It was bold enough that he sought out to self-finance "The Empire Strikes Back", but the movie has to be a downer on top of it. Make matters worse, he ends on one humdinger of a cliffhanger that people had to wait 3 years for resolution. That's sheer balls.
But what a terrific movie it is. For one, it surpasses the original, which is rare in the sequel department. But it also takes its time to let the story unfold, characters get fleshed out, and the whole thing's a stirring mix of humor, drama and action.
Yoda's scenes are some of my favorite of the trilogy. Frank Oz was able to lend that puppet such a personality that it simply becomes a wizened old Jedi master and not a special effect.
And Darth Vader's presence in this movie makes him one of the all0time great movie villains. He's unhinged, choking out underlings left and right, and pursuing Luke with reckless abandon. Badass seems kind of trite, but it fits here.
"The Empires Strikes Back" is a movie that just fires on every last cylinder. Great dialogue, suspense, set pieces and production values. For my money, it's John Williams' finest score, and the movie continues to be one of my absolute favorites (not to mention the best of the trilogy).
10/10