My favorite film of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 1999)

I know what you're thinking. "There are millions of movies out there, what makes this your all time favorite?" Well the truth is this. I've seen hundreds of movies in my life. When it comes to me and film, there's no genre I don't like and a movie has to have a lot of annoying qualities for me to dislike it. So I'm quite easy to please when it comes to the cinema. I know I haven't answered your question yet but bear with me.
There was a time before I saw Star Wars and at that point I never really saw a movie that I didn't like. But once I first witnessed the adventures in that galaxy far, far away, my imagination (for the very first time) was actually pulled from reality and into this "space opera". I've never really been one for fantasy. In fact to this day, I can't quite understand the hoopla surrounding Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings. But for some reason I can't really explain, these movies did it for me.
You see, the (original) Star Wars trilogy for me is what really made me look at movies as more than just something to keep you entertained on a rainy day. At this point on, it was the basis of comparison to all the films I've seen in my life. I have yet to see a movie that I like better and I doubt I ever will because when it comes to MY taste in movies, this trilogy is as perfect as it gets.
Now that I've totally gotten over my little Star Wars love fest there, let me go on to explain why The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite.
I didn't see Star Wars until I was 15 so I wasn't one of those kids who grew up with it. Although if I knew then what I knew now, I'm sure it would be different. Anyway, I started seeing all this commotion about it's Special Edition re-release in 1997. It was obvious that there was something special about these movies that stood the test of time. So I went into the basement and found my dad's old Beta copies of the trilogy and decided to check them out. (I'm glad I kept my old Beta VCR, heheh) I popped in the original film and suddenly a whole new world of film was opened up to me. (But that's a whole other story.) I was so captivated by the magic of the original film, that I was kind of afraid to watch the sequels as I was afraid they would be inferior. How do you live up to that kind of masterpiece? I've never second guessed a movie since that day.
So the time came to watch The Empire Strikes Back. I wanted to see the continuing adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia and see if they could really bring down the evil Darth Vader. They blew up the Death Star already I thought they won! Until this point, I thought Star Wars was just this happy tale of good triumphing over evil. Well...
I was blown away to see Luke attacked by the Wampa Ice Creature when the movie started, the AT-AT Walkers demolishing the rebel base on Hoth, Han Solo frozen in carbonite before the eyes of those who loved him and Darth Vader revealing Luke Skywalker's true parentage. (Of course, I already knew that, but everyone knew even if they didn't see the movies.) At the end, the bad guys won. You don't really see that in a lot of movies, because it wouldn't work. Unless you're creating a trilogy, that just doesn't sit well with audiences. If I saw RoboCop and at the end he was blown to pieces, I would be disappointed. But here it works, because you knew there was another movie coming and there was time to make everything all right.
This movie has everything a film buff could love. It has action, humor, romance and characters that I haven't been so in love with until I saw Trainspotting. However, that's a completely different type of film.
By the time it was all over, I realized that this film had more of an impact on me emotionally than the original film did. At the end of the first film I found myself cheering for the characters. At the end of this one I found myself worrying about them and hoping that it would all be all right.
The Star Wars saga is, and will always be my favorite saga of all time. Because even if I'm having a bad day at work or one of my friends gets mad at me for saying something stupid or a girl decides she's finally had enough of me, the Star Wars saga will always be there to bring back my sanity. Heheh.
And that's why this is my favorite movie of all time. 10/10