Dark, gritty, and depressing-- and it couldn't be much better

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2007)

We do not need to mention Luke's bout of horrific acting in the Cloud City lightsaber battle. Somewhere, it has been dealt with accordingly. The fact of the matter is, "The Empire Strikes Back" is even better than its predecessor-- and by a country mile. Instead of wasting time with pointless exposition (title crawl excepted, of course), the film starts right in with two of the main stories-- Vader's pursuit of Luke and the Rebel forces going on the run after an astoundingly impressive battle scene between heavily armored walkers and the hopelessly out-gunned Alliance. Luke learns the way of the Jedi from Yoda, a wise, green, raspy alien who looks like the child of Kermit and Miss Piggy (which makes sense, considering Miss Piggy was also voiced by Frank Oz).
The movie also shows Han, Chewie, Leia, and C-3PO running from the Empire in many well-visualized locales-- the asteroid field, the space slug, and Cloud City, among others. 3PO slapstick reaches a feverish high, and somehow that isn't half bad.
Following suit for "More American Graffiti" (1979), Lucas leaves the director's chair for Irvin Kershner, whose almost terrifying directorial style is much better suited to this darker story. If only "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" could have been done more like this....