Well Done. One of the best sci-fi films ever. It almost equals the 1977 original in terms of quality and popularity.

Rating: 10/10 (27 May 2007)

Episode V "The Empire Strikes Back" released in 1980 in my opinion was a great sequel to the 1977 original. As far as quality it closely ranks to the original, and in terms of character development, and plot and as far as the storytelling goes it's probably better than the 1977 original. Directed this time around by Irvin Kershner he does just as good a job with the sets, characters, and special effects work as Lucas did making it just as good as 1977's. Here the saga now has a setting on the ice planet of Hoth, a place that the Rebels have hid from the evil empire in pursuit, with the real goal they have is to reach the fabulous city of Bespin nicknamed Cloud City for it's airy view. Here's when this installment becomes a real coming of age sequel in which the central character Luke Skywalker comes of age both in terms of skill and mind, and that's when he makes a stop in the swamp of Dagobah. It is in the swamps that hold an important part of the saga and the development of the Skywalker character is found here by training with the appearance of the Jedi master Yoda(hey, nice little green puppet!) as Luke's skill of mind and fighting ability is formed making one reason that Episode V is so important. Later a dark secret is revealed, by Darth Vader in the climax at cloud city, and it was just great to see the fierce battle between Luke and Vader to close out this installment. Overall "The Empire Strikes Back" might be the best of the saga in terms of the coming of age development of the central character(Luke). Also the plot finally reveals the hidden truth that's a very dark secret, and the introduction of a new and unique character(Yoda) holds the saga together just great. This really is just as good as the 1977 original simply because more key elements are shown and discovered, the only rule of law is I usually don't rank sequels over the original.