The best of the bunch (sorry Phantom Menace!)

Rating: Null/10 (5 September 1999)

"The Empire Strikes Back" is one of my favorite films of all time, and was the best of the original "Star Wars" trilogy. The relationships between the characters is better than "Star Wars": I had great fun watching the love develop between Princess Leia and Han Solo. When he was about to be frozen in carbonite, you could feel her pain as she watched him helplessly being lowered into the pit.
Of course, the only way to see this film is to watch the 1997 Special Edition. The Cloud City scenes are greatly improved.
I made the horrible mistake of re-watching this film just before seeing "The Phantom Menace". It made me realize what "Menace" lacked: interesting characters. A film is sometimes only as interesting as its villain, and in "Empire Strikes Back", Darth Vader is the ultimate. He will stop at nothing to find Luke Skywalker. Disappointing him will result in your death.
Luke with Yoda was fun as well. Who would have thought that such a diminutive being would be the Jedi Master of the Force? The one line of dialogue in this movie that I never forget was when Yoda told Luke: "You must un-learn what you have learned!"
As we move into the next millenium, "The Empire Strikes Back" is one of the best films of the 20th century.