Excellent

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 1999)

The Empire Strikes Back is just a notch down from A New Hope, but still an excellent film in the trilogy. After the Death Star was destroyed, the Rebellion was chased from their secret base and relocated to a bunch of different planets over three years, until they're finally settled down on the ice planet of Hoth. Darth Vader, obsessed with finding Luke Skywalker has sent probe droids across the galaxy in order to find him and his friends. This film is very action packed, ranging from the AT-AT battle to the chase in the asteroid field. The acting is quite better than the first go around, especially from Mark Hamill, and the love scenes between Han and Leia are excellent. Darth Vader is at his most evil in this film, choking people to death who fail him. His lightsaber duel with Luke at the end is ten times better than between him and Obi Wan in the original and the point where Darth tells Luke who he REALLY is is shocking, even when you know what happens. To sum it up: The Rebellion is defeated, Luke abandons his training, Han is captured and taken to Jabba The Hutt and Luke gains a daddy and loses a hand. Excellent film in the series.