The exception to the rule

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 1999)

Everyone "knows" that sequels are never as good as the original.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is not only better than the original SW, it is much better. Characters who, in the original, had the depth of a puddle here develop and become human (or whatever). Incidents contribute to a well-rounded whole instead of being cool stuff stuck in simply because it would be cool. Even the far-too-obvious revelation ("I am your father, Luke") comes at a time and in a way that humanizes the until then mechanically evil Vader.
True, Lucas' patented blend of bland mysticism with portentous pronouncements is still present, now represented by a muppet rather than Alec Guinness: but even that has been turned to the service of the story. The training of the hero has become more than a blend of fortune-cookie wisdom and how to hold your weapon; we see it as the difficult, painful, and frustrating thing it _must_ be, and in so seeing, we see Luke as a potential hero and not the dumb hick he was throughout the first film. (He's still largely a dumb hick, but he's a dumb hick with some experience under his belt and some serious potential as a human being.)
Of the three "classic" SW films, this is the one that most deserves to be seen on a big screen. After discounting for the way-cool special effects (which, even after the recent refurbishing, are still nothing to write home about in the late 1990s, amazing though they were twenty years ago), EMPIRE has far and away the most visual impact of the three. From the stark expanses of the iceworld at the beginning to the terrifying climactic sequence with the injured Luke hanging by one hand from the bottom of the cloud city, the whole screen is used to good effect to bring the viewer visually and, more important, viscerally into the action.