The Most Powerful Star Wars Movie

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2013)

After being abruptly evicted from his Death Star digs, Darth Vader seeks out the young rebel warrior responsible, Luke Skywalker. He has plans for the boy. Skywalker, meanwhile, leaves his friends in the middle of an Imperial invasion for a crash course in Jedi Knighthood amid a desolate swamp world with only a faultfinding green gnome for company. Can Luke complete his training before Darth reels him in?
Well, no, actually. That's not the only way this middle installment of the "Star Wars" trilogy leaves things on a decidedly more discordant note than the previous, joyous "Star Wars." People call this the darkest of the original three films because it is, but "Empire" is the only one with an adult orientation. The characters are deepened, and our investment in them from the first film challenged by events that leave them exposed to the sort of cruelties we wrongly assumed them safe from.
George Lucas deserves major praise for putting such a film together, using his well-earned profits from the first film. In essence, he was literally giving the fans back some dividends for their box office proceeds. He also took chances in terms of leaving them less happy this time, knowing the emotional payoff would have to come a film later.
"Empire Strikes Back" is thus a richer film than "Star Wars" emotionally, and in other ways, too. Instead of confining most of the action to the desert planet Tatoonie, the action bounces around from an ice planet to a swamp planet to the most marvelous creation of all, a city hovering high in the clouds of a gas giant, where the action culminates.
Lucas adds some interesting new characters, particularly Yoda, the swamp creature Luke goes to for help, who articulates much of the philosophy and provides much of the fun in this film as voiced by Frank Oz, the guy behind (or under) Miss Piggy and later, a talented director in his own right.
There's also Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, the operator of Cloud City who provides much of the needed moral shading in the film as the stars from the previous movie are all full-blown heroes now. Williams has fun schmoozing up Leia and trying to find his feet as his slick machinations leave him in ever-hotter water.
The best performance in this film is Mark Hamill's as Luke. Hamill had to work harder here than he did in "Star Wars," sharing all his big scenes with a Muppet and a guy with a bucket on his head. But Hamill finds the essence of a character more interesting than the naive farm boy we saw in the first film, playing Luke as confused, fearful, impetuous, and flawed in a way that makes him more likable, rather than less so. How Hamill never hit it big after his great work here is an injustice on par with Cleavon Little's lack of work after "Blazing Saddles."
What else about this is great? The score by John Williams, introducing the recognizable "Imperial March" theme music as well as some rousing material during the final confrontation between Luke and Darth. The interaction between Vader and his subordinates is chokingly funny, in a way that only adds to the suspense and dread. The opening battle around the ice planet is marvelously intense, especially as witnessed from the cockpits of Rebel fighters taking on thickly-armored Imperial walkers.
The returning cast except for Hamill doesn't seem as sharp this time, especially Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia, so charming in "Star Wars," gaunt and miserable here. Much of the whole middle section of the film is draggy and woolly, like the various silly ways the Millennium Falcon escapes Imperial pursuit and the scene in the "cave" that goes on much longer than it should. Even Luke's scenes with Yoda become slow and tedious with multiple viewings.
The enthusiasm that makes "Empire Strikes Back" so beloved today is understandable. It turned "Star Wars" from a great film into an enjoyable franchise. But it doesn't really have the same stand-alone quality "Star Wars" has, needing both that earlier film and the later "Return Of The Jedi" to make it as great as it is.