Almost Flawless

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2015)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is arguably the best Star Wars film ever made, and one of the best films ever made. The film immortalized the already iconic characters that George Lucas created in Star Wars, while making a very dense and entertaining film. The Empire Strikes Back is so great because of the improvements made to Darth Vader, the ambitious tonal change, and the fact that it still contains one of the best twists ever. With enough analysis the most impressive thing about The Empire Strikes Back is how hard it is to find flaws in the film.
Darth Vader still stands, and probably always will stand as one of the best villains ever brought to the screen, second on my list only to The Dark Knight's Joker. However, in Vader's first appearance Vader is slightly inconsistent in that he's a temperamental villain often yelling, which isn't nearly as scary as a villain who remains calm. I would contest that the best villains act like they are always in control, whether they are not, it is in The Empire Strikes Back that Vader develops into this villain, while also systematically murdering his failing accomplices. It could be argued that Vader's development helped the tonal change that Empire Strikes Back brought.
It's another testament to the villain, when they are so chilling that the tone of the film seemingly dives with them. As Vader develops into the more controlled, systematic villain the tone of the film dives into a darker world. With Star Wars being considered, at least partially, a kids film it seems extremely ambitious of Lucas and Kershner to make a film directed at kids dark, something many filmmakers are unwilling to do today. The dark tone helps accentuate the character development as the characters hit their all time lows, and the film's tone represents that the world isn't always nice.
The story for Empire Strikes Back, being the middle film in the trilogy, had the most freedom, and used it accordingly. The story of Empire Strikes back is arguably, the strongest in the series, as the film was one of the earliest to say the bad guy can win, in a giant blockbuster, another very ambitious move. However, the best element of the story is the unpredictable turns it makes, in particular it's iconic twist. The twist remains one of the most famous of all time, for a reason, and the film benefits from it.
In the end Empire Strikes Back has the best story in the trilogy, the best character development, is very ambitious, and immortalizes it's iconic villain. On top of all of that it has been copied numerous times over the years, and remains one of the best films ever made. Empire Strikes Back still stands as the embodiment of what makes Star Wars so great.