One of the best sequels ever

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2015)

Unlike so many unplanned sequels to standalone movies that don't know what to do with themselves, Star Wars Episode V pulls ahead like a champ. It does it by taking the existing universe, expanding it in a logical manner, staying with what worked in the previous film yet adding something new and original as well. You can definitely see that they hadn't planned for this film in advance because there's a lot of new stuff. Suddenly we have the character of Yoda, the reveal of Luke's father, the romantic tension between Han and Leia (you can see pretty well in the first film that she was supposed to end up with Luke) and the continuation of the war between the Alliance and the Empire.
But, unlike in so many other sequels, in this case it works because the film makers hadn't painted themselves into a corner with the first film. There was still story left from the original to explore. The Emperor hadn't been dealt with, it was possible that Darth Vader might have survived the destruction of the first Death Star and Luke still had much to learn about the Force. And thus we get a film that might be one of the best sequels ever made, if not one of the best movies in general.
The film is also a significant leap forward in terms of technical quality. They had a much bigger budget with this film, plus more experience with the new effects the first film had pioneered, and it shows. From Darth Vader's improved armor and look to the explosions and the spaceships to the lightsaber battles. They all look fantastic and have held up remarkably well over the decades.
Furthermore, the story is just as good as in the first one. The Battle of Hoth that opens the film might very well be one of my favourite battle scenes in all of cinema and the lightsaber duel near the end of the film is easily the best one in all of the franchise. Plus, we get a lot of new stuff, as stated, and they all work very well. Yoda's puppetry effects have not aged as well as some other effects in the film, but they're still pretty impressive even by today's standards and the character itself is a lot of fun. Kind of Jar Jar done right. You know, a crackpot local (I know he's not really from Dagobah, shut up) alien who talks funny, messes around, but is still needed for the plot. Except in Yoda's case there's some actual wisdom beneath the initial goofiness.
Overall I think I prefer Episode IV to this one, but it's by a very slight margin. This one has better battles, better effects and equally great story, but Episode IV had better atmosphere and sense of mythos. Nevertheless, they're both fantastic scifi epics and well worth a watch if you've been living under a rock for the last half a century.