A great follow-up to A New Hope!

Rating: 10/10 (20 November 2012)

After having watched A New Hope, I watched the next installment to the original trilogy before the prequel trilogy "The Empire Strikes Back" and I personally agree that this is a great follow-up to it's predecessor since it defined the meaning of a Hollywood classic.
The directing from Irvin Kershner is brilliantly focused and adds a great atmosphere to the movie, making it a lot darker than the previous film. The story is very original and has a lot of exciting moments and a touching scene where Leia says, "I love you" and Han Solo says, "I know." in the carbonate scene especially the lightsaber fight scenes between Luke and Darth Vader. In fact, the characters are likable as they were in A New Hope. Mark Hamill did great as Luke as a now determined warrior to find out about his father from Yoda played brilliantly by Frank Oz along with Alec Guiness as the ghost Obi-Wan. Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford did great with their love and chemistry as Princess Leia and Han Solo. The only character who steals the show, however, goes to Darth Vader thanks to James Earl Jones' dark and intimidating voice. The music from John Williams is excellent and gives an epic scope to the movie and the pacing moves along quite well. Even the visuals are magnificent.
Overall, a great follow-up to A New Hope and is always worth watching just like that film.