I Agree with you all: Empire RULES!!!

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2001)

Having read most of the comments herein, I must agree that "The Empire Strikes Back" is the best movie from the original Trilogy. The acting, effects, story and most noticeably, the music, surpass far and away the original (and that is saying a lot!!!). Though it's obvious "Empire" would not be the classic it is were not for the first STAR WARS, it still manages to stand high on its own. As a music lover, I must say the the original "Empire" Soundtrack has to be John Willimas BEST musical score EVER. The ominous "Imperial March" (also known as Darth Vader's theme) was SO strong, that its motif has appeared in ALL subsequent films, including "The Phantom Menace". Same goes for the love theme of Han and Leia, Yoda's theme, and the list goes on. On the acting side, Harrison Ford's acting on this one was his most mature performance out of all STAR WARS movies. His performance on "Return of the Jedi" looked watered down compared to this one. Same goes for Carrie Fisher's performance. In "Return" she looks tamed and subdued, a far cry from the bossy, devil-may-care attitude of the first one and "Empire". And Mark Hammil's acting on this one was his most solid and convincing. It's weird that "Empire" worked so well, since most of director Irving Keshner's movies are always a bit contrived. He also did "Robocop 2", but that was a mess (thanx in part to the plotless script and last minute re-writes). "Empire" is a movie that I saw when I was 12 years old, and to this date, it still amazes me. Let's hope that George Lucas comes to his senses and do the new trilogy justice with the upcoming "Episode II".