STAR WARS: Episode Ⅴ – The Empire Strikes Back (1980-1997-2004)
directed by Irvin Kershner
★★★★★
Star Wars’ first sequel is also one of the first sequels to surpass its predecessor in almost every way. The budget is bigger, the effects are better, the characters are deeper, the acting is stronger, the stakes are higher, and the story is darker. The chances that Empire could have failed spectacularly and ended Star Wars forever were so high that Lucas wisely passed the reigns to another director for the first time in his filmmaking career.
Empire wastes no time introducing or familiarizing its audience with the characters or world. It assumes you already saw Star Wars and know who Han, Luke, Leia, Vader, Artoo, Threepio, and Ben are. It assumes you know what the Force is and what a Lightsaber is. Anything else you need to know is explained in the opening crawl, and then you’re dumped onto a snowy planet with no idea how anyone got there.
Like any good middle chapter of a trilogy, Empire keeps putting our heroes into progressively worse situations. Along the way, we are introduced to a few new mysterious characters. Will they help our heroes or betray them? And then there’s one of the biggest plot twists in cinema history (which, if you’re watching the series in chronological order, isn’t much of a revelation to the audience), leading to one of the most suspenseful endings any movie at that time had ever dared.
For the 1997 Special Edition, Lucas made a few changes to Empire, including more shots of the Wampa creature that captures Luke and extends the establishing shots of Bespin’s Cloud City. Windows were also added to the previously enclosed and sterile Cloud City interiors to make it look bigger, grander, and cloudier. Finally, in 2004, a composite visual effect representing the Emperor was replaced with Ian McDiarmid, and Jason Wingreen’s voice for Boba Fett was redubbed by Temuera Morrison, both for continuity’s sake.
The Empire Strikes Back earns its place at the top of most fans’ best list, and even casual viewers can appreciate the much more emotional story of this franchise’s second entry.
