Review – Star Wars Episode Five: The Empire Strikes Back

This is my favorite of the first three Star Wars films (and the second three as well, for that matter). I’ve always had a weak spot in my heart for a really good villain, and here the bad guys triumph, however temporarily in the bigger scheme of things. Serving as a transition between the relatively unsophisticated original and the grandiose conclusion, this sequel hits just the right balance of effects and plot for my taste. The characters are becoming a little less two-dimensional. Clearly a lot of time and money have gone into the visuals, particularly in the Hoth battle sequence (one of my favorite moments in sci-fi film history). After the overwhelming success of Star Wars, George Lucas apparently had little trouble getting the money to pay for most everything he wanted to include in the sequel, so the special edition version includes only relatively minor changes. The biggest fault here is the somewhat uneven pace, but even that might just be a question of personal likes and dislikes; I don’t like all the Yoda-related pseudo-theology, so in my opinion the scenes that dwell on the Force kill the overall pace of the movie. Other than that, however, I found the film thoroughly entertaining. Buy the tape