Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Luke Skywalker goes in search of Jedi Master Yoda, to begin his Jedi training, meanwhile his friends and fellow band of rebels are pursued by The Empire's forces.

How on Earth was it possible to match, if not surpass Episode IV, it seems unfathomable, well that's exactly what they did with this remarkable movie, and whilst I personally rank the films on par with one another, I get why some favour this one. For me, the first came out of nowhere, whereas for this second one, expectations would have been incredibly high.

A superb storyline, breathtaking visuals, first class acting, and Yoda, what more could anyone possibly want or need from a movie, it's a bold claim, but I would genuinely say this is one of the greatest films of all time.

The sets are unbelievable, you can really tell that for those involved this was definitely a labour of love, everything was precise and on point.

It's worth a 10/10 for Yoda alone, I adore his and Luke's scenes together. The wonderful voice of Frank Oz adds a great deal, it really does help to make Yoda such an amazing, funny, smart and curious character.

Let's be honest, films don't get much better than this, it really is a masterpiece.

10/10.

The Empire Strikes Back is the best film in the original Star Wars trilogy. It has all the great qualities that the original Star Wars has: great effects (at the time of its release), appealing characters, and lots of spellbinding action. It also has eliminated some of the problems that plagued the first: the storyline is tighter, and goes much deeper into character development. The performances are terrific, especially by Harrison Ford as Han Solo, and Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian. George Lucas has also remembered to include a spellbinding battle sequence with the snowspeeder sequence near the beginning of the film. The conclusion, with a lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, is truly one of the most suspenseful and dramatic scenes in the entire series. This is a truly wondrous film, and serves as a constant reminder that just because a movie is expensive and a blockbuster doesn't mean that it has to be shallow and two dimensional. This film will undoubtedly entertain viewers of all ages from start to finish.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is an excellent timeless classic that it is the best sequel of all time. I love this film to death, it is my second favorite film and the best sequel in the Star Wars franchise that I love. The Empire Strikes Back is a movie that it is one of the best sequels I can think of, it is right there with Aliens (1986), it is right there with Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) it is an excellent sequel and it really does establish The Empire as a value treat. Empire Strikes Back is still and excellent film which I really believe is a timeless classic. This is my second favorite film from director Irvin Kershner. Number 1 favorite Irvin Kershner film will be RoboCop 2 (1990) which is very underrated action flick. I still have to review those movies someday.

Empire Strikes Back (1980) is the best one of the series, because it's deeper, darker, more philosophical. It's great because Darth Vader and the Empire are at their most menacing, the direction is creative, the characters feel real, the nature of the Force is explored more without losing its mysticism, and the pacing is, as George Lucas would put it, faster and more intense than any other film in the saga.

The plot is actually more a rescue mission that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is coming to rescue his friends Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, C-3PO and Chewbacca are captured on a planet Bespin in Cloud City from villainous Darth Vader. Han Solo's friend Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) set the up and with Darth Vader he set a trap for Luke. Also Luke studied the Force under Jedi Master Yoda to become a full Jedi Knight but in the end he must confront Darth Vader (David Prowse) by him self. The origins of Luke Skywalker are reveled.

Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980 it is directed by Irvin Kershner this time and not George Lucas. Because George Lucas decide that he want to make this sequel independent one, so he ended up coming with his own, founding for the film. Getting a loan and money he earn from the first movie and it success, so he decided he wanted, to found the film him self, and he wanted to be more an executive producer to keep an eye on the lamp, he moved to a bigger studio in Orange County, California, so he diced to be more a producer he did not want to direct Empire Strikes Back. So his first choice was Irvin Kershner, who was a professor at UC in the UC film school, that George attended too and he always liked Irvin Kershner and of course he was a former professor and it was a hard way talk him to do it and the first time Irvin Kershner didn't want to do it, so George called Irvin's agent and his agent said to Irvin take it so he did and the rest is a history. This stands the test of time, the best film he ever directed! I love John Williams score still the same, but I think John Williams changed the music score for a little bit, but that's just my opinion.

Things that I love in this film: I love the battle with Rebels fighting with the Imperial AT-AT walkers on the ice world of Hoth. That is my favorite scene on ice world in the film. The Imperial AT-AT walkers are incredible well made with classic special effects.

I love that the origins of Luke Skywalker are reveled, that Luke is the son of Darth Vader, who is actually Anakin Skywalker, before he become Darth Vader and went to the dark site.

For the first time ever, we see an Emperor in a Hologram talking to Darth Vader.

The Falcon with Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, C-3PO and Chewbacca hiding in the rocks try's to eat a monster.

Luke faces with Darth Vader him self face to face and get his arm cut off and then he jumps off the bridge, because he didn't want to join his father in a dark force. The lightsaber duel throughout the chamber between Luke and Darth Vader was excellent and it was epic.

The training sequence with Luke and master Yoda were excellent and epic.

A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back are my favorite films in series, that are in the franchise, this film get's a perfect 10 score for been the best sci-fi adventure sequel of all time.

My five children were all pre-teens when 'The Empire Strikes Back' came to the theater. While there had been other Sci-Fi movies with a theme of conflict in outer space, the 'Star Wars' trilogy filled our imaginations like no other movies before them. The fantastic, strange worlds were presented almost like we were there too. Aliens sitting around a tavern, enjoying drinks and speaking in all sorts of languages. Nothing before had approached the sheer size of the space ships depicted here, huge cities traveling all over the galaxy. And how about the jump to hyper speed, then disappearing from the screen as the speed exceeds light speed! And the light sabres of the Jedi Knights. The Jedi Knights, a striking parallel to the Japanese Samurai.

It is fruitless trying to argue 'which is best' in a trilogy, because the first one, in this case 'Star Wars', starts it all and has to be the 'father'. However, an argument can be made that 'The Empire Strikes Back' (now on DVD called Episode V) is overall a better-made movie which has more excitement, and grabs your imagination,than the other two original installments (now called parts IV and VI). The DVDs finally came out last month, and they are near perfect, as we should expect from Lucas Films and THX. The bit rate is high, and the picture is nothing short of superb. As is the Dolby EX surround track.

My wife and I watched all three of the movies on DVD this week -- Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi -- compliments of our local public library. It was an appropriate reminder how good these movies are, and still ahead of their time. Nothing else has been made to compare to them.

Congratulations have to go to line producer Gary Kurtz and director Irvin Kershner in pushing the production to out-perform A New Hope, even though the consequence was a film that came in massively over budget, and almost cost Lucas his hard fought independence from the Hollywood system.

The plot moves quickly, from an interesting script by Leigh Bracket and Larry Kasdan, focusing on exploring two key relationships. The first is the relationship between Han Solo and Leia Organa, which is touched upon in a New Hope, but is fleshed out more in this film. The other is the more central relationship between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. This relationship is also linked in to the main supporting character in this film, Yoda, who is fantastically well realised by the film crew and performed brilliantly by Frank Oz. There are other characters, but whereas C3P0 and R2D2 were a central part of the story in the previous film, they are more on the sidelines.

What makes this film so great though is the involving and effective way the relationships operate within the broader story. The banter between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher is highly effective and amusing, operating through the classical love-hate relationship. One senses that Kershner, as a director of character driven films, worked very effectively with the actors and gave them the space to develop their characters which meant plenty of choices for the director in terms of their performances. The same goes for Mark Hamill's interaction with Yoda(Frank Oz). This is totally convincing and builds up the confrontation with Darth Vader very well. It was time well spent in getting these performances right. Kershner is very good at keeping the performance naturalistic, but reduces the level of broadness in the characters, making them more complex and interesting. Darth Vader benefits from this with scenes in the film that add to the mystique of the character. The confrontation with Luke Skywalker is riveting and dramatic and elevates the film above the level of its predecessor.

Technically the film is even more impressive than its predecessor. Credit has to go the Oscar nominated Art Direction team. John Barry, who had worked on the previous film, passed away during the production, but Norman Reynolds led the team superbly, with the excellent creations of Dagobah and Hoth, albeit Bespin in the original does feel a bit like a set, and the digital embellishments in the special edition were helpful in creating a bigger feel to those scenes. However, I was disappointed in the reworked scene with Palpatine in the special edition - while putting the excellent Ian McDiarmid was supporting continuity, to show him face on was, in my view an error and the reworked scene would have played much better with his face shrouded, or at the least partially obscured. The whole point of the scene was that the dialogue as strong enough without the need to ram an unsubtle visual at the audience.

Editing is excellent, led by Star Wars veteran Paul Hirsch, but it is known that both George Lucas, and his then wife Marcia were also heavily involved in putting the film together. Peter Suschitzky's photography is more conventional and low key in approach than A New Hope, but is particularly effective on the Dagobah scenes in Elstree Studios, and the location scenes in Norway.

ILM's visual effects were outstanding, and rightly won an Academy Award. The crew consisted of the following: Oscar winning A New Hope veteran Richard Edlund, working with British effects supervisor Brian Johnson (who had just won an Oscar for Alien), effects photographer Dennis Muren (who would become an award winning and digital effects pioneer for ILM for ET, Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Innerspace, The Abyss, T2 and Jurassic Park) and compositor Bruce Nicholson, who would go on to win an Oscar for his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark, and work on a wide variety of films in Hollywood. George Lucas took a strong interest and influence in the special effects and also has to take credit for some of the excellent sequences in the film, which also work because they help drive the story along.

Again, like a New Hope, sound work was first rate and Oscar winning. In most cases the sound has to be recorded in a studio and added many months after filming has been completed. Sound re-recordist Bill Varney would win another Oscar for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Steve Maslow and Gregg Landaker also worked as sound-recordists and are both prolific contributors to many high profile movies. They would also win Oscars for their work on Raiders and then some fourteen years later win again for their work on the Keanu Reeves hit movie Speed. Peter Sutton won for his on–set work and has a large body of work in film since this movie. Also credit has to go the Ben Burtt's sound design work, which creates a fabulous sound-scape for the film.

However, despite the above outstanding technical contributions, which serve to enhance and exciting and interesting story, it is composer John Williams who, yet again, takes this film to another level with another astounding musical score. Working with the director and producers, Williams develops and expands original themes. He creates a new and unforgettable theme for Darth Vader, with strong militaristic overtones, and clever themes for Leia and Han, and for Yoda. He weaves the score into the film expertly, giving moments of tension, excitement, thoughtfulness, mystery and tragedy with aplomb. The score feels more operatic than a New Hope, and helps cement this as one of the best adventure/fantasy films ever made.

Congratulations to Mr Lucas for delivering a remarkable sequel, but also to Gary Kurtz and Irvin Kershner for having the courage to push everyone out of their comfort zones so as to reach this level of excellence.