STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)
Tagline: The Star Wars saga continues
(Adventure, Action, Fantasy) [PG-13]
I am altering the deal. Pray, I don't alter it any further.
In this one, Lord Vader has Imperial scouts out looking for the rebel base that Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca have fled to after destroying the Death Star. It doesn’t take long before the base is found and the Imperial forces descend on the planet Hoth and engage in battle with rebel forces. Luke escapes to the planet Dagobah in search of Yoda at the encouragement of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Meanwhile, Han and Leia flee in the Millennium Falcon. All this leads to an inevitable duel between Luke Skywalker and the dark side.
First off, I remember when this movie came out and there being a lot of complaining about the fact that it wasn’t’ clear if Luke would ever find Han, the ending kind of make it feel like Luke was never going to get enough training to defeat Vader and so on. None of that was an issue for me. My issue was that the final battle wasn’t nearly as cool to me as a kid as the opening sequence and the giant battle for Hoth. In fact, I have always felt like this entire movie was filmed backward. I would much rather have seen the giant Hoth battle at the end of the film with the rebels slipping away. OH..wait, we did sort of get that in THE LAST JEDI. All that partly explains why I thought THE LAST JEDI was a superior film as iconic as EMPIRE was.
Acting-wise, in this movie and in STAR WARS, Luke is just too freakin whiny. Mark Hamill is awesome in this role, but I really don’t feel like Luke hit his full stride as a character until RETURN OF THE JEDI. Han Solo was played by the legendary Harrison Ford. I always thought Ford was a great actor and as I kid I kinda just wanted to be him, but I didn’t realize how great an actor he was till I saw him in interviews. His real-life personality at least in interviews is really nothing at all like either INDIANA JONES or Han Solo. Billy Dee Williams was epic in this and really is one of my favorite characters in all of the STAR WARS movies. Carrie Fisher is also awesome in this and every bit as bold and snarky as she is in STAR WARS. Unlike the rest of the cast, it seems like Carrie knew exactly how she wanted to play Princess Leia on day one. Maybe she really didn’t, but it sure seems like it.
I saw this movie in the theaters when it came out and in pretty much every subsequent re-release I could after that. I don’t remember there ever being a “shoe” or “potato” asteroid in the asteroid scene, but it’s hilarious to find that out after all these years.
In spite of the fact that I think this movie was shot backward and should have ended with them escaping Hoth, it doesn’t make it any less great as a movie. However, for me, because it feels incomplete and has an entire middle section over an hour-long where it feels like not much is happening. I have to give this thing a 6 out of 7. To this day it is still one of the more celebrated cinematic efforts ever and it opened the door to effects possibilities we kids only imagined at the time.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF LUCASFILM AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.
Comments
Post a Comment