STAR WARS EPISODE V: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by John Sylva (DewyNGale@aol.com) Rating: A
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Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels), R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) all return for the sequel to the best movie of all time (as of yet anyway). Everyone says sequels are bad, huh? Not when it's a Star Wars movie! Empire Strikes Back is one of the best sequels of all time, almost meeting the standards the first film set. In Empire Strikes Back, we are informed that Darth Vader (Voiced by James Earl Jones, David Prowse in costume) is obsessed with finding Luke Skywalker. Currently, Luke is with Leia, Solo, Chewbacca, C-3P0, and R2-D2 at the ice planet of Hoth, in which they are fighting a battle against the empire which wants to capture the young Skywalker. Vader believes that Luke can be a great help to the dark side, because he is very powerful, and the "force" is with him.
Luke is summoned during the snow battle by Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness) that he is to find a Jedi warrior named "Yoda" in the "Dagobah System." Of course, this means nothing to Luke, so he must bring R2-D2 along with him on his journey to Dagobah. Once arriving there, he learns that Jedi training is very difficult. Yoda, voiced by Frank Oz, is a very wise, old creature that will guide Luke through his path to become a great Jedi warrior. Yoda and Ben Kenobi both believe that Luke must be trained to become a Jedi and to fight for the good side, before Darth Vader and the evil Emperor try to summon him to the dark side.
Meanwhile, Han Solo, Princess Leia, C-3P0, and Chewbacca must stop at a city in the clouds, called Cloud City, where an old friend of Han's lives. Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), Han's friend, becomes a main character as he tags along for all of the crazy adventures. From here, Darth Vader starts getting involved with Luke and the others. We get into the same sort of theme as we did in A New Hope, only not quite as good.
The special effects in Empire Strikes Back are up there with the stunning effects of A New Hope. We get to see some new creatures and ships this time around, which were very interesting and original. The space scenes in Empire Strikes back were done much more nicely than in the original, giving more of a variety of set pieces.
Empire Strikes Back seemed much more mature than A New Hope in many ways. This is both good and bad. On the good side, the acting performances, especially from Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, are so much better and more realistic than their performances in the first film. Harrison Ford was just as brilliant as he was in the last one. Billy Dee Williams, who is appearing in his first Star Wars movie, made an impact on the film. In my opinion, he was a wonderful edition to the saga. On the bad side, Empire Strikes Back wasn't as much fun as A New Hope. It was a lot more serious, and didn't seem to have the same charm that A New Hope had to it.
Another way that the Star Wars series matured in Empire Strikes Back is the use of set design. Many of the settings in A New Hope seemed a little incomplete, but in Empire Strikes Back, we are taken through wonderful, realistic worlds with great settings. Cloud City and Dagobah in particular stood out visually from other set pieces.
The Star Wars Special Edition version of Empire Strikes Back includes a much better film technically, with beefed up special effects, sound, and some new images here and there. The special effects seemed a lot more realistic in this version, and so did certain creatures that roamed among the worlds in Empire Strikes Back. The Special Edition is certainly the way to go.
The Bottom Line- Sequels are terrible? I don't see how you can say that with this original, terrific sequel.
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