Star Wars: Episode 5 – The Empire Strikes Back

RED = SPOILERS:

Empire is just inherently better than Jedi is. The battle on Hoth. Luke meeting and training with Yoda on Degobah. The Falcon limping its way into Cloud City to meet up with Lando. And the entire scene on Bespin is an entertaining part of the movie as well. Lando didn’t mean to betray them. But what was he gonna do? Say no to Darth Vader? His other option was to get choked. You can either make a deal with Darth Vader, or get choked. Those are literally your only two choices. Chewy ended up choking him anyway. It was really a lose-lose situation for Lando when you think about it… The only thing Jedi has was a bunch of Ewoks. And we all know how I feel about Ewoks…

 What’s it about? Continuing the saga, Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back is about Luke’s continuing journey into becoming a Jedi while the Rebel Alliance still tries to take down the evil Empire. We start on the ice planet Hoth, where there’s a battle when the Empire finds the rebel base. Then Luke makes his way to the jungle planet of Degobah where he finds Yoda, the Jedi master who instructed Obi-Wan. In the meantime, Han, Chewy, Leia and 3PO find themselves on Bespin where they run into Han’s old friend Lando Calrissian. While Luke trains with Yoda to become a Jedi, Lando ends up betraying Han to Darth Vader who then sets a trap for Luke. Luke shows up and battles Vader as Han gets taken away by the bounty hunter, Boba Fett. 

What’s good? This is widely considered to be the best of the original trilogy. And for good reason. A lot of the action sequences, a lot of the most famous lines you know, a lot of the most famous scenes you might recognize, usually come from Empire. It’s also a little darker than the other two. And it ends on kind of a downer with Han being frozen and Yoda just dying. But the rest of the movie more than makes up for it. 

What’s bad? What is bad? There’s not a whole lot. I guess those Ugnaughts are pretty ugly to look at. And if you want to get really technical, Yoda is nothing more than just your basic muppet… 

The acting? The acting is noticeably improved since the first movie. Watch Episode 4 and then watch Episode 5 and tell me you don’t notice a difference in the acting. There’s clearly a difference. It’s just experience, I guess. They took the training wheels off, I suppose. 

The effects? Same thing with the effects. Lucas handed off the directing to Irvin Kershner so he could focus on his special effects company, Industrial Light and Magic. And that made the special effects of the movie a whole lot better. And that made the special effects of the entire industry a whole lot better because everybody in the film industry uses Industrial Light and Magic for their special effects now because they’re literally the best in the business.  

Yoda. This was the first time anybody had ever seen Yoda, and nobody thought that this little green thing was gonna turn out to be this great Jedi master. So, this was a great spin for this movie. Having Yoda be this tiny little green guy who talks in these backwards sentences be the most powerful Jedi to have ever lived was a stroke of genius.  

The Darth Vader reveal. Before the movie came out, the only people that knew about Darth Vader being Luke’s father were George Lucas, Mark Hamill, and Irvin Kershner. Even the rest of the cast didn’t know it was going to happen. Mark Hamill talks about how hard it was to keep it a secret for almost a year and a half and how much he wanted to tell people, but Irvin Kershner told him “If this gets out, me and George will know it was you…” 

The famous quotes. Most of the famous quotes you know from Star Wars all come from The Empire Strikes Back. When Han says “I know…”, Empire. “And I thought they smelled bad on the outside…”, Empire. Yoda saying “You will be…”, Empire. Darth Vader’s “I have altered our deal; pray I do not alter it any further…” Guess what? Empire… Think of some others. It’s probably from Empire. And even though it’s the most misquoted line ever, “Luke, I am your father” comes from Empire. But it’s not actually “Luke, I am your father.” It’s “No, I am your father…” 

Lando wearing Han’s clothes at the end. It’s an old joke about Lando wearing Han’s clothes in the last scene at the end of Empire when he and Chewy are leaving the medical ship and going to look for Han. But when I watched it today, it finally hit me. When they left Cloud City in a hurry, it’s not like Lando took all of HIS clothes with him. He just kind of up and left. So, when they’re leaving the medical frigate, it kind of makes sense that he’s wearing Han’s clothes. Because it’s Han’s ship. Who else’s clothes would be on there? Lando wouldn’t have any other clothes than the ones he was wearing when they escaped from Bespin as fast as they could. So, he was just like, “I guess I’ll just wear these…” Makes sense to me. 

So, as far as sequels go, this is considered the greatest of all time. Just sayin’… And as far as marathons go, we’re up to Episode 6: Return of the Jedi next. And as always, May the Force Be With You…