Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

This year has been a joyous one for Retro Review thus far. 

I've been able to knock out the whole, splendid and iconic Godfather Trilogy and revisit the entire Star Wars saga -- for better or worse, but mostly better -- which included rewatching the original trilogy. 

It's a funny thing when you know the crux of a film before actually viewing it. The whole "Father" twist in Star Wars was so far before my time that it was inevitably spoiled for me before I actually saw The Empire Strikes Back many years ago. 

I think it's absolutely fair to say that knowing that takes away quite a bit from the climax of the film. It doesn't have the gut punch, "Say what now?!?" that I'm sure it did when it first released. But, in the sake of continued fairness, I don't see that as being a blemish against the film itself; it's simply a product of being born in a different era than the film. It'll be no different years from now when the twists for other blockbusters are far past their spoiler-expiration date and that generation loses out on the face-melting awesomeness that is a well-designed/conceived plot twist. 

Despite that somewhat unfortunate loss in effectiveness, it's still clear to see why the fifth Episode in this iconic trilogy is often considered the best. It certainly seems the most concentrated of the three while simultaneously being the one that takes itself the most serious (in a good way). After the events of A New Hope, it's no surprise that the Empire is pissed off. The Rebellion humiliated them and destroyed their superweapon, the Death Star. Consequently, there is no Death Star in The Empire Strikes Back and the film is all the better for it. Across the entire Star Wars generations there has been a major crutch placed on the focus/concept of a planet killer. The plans for the Death Star became a somewhat prominent part of the prequel trilogy, Rogue One was entirely about it, the original trilogy features two of them, and The Force Awakens just had a really big one. Granted, a lot of those are still fantastic films, but I definitely have Death Star fatigue, especially considering how much more there is to explore in this universe. That's why it's so refreshing to see an original trilogy film that's essentially all about the growth of our characters and the revenge of the Empire. Han, Leia and Chewie all bond closer and that romance between Han and Leia finally buds while Luke goes to begin his Jedi training with a very funny Yoda. Meanwhile Darth Vader and the Emperor are planning an extravagant counter attack that will sideline Solo and ultimately, hopefully, bring Luke to the Dark Side. 

"My name is HAN SOLO. I'm not Indiana Jones, ok?"

"Psst. Met my friend Willy have you?
Hehehehe. Wet Willy!"
"Awww WTF, Yoda!"

The Empire Strikes Back starts out with a rousing battle on Hoth that, aside from a few heavily-aged effects, is pretty spectacular. Without getting much further into this review it's astounding to me once again how much originality is in this entire universe, all movies included. Something as simple as an AT-AT walker, who then gets taken out by Snowspeeders with tow-cables is incredibly effective to the actual world building that this film does in expanding past A New Hope. And that's not even to mention Cloud City, Yoda, carbonite freezing, the strength/powers of the Force, etc. There's a lot of new stuff to love here and it does as sequels should do: expand on the world that came before them. From Hoth we're taken on two separate journeys that eventually end up in the same place. If I had to pick a complaint for the film it would be that they heavily contrast each other in terms of excitement. Luke's "training" is fairly low-key and he comes off a bit whiny while Leia, Han, and Chewy are having quite the adventure. Granted, Luke's times on Dagobah are some of the series' most important but the flipping back and forth does require some major switching of gears. In the end though, Luke's training, and his decision to quit, prove to be one of the film's strengths as we see our hero's lack of hubris land him in a grisly situation. Despite already knowing the outcomes of the film (i.e. Han frozen in carbonite and a handless-Luke now knowing that is father is on the Dark Side), it doesn't change the fact that Empire ends in a really dark place. I wonder how audiences felt back in the day, but if I had to guess, it would have been defeated. Surely the cliffhangers that Episode V leaves us on make it seem like the Empire again has the upper hand, and by quite a large margin. 

"Ok but like srsly, you're gonna fall. Let me help you."

And they shall be called:
Awkward Baby Giraffe Vehicles

For as grand as this sequel is, it features some very strong special effects, for the time. Some have aged better than others in terms of their believability and any post-production "added" effects on the Blu-Ray series I'm watching are still God-awful, but in general they're still impressive. The sound design and original score are still fantastic too and if there's one thing I've [re]learned while rewatching the entire series it's that it has maybe the most fitting original score movie per movie of any series ever. Certain characters or situations have iconic, memorable scores in and of themselves and it's so different than any other film's music that it stands out all the more. 

There's a lot I didn't touch on in this review, but I think it's safe to say that there's a reason The Empire Strikes Back is often regarded as the high point in the series: it builds and expands the world that came before it, continues the story in a logical way, takes itself seriously, and leaves us with some jaw-dropping conclusions/revelations that, even if you knew them previously like I did, are still impressive and original. It's a great blueprint for how sequels should work and I can only hope that The Last Jedi has taken notes and provides us with something memorable and wholly original this December.

CONS

• The film occasionally loses steam with the transitions to Luke's training. These likely could have been parsed down a tad
• Some special effects haven't aged gracefully
• Knowing the twists beforehand is a bummer (though I'm not actually taking any points away for this)

PROS

• The film takes itself the most seriously out of the original trilogy and in turn comes away the darkest, but also most focused
• More honed in performances from the core-cast. Less corny and more professional
• Wondrous sense of originality. Empire builds upon the film before it and makes the universe even bigger than before with inventiveness in spades
• Exciting plot, free of the Death Star, that ends on a couple of the darkest discoveries/events ever
• Mostly great special effects
• Another A+ in the original score column. It continues to impress me with every film
• A true sequel that moves the story and characters forward while also earning it's own right/reason to exist. Aside from that, a high-quality film too

Retro Rath's Review Score |

10/10 -- Instant Classic