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Star Wars Reviewed Episode 5
Even though we were already bleary eyed and exhausted from having watched A New Hope, a grim determined will to finish what we had started set in for the original trilogy marathon that I had begun at eight this morning. Time was an issue as we only had three and a half hours left before someone had to leave, and four hours left of quality Star Wars action, but the decision to not skip through any of Empire Strikes Back was made early on, regarded as it is as the finest Star Wars film, and thus any skipping would have been more blasphemous than burning an effigy of Jesus.
STRONG IS VADER
Not that we were having any reservations about having to watch through another Star Wars film; from the moment the giant guns of Hoth started pounding away we forgot that we hadn’t moved from our seats for the last two hours and getting into the story of Empire Strikes Back felt as easy as taking a bath. Luke’s lost, Han’s looking for him and Vader’s bigging up the dark side - what more could you want? A really cool battle between AT-ATs and X-wings? Oh all right then. The plot just keeps on getting better and better, with the well-loved characters getting into more and more dangerous scrapes, and no other film in the saga manages to keep the tension and excitement running as high as Empire Strikes Back does.
The film also looks the coolest and the less fake of the original trilogy, with those gorgeous sunsets from Attack of the Clones back with a vengeance at Cloud City, and with Yoda and Luke floating things around like it’s going out of fashion back at Dagobah, giving Harry Potter a run for his money. Empire Strikes Back naturally has some awesome space battles thrown into the mix, which are arguably more impressive than the ones in A New Hope, though outshone by Return of the Jedi and the opening of Revenge of the Sith. The great plot also means that there’s little room for meandering CGI shots of cities which took up space in the previous films, and this means that the pace is great all the way along for Empire Strikes Back. If you’re wanting to escape into another world for an hour or two then this is probably the best way to do that (short of a teleportation device, that is).
SIZE MATTERS NOT
It’s hard to pull out bad bits from Empire Strikes Back, but I guess it would have been nicer to have Vader’s character fleshed out more, especially since we know a lot more about him from the prequels. Maybe have him have a flashback of Pamde or his mother to have some sort of link between Anakin and Vader, though, I dunno, that might suck. They could have at least made him a bit more evil, though; all he does is wave his arms around a bit and force choke the odd admiral, and it could have been much better if he’d, uh, beaten up a nun or something. Though to be fair I have just remembered that he tortured Han in Cloud City, but, eh, that didn’t really do it for me - we needed a shot of him laughing manically for him to be properly evil. As it was he was just the diet coke of evil.
Whilst the plot and characters of Empire Strikes Back are clearly timeless, Yoda’s face certainly isn’t, and his clearly rubbery expressions make him look like an extra from the Muppets rather than him being the Jedi Master he was in the prequels. That said, his swamp madness provides some great comic relief and also some of the more magical parts of the film, with some highly quotable lines to boot - “do. Or do not. There is not try” and coupled with Luke’s impatience he makes an entertaining diversion from the high-action hijinx of the rest of the film. Here in lies the secret of Empire’s charm - it combines just enough elements of magic and action, making it a highly effective cross-genre space fairy-tale. If you’re looking for how to do a Star Wars film then you need only look at Empire Strikes Back as the epitome of the series.
I KNOW.
Of course being what is essentially a fairytale we’ve got to have a love story here, which obviously means it’s going to be full of more cheese than a French man’s château - or does it? Well thankfully Empire Strikes Back manages to have a love story without making it wishy washy and generally sickening, something that Attack of the Clones found hard to pull off. This is mainly due to the great characters and situation than anything else - Han and Leia are both stubbornly proud, and the inside of a crater is hardly the spot for rolling around in the grass. “I love you” being replied with “I know” would “get Han a slap” according to the girls at the watchathon (nothing wrong with female Star Wars fans, thankyousir!) but to me it was brilliant as it was sweet and lovely without being overly romantic, and that sums up the love story in Empire Strikes Back nicely. In fact, the dialogue for the film remains brilliant and snappy throughout with some really great lines - something you can’t say for every Star Wars film, that’s for sure.
And then it hits you - the ending. So non-expected yet so brilliantly done. Luke and Leia stand looking out towards the galaxy (mirroring a scene at the end of Attack of the Clones, I might add) with the words of Yoda ringing in your head and with you secretly praying that Han will be okay and that they’ll all live happily ever after. Of course you already know the ending because you’ve seen this film a million times before, and even before you saw it you knew what was going to happen because your older brother spoiled it for you, but be quiet, this is a beautiful ending, and if you start being rational you’re not going to enjoy it as much. Just sit back and bathe in the glow of one of the greatest films ever made.
5/5 - Oooooooaaaaaaaahh!