The Empire Strikes Back1980

88/100 Is it considered sacrilegious if I kind off preferred A New Hope over this one? This is an improvement in several areas, don't get me wrong, but I found myself liking it less overall. However, this doesn't mean there isn't a lot to love. When you disregard the issues, which I'll get to, the highs here are peak Star Wars. The practical effects have only improved, resulting in greater action scenes like the Battle of Hoth. However, once again I found myself entranced not by the story or action but the characters. Luke is so much better here than in the previous movie. We get to see his flaws: he's whiny, he's impatient, but he also grows as a character and we see how he's different from the other Jedi, which is both a strength and a weakness. Deep down, Luke fears himself and the darkness with him, as do Yoda and Obi-Wan, but he makes the decision to save his friends anyways. The other characters are also handled very well. Han and Leia's romance makes for a great subplot, and C3PO makes for a great comic relief. R2D2 is great as ever too, and we even get a glimpse of my favourite character in this franchise, the Emperor himself. However, the presence that really dominates the movie is Darth Vader. I'm going to say it right here, this movie is where Vader peaked. Every moment Vader's on screen is filled with his aura, dominating other characters to the point they're almost drowned out. Everything about him from his movements to his speech is immensely menacing. I love the shot where Han is getting frozen in carbonite, and Vader appears through the smoke, almost like an angel of death. This all eventually builds to an epic climax. The slow lightsaber duels of the first movie are gone, and in their place is a purposeful, masterful fight scene, ending in one of the most iconic twists in cinema history for good reason. Vader being Luke's father recontextualizes everything and perfectly sets up a dark ending for the next movie to follow up on. However, there's a reason most of my praise for the film has been centered around either the beginning on Hoth or the end at Cloud City, and that's that I'm not really a big fan of the middle. The exogorth scene is cool, but I think this is where the pacing suffers most. The movie just kind of stops and goes much slower, and while there are a lot of good scenes, I did start to get kind of bored, especially with all the scenes taking place in the asteroid belt as well as the slower scenes on Dagobah. I recognize people usually like these, but it just wasn't for me. Overall, this movie's still great, but it's flawed. It's fun, but no masterpiece, and even a bit overrated.