Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Review

 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 9/10

Hello and welcome to another movie review. Today, let’s continue with the original Star Wars trilogy with the second entry. The Empire Strikes Back was originally released on May 21, 1980, with the director being Irvin Kershner. George Lucas took a step back and focused more on being the executive producer, however Lucas was the one who wrote the story. Empire is regarded as the best Star Wars film and one of the best films of all time, even making it into the Library of Congress alongside the first film.

I have such a rocky history with this movie. Unlike literally everyone else on this planet, I never really cared for Empire. I grew up with the Special Edition version and I found the movie to be fine, but I truly never saw the “greatness” of the film. Because of this, I had always found Empire to be completely overrated. Having watched the original release (or as close to the original as one could get), I get it now. You know that meme of Frank Reynolds saying “I get it now”? Well that’s me. Empire is a great movie. I still hold out on calling it one of the greats, but the original version really is far superior to the Special Edition. Let’s begin.

After the destruction of the Death Star, the Galactic Empire is relentlessly pursuing the Rebel Alliance for Luke Skywalker, the one who blew up the Death Star. The Rebels find themselves bouncing around the galaxy until they land on the snow planet Hoth. While this is going on, Luke has ascended the ranks and is now a high ranking Rebel leader. Han has stuck with Luke and Leia, but only because he’s still being pursued by bounty hunters sent by Jabba the Hutt. Apparently he had a run-in with a bounty hunter and his ship, the Millennium Falcon, got severely damaged, forcing him to stick with the Rebels for a bit longer. On the other side of things, Darth Vader is relentlessly pursuing the Rebels, hoping to capture Luke for The Emperor and turn him to the Dark Side. While on Hoth, Ben Kenobi tells Luke he must travel to Dagobah and learn the ways of the Force from his teacher Master Yoda. After a narrow escape from Hoth, Luke travels to Dagobah to meet Yoda while Han continues his evasion of the Empire, while still trying to fix his ship. To capture his prey, Vader sets in motion a plan to get everything he wants in one fell swoop.

Because of my experiences with the Special Edition, I honestly wasn’t expecting much from this movie. But of course, I’ll always try to give any film the time of day to tell its story. And I’m glad I did. There’s something about the original version that hooks you in as opposed to the Special Edition. Or it might just be that I’ve grown older and more mature since my last viewing (the last time I saw the original movies was back in 2020 (5 years ago)). It also doesn’t help that I’ve seen this movie several times, so I already knew what was going to happen lol. Regardless, Empire Strikes Back is a great story that continues its character driven narrative. I love Luke’s development as he learns more about The Force (and in turn we get more development about The Force). But I gotta say, Han is my favorite character of the movie. He’s so quick-witted and having to deal with a blabber mouth like C-3PO was hilarious. He’s a huge driving force for the story. Darth Vader was awesome too. I love just how ruthless he is in both his search for Han (and Luke), but also one of the best plot twists of all time with him being Luke’s father. In the past, I found C-3PO to be INCREDIBLY annoying and the scene where Leia shuts him off was one of the favorites. This time around, I understand that he’s just trying to help Han, who is more focused on the ship itself that he wasn’t willing to listen to 3PO’s advice. They actually formed a unique dynamic that I wasn’t aware of before. As for Yoda, I love how he’s this green gremlin frog thing, which is totally in line for this universe. At first we’re expecting him to be someone similar to a grand wizard like Merlin but instead we got a little gremlin lol. I will say, I do love this design choice as it shows size does not matter in regards to Force ability. Finally, we have a new character, Lando Calrissian, and he’s just like Han. He’s a scoundrel who “betrays” Han and the gang to protect his people, only to get betrayed himself. He means well, but he made the mistake of making a deal with the devil. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of him later on.

Now on to my nitpicks, and these are all within the first 5 minutes. I really wish the movie opened WITH Han dealing with that “bounty hunter he had a run-in with.” This would completely explain why his ship is in such a terrible shape, instead of throwing that into a passive line while he’s arguing with Leia. Leia pissed me off too. I get she’s passionate about the Rebellion, but why was she being so stuck up about Han needing to get his affairs with Jabba in order. “No Han you can’t leave! What about the Rebellion? I thought you cared about the cause!” “Leia the longer I have a target on my back the more I put the cause at risk. I need to deal with Jabba as soon as possible for my own skin. Afterwards if I’m still feeling up to it, I’ll come back.” I don’t think she realizes there’s more going on in the galaxy than the revolution. I originally had a nitpick with Luke and his lack of Force abilities, but then I realized he was doing stuff with the Force and his lightsaber that he wasn’t doing before (with the Wampa). I will say, I do think it’s kinda lame how Luke got caught off guard by the Wampa, a giant yeti beast. You’d think with both his Force affiliation and his instinct he would have noticed it. I would have found it more believable had Luke been knocked out beforehand and then the Wampa took him back to its cave (either by the TanTan kicking him off or maybe a random rock hit him in the head [wouldn’t be too far fetched due to the high winds]). But yeah, overall Empire is an excellent story with excellent characters and excellent dialogue.

The film’s production really elevates the film to an even higher plane. The camera work is fantastic, I love the sets and costumes, and again solid editing. George Lucas is definitely better as a producer than anything else. We got more excellent music from John Williams and even better performances from the cast. Best performance goes to Harrison Ford as Han Solo. I’ve always loved Han as a character, but seeing this version of the character made him a favorite. Harrison’s performance really brought so much of the character to life. Also shout out to both David Prowse and James Earl Jones for continuing to bring Darth Vader to life as well. They really killed it this time around. Final shout out to Mark Hamill (Luke), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Billy Dee Williams (Lando), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca). Carrie Fisher was fine too, but I feel she didn’t shine here like she did in the first movie.

A few things I want to point out. Why was Lando wearing Han’s outfit in the final scene? That was just weird (I’m glad Family Guy pointed this out lmao). Also, I’m so used to seeing Ian McDiarmid as The Emperor, so seeing someone else play and voice him was really weird to me. But honestly, it kinda fits this movie. Idk why; I can’t explain it.

I rewatched the Special Edition just for this little segment lol. Ultimately, the SE and original are the same movie, but the SE changes just enough tiny details that it lessens the film’s strength. There were changes to post production that just felt really off (like in two scenes during the Hoth stuff, they changed the tone of the cinematography to be more blue (to elicit that colder feeling of being on Hoth). Here’s the thing though, not all of Hoth had this change of tone, only those two scenes (I noticed this particularly with the scene where Luke is in the bacta tank). James Earl Jones also re-recorded some lines and these lines were either added or they flat out replaced some earlier lines. Prime example is right after Vader tells Luke he’s his father and Luke falls into the pit. Vader is walking back with his men. In the original version, he simply says “Get my shuttle.” full of anger. In the SE version, he says “prepare my shuttle to take me back to the ship.” Where did all of that anger go? He just missed his prime opportunity to capture Skywalker and he’s speaking in a more calm tone? The original added so much more depth to what had just transpired. And my biggest issue with the SE version is Vader’s chat with The Emperor. The Emperor tells Vader that there is a disturbance in the Force and that Luke Skywalker is a threat. Vader suggests that they can have him fall to the Dark Side and be a useful ally, in which The Emperor agrees. In the SE version, they replaced that face with Ian McDiarmid AND changed the dialogue here too. The way the dialogue is said, it implies that Vader did not know who Luke Skywalker was and he is in disbelief. But wait a minute. At the start of the movie, Vader specifically says he’s looking for Luke Skywalker as he wants revenge for him destroying the Death Star. If Vader already knew Luke’s identity, why is he so surprised by The Emperor telling him Luke is Skywalker’s son? This whole dialogue contradicts what was already established. The rest of the scene is roughly the same, but they changed this exchange and it bothers me to no end. I don’t mind Ian replacing the original guy, but why didn’t they have him repeat the same lines as before? There was no reason to change this. Also, it is a bit off-putting that Ian looks a thousand times better than the original. They didn’t even try to match the original hologram quality. Ian just looks like he’s superimposed into the scene with how detailed he looks. I will say, the best change here was replacing Boba’s voice with Temuera Morrison (who voices Jango and the rest of the Clones in the prequel movies). It just fits him so much more with that context. Without that context, the original guy was fine, but Morrison has the better voice overall. Overall, I would give the Special Edition version a 7/10. Still good, but most of these changes were really unnecessary.

Overall, Empire Strikes Back is a good movie and I’m super glad I revisited it. Back in the day I never really understood why this movie was so beloved, but now I do. Idk if I would call it the best Star Wars movie or even my favorite of the original trilogy, but it’s not as “bad” as I originally made it out to be. I will be going over Return of the Jedi pretty soon, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

This is Zorgak, signing off.