After the success of the original Star Wars, ultimately subtitled A New Hope and placed as Episode IV in a larger saga, production on its first sequel began, with the directing reins passed to Irvin Kershner since series creator George Lucas obviously didn't have a very fun time directing the first film. Lucas did still write the screenplay, albeit with the help of Lawrence Kasdan, fitting since the script of A New Hope had its...issues, even if modern critics and series "fans" overlook those today. While Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was a financial success like its precursor, critical reception was actually mixed at the time, although of course that would change in decades to come.
While the Rebel Alliance won the Battle of Yavin IV against the Galactic Empire and destroyed the Death Star, they would be chased into hiding on the frozen planet Hoth (which would really be better named Coldth), where Luke is patrolling on his mount, a tauntaun native to the world. After seeing a probe that the Empire launched on the planet in their attempts to track down the Rebels, a wampa knocks him unconscious and takes him to his lair. Luckily, he uses the Force to get his lightsaber and cut himself loose, maiming the wampa in the process, but collapsing outside, seeing a vision of his old master Obi-Wan, to tells him to go to the Dagobah system to train under Yoda.
Han Solo ultimately rescues Luke and has various romantic banter with Princess Leia, who insults him with her asinine, "Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!" line, definitely one of the dumbest moments in the Original Trilogy. Darth Vader ultimately finds out the Rebels are on Hoth, but unfortunately for the Empire, the Alliance is ready and begins an evacuation, with the asinine decision to send their fleeing ships close to the Imperial vessels when they have a million freaking directions in outer space to flee, a plot hole other media in the franchise like The Phantom Menace would repeat.
The Empire sends the moronically-designed camel-like AT-ATs to attack the Echo Base (and it would have been nice if we had maybe seen a scene of their actual landing on the planet), and ultimately destroys the energy shield protecting the base, but Luke gets away in his X-wing and Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon. The former crash-lands on Dagobah and meets the crazed Yoda who denies his identity at first, while the latter attempts to elude the Empire, with the Falcon's hyperdrive being damaged, the ship going into an asteroid cavern, Han and Leia developing a romantic relationship.
Meanwhile, Emperor Sheev Palpatine informs his apprentice Darth Vader that they have a new enemy who could destroy the Empire, the son of Anakin Skywalker, although he could become a powerful ally if turned to the Dark Side, which both of the Sith Lords agree to. On Dagobah, Luke trains with Yoda, with the indication that training as a Jedi takes a lifetime, so it's unclear as to how long exactly he's doing so, alongside the Empire chasing the Millennium Falcon through the Galaxy. Scenes on Dagobah like Luke encountering a phantom Vader, decapitating him, and seeing his face beneath the Sith Lord's helmet, somewhat halt the film in its tracks.
Han eventually makes it a point to visit the Lando System Bespin to meet his old friend Lando Calrissian on Cloud City, where he notes that he made a deal with the Empire to keep them away from the mining colony. Sensing Han and the others in danger, Luke breaks from his training against Yoda and Obi-Wan's wishes, and rightfully so, since the old-guard Jedi are obviously selfish a-holes who would rather see Luke's friends die. Skywalker ultimately confronts Vader and loses, the latter offering him to teach what Yoda and Obi-Wan wouldn't and revealing the iconic twist that has been spoiled and imitated to death since the film's release.
In retrospect, Vader tempting Luke with the power of the Dark Side is one of the dumbest moments of the franchise (although things like Obi-Wan Kenobi and "Ben Kenobi" being one and the same, Leia's moronic quotes, and so forth, really take the cake in that regard), since given all the things that occur in the rest of the franchise, he could have far more easily gotten him to join, for instance, by telling him the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Regardless, George Lucas wasn't exactly foresightful when creating his franchise, and hindsight is definitely 20/20.
The film eventually wraps after the climactic plot revelation, and while The Empire Strikes Back is, like the other entries of the Original Trilogy, very, very far from the masterpiece critics and fake fans like to make it out to be, it was definitely an improvement over A New Hope. The visual effects, as in all other media in the Star Wars franchise, are superb, with Empire having looked far less like it was filmed in the 1970s (and the digital enhancements improve things), and the music is awesome, the Cloud City theme in particular being really freaking beautiful. However, it's still full of tons of moronic moments that easily prevent it from masterpiece status, yet is nonetheless one of the high points of the OT.
| The Good | The Bad |
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| The Bottom Line | |
| One of the best entries of the Original Trilogy, but very far from the "masterpiece" critics and fans make it out to be. | |
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