You know, I really underestimate how happy I am going
back and watching Star Wars and writing about Star Wars when I can actually
enjoy it.
Everyone has a favourite Star Wars movie, whether you
love the epic adventure of A New Hope, the darker, more character-based story
of Empire Strikes Back, or the fun, triumphant closure of Return of the Jedi. Or
it could be one of the prequels, hey, I won't judge, everyone's free to make
their own mistakes. Personally, Empire Strikes Back is my favourite. It
just has the best combination of parts that all come together and make it such
a perfect movie. I find it all the more fascinating that the director of
this film, Ivan Kershner, actually didn't like A New Hope.
What's really great about this movie is how much more interesting it makes all of the characters, both the heroes and the villains. We see more of a soft side to Han Solo, we see Princess Leia slowly start to connect to and fall for Han, and we see Luke continue his journey from farm boy to Jedi Knight, facing some real challenges. That transition of Luke is really what this movie is about, from the very beginning, we see him starting to use the Force more efficiently, by moving his lightsaber and saving himself from the wampa. Then, when he's out in the snow, Obi-Wan comes to him in a vision and tells him to go to Dagobah to learn from Master Yoda, who instructed Obi-Wan.
I guess he forgot about Qui-Gon. Oh, those forgetful ghosts.
The action in this movie remains just as awesome, and
this movie has some of my favourite Star Wars action scenes. The entire
battle of Hoth is pure awesome, mainly because of the AT-AT walkers. I just
want to walk around in one of those, and the various ways and tactics that the
Rebels use to take down the walkers keeps the battle interesting. But in the end, the Empire does defeat the Rebels - the Empire truly Strikes
Back - destroying their base and sending the heroes scattered across the
galaxy. While Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO are being chased down by Darth
Vader and the Empire, Luke heads to Dagobah with R2-D2.
It's here that we were introduced to Yoda, and the
unfortunate side of Star Wars being as huge as it is was that I already knew
who Yoda was when he showed up, so that reveal was kind of lost on me as a kid. But
today, I can understand the significance of that, and why it works, because you wouldn't expect
this great Jedi master to just be this tiny little swamp creature.
And the trials that Luke goes through during his Jedi
training are so interesting. We learn so much about the Jedi ways, because Luke
actually asks questions, and we see him change and grow. The scene where
Luke fights Vader in the cave, and he cuts off his head, but then the helmet
explodes open and it's Luke’s head inside, that blew my mind as a kid, I didn't really understand what it meant, but I knew it meant
something. Luke also learns about how believing in the Force is important
to be able to use it, and the reason why he can't really succeed is because he
doesn't believe. That's what makes Yoda lifting the X-Wing out of the
water so great, added to the fact that up to that point, there hadn't really
been any big displays of the Force.
It's yet another disadvantage of the prequels that we
see so much of the Force being used, so the impact of that moment is lessened
in the overall saga, but seeing that as a kid once again blew my mind. It's
just another reason why you should watch the original trilogy, and then the
prequels, or just skip the prequels altogether, that's also a great idea.
We don't just follow the heroes in this film, we also
learn more about Darth Vader, when he’s in his meditation chamber, we see that
he's scarred and burned underneath the helmet, Just that one shot tells us so much,
it's the first time we really see him vulnerable. Darth Vader has a much
more active role in this movie, and since he's the coolest character
ever, it's awesome. I think the biggest mistake the prequels made in terms of the saga's overall story was making Darth Vader this ultimate puzzle piece to the galaxy, when really, he was just a guy. A Jedi Knight who was seduced by the Force and became an enforcer for the Empire. The only reason that he was significant was because he ends up being Luke's father, or just being awesome.
I don't want to keep harping on about the prequels, because I've
done that already. But having grown up with the prequels already existing and
being a part of the mythos isn't how I wish I could have experienced it. I
really wish I could separate the two trilogies, but they're both so burned into
my brain at this point that I can't. I can't remember a time between seeing Return of the Jedi and seeing Phantom Menace.
While all of the stuff on Dagobah is going on, Han,
Leia and the rest are being chased down. Like I said before, these are some of
my favourite action scenes in all of Star Wars, and the chase through the
asteroids between the Millennium Falcon and the TIE fighters is
definitely one of them. The music, the ships maneuvering dangerously close and
crashing, trying to spot the tennis shoe and the potato, all the classic
moments. And when the chase is over, we see the
romance between Han and Leia grow. Unlike in the prequels, it really works,
you really buy it, because they have chemistry and talk like real people. It's
really amazing what you can do with good performances, character, humour,
atmosphere, music, you know, things that make movies work. So
they all go to Cloud City, and we meet Lando Calrissian, who's just the most
charming guy in the entire galaxy. Except it turns out that he already sold
them out to the Empire.
Back on Dagobah, Luke has a vision where he sees his friends being hurt. He wants to go help them, but Yoda warns him that he's not ready, and even Obi-Wan's ghost appears to tell him not to go. It's stuff like that, the internal moral struggle of wanting to help, but you shouldn't, that makes the original trilogy so great. So Luke ends up ignoring Yoda and ghost Obi-Wan's advice and goes to help his friends, and we learn here that Luke isn’t the last hope for the galaxy, and that there's actually another.
Which turns out to be...a plot twist that I really
don't like, which I’ll explain in the next review.
So Han Solo is frozen in carbonite, after the most
romantic moment in film history (which I have recreated in conversations with
my girlfriend several times), and given to Boba Fett, to be delivered to Jabba
the Hutt. Luke arrives in Cloud City too late, and comes face-to face with
Darth Vader, which leads to what may be my favourite lightsaber battle in all
of Star Wars. Just like in A New Hope, it just feels like two people
fighting with swords, and it's faster than Obi-Wan and Vader was. They're
moving through a variety of environments, always keeping it fresh, and you can
really feel Luke's anger and his emotion. But you can also see that he's on the
backfoot because of it. Really, Vader's just toying with him, and eventually,
he wins, cutting off Luke's hand.
And then we have the greatest plot twist of all time: Darth Vader is Luke's father. This destroyed my child brain, it just broke me. I really do think that it's the greatest plot twist of all time, it's so unexpected but so genius, and it's what makes the emotional core of the next movie work so well.
But Luke refuses to join Vader, and lets himself fall,
improbably surviving and being rescued by the other heroes, who were escaping
at the time, and they all manage to barely get away into hyperspace. So
Luke gets a robot hand, Lando and Chewbacca fly off to rescue Han, and the
movie ends. This really was one of the biggest cliffhangers ever: the good
guys have lost, Han Solo's gone, Luke has to wipe his butt with a robot hand
now, plus he doesn't know that he made out with his sister, it's really
depressing.
I don't love this movie because it's dark, I love it because of the story and the characters, the mixture of darkness and triumph, and it really does feel like a perfect continuation of the Star Wars story, as well as a great middle point for the trilogy. It makes sense, the good guys win in A New Hope, the bad guys win in Empire Strikes Back, then back to the good guys for Return of The Jedi.
But we still have one more Star Wars movie to talk
about, the conclusion to the Star Wars saga, until this year, and I'll be
talking about it very soon. Until then, I love The Empire Strikes Back,
and it’s definitely one of my favourite movies of all time. It has so much
heart, action, and expanded the Star Wars universe in the best of ways. It
has the best characters, the best scenes, and the best individual moments, all
of which accumulate into the best Star Wars movie.
That's just math.
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