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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Story
Deviating a little from the bare bones hero’s journey of the first film, this one introduces new villains and allies. It also becomes a lot more confident in its worldbuilding. It definitely leans further into the space opera in one story and the wizard fantasy in the other.
Score: 0.5
Characters
Luke starts to have a backbone and agency, which is shown as a bad thing. The romance between Leia and Han is pretty forced. Leia is portrayed less like a competent diplomat and more like an overworked leader with workaholic tendencies.
I’m also reminded that I like C3P0 significantly more when the humans ignore him.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The dialogue is deliciously cheesy and I love so many of the lines. I get annoyed at the bargain-bin Orientalism of Yoda and the ridiculous absolutism of the Jedi in general.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
Once again the model work is utterly fantastic and the practical effects are wonderful. The camera work is great and the set are spectacular.
The music is iconic and although there’s a lot of carry-over from the first movie, the new themes are wonderful.
Score: 1
Fun
This movie is a lot of fun but has less of the hope (pun intended) of the first film. The shift in tone comes from the defeat at the beginning and the way the Jedi act like all is lost when Luke, rightfully, chooses to save his friends.
Score: 0.5
Overall
The movie is epic and the visuals amazing but it suffers from being half of a story and from a drastic change in tone that would continue in the sequels/prequels.
Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5