Movie Reviews

Empire is generally considered to be the best of the Star Wars saga, and I think I'd tend to agree. Most of what I commented on with regards to Episode IV: A New Hope (a.k.a. the original Star Wars), however, still holds true for Episode V. That is to say, it's a good, fun movie that holds plenty of nostalgic appeal, but on the whole it's really not a 'great' film.

For me there are two things that push Empire just slightly above A New Hope on my ratings scale. The first is the battle on the ice-planet of Hoth. The sight of those enormous four-legged Imperial AT-AT walkers lumbering unsteadily towards the rebel base is still pretty incredible (the unsteadiness comes mostly from the stop-motion animation -- but I find that this 'primitive' animation style somehow enhances the walkers' ominous presence).

The second element of the film that I really enjoyed is that venerable Jedi master: Yoda. He's a character who's wise yet silly, frail yet strong, and serious yet undeniably goofy -- and all of these traits shine through what is essentially a glorified hand-puppet (though new CGI effects on the recent DVD release allow his already-emotive face to become even more so). Speaking of the newer Star Wars films' tendency to take themselves too seriously -- as I did in my review of A New Hope -- I was reminded of how goofy this original 1980 Yoda actually was, and I wondered to myself, Where was this Yoda in Episode II? Too busy being all deadly-serious and kicking computer-generated butt, I guess.

I've heard that the upcoming Episode III: Revenge of the Sith might have more in common with Empire than the other two prequels have had. So maybe there's a chance it won't suck.