the most beautiful space opera episode: The Empire Strikes Back

[selinker]

What: Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the 1980 sequel to George Lucas's epic. The continuing story of our band of heroes tempted fans with this trailer:

Click to view

Why: Showing a humility and foresight few would have imagined, George Lucas sought out his old USC film school professor, Irvin Kershner, to direct Empire. Kershner had previously

Comments

[bourbon_cowboy]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I always, always, ALWAYS preferred the first Star Wars, precisely because:

1.) It actually freaking ended
2.) The idea that Darth Vader was Luke's father always struck me as utterly ludicrous (and got even worse with the Leia-Luke thing in #3: How small is this freaking universe, anyway?)
3.) The hero was the nice guy who was trying instead of the sarcastic rogue who ALWAYS gets the girl in every other damn film. (This is obviously a personal preference...)
4.) The humor was much better handled. In the first film, C-3P0 talks like the protocol droid-out-of-water he actually is. ("Let the Wookie win" is therefore not only a funny line, but it's in his peacemaking character.) Starting in the second, he becomes a broad caricature whose catchphrase is that he cites statistics. By the second film, even "I've got a bad feeling about this" had moved from a fresh joke into the realm of inside tagline.
5.) Leia kicks WAY more ass in the first film; in the second, she's back to being (most of the time) a mere love interest like we've seen a zillion times.
6.) The characters, whose bickering friendship I loved in the first film, wind up separated from Luke for most of the second. Dagobah always bored me. I wanted everyone back in the nearest canteen, playing chess again.
7.) Speaking of which, the scene on Dagobah where Luke fights Darth Vader--AND HE'S REALLY FIGHTING HIMSELF!--struck me, even in junior high, as a cheap easy plot point that hadn't been thought through very well. Are we really supposed to believe that Luke could become Darth Vader? That he's THAT much of an evil asshole, when we've never seen a single ounce of this tendency anywhere on screen? I called bullshit then, and when the Emperor tried to pull Luke to the Dark Side using even blunter means ("Come! Give in to hatred while I zap you with electricity and look creepy as hell!"--heckuva sales pitch you've got there, Pompatine) I knew that no one else could write that conflict convincingly either, because it never made sense.

Mostly, though, I find Emprie irksome because it doesn't end, and because it forces us (for narrative closure, which I'm obviously pretty big on) to watch the third film, which is even flatter and more blunt than the first two, in humor (Ewoks), morality (The Emperor), and gender roles (slave Leia).

I agree, however, that the acting is much better in the second film. Of course, that's because George Lucas didn't write it and didn't direct it. He should have learned from that and stayed away from all the others. Sigh.

[selinker]

I don't think you're in the minority, Dave. My guess is most viewers prefer the original over the sequel. SW fanpeople seem to prefer Empire, in no small part because it doesn't have to introduce everyone over and over--you get tired of that when you're watching it for the 35th time. (See also: Spider-Man v. Spider-Man 2, which has the same dynamic.)