Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Review

Reviewing Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is an acknowledgment that it is a sequel — when it hit theaters in 1980, Star Wars had already changed the world forever, and expectations were impossibly high. Theaters filled with fans frantically hoping the sequel would live up to it. And miraculously, it was even better. The instantly iconic and beloved trio of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher reprised their respective roles, and Luke took the next steps to become a Jedi while Han and Leia are on the run from the Empire, leading up to a magnificent final act.

The Empire Strikes Back is widely regarded as the best Star Wars movie. The first sequel is the dark and gritty answer to Star Wars' (the subtitle A New Hope was added for the 1981 re-release) optimism, pushing the character arcs to strenuous points with dire new circumstances before ending on a shockingly upsetting cliffhanger. The galaxy becomes bigger with more characters and more of the Force, while behind the camera, the crew continues to push the technical innovation that made Star Wars such a groundbreaking movie.