The insane cult following of the Star Wars saga never ceases to amaze me: even after twenty years of waiting, and even then receiving three lacklustre war-based prequels, fans still regard George Lucas' science-fiction franchise as one of the best sets of films created in our history. To work out just why that is, having been impressed (as a child) by Episodes I-III, I went back to the originals, and something instantly clicked. The wayward characters, the strangely exotic locales, the themes of overcoming darkness and the never-fading light of hope and justice, just everything makes these three movies immensely satisfying to watch. The Empire Strikes Back was the second instalment, and while I don't regard it as highly as the original or in many ways Return, it still makes a cinematic impact to this day. We catch up with Luke and pals as they hide on the ice planet of Hoth from the Galactic Empire, fending off Imperial Spies and huge Wampas and hatching a plan to strike back at their foes in the distant future. It's a strange kind of equilibrium we find as Empire opens, and it becomes all too clear that it will be disrupted within minutes. Sure enough, the villainous Darth Vader and his legion of Stormtroopers (which I now have come to realise are 'coincidentally' named in the same way as Nazi troops) touch down to invade with their menacing AT-AT walkers, at which point the Alliance has to flee via nifty Snowspeeders. Some superb animation is employed in the Battle of Hoth for some great realism, then we head off to Dagobah to meet Frank Oz's Yoda (crazy yet hilarious stuff) and finally Bespin for Luke's confrontation with his enemy, only to have him revealed as his father- holy Ewoks, Batman! I'm sure this was an absolutely game-changing twist when audiences first saw it in 1980, and although seeing the 2003-5 prequels lessens the impact somewhat with the foreknowledge, you can still almost feel film history being grinded into place here. Empire gets very little wrong in its opening scenes, but I can now see watching it for a second time that the middle section gets repetitive fast even with the addition of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, consisting mostly of moving back and forth between corridors and really only existing to turn Han (Harrison Ford, charming as ever) into a block of carbonite and have him jetted off to Tatooine. The finale is a bit of a damp squib, too, lacking any sense of resolution due to no-one really winning, although the minor cliff-hanger that closes Empire is rightly known as one of the best open-ended climaxes ever, and with good reason- its ambiguity is what makes it so successful. Still, Empire is a great sequel to the first Star Wars, and will always remain a personal favourite classic film of mine despite its flaws.
OS Cover Image
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Classics: The Empire Strikes Back (1980, R: 9/10)
The insane cult following of the Star Wars saga never ceases to amaze me: even after twenty years of waiting, and even then receiving three lacklustre war-based prequels, fans still regard George Lucas' science-fiction franchise as one of the best sets of films created in our history. To work out just why that is, having been impressed (as a child) by Episodes I-III, I went back to the originals, and something instantly clicked. The wayward characters, the strangely exotic locales, the themes of overcoming darkness and the never-fading light of hope and justice, just everything makes these three movies immensely satisfying to watch. The Empire Strikes Back was the second instalment, and while I don't regard it as highly as the original or in many ways Return, it still makes a cinematic impact to this day. We catch up with Luke and pals as they hide on the ice planet of Hoth from the Galactic Empire, fending off Imperial Spies and huge Wampas and hatching a plan to strike back at their foes in the distant future. It's a strange kind of equilibrium we find as Empire opens, and it becomes all too clear that it will be disrupted within minutes. Sure enough, the villainous Darth Vader and his legion of Stormtroopers (which I now have come to realise are 'coincidentally' named in the same way as Nazi troops) touch down to invade with their menacing AT-AT walkers, at which point the Alliance has to flee via nifty Snowspeeders. Some superb animation is employed in the Battle of Hoth for some great realism, then we head off to Dagobah to meet Frank Oz's Yoda (crazy yet hilarious stuff) and finally Bespin for Luke's confrontation with his enemy, only to have him revealed as his father- holy Ewoks, Batman! I'm sure this was an absolutely game-changing twist when audiences first saw it in 1980, and although seeing the 2003-5 prequels lessens the impact somewhat with the foreknowledge, you can still almost feel film history being grinded into place here. Empire gets very little wrong in its opening scenes, but I can now see watching it for a second time that the middle section gets repetitive fast even with the addition of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, consisting mostly of moving back and forth between corridors and really only existing to turn Han (Harrison Ford, charming as ever) into a block of carbonite and have him jetted off to Tatooine. The finale is a bit of a damp squib, too, lacking any sense of resolution due to no-one really winning, although the minor cliff-hanger that closes Empire is rightly known as one of the best open-ended climaxes ever, and with good reason- its ambiguity is what makes it so successful. Still, Empire is a great sequel to the first Star Wars, and will always remain a personal favourite classic film of mine despite its flaws.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment