Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back: Review By Red Camera Man
A Little Boring In Some Scenes, But This Movie Is Still Really Good.
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OVERALL4.5SUPERB
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Story
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Acting
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Directing
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Visuals
STORY: The story is simple and unforgettable: Luke Skywalker learns how to become a Jedi from Master Yoda, the Millenium Falcon is on the run from the pursuing Empire, and Darth Vader (I can tell everyone knows this.) exposes the truth to Luke (Which I heard shocked the audience when this was in theaters back in 1980!) during the fight at the end! A nice continuing story, this was!
ACTING: Everyone was perfect playing back their same roles from Episode IV, but Billy Dee Williams is new in this movie, and I thought he did really good playing Han Solo's old buddy. James Earl Jones playing Darth Vader's voice was so cool especially with his cool breathing noise, of course! That's all I have to say about the acting.
DIRECTING: George Lucas, which got me by surprise, is not directing this movie. Instead, it's some guy named Irvin Kershner. This unknown guy, who replaced George Lucas, did quite a good job directing this chapter.
VISUALS: The visuals were better in this one than they were in Episode IV since this movie was from 1980. The lightsabers still look cool, the planets and spaceships look graphic as well. The fighting between the Rebels and the Empire on the snowy planet Hoth was really enjoyable and I liked that scene a lot. The disgusting swamp-like planet Dagobah definitely looks like a place where no one wants to be, I can tell! The visuals on the holograms were colorful, and Yoda was not CG in this one since this movie is old, of course. It's still a pretty good job on the visuals though!
OVERALL: A really good "Star Wars" episode that, as I said before, is everyone's favorite chapter of the WHOLE "Star Wars" saga. But the only reason why I gave this movie 4.5 stars was because it was a little boring in some scenes like: Yoda's Jedi training on Luke could have been sped up a little, and the Millenium Falcon trying to hide from the Empire went too far, but the lightsaber duel between Luke and Darth Vader at the end was entertaining. Other than that, this movie is definitely worth watching a lot and I recommend this to you all. See this now!
Comments (4)
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slysnide
I knew he'd survive Order 66 as well, but the original screenplays had no Yoda, and it was instead Kenobi training Luke and dying at approximately the same time Yoda did in Episode VI for the same reasons--natural causes from old age.
However, GL discovered that after the Death Star escape in Episode IV, Kenobi had no more storytelling responsibilities, and would just stand around doing nothing. Plus his duel with Vader was meant as a distraction so the others could get aboard the Falcon, in which he couldn't, and would be sacrificing himself for the others. Of course GL wrote it differently for Kenobi to survive the duel as he was also in the Episode V & VI screenplays, but it came down to the fact that GL was annoyed that there was nothing else for the wizard to do, and in all fantasies the wizard's useage expires when they die, and not when they just can't assist, which contradicts their icon status as being the one who could do anything, which leaves the hero (Luke) feeling hopeless to complete the fight against the monster (Vader & Palpatine).
Since GL was sticking to that formula, he decided to kill off Kenobi, but kept his spirit around for Episode V & VI to divulage other secrets of the Skywaler family that he couldn't spoil in the beginning. Of course he could've written it such that Yoda delivered those lines, but I guess three revelations all at once from the same dying character was pushing it a bit too much. Plus that allowed GL to go to a new planet in Episode V rather than have Kenobi train Luke on a rebel cruiser while the Falcon storyline progressed as was originally written. That'd be lacking creativity, and he recognized that as well, so the changes were made.
Of course this angered Alec Guiness who signed a three movie contract, in which his role wasn't as minimal given he'd be delivering all of Yoda's lines (except in traditional English rather than Yoda's backwards language-lolz). So naturally, Alec Guiness sued GL and I'm not sure if he won, but it was obviously undoc*mented in virtually ALL SW doc*mentaries and 'making of' books since nobody wanted to tarnish Alec Guiness' record & memory. After all, "A New Hope" (1977) was Alec Guiness' last big movie, and he lived another 23yrs. [I guess that supports Seth McFarlane's claim that Harrison Ford was the only actor whose career wasn't destroyed by Star Wars, as said by Peter Griffin, aka Han Solo in "Blue Harvest" (2007). lolz]
3 years agoby @slysnideFlag
Red Camera Man
I always knew that this was everyone's #1 favorite of the WHOLE saga, Ed. And Sly, I knew Yoda would survive Order 66 in Episode III because he was also in the originals, except Episode IV. He probably didn't do much in the prequels because he's part of the Jedi Council and he fights whenever it was time for him to fight, I suppose.
3 years agoby @redcameramanFlag
slysnide
I concur that this one was a little boring in some scenes. Like the Dagobah stuff. Granted the Jedi Way had to be explained, but there's very little data about it provided here in comparison to the prequels which don't say much about it either. Obi-Wan Kenobi put it best in Episode IV, and it didn't require reiteration in Episode V, but had GL stuck with his original three s and kept Kenobi around for #5, then Yoda would've been axed in Order 66 as he'd therefore not be in the original films. That is if Yoda would even be a required character in the prequels had he not been in the originals, as fans were expecting him to be in the prequels, so GL had to satisfy those expectations. After all, Yoda didn't do much in the prequels.
4 years agoby @slysnideFlag
ed_wood
Good review. This is my favorite of them all.
4 years agoby @ed-woodFlag