Movie Minx

Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, R2D2
Directed by: Irvin Kershner

Plot: While Luke takes advanced Jedi training from Yoda, his friends are relentlessly pursued by Darth Vader as part of his plan to capture Luke.

But is it any good?

This is a tough one. Empire Strikes Back is part of a classic trilogy and if I bag it I might get hate mail from sci-fi geeks. No, actually I really like it, but I wonder if a film that can’t stand alone really deserves to be ranked this high in the list. It’s also complicated by inevitable comparisons with the more recent (but chronologically older) films in the, erm, sextology, which have far worse plotlines but better FX.

I watched it properly tonight. I can’t remember the first time I saw it, but I remember playing with my brother’s Star Wars figures as a young nipper and liking R2D2 the best and being scared of Chewbacca. R2D2 reminded me of my mother’s Tellus vacuum cleaner. I know now that he and C3P0 provide comic relief in a Laurel-and-Hardy style, and my favourite scenes are always those with R2D2 beeping away communicatively. Han Solo is the cute ’scoundrel’, Leia is the haughty princess, Luke is the whiny dullard and Vader has bad asthma. And little Yoda has syntax issues and spends a lot of this film shaking his head over Luke’s problem above.

Clearly this is darker than the first one. Family issues are raised (no spoilers), feelings deepen, there’s a bit of testing and betrayal. There are also a hell of a lot of noisy galactic fights. It’s a classic all right, but it only stands firm as part of a team. Like Luke, really.

IMDb’s rating: 8.6/10
My rating: 8/10

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