Sci Fi September # 15 – The Empire Strikes Back
The second and probably best Star Wars movie ever, Empire finds the rebels on a not so secret base on the ice planet Hoth. Soon the friends are split up and while one of them faces a cold death, another finds out a secret about family.
Empire Strikes Back is a very untypical movie and sequel. It has an untypical beginning, not following on directly from the previous movie. It has an untypical middle, splitting up the main characters and putting them in very different circumstances and surroundings. It has an untypical ending, one that includes one of the biggest shocks (at the time) in a movie as well as one of the main characters being taken away like an ice cube.
In 1980, movie goers weren’t expecting a movie like Empire. When (OK, this is a SPOILER for the one person who doesn’t know it) Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is his father, it was such a bombshell that people walked out of the theater thinking about it, and not the ending which saw Han Solo whisked away like a frozen Popsicle, which is pretty cool (he he) considering the brilliant opening battle on the ice planet Hoth.
The battle, where we are first introduced to the Imperial Walkers (why have machines that walk when its obvious that wheels are better?) is stunning. My personal favourite part of all the movies, it has these relentless walking death machines that can be tripped up, literally, by a piece of string. Then you have Yoda in the swamp which was good comic relief, making you wonder if Kermit might appear in one of the scenes, while everyone else is having a party in the cloud cities.
Nearly everyone has seen the original Star Wars trilogy and for most, Empire stands out as the most popular of the three. So much so that it is ranked at number 7 on IMDB.com’s top 250 movies, 5 places ahead of Star Wars.
Tags: Anakin Skywalker, Han Solo, Hoth, Luke Skywalker, Popsicle, Star Wars, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda
