Anniversary XL: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was, as far as sequels go, quite a gamble when it was released exactly 37 years ago today (May 21, 1980). The adventure it took the heroes and villains of the galaxy far, far away on was completely different from A New Hope, it took a considerably more serious tone than the original film, and this did not sit well with all critics and filmgoers at the time. Nowadays, however, The Empire Strikes Back is widely hailed as the best Star Wars film by far. Do I agree with that assessment?

Partially.

The Empire Strikes Back was directed by Irvin Kershner, not George Lucas. Many fans point to his direction as the pinnacle example of why Star Wars works better without Lucas at the helm. This is also the only Star Wars saga film in which Lucas is not credited as a screenwriter. Because of this, several online fans believe the reason The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film is simply because it was neither written nor directed by Lucas.

I have to disagree with that assessment. Leigh Brackett, the first credited screenwriter, died shortly after finishing the first draft of the script, which Lucas found unfaithful to his characters and vision of Star Wars. Practically none of Brackett's draft made it in to the final film. I have mad respect for Lucas for still crediting her. Lucas actually modified the script himself before hiring Lawrence Kasdan, the other credited writer, to complete the final draft. Lucas may not be credited as a screenwriter, but The Empire Strikes Back is still 100% his story, and still contains lines (mainly from Han Solo) that sound right at home in a script he's credited with.

As for Kershner's direction, I think it is very good. He uses a variety of angles and lighting during critical moments in the film, and they pay off quite well as a method of visual storytelling. I wouldn't go so far as to call The Empire Strikes Back the best-directed film in the saga. I think it shares this distinction with another Star Wars film. Don't expect me to tell you which one, though. You'll have to wait until I get around to reviewing it to find out.

Is The Empire Strikes Back my favorite Star Wars episode? There I can solidly say no. It clocks in as my fourth favorite of the six that I've seen. There are some issues I have with it that are small in scale, but still there.

A New Hope, as I mentioned yesterday, is my least favorite episode mainly because it feels much more small-scale and self-contained than any of the others. Given the circumstances, that's completely understandable, but it still feels off compared to the other five.

The Empire Strikes Back, on the other hand, loses a few points on my scale mainly due to Han Solo and his romance with Princess Leia. I get that Han's way of "flirting" with Leia is pretty in keeping with his established character, but it's really hard for me to consider his behavior of forcing himself on Leia when leading up to their first kiss as a touching moment. Leia tells him to stop touching her, and he doesn't. I may be male, but I'm pretty confident when i say that by today's standards, this would not hold well with most women.

Another minor complaint: for me the most distracting "blue screen" moment in the entire saga is in this film. In the carbon freezing chamber, during the scene where Han is put out of commission for the rest of the film, two people are seen standing in the background at the top of the stairs where Darth Vader later waits for Luke. They're as dark as shadows, but it's painfully obvious to me that those two people are part of the matte painting used as the background for this scene, because they never move at all.

But enough with the criticism, because The Empire Strikes Back has a lot of memorable moments and characters that deserve all the praise they've gotten over 37 years. The effects, while showing their age, still work well, and the sound is especially impressive on Blu-Ray. The opening act of the film on Hoth is executed very well, and the battle against the Imperial AT-ATs (one of my favorite Star Wars vehicles) is always a blast to watch. In the middle portion, when the main heroes split up from each other, the asteroid field chase scene is equally entertaining, but the real scene-stealer is Yoda. The Yoda puppet in this film is so well designed; he's easily the best movie puppet I've ever seen, and the only thing that reminds me he isn't real is the fact that he can't accurately mouth his lines. Beyond that, though, his explanations of how a Jedi's strength flows from the force are superbly written and delivered.

In the final act in Cloud City, we're introduced to Lando Calrissian, who is sadly underused. His decision to overthrow the pressure the Empire has put on him and abandon the city he's led for a long time is a very courageous act, earning him loads of respect from me. Boba Fett also makes his first appearance in this film. He looks cool and is silent and mysterious, but there's really not much else about him that interests me (at least, not yet). Clearly, many fans feel the opposite way.

Of course, I can't talk about The Empire Strikes Back without mentioning the famous misquoted line: "No. I am your father." This twist actually was a twist for me; nobody I was growing up with mentioned it before I first saw the film in 2004. I was surprised. But I was also intrigued to find out if he was telling the truth or not, and that whole scene has become the quintessential Star Wars scene for the same reasons. James Earl Jones's awesome voice delivers that line and every other one in that scene so powerfully, which only adds to the intensity. Hats off to Lucas, Kershner, Jones, and Mark Hamill for keeping that line a tight secret until the films release. Even David Prowse, the actor inside the Darth Vader suit, didn't know that Vader would claim to be Luke's father.

John Williams delivers another home run of a score here. "The Imperial March," introduced in this film, is so catchy and menacing, and I really like Yoda's theme as well. Another highlight in the score comes in the final chase as the Millennium Falcon's crew struggles (yet again) to fix the hyperdrive before being caught in the Imperial Star Destroyer's tractor beam. A steady and tense ostinato punctuates all but the most surprising and most personal moments, specifically Vader making one last attempt to convince Luke to join him through the Force before he escapes.

While The Empire Strikes Back is not my favorite Star Wars episode, it is definitely one of the best directed and paced. The praise it has gotten is (mostly) well deserved, and it's a very worthy Star Wars chapter.

Anniversary XL Reviews Ahead!

Yeah, I haven't posted a thing on here in six months. For the few of you who are still following me, I have a series of posts planned for the next six days leading up to the 40th anniversary of Star Wars. For the next six days, I will write a reflective review on each of George Lucas's Star Wars episodes (so, not Episode VII or Rogue One, which I haven't seen), talking about what I love about each one, some of my favorite moments and elements from the film, and how I like it in comparison to the other five. These are my top 6 favorite movies of all time, so don't expect me to blast my least favorite episode just because I happen to like the other five more.

I will be going in "flashback" order, that is: IV-V-I-II-III-VI. I believe this is the best order to view Lucas's saga in a full movie marathon (I'll just be watching one a night and write my review of it the following day), as it combines the perks of chronological order (I-II-III-IV-V-VI) and release date order (IV-V-VI-I-II-III) while avoiding the major drawbacks to both "obvious" orders. The best proof I can offer as to why this method works best is in the form Drew McWeeny's series of essays on introducing the saga to his kids in this order. If you haven't read them, they are well worth your time.

Also, I will be using the 2011 Blu-Ray versions of all six films for these reviews. They are the current version of the saga that the creator is most satisfied with, so I think it only fair that I discuss these versions. This will mostly be irrelevant, except when I'm briefly talking about the major changes from the theatrical and DVD cuts. I mentioned in an earlier post that I don't think any change takes away the heart of what made Star Wars what it is, so don't expect to see me blast George Lucas for "ruining my childhood."

Hope you enjoy reading these reviews! I'm looking forward to writing them.

What It Means to be a STAR WARS Fan

In my introductory post, I mentioned that I would be blogging about some controversial subjects, and Star Wars is likely what I will be discussing the most.

Ever since I was introduced to the Star Wars saga in 2004, I have, according to the definition of the word "fan", been a Star Wars fan. That is, I enjoyed the movies and the story they told, and I soon became obsessed with learning more details than the movies told me about this galaxy far, far away. Really, anyone who has a liking for at least one Star Wars film or even one TV episode or Expanded Universe story can be considered a Star Wars fan. If they like an aspect of Star Wars so much that they'd like to write about it, that's great. I'll come back to this definition later.

Over the last several years, however, I have had a harder time calling myself a Star Wars fan. This trend began when I started getting involved in the online Star Wars fan industry. It seems that there, the definition of being a Star Wars fan, in addition to the ground rules I laid out in the previous paragraph, includes spewing as much hate as possible towards George Lucas, the saga's creator, endlessly complaining about the prequel trilogy and the special editions of the original trilogy, and putting down anyone who doesn't conform to this line of thinking.

Obviously, I'm being very general, because hardly every Star Wars-related webpage has content of that nature, but so many do. If this was what you had to do to call yourself a Star Wars fan, then I didn't want to be one anymore. Why? Because I passionately love the prequel trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III) and consider them to be highly underrated films. I also have no problem at all with the special editions of the originals, although admittedly I don't have the proper background to take sides on this debate. I have actually never seen the unaltered cuts of the originals (Episodes IV, V, and VI), but I do know the bulk of the changes that have been made in the special editions. From my perspective, these changes have no effect on any of the elements that made Star Wars what it was to begin with, and it seems a little irrational to me that so many fans are complaining that the unaltered cuts are no longer available, because the cuts that are available tell the same story with the same characters. Like I said, though, take my words with a grain of salt. I haven't seen the unaltered cuts, so I'm not in the best position to judge. The one change I can kind of understand people getting angry about is the infamous who-shoots-first scene, but even then the anger over it seems really blown out of proportion. For my money, the scene works either way, because in both versions the intentions of both characters were quite clear.

The prequels, though... I have a lot more to say in regards to their effect on me as a fan. After seeing all three of them for the first time in 2005, I was blown away at how much I loved them. Yes, you read that right. I loved the new worlds, ships, droids, aliens, characters, stories, and inner struggle that all the protagonists went through over the course of that trilogy. I even loved Jar Jar Binks. Again, yes, you read that right.

For a while after I entered the online Star Wars fan industry, I got somewhat bitter after seeing the non-stop hate spewn at them from nearly every corner of the web. I've seen YouTube comments telling anyone who likes the prequels to kill themselves, I've seen people getting applause for jokes about murdering George Lucas, and I've seen online film channels repeatedly taking potshots at the prequels despite making their opinions about them very clear on multiple occasions. I've even seen some of the prequel fans on the Internet snap under the hate and respond to the criticism in a very rude and derogatory manner.

A common phrase prequel fans have used is, "If you don't like the prequels, you're not a true Star Wars fan." I myself said something to that effect when I wrote a rather angry rant on my Facebook page in January 2013, after Disney cancelled the 3D releases of Episodes II and III that were scheduled for that fall. (Being introduced to the saga in 2004, Episode III was the only one I was able to see in theaters, and I was highly anticipating the opportunity to revisit the entire saga in this venue.) I've realized, however, that that's a hypocritical statement on our part. Fans of Star Wars don't have to like every single Star Wars product ever released, in the same way that fans of the Harry Potter books don't necessarily have to like the movies to remain fans. The prequels are movies, and movies are a form of art, and art is subjective. I'm not trying to say anyone is "wrong" for liking or disliking the prequels (or any other form of art). Different forms of art resonate better with different people, and when fans of one artist or series of artworks can bond over their shared love of this art, or when they can politely discuss their differing opinions or theories about said art, it almost always creates quality memories.

If two Star Wars fans disagree about something, however, they're quickly at each other's throats, both trying to assert their positions as the objective "right" way to look at whatever they're debating over. Compare that to the calm disagreements that arise in other fandoms, and you'll see why lazypadawan of the Star Wars Prequel Appreciation Society wrote a post about "The Fractured Fandom" last fall. The fact of the matter is, there will never be a time in which every single Star Wars fan will agree on which episode is the best one. There will never be a time in which every single Harry Potter fan will agree about who should have ended up with who. There will never be a time in which every single Lord of the Rings fan will love or hate the Hobbit movies. There will never be a time in which every single Disney Animated Canon fan will agree on whether or not Tangled is better than Frozen. What's the point? The point is, stories can resonate with different people for several different reasons, and trying to force your opinion of one story down the throat of someone who has a differing opinion will likely get you nowhere. All that does is fracture the fandom more.

I like the Star Wars prequels slightly more than the originals. I still like Jar Jar Binks. I like the different worlds. I like Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen's performances as the younger Anakin Skywalker. I'm not bothered by the political exposition. I have nothing against the concept of midi-chlorians. I like the updated effects in the special editions. I don't care whether Han shoots first or not. I have not seen Episode VII for personal reasons, and I don't plan on seeing Rogue One this winter. 

Am I going to force you to agree with all of this? Of course not. If you disagree with one, or even all, of the sentences in the above paragraph, feel free to. I wouldn't dream of accusing you of not being a Star Wars fan if this were the case. In future writings, I will likely expound on why I feel the way I do about these aspects of Star Wars, sometimes using evidence from the films to back my opinions up, but I will never assert these opinions as the one-and-only-view-you-can-possibly-have-to-call-yourself-a-Star-Wars-fan.

I agree with lazypadawan in that right now, the Star Wars fandom is fractured. I think a big step in repairing it is simple acceptance, writing about what you like rather than what you dislike, expressing yourself in a calm, respectful manner, and most importantly, agreeing to disagree.

May the Force be with us all.