Is it worth the watch? "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back"

I have a confession. I have never seen the entire Star Wars film series. I know. I know. It’s a staple of pop culture that redefined sci-fi and took the audience mainstream. Before you start throwing stones, I have played the entire Lego Star Wars Wii game, so I didn’t feel a real need to watch the movies. I got the gist of it. Heads up spoilers ahead! I have seen the whole “Luke… I am your father.” I know who Yoda and Anakin Skywalker are. I’m not completely disconnected from culture. There are a couple of Star Wars movies on the movie list, so I decided to watch them in order. First up - “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back”. When I say I’m watching them in order, I mean solely the movies that are on the list. Since I have a general knowledge of the plot, I think I’ll be fine. 

“The Empire Strikes Back” was released in 1980 with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher reprising their roles as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia. Did you know “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark” was released one year later? Insane. Harrison Ford and George Lucas were WORKING. Although this is the fifth movie in the franchise today, it is the sequel to the original trilogy. With this in mind, I truly believed it was fine that I hadn’t seen the first movie. 

The movie starts off running and does not stop. As someone who cares very little for Star Wars as a whole, I did not struggle with staying engaged with the content. What do you mean Skywalker has to escape from a Yeti? What do you mean to save Skywalker from frostbite, Solo puts his body in the dead carcass of some animal. 10/10 for creativity and ew factor. When Skywalker finally wakes up, it’s in a tank of water. Jarring. Crazy start. Also, I have decided to pretend like Leia did not kiss Skywalker like that because ew. I know they didn’t know they were twins yet, unfortunately I do. Wait. Let’s walk it back. 

Before Solo goes out to find Skywalker, he replies to some of the men saying “Then I’ll see you in Hell?” Obviously, my ears were perked. What is Hell in the Star Wars universe? It is the Realm of Chaos, which is based on Corellian Mythology. It is undeniable that there are religious themes throughout Star Wars. The spiritual elements of the film like the force make it not only interesting, but it can spark interesting conversation. Is there some kind of energy that links us all together? What are the benefits of meditating? There are heavy themes of good versus evil. What is good and evil in this universe? Skywalker, Solo, and Leia are sneaking around the universe encouraging a fight against the Empire. Where does this fall on the good versus evil scale? Is this universe more grey than black and white? This movie is rich in questions. It is its own masterclass in trusting your audience to keep up with the complicated nature of this world that they barely know while encouraging them to spend more time in it to better understand its nucleus. Food for thought. 

No one told me that Solo and Leia are flirting with each other literally from start to finish in this film. This movie might even qualify to be a romance in my opinion. I get the Harrison Ford thing now. Ok. I get it. He is so charming and overconfident. It’s undeniable… What do the kids say? Rizz? Also, Solo always calls Leia “sweetheart”. Come on. I was shocked, to say the least. Sorry, I have more to say about this couple. Feel free to skip to the next section if you don’t care about Solo and Leia. Leia is a maneater. She did not clarify her feelings. In fact, she actively denied them. She’s down bad and stood her ground. She has a rebellion to lead. She did not have time for this man. I respect that. The forehead kiss in this film - Lethal. The kisses on the cheek - knife through the heart. These two literally are so obsessed with each other. We love a couple that yearns for each other. 

While Solo and Leia are starting their situationship, Skywalker meets up with Yoda per phantom Obi-Wan Kenobi’s request. I love the unapologetic scene jumps between Skywalker/Yoda’s plot and the Solo/Leia/Vader plot. The editing style kind of reminds me of PowerPoint. Specifically, when they use the circular fade out and in, but it works somehow. The movie says it genuinely felt like 30 minutes. The distinctive music for the rebels, the Sith, and various other elements makes it easy to understand what kind of scene the audience is about to see. The graphics still hold for being made in the 80s. Ya. The lasers and mechanics seem a little slow but not completely unbelievable. Love the use of explosions. Is Skywalker capable of not being a damsel in distress in every other scene or is that outside of his character? Maybe that’s why Han calls him “kid”. You’re telling me Han went to make sure Leia was ok. (Hot). Skywalker mountain climbing up that giant futuristic Trojan horse tossing in a bomb then just DISCONNECTING from the top was funny. He has no cares. Skywalker has that act first, think second mindset. The humor in the film is so similar to Indiana Jones. Does anyone else think Harrison Ford speaks in the same cadence as Steve Martin or is it just me? I loved the scene when they were stuck in the Astro field. The actors shined. Making it almost unbelievable that they were acting at all. The plot twist being that they were actually in a worm the whole time. Grand. 

Yoda is so brat. Rip Yoda. You would’ve loved Von Dutch featuring Addison Rae. I distinctly remember this part in the Lego game. It was so difficult. Maybe this was explained in the first movie, but how does Skywalker understand his droid? Did he use Duolingo to learn Android? Would it be Starlingo? Galaxylingo? I guess Duolingo still holds. Obi-Wan haunts the narrative. It is so beautiful and tragic. Not Yoda saying Skywalker doesn’t fit in the age group to be taught how to be a Jedi. A little ageist for being a teacher for 800 years if you asked me. I love that we see Skywalker's flaws on full display. His impatience and tendency to lean into his anger being his Achilles heel: so real. Perpendicularly, we see a side of Darth Vader that could almost be classified as compassion. Vader immediately defended Skywalker when he found out he was a son of “Anakin”. Ok. Dad's instincts immediately kicked in. It’s kind of sweet in an extremely tragic way. Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is so Jason Todd coded. The consistent suffering, while being drawn to using whatever means necessary to execute their own definition of justice. 

On a lighter note, Yoda being in a little backpack during training was so sweet. The first time I heard “Do or do not, there is no try” was when I was watching the Amanda Seyfried adaptation of the Theranos founder. Star Wars bleeds into pop culture. It is casually thrown into other pieces of media without needing to be explained. What a feat. Wait. What did Yoda mean when he said there is another hope? Isn’t the whole point that Skywalker is the only hope? You’re going to hate me. 

Solo being frozen - tragic. Leah had to watch - TRAGIC. Solo emphasizes how Chewi needs to take care of her. THE KISS. “I LOVE YOU”. “I KNOW”. These two are crazy. Her being the last thing he sees before he’s frozen. Ya. I’ll need to watch the next one.  What do you mean she didn’t shed a tear? Also, the guard using Leah as a shield is so ew core. I get it he’s evil, but also a coward: that’s just embarrassing. If you’re going to be evil, don’t be a coward about it. It makes it seem less evil, and just plain old fearful. Which maybe was the point? I don’t know. The fight scene between Vader and Skywalker felt a little off. I feel like if Vader wanted to kill Skywalker he would’ve. Maybe it’s the fact that he looks like his mom or maybe he looks like him. Cue “Like Him” by Tyler the Creator. There is so much more content in this film, but those were my highlights. 

I’ve decided the scale I’m going to use for this series will have the movies fall into three categories. ‘ASAP’, ‘meh’, and ‘not even if it was the only movie left on Earth’. It seems direct but I’ll explain. ‘ASAP,’ meaning drop everything you’re doing and do yourself a favor by watching the movie. ‘Meh’, meaning if you don’t know what to watch it could be time to try out a random film that you wouldn’t normally grab. Third, ‘not even if it was the only movie left on Earth’ seems direct enough to ascertain what I mean. Movies could fall in between the three categories, but those are the big three. 

This movie was exciting from start to finish. I could not be more surprised. I genuinely believed, in my soul, that this movie would be beyond overhyped. Wrong. It is so engaging. If this movie was replaying in theatres, I would buy a ticket. I understand why there have been a million shows, books, movies and more adapted from this movie. Did you know there was an off-Broadway show based on the series? This would fall into the ASAP category. The viewing experience I would recommend is with others who are on the same watch level as you with a cold Coca-Cola and a large popcorn obviously with extra butter. Classics to go with a timeless classic.

Image from The Brattle