I hated this movie when I was five. Even after those great snowspeeder cockpit POV scenes where it felt like you really were skimming across the surface of the ice planet and the giddy asteroid chase and all the rest of it, I walked out of the theater griping about that awful Yoda and the horrible ending. I think what I really hated was that it
did end, just when things were looking up. Of course, I had no conception what a cliffhanger was, but the whole thing was dark and unsatisfying. I saw it at some mall while visiting my dad and I remember playing with the new Luke Skywalker toy later that afternoon at his house, and being impressed that it had a real lightsaber, not some crappy lightsaber that retracted into his arm. Some things never change--I'm still in favor of non-retractable toy lightsabers. But some things
do change, and for years (until around 1997)
Empire was my favorite movie. All the more so because it didn't feel like a kid's movie, it felt like a real drama with real consequences and characters you cared about.
The Acting: Hamill gets overlooked, but he's actually quite good as an overwhelmed, overmatched hero who suffers and nearly dies for a cause he barely understands, yet feels he must be loyal to, that of restoring the Jedi. Harrisson Ford is the real star of
Empire, though, as a
severely overwhelmed,
severely overmatched hero who knows he's falling in love, but is being bounced from crisis to crisis with increasing velocity, and barely has time to save his own skin. Carrie Fisher as Leia balances arch royal bitchiness with heroic vulnerability, but I'm not sure how--she must have had a good script or something. Oh, wait, she did. And the supporting players--Chewie, R2, C-3P0 and the men behind Vader--certainly do their parts with great timing and even conviction. Not all the bit players are up to snuff (like that cardboard-sounding dude talking about the evacuation on Hoth) but what the hell. It makes the mains better by contrast. And Yoda, I love you now. Sorry for all the harsh words, am I. Ya little piss pot.
The Story: The great advantage of trilogies is that you can make three types of movies you normally couldn't make, and it's never
really been done right, though the original
Star Wars Trilogy comes closest. You can have a first movie that sets the stage, creates a fascinating environment, and make a big Origin Story without having to wrap everything up.
Star Wars did that well (though the first
Matrix did it even better, on a stricly origin story level.) At the end you can have a Climactic Battle without fussing with the whys and wherefores. Jedi did that well in the space battles, but there was too much Endor baggage to call it a true victory. But what the original
Star Wars Trilogy did perfect was the middle part--the Character Movie.
Empire is all about good characters--and it has time to really develop them, because you've met them before and their happy or unhappy ending comes later. That's why the
Lord of the Rings trilogy sucked, because the middle movie wasn't a character movie at all, it was a combination Origin Story for a bunch of new characters and a Final Battle movie, too, for some of the same. It's going to be more and more common for trilogies to replace single-story movies because it's more profitable for the studios to make movies with numbers at the end of the titles. But they should take a page from
Empire and see that to make a sequel truly good, you've got to play to the strengths inherent in where it falls in the trilogy. If you don't, you're just copying off the first one, which is why Lethal Weapon 1, 2, 3, 4 are all roughly the same. Or you could go the other route, and have every movie different and unrelated to each other, like the
Alien "Quadrilogy" ("quadrilogy" isn't a word, by the way--four would be a tetralogy) or the Muppet movies. Oh, well. Empire has better aliens and muppets anyway.
The Direction: Lucas didn't write it, and he didn't direct it, and it's the movie I respect him the most for. Lawrence Kasdan and female sci-fi novelist Leigh Brackett wrote an exceptional script, and virtual unknown Irvin Kershner (who did some movie called "
Loving" or something before this) puts actors before effects, but still oversees some kick-ass effects. I remember hearing that it took eight weeks to make one landspeeder blow up in the background of one shot. I believe it. In fact, I believe everything I see in this movie, because it's grounded in reality, unlike the bad CG cartoons that the new trilogy have given us.
Overall: Why is my eye fooled by old effects more than CGI? Something about the jerkiness of CGI, or the colors that never synch up right (they always look pale and muted. I compare them to the scenes in the old He-Man cartoon where he comes up on a pile of five rocks, and you know he's going to pick up the pale one). Anyway, I miss the old school
Star Wars, and would encourage everyone out there to find illegal bootlegs of the original trilogy and not pay Lucas another dime, because he has no artistic vision and his revised versions of his movie are going to keep changing anyway. It's funny to hear him talk about his "original vision" and then I try to apply that term to the Greedo scene where so far he has shot first, shot last, and tied Han. Maybe next time they'll play sabacc for his ship or something--or Greedo will try to shoot, but he'll have a radio instead. If George Lucas ever talks about his "original vision" and he's within hitting distance, throw a rock at his fat beardy head.
Tredekka Rules:
- Rule 1: No Movie Can Get More Than 5 Stars, Not Even Deadfall. Or The Empire Strikes Back.
- Rule 6: Over The Top Acting Award--Harrisson is awesomely beleagured in this movie. His mantra of "It's not my fault!" comes off as surprisingly heartfelt. Plus, he let them freeze him in carbonite, and that must have been cold. +1 star.
- Rule 7: Cameo By Tauntaun Intestines, +1 star.
- Rule 11: Giant Robots Make Good Cinema--I know, AT-AT walkers are supposed to be all terrain attack transports. But they've got legs and a head and they're robots. I'm not stupid. Shut up. +1 star.
- Rule 14: Cool Gun Award--goes to that blaster that popped out of the Millennium Falcon to mow down those snowtroopers. Talk about kick ass. Now why doesn't Chewie carry around that machine gun? +1 star.
- Rule 22: The Great Entrance Award--"Mine! Mine! Or I will help you not!" +1 star.
- Rule 31: Lightsabers Are Sweet, +1 star. But Tauntaun guts are sweeter. Not literally.
Tredekka Score: ( * * * * * )
