CT Why do a lot of people say Episode V is the best?

I don't understand why people say Episode V is the best of the six.It is so damn overrated.

"It expanded the characters and the universe", yeah, perhaps, but I think they did it in the wrong way. They just did it in a bit boring way....

"It is dark", well, Episode III is also dark, why it is not your favorite?

"There's a muppet", every SW movie has a muppet.

 

1) It reveals the biggest secret of the story by far - I was stunned to hear that Vader was Luke's father for the first time.

2) It expands the characters in a slow (boring for some) but efficient manner - Han as being better than a mere smuggler, Luke having an impulsive and impatient character much like his father.

3) We actually learn what Jedi training is and what it takes to become a Jedi knight. It shows the true values of a Jedi knight and we learn that deviating from them leads to the Dark Side. Also, Yoda mentions that once you follow the Dark Side there is no return. That adds more intensity to the big finale in Ep VI.

4) For me - Hoth is an amazing place to start with - Luke and Han stranded, found, ground assault, heroes diverging.

 

The reason I hear most of the time is "because it's dark." How a movie is a masterpiece simply because it's dark is something I will never understand. Strangely, you could apply that logic to both AOTC and ROTS as well.

All of the movies expanded the characters and the universe, mainly TPM. TESB introduced a total of 3 planets and 3 new (main) characters. *gasp*

Not that I'm trying to hate on TESB or anything, because I really like it, but that's a pretty strange reason to like the movie, given it can be applied to every single film in the saga.

 

I love a good space battle.

But for me, and I have maintained this three word description since 1980, the Hoth Battle was "gritty and realistic" which raised it high above the Battle of Yavin, plus I was enraptured by the beauty and bright airiness of Bespin Cloud City.

The Empire Strikes Back is my best and most favourite film of all time, or at least the four decades that I have experienced cinema.

 

Personal preference? Popularity?

I guess I'm guilty as well. It's my second favorite SW movie.

 

I haven't seen TFA yet, but of what I've seen, Empire is definitely the best of the movies. I'm hoping TFA rivals it and ANH.

 

For me it's more about the expansion of character depth and the struggles. I felt it. With the others, from ROTJ and the PT, I didn't feel it so much. I don't really care about introducing new planets or characters. I want to know MORE about the characters introduced in ANH, and ESB delivers in a big way.

 

When I first got into Star Wars ROTJ was my favorite film from the original trilogy because of the lightsaber battles. Once I got past only caring about sabre duels and focusing on the characters it became my least liked SW movie, period. ESB became number one for its story, structure, and character interactions.

Luke, Leia, and Han all became more personable and organic. Vader seemed more evil, scary, and cool.

ROTJ undid all the brilliance of its predecessor in one fell swoop. Sure it had some classic moments; Luke and the gang rescuing Han; Luke and Vader's final duel; and Vader helping his son by killing Palatine, but that's it, really? All those moments were just small fried shrimps out of a big platter of Monkey crap you had to eat. The rest of the movie doesn't really hold up. Almost every moment of Empire was sheer awesomeness you can't say that about Return. IMO it's the worst SW movie out of all of them.

 

ESB has a near perfect script, pacing, and camerawork. Memorable visuals and character moments.
(Yes it's my favorite)

 

The Empire Strikes Back has the best writing, the best performances and the best musical score! It's not only the best Star Wars movie. It's one of the best movies. Period. It's a masterpiece.

 

Agree with all the sentiments here praising The Empire Strikes Back. It is hard to pin down to a single element why many consider it the best. I don't think that it is because it is "serious" or "dark" but simply because it is the most emotionally weighty of the three. Irvin Kershner says on one of the DVD commentaries something along the lines of "I had to make the audience believe that these were very ordinary people in a very extraordinary place, but who go through all the same emotions as everybody else, love, fear, anger, jealousy" I think he achieves that too.

Empire also benefits from being the middle chapter, in that it doesn't need to go through the whole set-up, nor does it have to wrap up with a neat conclusion. The reveal and cliffhanger fit perfectly within the "Republic Serial / Flash Gordon" episodic nature which is what Lucas envisaged. It defies convention, with the large, epic battle at the beginning of the movie, and the ending being somewhat smaller, with just a handful of characters.

Empire also had, for me, the most beautiful of production design, from the twisted swamp set of Dagobah, which really is "like something out of a dream" to the art deco design of Cloud City. The Carbon Freezing chamber set is gorgeously lit, and the surrounding rooms and corridors underneath where Luke and Vader duel it out are just sublime. There is a really ominous, retro type of background "humming" noise in that corridor that makes the hairs on the neck stand up. I also love the central shaft matte painting.

The carbon freezing sequence is genuinely an original, scary and surreal moment. There is a great shot of Han's profile in the block as it is lifted out of the pit with the tongs. Then when the Ugnaughts push the block over - BANG - and you see what they have done to Han. Brilliant. (I was six when I saw it and cried because I thought he was dead)

Finally, Yoda and the sequence on Dagobah. This worked perfectly, and I'm sure it was a gamble for them to have this "muppet" as a central, pivotal character. The scene when he lifts the X-Wing from the swamp and it flies overhead to Williams' rousing score is just one of cinema's most wonderful moments. Luke echoed what we all felt when he blurts out "I don't believe it!"

So it's everything. Sometimes elements come together to make something perfect, and The Empire Strikes Back epitomises that for me, it really was lightning in a bottle. It isn't just the best "Star Wars" movie, but one of the best movies period.

 

While ROTJ is my favorite it's not hard to see why ESB is a favorite of so many. It's much darker and edgier in tone and more daring than the other films and works as much a character drama and study as it does a Sci-Fi film with plenty of good action. It's refreshingly downbeat much of the time with the villains being triumphant and Vader is so much more sinister and ominous than in the other films. And the legendary end twist at the time was such a shock to the system. Plus it dares to be different and bolder rather than rehash the same story from ANH, which makes it all the more a refreshing film.

ESB as a kid was my least favorite as it's much slower-moving than ANH and ROTJ, but in hindsight that's a good thing. It's the middle chapter of the OT and it's sensible for the middle to be slower than the beginning (ANH) and end (ROTJ). The middle gives the characters more time to develop and connect, the mythology is allowed to expand more and things flesh out more with a slower middle. And it makes the conclusion that much more exciting and epic when you're more emotionally attached and connected to the characters and that engaged in the storyline. Nowadays all of the original three films are equal to me and I really hate picking a favorite or least favorite and at times outright refuse to, to me that does a disservice to the excellence of the original classic trilogy.

I really don't like to compare the OT with each other, to me they're not meant to be. Each chapter to me comprises an epic trilogy that tells the same story told over three interconnected segments: the beginning (ANH), middle (ESB) and end (ROTJ).

 

Because ESB is the ultimate Western/Scifi movie. It's got several incredible battle scenes, a one-second view of Vader without the mask, an unbeatable cliffhanger and also an amazing plot twist. I think that the new edition makes it even better, specially during the cloudcity scenes.
I first saw ROTJ when I was 8 (before NO and ESB) and it still remains a favorite. But it's clear that despite some key moments (the duel between Vader and Luke, for example), it's a weaker movie. The ewoks didn't help eather.

At the end:
NEW HOPE - 8/10
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - 9.5/10
RETURN OF THE JEDI - 8.5/10

 

The Empire Strikes Back is considered by many to be the best because of the galaxy and character building it did. We see Darth Vader at his most terrifying, Luke's recklessness and desire to learn the force, the mysticism of the force taught by Yoda, Han and Leia's budding romance. I could go on and on. The music is phenomenal, as well. Just about everything works in the movie.

 

I like Star Wars 77 (hard for me to call it ANH because for at least 2 decades I knew it as SW) and ESB about equally but for different reasons. The 77 film is a bit clunky (though some of that is the charm) but as a sci-fi fantasy I think it is such a trailblazer and leaves one with the sense of an infinite universe of possibilities. By the end of the film--you really dont know where it could go. They could have talked more about the Jedi, or concentrated on the spaghetti western in space theme.Or you could leave it as a one shot film.

Empire expanded on the visual effects milestone-giving us scenic VFX sequences that were so unique--snow monsters on an ice planet, giant machines stomping through snow, an asteroid chase, a city in the clouds.
Dramatically, ESB is more mature.

I saw Empire in 1980 and let me tell you it was one helluva movie experience to not know what was going to happen. I figured Yoda would be a big angry guy in a throne in the swamp, the carbonite, and the Vader fight/revelation was a total shocker--and the cliffhanger ending really bothered me. It subverts the first film's simple happy conclusion.

Williams was also at his peak during that period. The musical score is fantastic. So many distinctive themes.

ROTJ--I like it the least--its clunky in the character scenes-especially Han Solo. I also really hate the twin sister Leia revelation.
The Yoda scene I dont like either, and Obi Wan sitting on a log to tell a story. In the previous film the Jedi ghost is kept at a distance.

The ewoks dont bother me much-except that they look like teddy bears, and I think the battle on the plains that is shown in TPM should have been incorporated into ROTJ to make it more epic. A battle in an earth-style forest is not very fantastical.

But I still get goosebumps in the scene where Vader turns to the Emperor as he is blasting Luke and then picks him up.


What I like to ponder sometimes is how it would have turned out had not Lucas split with his collaborators. The Vader in Empire is not a mindslave--he is seeking to overthrow the Emperor. He would have died in any version from what I have read on it--but the redemption angle may have been downplayed?
I am not keen on Han Solo dying--I think that is too dark-especially after the carbonite.

If a Death Star was too repetitive-what sort of set piece effects sequence would have been better?
I also have misgivings about the Jabba scene. I love the character of Jabba and how he looks, but I didnt like the idea of this big crime boss being on the same backwater planet as a farm boy.
I would have liked to see a water planet used somewhere in a SW film(I didnt like how it was used in AOTC).

 

The Empire Strikes Back is the greatest motion picture ever made. I don't say that lightly, as I know there are more serious works out there. But this is a sufficiently deep and layered film, archetypal in nature, with fully fleshed out characters, perfectly designed and executed, that reaches the grandest cinematic heights of the entire medium, that is filmmaking in the 20th century. Combined with John Williams's score, there has never been a better film made.

 

Nice to see I'm not the only one who considers it a masterpiece. ESB is still my favorite film of all time, just about everything is done right in it IMO.

 

Gotta watch episode v again only seen it once.

 

The love story. The chemistry and dialoge between Han and Leia

 

To me, ESB is the "meat" of the OT's story

ANH = Introduction and Setup
ESB = Revelations and Conflict
ROTJ = Resolution

You get the revelation of the Luke/Vader relationship as well as the best part of Han/Leia's relationship.

On the surface though:

ANH: Probably the most "charming" sci-fi movie ever made
ESB: AT-AT's! The first "real" lightsaber battle!
ROTJ: Love the battle scenes. The space battle is my favorite of all of the movies.

 

It's so emotionally complex. Yoda and Vader work as great foils and, via Luke's journey, bring the most depth to the force that any SW film ever has. In short, more than any other SW film, it communicates human condition. It is also the best acted of the OT and has the best script. Han and Leia are fire. Then there's the battle of Hoth! Christ, what is there to not like?

 

That's it. It goes so much deeper than ANH ever hoped to be. It's the true meat of the franchise.

 

I started rewatching the originals lately. I have reconsidered and MAY like ESB most now.

 

It's the best film of the series, the scenes are very amazing and emotional, and of course with a better direction, Irvin did a great job.

 

Because it just looks cool. It's all subjective. ESB was my favorite as a kid, but now my favorite in the OT is ROTJ for how awesome the emperor is.
Online I've seen most people say empire is the best.
In real life people say it's ROTS.
What do most of the world think? Unless we interview each fan we'll never know. All that matters is your own opinion. I love all the films and people getting on the anti prequel band wagon doesn't change my opinion. most of my friends on xbox say ANH. I say ROTS. I'm sure some already say episode 7.