Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

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⭐ 8.5/10


This is usually everyone's favorite Star Wars movie, and I think this is true for me? At least of the originals... 

I don't think I actually have that many unique thoughts.  It's all pretty cool. That early scene with Luke cutting the arm off the wampa (I googled that) and then immediately gutting that snow horse (didn't need to google that) was so striking. So gory! Blood on snow is so gross.  I think it actually somehow sets a nice, grim start for the darkest movie in the trilogy.  

This is the movie where famously everything goes wrong, that middle entry that fills you with dread, making you wonder how the heroes will ever recover.  It's pretty effective here, and that whole sequence with Luke and Vader is so cool.  Definitely Lucas at his best. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself!  I would also first like to say that Dagobah is my favorite setting in these movies, and there are a lot of amazing settings.  Yoda is my favorite character here, and the duel between he and R2 is an all-time epic. R2 also has his best movie here with some incredible beeping and booping.  Otherwise I also liked the cloud city, Lando, and Vader at the dinner table.  I think the increased budget was clear here.  All of these movies look amazing, but this one has some pretty complex set pieces compared to the first. 

On its own merits, I would say this is the best one, beginning to end, and then also has some of the most iconic moments, including
maybe the most famous moment in movie history?  How could I give that a low score... 

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