Viewed Despecialized Edition

The Empire Strikes Back takes the incredible foundation of the original classic and digs into its problems, insecurities, and emotional dilemmas that were left in the shadows previously. It's the equivalent of peering into an open wound, with every beloved character dealing with issues and trials that are both fascinating and startlingly introspective. It only helps that every scene is perfectly composed, wonderfully acted, amazingly scored, eerily shot, and mindbogglingly awesome. I get chills just thinking about Darth Vader waiting for Luke up on that platform, enshrouded in mystique and menace, ready to smother the light from Luke's soul.

The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite STAR WARS film and one of the finest works ever made. Fucking Shakespearean in its themes and scope, this mystical masterpiece enthralls again and again. It'll never age.

Me: "I love you."

Empire Strikes Back: "I know."

My all time favorite film. It doesn't get any better than this.

What I really paid attention to this time around was the pacing. It is astonishing how perfect The Empire Strikes Back flows, every single scene is exciting and memorable. I never really thought about it, but the Rebellion doesn't even leave Hoth until roughly 40 minutes into the film, which clocks in with a total running time of just over two hours. Think about how much iconic greatness is jammed into those remaining 80 minutes, yet it never feels rushed, nothing is glossed over.

I can't imagine ever been more entertained than I am during Episode V. It was the greatest achievement in the world when I was a child, and over 20 years later nothing has changed.

This is unequivocally the very good one that convinces me into thinking all the other ones have a similar magic. 

1<2<3<4<5>6>7>8>9?

More interesting, though, is after watching this til 3 AM last night, I had a dream that the first twenty minutes of episode 9 was about a bunch of Nickelodeon cartoons living in on “Planet 9/11”. I wrote an impassioned Letterboxd review saying “we don’t want cartoons, we want Star Wars.” You all liked it; thank you!

A brilliant sequel that improved on many aspects of its predecessor, with a cliffhanger that was totally out of the box for a film like this. However, in my unpopular opinion, A New Hope still is a better watch.

My personal favorite of these films. Every aspect of A New Hope was improved upon From the music to the costumes and the effects. This movie has the most memorable and the best moments from the entire saga. Also I want to sleep in tauntaun.

The greatest movie sequel EVER!!!

simply one of the best episodes of the saga, the most cherished one to critics & public... outstanding score by John Williams, beautiful photography... a classic

Deepens & enriches themes & emotions barely developed in the original. In doing so, the film succeeds, more so than its forebear, in turning the saga into what it is today. The soap opera of the previous film gets an element of Greek tragedy, which adds an emotional dimension, but it's the incredible production design, cinematography & special effect sequences that mark this out as one of the great sci-fi fantasies.

A pretty good movie that features like two different movies that split off after the opening on Hoth. One movie based around Luke getting trained by Yoda and the other featuring Han & Leia exploring the galaxy. They feel like they could have extended some of the scenes and got rid of a few scenes that would have made the movie better in my opinion.

Yoda is so silly in this one

The last all around great film in this franchise so far. Praise the force this one is least affected by the special edition changes.