[GreenLantern2814]

My wife and I went to see the Empire Strikes Back last night at Westhills. It’s the first time I’ve seen it on a big screen since the re-release in 1997.

What a wonderful time at the movies. For starters, it was great to go to a theatre to see a Star Wars movie knowing it was going to be good.

Second of all, this movie is gorgeous. The rebel base, the speeders, the Falcon, Dagobah, the asteroid field, Cloud City, all of it. They built everything. They dug trenches in the snow. They shot outside. It’s incredible. CGI looks fake because it is.

Limitations make things cooler. You can tell this movie was made in a time when they still had problems doing the lightsaber effect, because Luke doesn’t whip his out every time he hears a noise. But when he does, you know he means business.

What’s also very revealing is how not stupid the entire movie is. At no point in this entire movie do you find your eyes rolling so far back into your head that you can see your pre frontal cortex while you audibly sigh “that’s ####ing stupid” in a theatre with 200 people (otherwise known as “The Last Jedi Experience”).

Characters don’t make baffling decision after baffling decision that can only be explained away by “the will of the Force”.

Scenes are constructed as more than just bridges from one visually exhausting action sequence to the next. Characters are put in tough situations and their choices have consequences. Just like real life.

Puppets. Puppets are the key to all this. If you can accomplish your shot with a puppet, you should. Yoda is a puppet.

R2 is great in every movie, but this is 3P0’s finest film. He’s perfectly used.

John Williams. I firmly believe John Williams is responsible for, conservatively, 60% of Star Wars’ enduring popularity. The cast and the ships and lightsabers are the other 20-40%, but John Williams is doing the heavy lifting. One of the most beautiful scores ever written, and the finale where the Rebel fleet limps through space while Han and Leia’s theme swells... chef’s kiss.

Finally, you know the Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film because it’s the one that has been ####ed with the least by its creator. I can’t watch the Blu Ray versions of A New Hope and Jedi because I’ve seen the originals so many times and these remastered abortions aren’t paced properly.

There are a couple additions that do nothing to improve the movie as well, but they’re subtle; you’d only notice them if you spent your 17th birthday with your virginity.

In closing, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. But I’m glad they did, once, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.