Hilarious Honest Trailer For STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Struggles To Find Anything Bad To Say

Empire is a great sequel and builds upon the original, but I think it's slightly overrated in terms of fanboys putting it above the original. While A New Hope is more textbook and predictable, it also feels like it has more of a driving force to it, as the mission evolves and escalates in a way that feels natural. Luke starts out trying to track down R2 after R2 goes looking for Obi-Wan, then he gets this quest to save the princess, then that evolves into helping stop the Death Star. As this plot progresses, this band of characters comes together and evolves.

Empire, by contrast, doesn't have as strong of a through-line plot wise. The story separates Luke from his friends for the majority of the film, so the story splits its focus and doesn't allow as much screen time to deepen or elaborate on the protagonist's relationship with the supporting cast. It also lacks the clear driving goals of the first film. Han and Leia spend most of the movie running from the Empire. Luke gets the mission to find Yoda, but unlike in ANH when finding Obi-wan led to a new grander mission, Luke just begins training until he's pulled away to the movie's other plotline. Don't get me wrong, it's interesting and there's character work being done there, but ANH's method of training is arguably more compelling since Obi-wan teaches Luke as they pursue something else.


The other big thing I hold against Empire is that it's very dependent on both ANH and RoTJ. ANH works perfectly as a standalone film. RoTJ provides closure even if it does pickup from where the others left off. Empire doesn't establish a strong character/story foundation at its beginning to work well on its own, and with its cliffhanger, it doesn't provide solid closure. It's more like a great chapter of a story than a great story in itself. Some of you may argue that this is inherent to being a middle movie of a trilogy, but I believe The Dark Knight is a great example of a functional middle chapter that also works very well as a great story in itself.

All that said, I'm a big Star Wars fan and I of course really like Empire. However, I give a lot of credit to A New Hope for the feat of imagination it is. It had incredible technical innovations, creative world building so strong we're still exploring that universe, and it's all delivered with very strong storytelling. A New Hope is the giant whose shoulders every Star Wars property stands on, and to me it's still the best film overall.