NOTE: The top screenshots are from the 'special edition' on disc one and the screenshots on the bottom are from the 'theatrical cut' on disc two. They might not match up perfectly but they serve the purpose of showing the difference in quality between the two discs contained in this set.

With the amazing success of Star Wars it came as no surprise to anyone that in 1980 the second film in the series would emerge. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was one of those rare 'middle films' that, along with The Godfather Part II proved that you could make the second film in the trilogy just as good, if not better, than what came before it or after it. Many middle films like Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom or the second chapter of The Matrix trilogy fail to capture the excitement of the first entry or of the final film and it makes sense in a certain respect. If one thinks of watching a trilogy like reading a book, it's quite common to find that in most popular fiction the first third sets everything up and the last third knocks it all down with the part in the middle stuck taking care of the details and tying up loose ends. The Empire Strikes Back breaks from that formula a bit in that yes, it does continue from the events in the first movie and it does set up Return Of The Jedi perfectly but unlike so many middle films, it's the strongest of all the Star Wars movies.

For the two or three people out there who haven't seen the movie, in a nutshell it explains how members of the Rebel Alliance had fled from the Empire and set up base on Hoth, a very inhospitable frozen planet. When the Empire came in with guns blazing to take down the base, Han, Leia and the droids took off in the Millenium Falcon but were captured by Darth Vader. While all of this is going on, Luke is on Dagobah training with Yoda in the Jedi arts. Soon though, Luke will have to go rescue the rest of his friends and throw down with Vader himself to save the day.

A much darker film than the first Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back never the less contains all the fun and charm of the first film only this time it's wrapped inside a much more interesting story. We loose some characters this time around – there's no Peter Cushing and Obi-Wan has passed on (though he appears in spirit form) but we also gain a few. Billy Dee Williams brings some suave slickness to Lando Calrissian and Frank Oz (best known as the voice of Miss Piggy on The Muppets) made Yoda the coolest green dwarf in the galaxy. We learn more about Han Solo's background when his past comes back to haunt him and Boba Fett shows up proving he's one of the baddest of the bad.

The pay off this time is incredible. By the time the end credits hit the screen we're completely pumped up for the next film and having seen this in the theater first run it's safe to say that audiences were left on the edge of their seats waiting with baited breath for the third (and at the time, final) film. We wanted to know what happened to these characters, how Luke and Leia's past tied in with that of Darth Vader and what would happen to Han Solo. Luke was still dorky but he was starting to come into his own and with his Jedi star on the rise, as proven during his showdown with Vader, he became a more interesting character than he was in the earlier film.

With Lucas out of the director's seat this time, Irvin Kershner was called in to hold the reins. Having worked with John Carpenter two years earlier on The Eyes Of Laura Mars he'd proven he could build tension and more importantly hold it for the duration of a film and that experience shows in The Empire Strikes Back. While his career hasn't been as significant as it could have been since working on this film (though Never Say Never Again is a fine entry in the Bond series and Robocop 2 is underrated in many respects) with this film he solidified his place in movie history once and for all. The fact that someone else was directing Lucas' vision might be part of the reason that the movie works better than what came before or after it, though how much creative control he had over the story is probably debatable. With that said, the opening scenes on Hoth stands as one of the finest moments in the entire Star Wars saga – it's exciting, it's action packed, the set design and special effects are fantastic and more importantly it furthers the storyline along perfectly. This sets the film up with a hard first act to follow but it manages to keep things moving along perfectly.

The marketing and completely vulgar exploitation of the franchise has turned a lot of fans off of the films over the years and it's perfectly understandable as many times it does feel like overkill. The Empire Strikes Back, despite all of that nonsense, remains a high point in science fiction and adventure movie making.

NOTE: For the record, the 'star ratings' to the right of this review reflect the second disc which contains the original theatrical cut of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the reasoning behind this being that the inclusion of this version is really the only reason anyone is interested in it in the first place, which is why that version of the movie is not being included in the Extras section of this review.