?? Viewing
Happy May the 4th!
In defiance of what I may think about the current, overrated state of Disney’s Star Wars tag-alongs, or George Lucas’ frustratingly half-and-half prequels, or even the outcome of the original trilogy’s solid yet, not-so-special concluding chapter, one factor revolving around Star Wars continues to remain the same for me: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is one of the greatest adventure films of all-time.
I like to view Episode V, or…II—but that’s beside the point—as a standalone. Sure it’s a sequel to an original, and a sequel to a prequel, and a predecessor to a sequel, and I guess a follow-up to a “unique” Holiday Special. Yet, it’s remarkably discrete compared to any of the other Star Wars seeds. Empire modified the way blockbuster drama was tackled—a design that can especially be observed in its flawless final twenty minutes—through a soap-opera-esc recipe, reconstructed how the pacing of a giant motion picture should be organized by, and proved that dopey science-fiction/fantasy flicks about humans and extraterrestrials, draped in fur cloths and rubber masks, mounting Tauntauns and spaceships, and wielding colorful laser swords at each other can umm…surprisingly, be taken seriously.
Look, I know that there has been plenty of acclaim said about Empire already. It’s a bloody masterpiece from beginning to end. It’s a movie that manages to make over two hours of screen-time feel like twenty-five minutes of pure adrenaline, mythological gold. It’s the freakin’ Godfather of whacky space flicks. It rocks my whole world! But remember, there is no such thing as too much praise. Only, too little praise.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go relive my childhood real quick by playing LEGO Star Wars the Complete Saga on the PS2/DS. Bye, bye.
Verdict: A+
This Movie is a Part of My List: Ranking the Star Wars Movies From Best to Worst
“Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” is now available to buy on YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, and Vudu.
Burning the Celluloid 
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