Star Wars: All The Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
2. The Empire Strikes Back
Basic cinematography? Standard hero's journey narrative? Messy fantasy dialogue? All of the common filmmaking dismissals of Star Wars (which, let's be fair, can't really be genuinely levelled against any of the original movies) feel at their most off point with The Empire Strikes Back. Just look at the twist at its heart. A universally known, legacy dominating moment, there's a lot more to the reveal that Darth Vader is Luke's father than just the base, emotive reveal in the bowels of Cloud City. Lucas may not have conceived of the parental redefining until the second draft (don't listen to any of that Dark Father in Danish rubbish), but through the rewrites the film came to be defined by it; although Frank Oz and Alec Guinness didn't know the twist (they were, like the rest of the cast, under the impression Obi-Wan had killed Anakin), the discussion of the powers of the Dark Side and Vader's fall are underpinned by their knowledge and fear of what Luke could become. Even the scene where Vader and the Emperor discuss their plans to capture Luke unbeknowingly drip with the weight of the secret (in its original version anyway - the 2004 DVD redo with Ian McDiarmid is a little too knowing). Empire is just that well written. But it's also impressively constructed, with Irvin Kershner gifted the most freedom of any Star Wars director and thus turning in a moody, artistic film that gets sci-fi fans and movie scholars alike giddy with excitement. What's particularly impressive is that despite ending on the lowest of low notes - Luke is crippled mentally and physically, Han is tortured and kidnapped, the Rebels are on the backfoot - the film doesn't preach an ultimately depressing message; the final scene, of Luke, Leia and the droids watching Lando and Chewie jetting off to save Han, is dominated by a sneaking optimism. It's a dark movie (the whole "darker sequel" notion was popularised here, after all), yes, but that doesn't mean it's devoid of hope.
