The Empire Strikes Back, or more properly Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and stars mostly the same people: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, David Prowse, James Earl James, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and we add Frank Oz and Billy Dee Williams.
It is a dark time for the rebellion! The Empire basically...um, struck back, and drove the Rebel Alliance out to Hoth, an icy world that does support life, but mostly in the form of a pissed off yeti-thing and some cute but disposable beasts of burden. Anyway, Luke Skywalker (Hamill) gets clawed up by said yeti, Han Solo (Ford) rescues him, Princess Leia (Fisher) gives him a nice big smooch, the Empire's forces attack with Darth Vader (Prowse, voiced by Jones) killing off subordinates right and left. The rebels scatter, with Luke going to a different planet to learn Jedi shit from an ancient puppet Jedi Master called Yoda (Oz), and the others going to a cloud city for help because the Millennium Falcon's hyperactive scrambles don't flibble or something (it's very technical). There, they run afoul of Han's old buddy Lando (Williams), and Han winds up frozen in carbonite and handed off to a bounty hunter (Jeremy Bulloch, though his voice seems to have gotten considerably more Kiwi since the last time I saw this movie). I think that's all the salient bits.
Oh, no, wait, Vader is Luke's father. (dramatic chord) Spoilers, sorry.
So, this is probably the most competently made movie in the franchise, with the possible exception of Rogue One (though I admit I haven't seen the Solo movie). Coincidentally, it's also not directed by George Lucas. The dialog is still cheesy, but it's not anywhere near as 8th-grader as New Hope. The effects still hold up because they're still practical, and apart from unnecessarily overdubbing Boba Fett's line (because he was...cloned from a guy with a New Zealand accent, I guess?), Lucas doesn't seem to have added anything that completely fucks with the movie. The world expands a bit, and it fits nicely as the bridge in the trilogy, letting the heroes actually lose something and get their shit wrecked before the triumph (that is, their triumph, not that the movie's a triumph) of Return of the Jedi.
Now, does Vader being Luke's father logically follow from what we saw in the first movie? No, not really. It was very clearly added as a story element later, which is why they had to add that stupid "from a certain point of view" line in Return so that Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) didn't come off like a complete dick, and it doesn't work anyway because there is no reason Vader wouldn't have realized that Luke and Leia are his kids because he's fucking magic. I am amazed that Lucas didn't insist on cutting the Luke/Leia kiss from this movie (I guess incest is OK, but Han shooting a dude first is a bridge too far?), but again, there's no way these two were canonically siblings at this point in the proceedings.
But with that said, it's a good story beat. It raises the stakes, and opens up a lot of character development for both Luke and Vader in the third movie. We also get to see Han and Leia begin their romance, and Han has his great moment when he's being frozen ("I know."). The characters start to feel less like cardboard cutouts and more like people, and then Return...well, we'll see. If Return didn't fuck it up, the prequels sure did. (Fortunately I don't own those.)
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium-high
Next up: Return of the Jedi
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