As I had bought the trilogy, and gone through the effort to rip them for my Plex server, I feel like I should watch them all. For some reason, I didn’t watch Star Wars: Episide V – The Empire Strikes Back in the first run. In fact, I think it was 2012 or so, when I finally watched the middle episode, having seen both the first and the third in the theater.
Compared to the first episode, I was hoping that 3 years would have improved the acting. In Carrie Fisher, this is true. In Harrison Ford, it was a dramatic improvement, but I suspect that Lucas’ script is what makes him seem like a self interested douchebag. However, Mark Hamill is still awful in ESB. His acting is wooden, unconvincing, and just plain shoddy. One would think that he could have better spent the down time with some coaching, instead of partying, but then one would be wrong.
Again, the on location cinematography is amazing, the Finland site for the early scenes of the movie are spectacular. The initial beast vs. Luke confrontation was possibly the worst special effects in the series. Pretty unrealistic, even given the epoch in film making art it was shot in.
Like the first episode (number IV), the plot holes are myriad, the coincidences are unbelievable, and C3PO is an annoying twat. It is almost like the role of Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest whose chief responsibility is to have cleavage, and to repeat the computer’s commands, C3PO just enunciates the plot points pedantically, to ensure that juvenile viewers are “getting” the story. Similar to the US theatrical release of Blade Runner where Deckerd does a voice over to hit the viewer over the head of the intent of the story writer (Phillip K. Dick).
Or when they drop in on Lando, who supposedly has a rogue mining operation that operates under the radar (but is about the cleanest, grime-free mining colony that ever existed.) That is totally believable cough.
Or when they just happen to have spare parts to fix the hyperspace motors on the Millenium Falcon. Sure.
Or when they are parked on an asteroid, and they do an EVA with just an oxygen mask. No, that isn’t a fucking hard vacuum out there. As a student of the sciences, and physics in specific, that was a particularly groan worthy event.
Or when a “fighter” ship can travel interstellar distances to take Luke to see Yoda on Dagoba system. Right.
The story is marginally better, likely due to it being written by better skilled people, but there are holes, and unrealistic aspects. Look, I enjoy escape fiction as much as anyone else, but this is really difficult to swallow.
