Jul. 22, 2005 - 1:08 pm

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Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and
Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

well, i've been listening to the audio book version of Episode III in the car lately and i started wanting to see the interactions between Darth Vader and the Emperor in these two movies. since i've been sick at home the past couple of days, i thought watching these would be the perfect thing to do with my time. i've been watching these movies for as long as i can remember, but i've never tried to actually write reviews of them before...so here goes.

The Empire Strikes Back starts out on the ice planet Hoth, with Vader realizing that that is where the new rebel base is. the Empire attacks and the Alliance escapes from the planet. Luke goes off and meets Yoda so that he can complete his Jedi training and Han & Leia are forced to run away from Empirial attacks, eventually landing on Bespin for repairs. there they meet up with Han's old friend Lando and quickly find out that the Empire has tracked them to Bespin as well. Luke leaves his training early so that he can save them, but not before Han gets encased in carbonite (sort of like a forced hybernation thing) and shipped off to Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tattooine. Luke walks into Vader's trap on Bespin and they fight until Vader beats Luke and ends up telling him that he's his father.

in Return of the Jedi, we see all of our heroes in Jabba's palace back on Luke's homeworld of Tattooine. Luke seems to have mastered most of his Jedi powers and is able to quickly get everyone safely out of the dangerous palace. Luke then heads off to say one last goodbye to Yoda and everyone gets back together to try and destroy the new Second Death Star. Luke turns himself in so that he can try to turn his father away from the dark side of the force, but ends up coming face to face with the Emperor. eventually all is well and all of the Sith are destroyed.

i guess i was technically watching the "special editions" of these, since i now have the dvd versions. i like most of the updates to these except for the new wampa scenes and the cgi-ed dance sequence in Jabba's palace. i think it's cool how they replaced Boba Fett's voice to make it sound like the New Zealand voice of Temuera Morrison used in the newer films. i also like the replacement in Episode V of Ian McDiarmid's Emperor head for that other odd-looking head which was originally used.

one thing that i never noticed before is that in the fight at the end of The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader is trying to convince Luke to join him, he suggests that Luke and he could destroy the Emperor and then rule over the galaxy as father & son. he says that the Emperor has forseen Luke's ability to destroy him. very interesting. sounds like a Sith way of thinking. kill your master and take over, but only if you know that you will be successful.

anyway, good stuff and i don't think i'll ever get tired of watching these.