by Thomas Kling

Created on: April 23, 2008

For a true fan, deciding on which movie in the Star Wars franchise is best is a difficult decision. Some diehard followers of the originals may make disparaging remarks about the prequels, but each of the six movies has something that make them special and a necessary part of the entire saga. But, if one must pick a "best" movie out of the lot, it would be far and away, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

The major allure of Star Wars is, although there was nothing like it before, it came with a used' feel to it. It felt like the story had been around and ongoing. The movie didn't appear to be set up as a presentation of a story for an audience; it had more of a feel that we were sitting down the middle of a story already in progress. We got to like the characters quickly and were hooked not only by what was going to happen to them, but what has already happened before we got there. Like arriving at the scene of an accident, we wanted to know what brought the universe to this state of war. While Episode V attracted many with promises of answers to questions from the original Star Wars, as a stand alone movie, it created more questions than answers.

Even if one saw Empire' without having seen Star Wars, it was clear that each of the major characters had a good arc to them, growing by the end of the film. Luke, not as whiney as in the first movie, still started out very inexperienced and impatient, but obviously learned quite a bit from Yoda before face Vader. Even the revelation of his familial tie to Vader and his ultimate defeat in their battle on Bespin made Luke wiser and more experienced by the end of the film. While Han was still getting ready to leave the rebellion and pay off his debt to Jabba at the beginning of Empire', the events of the film matured him and made him realize his feelings for Leia and the importance of the rebel cause to carry his character into Return of the Jedi. The icy surroundings of Hoth were a nice metaphor for the protective shell that Leia kept around her at the beginning of the movie. By the end, she had warmed and allowed Han to get past the cold exterior. Even Vader's character grew. His reaching out to Luke on the platform in Bespin was more than a means to an end to bring the emperor his prize. It represented the beginning of the final transformation back to his true self that we would eventually see in Return of the Jedi.

None of the settings in Empire were extraneous. Each not only had a purpose to the overall story, but

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