Rating of
4/4
A Dark Cliffhanger
TheWolf - wrote on 07/30/07
Let me start by saying that this is the first film I remember seeing in a Movie Theater. While I had no idea at the time about what went on behind the scenes of a movie, today I can say that I am glad that George Lucas decided to give the reigns of control to his former teacher Irvin Kershner. While the majority of people will agree that Empire was the best of the Trilogy Lucas himself feels that it was the worst.
Personally I will disagree with Lucas on a number of things, and that this being the worst is one of them. The reason I believe he doesn't like it as much is because it is an incredible "Tie-in" movie. Lucas's idea of the actual trilogy was to have an action/fantasy romantic adventure in space. The worst part is that Lucas is a horrible romance writer! As we see in the new Trilogy the action and adventure scenes are great, but the romance scenes that he is hoping for are really poor. They don't leave any real build up, and they truly feel forced. Even in this movie Lucas wanted Han Solo to say "I love you too" before he is frozen in carbonite. After about 15 piss poor takes that just didn't work, Ford said let me try something different, and instead replied to her "I love you" with "I know". Kershner loved it because it didn't break Solo's character. Had Lucas had his way Solo would have lost all credibility as a bad ass, as we have seen by having Greedo shoot first in A New Hope.
So if you are looking for a movie that is considerably darker than the others in the trilogy, and you want to see one that will leave you longing for more then definitely check this one out.
