My top 30 films - No.19

19. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - "The adventure continues..."

The obvious tagline for modern sci-fi's yardstick. Star Wars was revolutionary when it was first released in 1977. Before then, the best sci-fi films around were Planet Of The Apes, Silent Running and 2001: A Space Odyssey. They are still great movies today, but they set a bar and Star Wars went beyond it. My personal favourite of all the Star Wars films has to be The Empire Strikes Back.

It is set 3 years after the destruction of the Death Star and Darth Vader (David Prowse and the voice of James Earl Jones (The Lion King)) is searching the galaxy for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and the Rebel Alliance. They are hiding on the planet Hoth, but they are discovered by the Empire and they are forced to evacuate the planet. Meanwhile, Han Solo (Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blade Runner)) is on the edge of leaving the Rebellion, because Jabba The Hutt has placed a bounty on his head and closing in on him is Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch), but he get caught up with the Rebels Whereas Han, Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) try to regroup with the rest of the Alliance and end up in an asteroid field, Luke and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) head to the Dagobah System to find Yoda (Frank Oz (The Muppets)), who will aid Luke in his Jedi training. However, his training is cut short when he sees visions of his friends suffering and decides to go to their aid, only to confront Vader and learn something that no one ever expected. Obviously I'm not going to tell you.

Apart from being much darker than A New Hope, this wasn't directed by George Lucas. Even though A New Hope was very good and something radical in cinema at the time, Lucas must have admitted that someone else could direct it better. Step forward Irvin Kershner. Who? Whoever he was, at least he could make an excellent film. Mind you, he did also direct Never Say Never Again. The problem is that, especially nowadays with the prequels, George Lucas has become ever reliant on technology. In 1997, he re-released the originals but which featured more up-to-date techniques. This was the first time I watched the films, so they are the version I remember most, although I would have wanted to see the originals in the late 70s. But, what was wrong with using Airfix models and D.I.Y. pyrotechnics and shooting the Death Star attack scenes in a car park? Lucas must have looked at what everyone else was doing at the time and thought "I must do that. If Spielberg is doing it, it must be right".

In terms of acting, the stand-out performance of The Empire Strikes Back is that of Harrison Ford. It is a supporting role, but to be honest it overshadows and betters the performance of Mark Hamill. Mark Hamill is a bit weak in all the Star Wars films and that's why, in my opinion, Harrison Ford has had a much more successful career. This performance from him pretty much secured him the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, it is hard to imagine any other actor playing Luke Skywalker. Darth Vader will always go down as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. In fact, part of him still creeps me out today. Lucas never intended to use David Prowse's voice. Have you heard it? If not, there is a clip on YouTube. Because he was from the West Country, Carrie Fisher dubbed him "Darth Farmer". That's why Lucas went for the voice of James Earl Jones.

Now here comes an attack on the prequels. The cast were OK, the music was as good as ever from John Williams, but the plots and direction were nowhere near as good as the originals. I think we can especially do without Attack Of The Clones, proof George Lucas cannot write a love story. I remember Mark Kermode gave a list of 10 things bad about that films and over half of them were "Jar-Jar Binks is not dead". Revenge Of The Sith was the best of the prequels, but that's not saying much. Apart from telling us what happened before A New Hope, albeit in the longest way possible, we did learn that Ewan McGregor is a fantastic actor. Mind you, we did learn that back in 1996, but unlike Trainspotting he didn't have to dive into a toilet. Since then, we now have The Clone Wars, which they are trying to appeal to a younger audience and George Lucas has re-released the films again, but this time in 3D. Those have made me think, "George, haven't you got enough swimming pools and cars? We don't need these anymore. You've become an accountant." People will go and see them again, but this won't help the fact that 3D is nearly dead and there is nothing that George Lucas or James Cameron can do about it. George Lucas has actually said that films look better in 3D. No they don't. And perhaps the stupidest thing is the fact that the 3D films are being released in chronological order, rather than the order they were originally released in. That makes the plot point at the end of The Empire Strikes Back without any suspense at all. An entirely new audience group may not have seen any of the films before now, but there won't the same suspense and surprise that there was back in 1980, because that was a shock for everybody.

Many TV shows have done spoofs of Star Wars. The best of all these has to be Family Guy with its Star Wars trilogy - Blue Harvest, Something, Something, Something, Dark Side and It's A Trap!. They are particularly amusing and I think that they have got the characters just about right - Luke is played by Chris, Lois plays Leia, Peter is Han, Brian's Chewie, Stewie is Darth Vader and R2-D2 and C-3PO are Cleveland and Quagmire. Now you might be wondering where is Meg, but if you are a fan of Family Guy you should know she is the figure of ridicule; she does appear in them, but she doesn't have the best roles. However, by the time they get to It's A Trap!, it is clear that they have exasperated all the roles possible for characters. Therefore, characters like Joe, Carter and Mort have multiple roles in the films. In addition, they have to invade Seth McFarlane's other shows, so they include Klaus and Roger from American Dad. It works just as well. There are also the usual cameos from the likes of Adam West and James Woods, but also ones from Carrie Fisher, James Caan and Judd Nelson.

To conclude, if you haven't seen any of the Star Wars films, watch them in the right order (4, 5 and 6 first). They are clearly better than the prequels and this is the best of them all. However, just don't watch them in 3D...