MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Discussion > So much better than A New Hope

So much better than A New Hope

posted 8 years ago by Wilfamy
19 replies | jump to latest

It's amazing how high the quality of this film was compared to the first one. I just bought the Complete Saga yesterday and was ready to call it quits after it ended, until I watched this one. The sheer leap in acting, dialogue, character reactions, use of different settings, better scene transitions and choreography made this film a masterpiece. Compared to ESB, ANH looks like amateur garbage and that lightsaber duel between obi-wan and vader is just terrible.

[–] Gd5150 (11965) 7 years ago

Yeah the special effects made improvements but ANH still way better.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Agreed.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7989) 6 years ago

It's funny, TC. As a kid I never found the first one all that great but have actually come to like it as an adult. Honestly I give the OT a 10/10. Never cared for the prequels and their stupid, "Jedis can't be married." crap.

[–] degree7 (821) 5 years ago

As good as Empire is, I still think the first Star Wars is still the best movie in the series. Empire suffers from “middle child syndrome” and too much downtime with Luke running around with a muppet on his back, and Han and Leia going back and forth in a rather tiring romantic subplot. Also the characters aren’t even together most of the time. There’s a lot of cutting back and forth between three different narratives. This is why Empire has the stigma of being the most boring of the OT.

On the other hand, Star Wars is a non-stop rollercoaster from one great set-piece to another, with the four leads (and two robots) all having great chemistry and wisecracks. Not to mention it revolutionized the film industry and special effects, and was shot like a David Lean epic.