Star Wars was a masterpiece, even though it was inferior in terms of story.  Nevertheless, it was the movie, so how could Lucas top his greatest achievement?

The Empire Strikes Back blows onto the screen with slightly improved graphics, better acting, and a better plot. However, the catch was a much darker, much more depressing storyline that turned everything that the Rebellion fought for in the original to dust.

Star Wars had the famous Death Star scene, Return of the Jedi had its Jabba the Hut scene, and no one can deny that the Hoth scene in the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back is what showed that it wasn't just going to be a sequel.  It was going to be a continuation of the greatest trilogy ever.

I never saw any of the Star Wars movies on the big screen so when The Special Edition came out, I was thrilled. I'd seen the movies a hundred fold but I knew it would be different at the theater.  Like the other two, it was awesome, but I didn't notice as many graphical improvements as there were in the others.  Cloud City definitely looked much better than the older version, but overall, that was the only significant difference.  The Hoth scene wasn't cleaned up very much and the graphics and sound throughout the movie were inferior to the improvements made on the other two.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.