Tag: darth vader

STAR WARS Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Review

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Welcome back to another post about Star Wars. Last time the rebels fought the Empire and blew up their planet-killing Death Star. This time, it’s been reported that the Empire is striking back. 

Today we’re discussing Episode V in the series. My personal favorite of the original trilogy, and its influence on the rest of the Star Wars universe. 

The movie starts out with the traditional scrolling introduction that all other numbered Star Wars movies do. The rebels have still been running from the Empire and Darth Vader is searching for Luke Skywalker because he blew up the Death Star.

They’re on Hoth.

A snow planet with little life. Luke gets captured by a vicious native creature before being rescued by Han, and then they prepare to evacuate their base because the Empire found them.

The snow battle is really cool because we get to see the Empire’s large walkers get taken down by the little snow speeders; it’s similar to a David and Goliath battle. The way they made the battle behind the scenes was really impressive too because they used models and physically animated them.

After the escape from Hoth the main characters split up. Luke went to search for an old Jedi Master Yoda, and the rest were on the Millennium Falcon trying to escape Vader’s ship. 

We see a lot of familiar faces if you’ve been following along with me in this timeline watch. Yoda hasn’t been seen since Star Wars Rebels, and it’s the same with Lando Calrissian. It seems like if you’re a character in the original trilogy, you’ll show up at some point in Rebels. 

The events of Solo are also mentioned when Lando and Han meet again, where they talk about Han winning the ship from him. 

Lando is now in charge of Cloud City. A place floating in the air on a sky planet, because after seeing a desert planet, a snow planet, and a swamp planet with Yoda, where else would we go visit?

Lando ended up making a deal with the Empire to turn over the Millennium Falcon crew to them in exchange for Lando keeping his leadership position. Darth Vader was still giving him orders though so he decided to free them and join the rebellion. Unfortunately Han was frozen before that happened and taken by Boba Fett. 

Meanwhile on the swamp planet Dagobah, Luke and R2-D2 crash landed in the water and met Yoda, who was acting like a little freak for some reason. Just a silly little nutter. 

Yoda teaches Luke how to be a Jedi and use the force. Luke goes into a weird cave where he fights Vader, and defeats him, and it turns out that his own face is in the mask. 

While attempting to lift rocks when upside down, he has a vision of the Millennium Falcon crew being captured so he ends his training early to save them. 

Darth Vader is waiting for him, and attempts to freeze Luke like he did Han Solo, but he escapes the trap, and they fight. 

Darth Vader gets the upper hand and cuts off Luke’s before revealing that he is Luke’s father. Big reveal when this movie first came out, but we already know because we’ve been watching all the previous movies. 

Luke jumps and gets rescued by Leia, and they escape Cloud City. Movie ends with Luke getting a new robot hand and then looking off into space. 

Final Thoughts 

I think the most well known spoiler in movies is the fact that Darth Vader is Luke’s father. We already knew that because we watched Episode 3 where Luke and Leia were born. So these scenes are even stranger with that context. 

We see more of the Empire with snowtroopers, and more world building in Star Wars if this was the second Star Wars movie you’ve ever seen. It’s a bit sad, of course, with the loss of Luke’s hand and loss of Leia’s Han.

The next movie should wrap it all up when the Jedi return, so see you soon!

STAR WARS Episode IV: A New Hope Review

kneisguyLeave a comment

We’ve finally made it to the movie that started it all. Star Wars A New Hope. The first fourth SEVENTH movie in our Star Wars history.

A lot of the previous movies and shows we watched have been building up to this. We saw a glimpse of the Death Star in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the Ghost Squadron was briefly investigating it in Rebels, and Andor’s entire story in his own show and in Rogue One led to uncovering the secret of it, and then in this movie they go and blow it all up. 

Originally titled STAR WARS, later titled STAR WARS: A New Hope, later titled STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A New Hope, this movie originally released in 1977 and spawned countless other movies, books, video games and television shows. And eventually spawned me into writing this series that is still somehow being worked on. 

There have been countless discussions and dissections about this film, so I don’t think it’s necessary for me to talk a lot about the plot. Most people have at least heard of Star Wars and Darth Vader. They’re pretty big pop culture icons, and if you really want to know about how the plot goes, read about Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. 

Call to Adventure 

Luke Skywalker receives a video from Princess Leia saying she needs help. The message is intended for Obi-Wan Kenoi, who he happens to know 

Mentor figure (Obi-Wan)

We talked about Obi-Wan already in previous entries, and he was trying to teach Luke ways of the force to fight the Empire and join him in the journey. 

Challenges and Temptations 

I don’t think there were many temptations in the movie, but when Luke tries to get Princess Leia he has to go to a town full of criminals to get someone willing to travel past the Empire’s blockade. Another challenge is when the Death Star captures their ship and they need to find a way off it. 

Death and Rebirth 

Obi Wan is killed by Darth Vader however a body was not left behind. He instead became one with the force and is able to talk to Luke still. 

Atonement 

This part is when Luke goes to blow up the Death Star. He initially uses the targeting computer and after that fails, he succeeds by trusting in the force. 

Return

Everything is now different with the main character, and the world he’s in stays the same. Luke doesn’t go back to Tatooine after he blows up the Death Star, but continues the fight with the Rebels.

Instead of going into the plot more, I want to talk about some of the numerous cultural impacts this movie alone has had. 

References in other media 

Back to the Future 

Marty’s father is visited by “Darth Vader” from the planet Vulcan. In reality it’s Marty who saw movies in his time pretending to be an alien named Vader in his radiation suit. 

Indian in the Cupboard 

There’s a small scene in the movie where the main character tests his magic cupboard by putting a lot of random toys in to see if they come to life, and Darth Vader is seen fighting a T-Rex. 

Fairy Odd Parents

There’s actually quite a bit of references to either the movies or certain characters in this show. One character is basically a complete parody of Darth Vader.

Parodies 

Family Guy

Family Guy is one of the bigger parodies I believe. They had the characters recreate each movie in the original trilogy in different seasons of the show. 

Space Balls

This is just a parody movie off Star Wars with characters like Pizza the Hutt and Dark Helmet. There’s a new movie coming out soon and it’s supposedly going to reference the sequel trilogy 

Final Thoughts

This film was the sci-fi movie for a while and has influenced many more after it. If this was the only Star Wars movie, it would still be a great movie but they went and made a lot more and made the timeline we’re talking about now. 

We’ll be continuing next time with my personal favorite Star Wars film: The Empire Strikes Back.