“There is no sense that this ebullient, youthful saga is running thin in imagination or that it has begun to depend excessively in its marvelous special effects — that it is in any danger, in short, of stiffening into mannerism or mere billion-dollar style.”
Harrison Ford during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back
“By far the most imaginative part of the Star Wars trilogy. This middle, bridging film is chained to an unresolved plot and doesn’t have the leaping, comic-book hedonism of the 1977 Star Wars, but you can feel the love of movie magic that went into its cascading imagery.”
“I’m not sure I’m up for seven more Star Wars adventures, but I can hardly wait for the next on
- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
“The Empire Strikes Back is not a truly terrible movie. It’s a nice movie. It’s not, by any means, as nice as Star Wars. It’s not as fresh and funny and surprising and witty, but it is nice and inoffensive and, in a way that no one associated with it need be ashamed of, it’s also silly.
Attending to it is a lot like reading the middle of a comic book. It is amusing in fitful patches but you’re likely to find more beauty, suspense, discipline, craft and art when watching a New York harbor pilot bring the Queen Elizabeth 2 into her Hudson River berth, which is what The Empire Strikes Back most reminds me of.
It’s a big, expensive, time-consuming, essentially mechanical operation. The Empire Strikes Back is about as personal as a Christmas card from a bank.”
- Vincent Canby, The New York Times (Published on June 15, 1980)
One review they don't mention is Janet Maslin's New York Times review, which I always found interesting. She liked it, but she described the dialogue and acting as "wooden." Sound familiar?
