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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams Director: Irvin Kershner Rating: PG Category: Sci-Fi

ALSO! Be sure to read through our review of the "Star Wars Trilogy" DVD, and then check out where it ranked on our list of the Best 15 Film Sequels.

The second film in one of the greatest trilogies ever made, George Lucas’ “The Empire Strikes Back,” also stands as one of Hollywood’s greatest sequels, second perhaps only to Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather: Part II,” depending on your tastes. Offering up another well-prepared dish of Jedi fun with a much darker story and the addition of two new characters -- gambling man Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) and veteran Jedi Master, Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) -- “The Empire Strikes Back” has enough new tricks to keep the story rolling along at warp speed.

The film’s immense success may be due to the fact that film geeks love to see the bad guy win every once and a while, or at least witness the downfall of the movie’s protagonists (i.e. Vader slicing off Luke’s hand and carbon-freezing Han). But like every other edition in the “Star Wars” legacy, the appeal of “The Empire Strikes Back” stems from one thing: the story. And Lucas’ space opera only gets better when the audience is treated to a continuing storyline that places two friends in a tug-of-war for the love of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher). After successfully blowing up the Death Star in “A New Hope,” Rebel forces appear to have the upper hand in an ongoing battle between good and evil until Darth Vader orders his Republic forces to attack the Rebel base located on the icy planet of Hoth. While Han (Harrison Ford) and Leia head for refuge in Cloud City with Lando, Luke (Mark Hamill) leaves for Dagobah where he must first advance in his Jedi training with Yoda before dueling with the ominous Vader.

“Empire” force feeds sci-fi fans plenty of exciting lightsaber duels and space combat while also accommodating the rest of the audience with more comedic moments (thanks to Han’s deliciously abrasive one-liners and Yoda’s amusing philosophies) and a deeper investigation of the father-son motif that is only hinted at in the original. In the second installment, not only does Han suddenly become more romantically linked to Leia during their time away on Cloud City, but Luke also learns the truth about his father in one of the most surprising revelations in film history. With “Empire,” Lucas continues to utilize his brilliant storytelling techniques while also managing to step it up in almost every imaginable aspect without abandoning his primary foundation; a very hard task to accomplish when constructing a sequel. Case in point, “The Empire Strikes Back” is everything you loved about “A New Hope” and more.