[Toon]

Empire Strikes Back...

Dante Hicks said it best: "‘Empire' had the better ending: Luke gets his hand cut off, and finds out Vader's his father; Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It all ends on such a down note. And that's life – a series of down endings." I'll avoid the highly disparaging last line of that quote, since "Return of the Jedi" appears elsewhere on our list of Best Sequels, but its comments about "The Empire Strikes Back" are on the money. No other "Star Wars" film, not even "Revenge of the Sith," is as dark in tone as "Empire." Luke Skywalker's character is fleshed out tremendously as he's indoctrinated into the world of the Jedi courtesy of Yoda, not to mention the revelation about his parentage. Director Irvin Kirshner – yes, that's right, kids: a ‘Star Wars' flick not directed by George Lucas! – reportedly encouraged group discussions and improvisations from the actors, and would do many takes of each scene; this led to some of the most solid performances in any film of the series. The kids raised on the prequels will never understand what it was like to go see "Empire" and not have Han Solo's fate resolved for three years. Longest. Wait. Everrrrrrr.