Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - Movie Reviews (2025)

The Empire Strikes Back is the dark follow-up that surpassed the original Star Wars with higher stakes, spectacular visuals, and stronger arcs.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 11, 2024

The second half is where the middle chapter of the original trilogy gets good.

Full Review | May 31, 2024

This is one of the best climaxes that movies can offer and receives all of the respect it deserves.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2023

Whereas A New Hope's greatest triumphs are in its storytelling, its groundbreaking special FX, and its remarkable legacy, Empire has all that and one extra key ingredient - emotion.

Full Review | Sep 23, 2023

“Empire” launched Star Wars to heights that neither George Lucas or the world could have expected. And for many kids in the early 80s (like me), “Empire” etched Star Wars so deeply into from our childhoods that it left a permanent mark.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 16, 2022

Oh boy! Producers Gary Kurtz and George Lucas and director Irvin Kershner spent 20 trillion dollars to make me feel like a toy for two hours and I loved it.

Full Review | Jul 13, 2022

Though it deviates from Star Wars and the subsequent films don't quite live up to what it anticipates, The Empire Strikes Back remains the franchise's most character-centric and emotionally involving entry.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 23, 2022

The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film because it took a cultural moment and redefined what it could mean.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

...unsatisfying by design...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 8, 2021

The look of The Empire Strikes Back is so strong. The way certain scenes are framed are not only good for story telling but are incredibly beautiful.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2021

A rare example, maybe the finest example, of a sequel greater than its predecessor. The Force is the strongest here.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 16, 2021

Promotions in the Galactic Empire are instigated by execution; torture is more vivid; villains are more numerous; loss is more agonizing; and happy endings are more elusive.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Sep 8, 2020

Kirshner's direction gives the film an extra flare that Star Wars did not have. He got to make things bigger, both physically and in terms of the ideas at play.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 28, 2019

If A New Hope is the body of Star Wars, Empire can lay pretty good claim to being its soul.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Dec 20, 2019

That story counts for less than gimmicks, and characters less than both, might be judged from the lack of resonance in the one narrative revelation, concerning Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

Full Review | Dec 16, 2019

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is arguably one of the three greatest Star Wars films heading into The Rise of Skywalker.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 16, 2019

Empire was certainly no dud - it was entertaining, often exciting and visually dazzling.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2019

An indubitable classic, not only of its genre but of the seventh art in general. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 30, 2019

The Empire Strikes Back Displays the same soaring imagination that made Star Wars a filmmaking classic; most other space movies seem clunky and earthbound in comparison.

Full Review | Jul 17, 2019

Seeing the arc of Luke's daddy issues culminate at the end of The Empire Strikes Back blew everyone's mind.

Full Review | Jun 20, 2019