Editorial - 30 Years Ago, The Empire Struck Back

As I write this, today the 21st May 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of the Empire Strikes Back, the 1980 sequel to Star Wars.

Empire set the pace for the rest of the series, it was here that Star Wars became the legendary saga that would touch an entire generation of moviegoers as well as proving that sequels can be better than their predecessors.

But for my money, Empire is the only sequel that I've seen that was better than the original, sure there have been others I've liked; Mad Max 2, Terminator 2 and even Superman 2 but in the case of Superman 2 that was a case where I felt the original wasn't that good, sure it was entertaining but it had some big flaws, S2 improved on that but it's production wrecked it and both MM2 and T2 had strong originals to begin with.

But I can't mention Empire and mention some of the iconic scenes that film produced, the first use of the Imperial March, the battle on the ice world of Hoth with the AT-AT Walkers, the flight through the asteroid field, the introduction of Yoda and of course, the lightsaber duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, which gave us the four immortal words that forever cemented the legacy of the Star Wars movies: "I am your father."

Sorry if I sound somewhat geeky but the original Star Wars movies are my favourite movies and when it came to writing my own tribute to Empire well I'll let this line from the film speak for it: "It is useless to resist."