SECOND HELPINGS: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Much like my Second Helpings review for Star Wars, I really don’t think I am capable of adding something new to the conversation about this film. Hopefully my personal musings will be equally, if not more, enjoyable to read as they were for Star Wars.

With Empire, George Lucas gives his Star Wars universe staying power by showing that the first film was more than just a one-off adventure flick. After all, blowing up a space station in the remote stretches of the galaxy would hardly bring the Empire to its knees. The audience is drawn deeper into the lives of Lucas’s characters. Luke is called upon to develop the Force sensitivity he displayed in the first film while Han Solo is forced to scramble against all odds to protect Princess Leia from the Imperial forces hot on their tails.

Pretty much everything in The Empire Strikes Back is better than the original Star Wars. There, I said it. The world did not come to an end, so let’s all agree that Empire improves upon its captivating predecessor. Lucas used his own money to produce the film and his doubling of the production budget is evident just about everywhere.

Shooting for an authentic look and feel over studio fakery, Lucas once again starts a Star Wars film out on location. The snowy wastelands of Norway provides a spectacular landscape for the Rebel Alliance’s secret base. I think shooting in the elements helps the brain buy into what it is seeing because the finer nuances of nature just can’t be faked. Lucas does pretty well at fooling us by crafting Yoda’s swampy Dagobah hideout though.

Speaking of Yoda, what an accomplishment! In our world he is just a puppet but you’d never know from watching the film. Between Frank Oz’s puppeteering and careful cinematography, Yoda is a fully believable and powerful presence in this film. I always wonder what it is like for actors to deal with inanimate costars on set. Obviously there are dozens of set crew members around but to be able to completely buy in and commit to interacting with a puppet takes skill. To make it all work out believably on screen is something special.

Had this film been another caper film like the first, Empire would have been a bust. Thankfully, Lucas and his co-writers push deeper into the lives and emotions of our main characters. Luke’s journey to study under Yoda draws out the awe and mystery of the Force while Han and Leia’s attempts to evade Imperial Forces has all the action we loved from the first film plus a little romantic heat. It really is great to have Han and Leia stuck with each other for much of the film. Their head-butting banter from the original was brilliant and getting more of it this time around is a pleasure. It reminds me of old school Hollywood like Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara’s bickering when all they really want to do is lock lips with each other.

The Empire Strikes Back is a darker, deeper, and all-around more mature film than Star Wars. The fact that it lacks a triumphant ending like its predecessor may leave some viewers feeling deflated but without the dual cliffhangers of Darth Vader’s revelation and Han Solo’s imprisonment, the good guys would just be lucky to escape. Both cliffhangers force more action and emotion from our characters immediately and it also sets up the events for the eventual sequel. Even the music of Empire shows growth over the original film’s fantastic soundtrack (which I somehow failed to even mention in my Second Helpings review for Star Wars). John Williams gives us a second signature piece for the series with Darth Vader’s theme, “The Imperial March.”

I personally may still prefer the story arc and high adventure of Star Wars over Empire but I can no longer deny that Empire is an improvement over the original in many ways. But I still cannot grant it equal status on my rating scale just yet because without Star Wars, Empire never would have even existed. Maybe that means I am giving Star Wars a little extra credit because of its impact and influence on the industry and pop culture after all. Sue me. Maybe after a few more viewings I’ll be able to determine if Empire works as a stand-alone film. If it makes sense without the context of the first film, maybe it will slide up a notch. We’ll have to see.

ORIGINAL RATING: 4.5 out of 5

NEW RATING: 4.5 out of 5

RoboCop 2 (1990)

Combining fewer strong elements and even more flaws, RoboCop 2 detaches its hero even further from his partial humanity while providing mediocre thrills, a story that runs too long, and including some downright laughable elements.

The original RoboCop was a criticism of the Reaganomics-driven, capitalist-leaning society of the 1980s. It portrayed the very worst depths that a capitalist society could fall to with an utter lack of regulation and common sense. It was sensationalist propaganda to a point, which makes the main theme of RoboCop 2 all the more amusing. This time around, the titular character is waging a war on drugs, something advocated by Ronald Reagan. This powerful new drug called Nuke is being created and distributed by a man named Cain, who has a messiah complex from too many hits of his own creation. He’s rich, powerful and very well armed.

Behind the scenes, the Omni Consumer Products corporation is still trying to realize their vision of destroying Detroit and building a new Utopian metropolis in its place. Their latest move is to try and push the city to defaulting on its debt, which would allow OCP to foreclose and effectively take full control of the city. It’s an interesting concept, but one that requires some serious suspension of disbelief to make work. To help further the conflict, OCP creates a police strike by canceling the police department’s pension program, another jab at capitalism and one of the few elements in the film that actually still resonates today.

With only RoboCop to walk the streets in the name of justice, OCP moves ahead with their RoboCop 2 program. Instead of using the brain of an officer with strong convictions and willingness to uphold the law, they seek to use the vilest brains imaginable, bent on destruction and power. The RoboCop 2 program is to be used to eradicate civilians still living in Detroit once OCP forces the city into default.

I don’t know if it was done intentionally as a part of the cultural criticism or not, but the inclusion of a foul-mouthed 10-year-old boy who helps sell and eventually lead the drug operation is both laughable and repugnant at the same time. I have a hard time imagining any society that falls apart to the point where an elementary school kid could run a multi-million dollar drug empire. For me, it killed any remaining chance of me taking this film seriously. Though after the first film, how could anyone take RoboCop 2 seriously? What’s worse is that we’re supposed to feel sorry for this little brat when he lies dying in RoboCop’s arms later on.

RoboCop 2 runs longer than its predecessor, which is a major problem because RoboCop 2 has nothing new to add to the series and world of RoboCop. It gives us a few new, hopelessly evil villains and a new plot by OCP to pursue their ends by any means necessary. The flaws in OCP’s plans are quite obvious but the evil rich men are somehow oblivious to it. How can they honestly expect to build a Utopian city and prevent poor districts from springing up and crime from finding a home in an already corrupt idea? These are the sort of things that proof-reading and rewrites help to work out, neither of which must have happened here.

The visual effects are lackluster, even by 1990 standards. When RoboCop inevitably faces off against the RoboCop 2 model, there’s a whole lot of blue screen work and some atrocious stop motion photography. It’s almost amenable because the RoboCop 2 unit wasn’t exactly something that a person could have dressed up in and made a good fight scene with, but they way they tried to make these scenes work didn’t attempt anything cutting edge or groundbreaking. They fell back on tried and true techniques that were already becoming dated.

The biggest affront in my mind came at the beginning of the film. RoboCop was still trying to come to terms with his human past. He was essentially stalking his former wife and family by driving past their house. When confronted by the police department and his former wife, RoboCop abandoned his quest for grasping his partial humanity outright. Some might argue that he was being noble and did it so his wife had closure, but it strips the character of all humanity and allows the film to differ from any weighty character development in favor of violence, explosions and vulgarity.

RoboCop 2 isn’t so bad that it’s not worth watching. It’s just an underwhelming action flick for anyone hoping for more than what was given in the original. Sure, the sarcastic commercials still break up the story line from time to time and RoboCop peddles cheesy lines just like before while dishing out his own brand of police brutality, but there’s little that makes RoboCop 2 feel like its own film. It’s little more than a continuation of all the worst parts of the original. For some, that will be enough, but not for me.

RATING: 2.25 out of 5

Never Say Never Again (1983)

Question: What’s a sure-fire way to suck the fun and mystique out of a James Bond film?

Answer: Have the first third of the film focused on Bond going to a health clinic to eliminate free radicals in his body and other such silly new-agey medical psychobabble.

Never Say Never Again is an unofficial entry into the James Bond series. It is not considered to be canon and is actually a remake of 1965’s Thunderball. Sean Connery returns to the role he started, but instead of playing a supposed ageless super spy, Connery gives us a middle-aged Bond who’s not quite at the top of his game anymore, but still chugging right along.

While Connery does play Bond well, the entire film is lacking something. All the quirky jokes referencing his age are needless and get annoying pretty quickly. The writing isn’t very good, and the film fails to improve upon the original incarnation of Thunderball. But it remains to be said that even a weak Bond movie is still fairly entertaining. It was nice to see anybody but Roger Moore as Bond for a change.

This unofficial 007 flick is officially passable.

RATING: 2.75 out of 5

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Often times this film is lauded as superior to its predecessor, the original Star Wars. It can sometimes be hotly disputed even amongst die-hard fans. Empire has several superior elements: a better story with more well-rounded and developed characters, a deeper exploration of the mythology of The Force, and a grittier overall attitude and demeanor as opposed to the flash and camp of the original.

The only reason that Empire doesn’t rate higher than Star Wars is because Star Wars came first. Without that first chapter in a galaxy far far away, we wouldn’t be able to dig into this darker sequel. Empire is truly a triumph over the original, but respect is owed to its foundation.

The Empire Strikes Back picks up some time after the events of Star Wars. Darth Vader is actively pursuing Luke Skywalker across the galaxy, while Luke is called to learn about The Force from a mysterious Jedi master long thought to be dead. Relationships are forged and challenged at every turn, while danger lurks in the shadows and danger is imminent.

John Williams’ impressive score builds on the themes from the previous film and creates even more memorable pieces that have become part of our cultural awareness. Having trouble? “Use the Force Luke.” Want to introduce someone we’re not meant to like? Play the Darth Vader march. And who could forget “I am your father!”

Empire is much more emotionally involved and really pulls the audience in. There are also more elaborate effects and superb scenery that blur the line between location and studio filming. By the end of the film, there’s no question as to who to like and who to hate. Any potential vagueness is out the window, setting George Lucas up for his third and final installment of the original Star Wars trilogy.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5