Review of Back Roads (1981) by Spangle — 08 Jun 2015

A major improvement from the first film, it appears as though the actors went to acting school in between filming, because the acting is much better. The cheesy dialogue and terrible choreography of the first film are also gone (though choreography is still not great, but still far from bad now).

The special effects are also really good yet again, as is the score. As for the direction, it is much better in the sequel than in the original, as the story told here (though it suffers from middle story issues of course) is much, much better.

It is far more involved and far more interesting. The religious undertones are also ramped up a couple notches in this one, which is very interesting. The writing of the characters was also much better.

I still loved R2-D2 and C-3PO, but finally started to like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca. Darth Vader also continues to be a great character and the introduction of Yoda in this one is a hugely positive addition.

Overall, The Empire Strikes Back is leagues better than A New Hope as it corrects the problems of the first and continues to excel in the areas in which the first was successful.