Wen Jue Niew 
After the intial success of Star Wars in 1977, George Lucas, the director and writer, sought to create a sequel to the film. Directed by Irvin Kershner, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was released on May 21st, 1980. There were mixed receptions.
One key difference between the Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back is the tonal shift “featuring darker material and more mature story lines”. The reception at the time of The Empire Strikes Back‘s release was mixed. Some thought The Empire Strikes Back‘s darker theme “detracted from the charm, fun, and comic silliness of [the original Star Wars]”. Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times:
“The Empire Strikes Back is not a truly terrible movie. It’s a nice movie. It’s not, by any means, as nice as Star Wars. It’s not as fresh and funny and surprising and witty, but it is nice and inoffensive and, in a way that no one associated with it need be ashamed of, it’s also silly. Attending to it is a lot like reading the middle of a comic book. It is amusing in fitful patches but you’re likely to find more beauty, suspense, discipline, craft and art when watching a New York harbor pilot bring the Queen Elizabeth 2 into her Hudson River berth, which is what The Empire Strikes Back most reminds me of. It’s a big, expensive, time-consuming, essentially mechanical operation. The Empire Strikes Back is about as personal as a Christmas card from a bank.”
Pauline Kael wrote:
“There is no sense that this ebullient, youthful saga is running thin in imagination or that it has begun to depend excessively in its marvelous special effects — that it is in any danger, in short, of stiffening into mannerism or mere billion-dollar style.”
However, many praise the work, believing that it provokes the most thought. Roger Ebert states:
“The Empire Strikes Back is the best of three Star Wars films, and the most thought-provoking. After the space opera cheerfulness of the original film, this one plunges into darkness and even despair, and surrenders more completely to the underlying mystery of the story. It is because of the emotions stirred in “Empire” that the entire series takes on a mythic quality that resonates back to the first and ahead to the third. This is the heart.”
Alan Jone writes:
“Director Irvin Kershner’s imaginative supervision of George Lucas’s brainchild gives this second part of the first Star Wars trilogy a truly epic dimension, adding a mature, philosophical aspect to the nonstop barrage of brilliant special effects. Events take place all over the universe — Darth Vader sends Imperial troops to crush the rebels on the ice planet Hoth, while Luke Skywalker searches out Jedi master Yoda for further instruction in the mysterious ways of “the Force” — and the much-loved characters are developed in intriguing ways. Kershner darkens the imagery of Lucas’s vibrant, futuristic fairy tale and deepens its narrative with provocative plot strands, giving this sequel a cynical, harder edge that lifts it above the serial roots of its predecessor.”
