re: I just finished The Empire Strikes Back...there's nothing in the prequels...

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Most people I know think it's the third best in the OT.

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You hang out with morons then.

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Star Wars is #13 in the AFI Top 100. Empire isn't even on the list, so that should give you an idea how most people in the business feel about it.

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Star Wars has certainly had a larger impact on cinema than Empire has and it deserves that position. That's really how AFI measures the movies it places on the list. But that doesn't change that Empire should be on that list. Even more than The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back has completely defined what a sequel should be. It set the bar. Critics and audiences were initially confused by this, in how dark and aimless the plot is, and how it doesn't really have a beginning and end. It is a movie that gets that it is the second of 3 acts. Save for the Godfather, no other sequel really got that before. Almost every movie sequel has tried to emulate it in some way.