4. "The apology is because it feels like blasphemy to put it above ESB. " In response to In response to 2
Empire is the one OT film that really holds up strong. But I feel like it suffers just a bit from being the middle film in the trilogy. Also the CGI with the snow speeders at the beginning looks like it’s age (although still better than those same speeders in the Kenobi episode.)
Completely agree re: Tarkin and Leia. At the time it came out I didn’t have a problem with it, but it is clearly outdated now with the uncanny valley thing happening, and to your point not needed because they could have done less with the full face shots.
Also my one script criticism is the last line of the movie - that officer watched Vader slaughter his men to get that disk to Leia, he asks her “what is it” and she just turns, smiles awkwardly through CGI/deepfake and says “Hope”. My man deserved a more direct answer than that.