This is the second part of a four-part series in which I review the new DVD re-release the Star Wars trilogy. As I continue to watch these things, I'm finding myself oddly complacent about the changes, even the ones I don't like. Go figure.

Never has the adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applied so aptly to something as it does to The Empire Strikes Back. With that in mind, let's talk changes.

First of all, I'm real happy to report that Luke no longer screams as he falls down the shaft. Why that one never got as much attention as Greedo Fires First on the sacrilege scale, I'll never know, but it's a distant memory now.

Ian McDirmond as the Emperor? McDirmond I'm okay with, to tell you the truth, I don't think he's as creepy looking as the Indian Woman with the Bagel on her Face or as menacing sounding and Clive Revell, but what are you gonna do? I will say, however, that the new dialog between the him and Vader and the latter's "surprise" that Luke is Anakin's son is a bit unnerving. I think it's pretty clear that Vader figured that one out before ESB started, that's why his pre-Hoth brooding means something. Now he's just sore that the Death Star got blowed up.

Also, Temurra Morrison's voice definitely has replaced the old Boba Fett voice-over and this is a shame too. And I also get the sinking feeling that James Earl Jone's dialogue has been rerecorded, but that can't be right.

Some of the same things hold true for this film as it did for A New Hope -- the new compositing is so gorgeous, it transforms some shots from ones where you could always see the seams to flawless painting that blow you away with the scope of the framing. On the other hand, just like in ANH, the image is so clear that it allows you to see the blemishes in sets that you never noticed before. I mean, we are talking about one clear image here.

Even without this edition's amazing image quality and gorgeous compositing, Empire, the original Empire, was already a perfect film, even if it was not flawless. The dedication of Irwin Kershner to make every shot so full of emotional subtext is astonishing and it all comes to a head in the brilliant, brilliant psychological duel between Luke and Vader in the darkness of Bespin. I'm so excited writing about it that I want to watch it again, that's how good Empire is. And these changes don't really change that, but they do make it seem somehow... unnatural. And I think that's always going to be at the heart of the discontent at these changes. For 20 years we grew up on these movies just the way they were. We committed them to memory. They were familiar to us. So, a change, no matter how small, or well done, will naturally draw our eye and our attention a right to the change and away from experiencing the emotion. And that is what we feel we've lost -- the ability to watch these movies without looking for the changes, the ability to immerse ourselves in the emotion.

Because, as I said, the virtuosity of Empire is that it is all emotion, it suffers more from the others by this phenomenon. But even somewhat diminished, even the most brilliant of lights remains bright indeed.

Tomorrow the Jedi return.