both movies have their merits, both movies have their following, but one movie is leaps and bounds better then the other movie.
Termiator, one of my favorite movies ever. Has spawned a wonderful franchise, and a television show that I simply love. Iconic figures like the t-800, t-1000, hunter killers and the lot will be forever put into the minds of anyone that has watched them. Most will say the second terminator is better, I beg to differ. Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor's tragic love story is more powerful then anything the second movie could ever dream of. It's a shame the deleted scene in T2 was indeed cut out. The scene with Reese and Connor reminds everyone that the story had humble roots. Plus, this movie launched James Cameron's career into the stratospher, not to mention the man that played the title role. Sure, everyone likes the fatherlike Terminator Arnold plays in number 2, but his best role was the cold blooded, psychotic methodical terminator fromt eh first movie. He place that role to icy perfection.
All that praise, and yet this movie fails to compare with the Empire Strikes Back, quite honestly, the best sequel ever made. All of the hype, all of the success that the first movie had, put an incredible weight on the shoulders of Irvin Kurschner. with a seemingly limitless budget, instead of goign bigger is better, he shrunk the scale of the movie, and it worked wonders. Instead of trying to outdo the huge Death Star battle, this movie became the spiritual movie. It dived into the backstory of the force, explored the love of Han and Leia, showed the training of Luke from farm boy to impetuous youth/jedi in training. It dove intot he obsession of Vader and why he wanted to find Skywalker. It introduced us to Boba Fett and a man that Vader even bowed to, the Emperor. We got the story of confliction within Lando, Han frozen in carbonite. It gave us teh best cliffhanger in the history of cinema, and I challenge anyone to dispute that. And ultimately, it gave us the best plot twist of all time with Vader being lukes Father, and I also challenge anyone to dispute that.
I love both movies, but Empire is the superior sci-fi movie. Not only that, but Empire is a true masterpiece of movie making, despite it's genre.