Review of Return of the Jedi (1983) by Dave W — 24 Jan 2016

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is the ending of the original trilogy. While it certainly ends on a feel-good note, it is not without it's thoughtful moments, and provides many a memorable line and moment. The story begins with a brief scene of members of the Empire discussing the building of a new Death Star. After that, the action goes to Luke's home planet of Tatooine, where the heroes of the rebellion pull of an elaborate plot to rescue their comrade Han Solo. It is a great sequence of scenes that includes the debut of Luke Skywalker as a full-on Jedi. It also features Jaba the Hutt, Boba Fett, the rankor monster, and several other memorable creatures, not the least of which is a giant hole that almost swallows Lando Callrisian whole.

From there, Luke goes back to see Yoda die and tell him some mystical stuff about the force while the rest of the rebellion goes to the Forest Moon of Endor to try to break a defense shield generator so they can destroy the new Death Star. It features a great chase through the forest on some flying crotch rocket type vehicles, and ends up with the group of heroes making contact with the Ewoks, a furry bunch of folks who live in the trees, use primitive tools, and don't speak English. Perhaps the reason the the Eowks work better than the Gungans is because they speak their own language, and use believable weaponry, such as large logs to take out machines. There's also a part where one of the Ewoks dies and their comrade briefly mourns.

In the end, they defeat the Imperial troops, stop the shield and blow up the Death Star and all that, but not before Luke has his max-emo duel with his father who he almost-kills just enough to allow him to defeat the Emperor who SPOILER ALERT was going to kill Luke. Then a bunch of people dance and everybody is happy.