Review of Return of the Jedi (1983) by Aaron D — 13 Dec 2015

Spoilers.

Return of the Jedi is the Star Wars movie of the original trilogy where the consensus is a bit all over the place. Lots of people either love or really like this film and I'm sure there a few people out there who hate this movie but everyone seems to admit this film has a few problems. Personally I think Return of the Jedi is a really good movie but it has problems and is definitely the weakest of the original trilogy. However there is a lot of good in this movie. The acting in this film is really really good. Mark Hamill gives his best peformance as Luke of the whole trilogy. Carrie Fisher is really good and she has some great dramatic moments. Harrison Ford is really good yet I feel his peformance isn't as good as in the previous two movies. Bully Dee Williams is fantastic yet I wish he was in the film a bit more. David Prouse and James Earl Jones are again fantastic as Darth Vader. Darth Vader is great in this film, I love how his character is very complex and by the end your opinion on him changes completely. Ian McDiarmid is great as the Emporer, he's creepy, weird and has some silly moments although he's not as over the top as he is in the prequels. This film has loads of great new characters in it, such as Jabba the Hutt, The Emporer and Admiral Ackbar. Those characters are great. Richard Marquand did a good job directing this film, it's not as good as Irvin Kershner but he did a good job. The music in this film is still excellent, John Williams score is brilliant and the end piece is really good but I adore the Emporer's theme. The cinematography is so good in this film and there are brilliant shots in the movie. The action is a bit hit and miss. The Luke vs Rancor fight is really good, it's intense and I love seeing Luke having to try and defeat the monster without his lightsaber. The fight above the Sarlaac pit is pretty good although it does lead to Bobba Fett's extremely quick and dissapointing death. The fight on the Ewoks home planet is alright but it's just stupid how these little teddy bears can kill Stormtroopers in armour with rocks. True I can understand them using arrows to kill the Stormtroopers, but rocks, I just don't understand that. The space battle between the empire and the rebels is great and it all looks fantastic. The Darth Vader and Luke fight while not as good as the one in Empire Strikes Back is still really good and I love the moment when Vader taunts Luke into snapping and exploding in anger, causing him to attack Vader and slice off his arm. While there is a lot of great stuff in the film, there are a lot of problems. The Ewoks are one of the biggest problems. While I loved them when I was a kid, that's the problem, they are aimed for kids. They are fairly annoying and the scene when they are about to cook Luke, Han and Chewbacca is pointless as there is no tension, as its obvious no one will die. Also as I mentioned the action scene between the Ewoks and the Stormtroopers is very underwhelming. Also while I love the Jabba the Hutt section it does go on a bit. The cgi in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back for the most part still looks great however some of the cgi here looks a bit dodgy. The blue screen in places is really bad. Also this film I feel suffered the most from the special edition changes. When I was younger the bit when the slave girl tries to kill Jabba the Hutt and he sends her down the trap door and she gets eaten by the Rancor used to scare me so much but now it's ruined by the stupid cgi dancers that are terribly intergrated. I hate how Darth Vader now has to scream no at the end. Also Hayden Christensen's ghost appearing at the end is stupid. However I do still enjoy Return of the Jedi, it's a very good yet flawed film. I would recommend it but it isn't as good as the previous two. B+.