Review of Return of the Jedi (1983) by Charlie P — 17 Nov 2015

Return of the Jedi, the last film in the orginal trilogy, although extremly great and a good warp-up of the orignal trilogy in my opinion, I do agree that it's the weakest of the three.

Although I don't really have a problem with the first 30 minutes of the movie involving the Jabba the Hutt mission as Phil Tippet's creature designs and prohetics of the new aliens in the palace is execellent with the msot impressive being the rancor, although I do admit the new CGI song sequence doesn't fit with the tone of the location and Boba Fett went out like a pussy.

As for the rest of the film which revovles around the rebel's final (or was it?) battle against the Empire, and the redemption of Vader, is very well executed with the best moments of the entire film happening between Luke, Vader and The Emperor, played relishly by Ian Macdirmind. The space battle above Endor is extreemly well done for the early 80's, even without CGI additions which makes the model work look amazing.

Now let's adress the biggest problem most fans have with this film, The Ewoks. I get what George Lucas was trying to get across with a primitive culture overthrowing the Empire, but, even by Star Wars standards, the concept of cute teddies overthrowing the "best troops" seems too wierd. Honestly, he should have either stuck with Wookies instead, like orginally planned or should have used people who could control elements as the natives of Endor like the Benders of Avatar the Last Airbender.

Overall Return of the Jedi is a great ending to the first three movies and does manage to wrap up everything nicely, even if it marked the start of George Luca's decline in writing quality.