Review of Star 80 (1983) by Thatcooperguy — 15 Dec 2015

“The Empire Strikes Back” was an acclaimed masterpiece, but because of that a lot of people find “Return of the Jedi” to be not as good as the other two. It’s pretty easy to see why, I don’t really want to tell them to cut Jedi some slack and say “you shouldn’t expect much from it” since I find that logic kinda ludicrous. I mean, it’s the sequel to my favorite movie of all time, of course I’m gonna judge it by its own merits. I’m not going to give it some sort of handicap mainly because Empire was a sequel and it improved upon the first movie.

Luckily, I really enjoy watching Return of the Jedi, probably a lot more than most people. This is probably because Lawrence Kasdan returned as one of the writers and I credit every great moment in this movie to him. The other writer was actually George Lucas and… it’s pretty clear his creativity was nowhere near as great as Lawrence’s. Lucas’ writing here is nowhere near as bad as the Star Wars prequels, but it still isn’t as good.

While Jedi may not have pitch perfect storytelling like Empire did, the movie more than makes up for it with its creative personality. I LOVE the creature effects from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Every time you watch the opening in Jabba’s Palace, you notice a new alien species you never saw before (Also: I LOVE the Rancor. He’s such a cute, yet threatening muppet).

Now, the Ewoks? I… don’t hate the Ewoks. They are designed to sell some toys (I blame Lucas) and I don’t really like the idea that they helped diminished the Galactic Empire (which is why I’m kinda happy “The Force Awakens” is happening). However, I do think they provide some solid entertainment in the final battle and I’ll even admit I think they’re pretty cute. Plus, they’re nowhere near as useless as Jar Jar Binks. The space battles are also well done and ended up getting this movie the same Special Achievement Oscar the previous film got.

The best and strongest part of this movie, hands down, goes towards any scene featuring Luke & Vader. This is straight up Lawrence Kasdan’s doings since they maintain the same level of drama ‘Empire Strikes Back’ provided. I seriously think George Lucas had nothing to do with these scenes and probably took over the stuff on Endor once Lawrence got Luke off the planet and on the new Death Star. I love the engaging lightsaber battle near the end that’s commentated by the oh so evil Emperor. The Emperor is sort of like an Anti-Yoda, he uses the force for evil and also uses it for brutal attack. He’s the type of threatening villain you find entertaining and Ian McDiarmid’s voice does such a good job selling The Emperor.

John Williams’ film score is once again terrific and helps any scene in this movie become emotional and very involving. I love the Sarlaac Pit sequence’s score, the music that plays during Luke & Vader’s lightsaber duel, during the battle on Endor, and I also really like (and miss) the “Yub Nub” song the Ewoks sing at the end. It was so damn catchy.

The special edition for this movie seems to have gotten much worse with each release. Lucas got rid of “Yub Nub” and had John Williams compose a new song, which was alright but I miss Yub Nub… In the 2004 DVD, Lucas added that incredibly jarring & stupid “Jedi Rocks” music number that was added during a scene where Jabba brutally sacrifices one of his slaves to his pet Rancor. Yeah, mood whiplash seems to be something Lucas likes to do… And on the Blu-ray release, Lucas added an unneeded “NOOOOO!” during the climax where Vader saves Luke from the Emperor, ruining yet ANOTHER great scene (the first being Han blasting Greedo in the bar).

It’s safe to say that Return of the Jedi got the worst “Special Edition” out of the entire trilogy. The only thing I do like from this version was the newly designed poster. I like the green background and I like how Chewbacca is on it with Vader & Luke at the center frame. Disney & Fox need to get the original cuts of these movies on Blu-ray right now. Being forced to buy only the Special Editions is pretty pathetic.

With that said, I enjoy ROTJ. It’s not as perfect at Empire or even as great as Star Wars, but it was a fun and entertaining movie that gives the Original Trilogy a nice ending.