Return of the Jedi - Film Review

Forcethon Day IX

Net Neutrality is gone, but at least I get to review Return of the Jedi.

Return of the Jedi is directed by Richard Marquand and stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Warwick Davis, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels and James Earl Jones.

Plot
In the third of the original trilogy, the Empire prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star while the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts his father Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor. In the last second, Vader makes a momentous choice: he destroys the Emperor and saves his son. The Empire is finally defeated, the Sith are destroyed, and Anakin Skywalker is thus redeemed. At long last, freedom is restored to the galaxy.

Review

I think this is my least favorite of the trilogy, don't get me wrong, it's an amazing film, just my least favorite of the trilogy.

I wanna get some of the special edition changes (again) out of the way. Watch HelloGreedo's series for more changes.

Jabba's Palace, both the effects and the music. In the theatrical version, the song was called "Lapti Nek" and in the special edition they replaced the song with "Jedi Rocks". In the original, it feels like there's an actual band there, in the special edition it feels like a bad music video. The effects are terrible also, there's that singing thing with very long but small lips that's CG and it looks terrible, the puppet from the original looks better. That hairy insect looking thing is ugly too. All so George Lucas' vision could be complete.

One thing interesting about that scene is that the actress who played the Twi'lek dancer Oola, Femi Taylor, to reprise the role for the special edition and it looks like nothing has ever changed.

They added a CGI Sarlacc Pit with a beak and extra tentacles. I really have no opinion on this change.

Darth Vader saying "NO!" when the Emperor is attacking Luke with force lightning, it's just dumb. In the original he decides to save his son without saying anything which is a much better way than "no".

They changed the song during the celebration at the end. In the theatrical version the song is "Yub Nub" and in the special edition they used a completely different song called "Victory Celebration" which isn't a bad song, it almost sounds like something from a sixth generation video game to me (I love me some sixth gen video games), but I prefer "Yub Nub" instead.

They also added CG clips of Cloud City, Tatooine, Naboo and Coruscant. I also have no opinion on this change.

One change I don't like is that they put Hayden Christensen's head on Anakin's ghost. In the theatrical version it was Sebastian Shaw. That scene was perfectly fine, don't mess with it.

I questioned why Obi-Wan never told Luke that Vader was his father, instead saying the Vader killed his father. Well Obi-Wan tells Luke that Anakin was seduced by the Dark Side and became Darth Vader and that Anakin was destroyed, so what he said was "true from a certain point of view". Even Luke questions that. That's also the scene were Luke realizes that Leia is his sister.

This film introduced us to the Ewoks, the annoying looking teddy bear things that worship C-3PO as a god. They're probably the worst thing about the original trilogy that's not special edition related. How can they defeat the Empire using sticks and rocks when the Empire has actual technology?

I hope the Porgs aren't as annoying as these things.

The scene with Luke, Vader and the Emperor is probably the best scene in the movie. The Emperor manipulates Luke into fighting his father, snaps out of it and turns off his lightsaber, so Palpatine attacks him using force lightning and then Vader kills Palpatine by throwing him into a bottomless pit. This fight scene wasn't over choreographed like in The Phantom Menace, in here, Luke hides from Vader and Vader tries to get him to join the Dark Side and tells him that Leia might join, and then Luke comes out and just stars swinging his lightsaber at him and all that non over-choreographed glory. This is also the scene where we see Vader's face under the mask (not going by chronological) and it's a great scene.

There's a part where Lando Calrissian and some other creature go in and destroy the Death Star II, and that's a good scene. Randal from Clerks brought up to Dante that Lando killed several innocent contractors working on the Death Star II before it's completion.

We don't get introduced to a lot of characters in this one.
Jabba the Hutt is a gangster on Tatooine who has his own palace. He is very fat and doesn't speak English and gets killed by his slave Leia. The first time we see Jabba was in the Expanded Universe and he looked like this. But that's not canon anymore.

Wicket the Ewok appears in this and he's played by Warwick Davis. There's not much too him and he's like the other Ewoks.

There's really not much else I could say about this movie as everyone has seen it already. In conclusion, this is my least favorite of the trilogy although it's still a great movie. It's nowhere near the prequels.

I wish we could get the theatrical versions on Blu-Ray.

Come back tomorrow (hopefully, net neutrality an all) for a review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and on Saturday for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

9/10

Previous review - The Empire Strikes Back
Next review - Star Wars: The Force Awakens