As a result in this change in crew behind the scenes you get a movie that is not as dark as the previous film, but still delivers on the drama as Yoda confirms that Darth Vader is Luke's father and that Obi-Wan reveals that Luke has a sister, who turns out to be Leia, resolving once and for all whether Luke and Leia or Han and Leia are going to end up together. Which, as I've already said, is very different from The Empire Strikes Back, which focused more on character development, is still handled extremely well. Primarily because Lawrence Kasdan is still the writer on this movie and he handles things like that pretty well.
Return of the Jedi is probably the Star Wars movie that I watched the most when I was a kid. Before I'd seen the movies, I'd watched Ewoks as well as Droids, so I was already familiar with the Ewoks as well as Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio. And with this movie introducing the Ewoks, it ended up being my favourite of the Star Wars movies when I was a kid.
Unlike in the first two films, there's so much going on in this movie. I mean the entire first half an hour or so is dedicated to Luke and the others rescuing Han from Jabba the Hutt, finally wrapping up the Jabba subplot that was started in Star Wars and had been going through the entire trilogy. Which actually works a lot better in the original theatrical version of the movie since Jabba doesn't show up in the first movie like he does in the Special Edition. He's just this mysterious gangster character that looms over Han's life and prevents him from fully committing to the Rebel Alliance. And I'm sure that audiences who saw this movie in theatres back in 1983 were thrilled at this pay off that they'd been waiting for since Star Wars came out in 1977. I only had to wait two nights.
I've always seen Luke and Han as dual protagonists as Han has been on a journey of his own since his first scene in Star Wars which parallels Luke's journey as the hero of the trilogy. In Star Wars Han starts out as a selfish mercenary, but comes to Luke's rescue during the Death Star battle. Then in The Empire Strikes Back Han loses that selfish edge as he does everything in his power to evacuate Leia and Threepio from Hoth and get them to safety, culminating in him sacrificing himself to being frozen in Carbonite by Darth Vader to prevent his friends from getting killed by Vader or Boba Fett. Until finally we get to Return of the Jedi where Han leads a squad of Rebel soldiers to destroy the Death Star's shield generator on Endor.
Luke is also wiser and more in control of his powers in this movie. Not only is it evident in the Jabba the Hutt sequence at the beginning of the movie, but during his Lightsaber duel with Vader at the end, you can tell that his attacks are more fluid and less choppy than they were in the previous film. He also planned out Han's rescue rather than just charging into Jabba's Palace and fighting his way out.
When I was a kid, the Emperor was never as scary in this movie as Vader was in The Empire Strikes Back. Sure, he was menacing, but he's a villain, he's supposed to be menacing. He just isn't scary like Vader is. Probably because we didn't see the true scope of the Emperor's power until he starts hurling electricity at Luke from his fingers. Whereas with Vader, he's got the black suit and mask, and the first time we saw him in the first movie, he was killing Rebel officers left, right and centre. So that definitely creates a scary first impression.
Speaking of Vader, I almost feel like he's lost his edge in this movie. Not simply because the Emperor shows up here and not because he's a lot more conflicted due to his interactions with Luke. In the first movie, despite being under the command of Grand Moff Tarkin, played by Peter Cushing, he almost seems young and not as in control of his powers or his temper, as we saw when he attempted to kill Admiral Motti in the conference room during Tarkin's first scene. Then in Empire Vader is more confident in his power, but also more aggressive, killing several Imperial officers under his command simply because they failed him in some way. Here though he doesn't kill anyone, and doesn't even fight quite as well against Luke in the Emperor's throne room on the Death Star.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Return of the Jedi is the perfect sequel to The Empire Strikes Back and the perfect conclusion to the Star Wars Trilogy as a whole. It's not a perfect movie by any means. The rescuing Han from Jabba sequence could've been a little bit shorter, though again, aping the old movie serials of the '30s and '40s George wanted to make it dynamic and interesting enough for audiences not to walk out of the theatre. The Ewoks are also pretty badass in the way they take out the Emperor's so called "best" troops. I'm giving Return of the Jedi 9/10 stars simply because the Jabba stuff took up too much of the movie, Leia didn't have a whole lot to do in this movie, and some of the backdrops during the speeder bike chase scene aren't great and you can tell they were shot against blue screen.
Star Wars will return in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace...
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086190/?ref_=tt_sims_tt
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