Seriously though, more than the teddy bears taking on a scifi army,
building a second death star is the most unjustifiable writing choice in this
entire movie.
The empire is constructing a new death star and it’s not
going well. The emperor has sent Vader to get the project back on track.
Meanwhile Luke Skywalker, who is now styling himself as a Jedi knight, stages a
rescue of Han Solo form the palace of Jabba the Hutt. His attempts to bargain
with the Hutt fail and he, Chewie and Leia are captured. Jabba takes Leia as a
slave and plans to have Luke, Chewbacca and Han executed. Luke has planned for this however. Retrieving
his lightsaber hidden in R2, he stages a rescue resulting in Jabba’s death and he
and his friends escape.
Luke leaves Tatooine and returns to Yoda who is near death.
Yoda confirms Vader is his father and hints there is another Skywalker before
his death. Struggling with the revelation Luke confronts the ghost of Obi-wan
who explains that in his view Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker are different
people and that Vader is beyond saving. He also confirms that princess Leia is
secretly Luke’s twin sister.
Back with the rebel fleet it the group reunites for a
briefing were its confirmed that Palpatine is staying on the partially completed
second death star. Luke, Leia, Chewbacca and Han head to the moon of Endor to
deactivate the shield generator protecting the station so the rebel fleet can
destroy it.
Leia is soon separated from the group and the rest are
captured by the native Ewoks. Eventually reunited in the Ewok village they plan
their attack on the shield generator. However Vader as sensed Luke’s presence
and Luke leaves the group to confront him. He begs Vader to leave the empire
and go with him, but Vader refuses and takes him to the emperor.
Han’s attack on the shield generator turns out to be trap.
The rebels are rounded up by the garrison only to be rescued by the Ewoks. As the battle on the ground continues the
rebel fleet arrives to find the shield generator is still up and the imperial
fleet is posed to attack.
Meanwhile the emperor tries to provoke Luke into giving into
his hate. He reveals he knew about the rebel plans and lured them to the death
star, which is operational. He uses the super laser to start destroying the
rebel capital ships while mocking Luke. Giving in to his anger Luke attacks the
emperor only to have is attack intercepted by Vader. Throughout their duel Luke
attempts to keep his cool but Vader continues to provoke him. In his anger Luke
overwhelms Vader and cuts off his arm. However he refuses to finish his father
off. The emperor, angered by this uses force lighting and overwhelms the young
Jedi who pleads with Vader for help. Seeing his child in distress Vader grabs
the emperor and throws him down a shaft. In the process Vader is critically
wounded by the force lighting.
Meanwhile the rebels have taken down the shield generator
and the fighter attack by Lando in the falcon manages to penetrate the structure
and destroy the main reactor. Luke flees with his father but Vader is too
wounded and dies on the shuttles boarding plank, having returned to the light
side of the force.
The rebels celebrate the destruction of the death star as
the empire is shown to be crumbling in Palpatine’s absence. As the rebel’s
celebration continues the ghosts of Obiwan, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker can be
seen in the background.
This is the worst of the originals. It is far from bad, but
it suffers from pacing issues, and poor directing and writing decisions. I love
Jabba, but it has little to do with the second half of the movie, and filling
it with CGI stuff in the special editions was a mistake. Did the movie really
need a song number in Huttese?
Furthermore while the sarlacc pit scene does little to establish Luke as
a fully formed force user than to establish that Jabba’s men are really
incompetent. Return of the Jedi also goes to pains to show how close Luke
is to the dark. He wears all black, he force chokes Jabba’s goons, and he makes
subtle threats. Despite that he comes off as way more kind and level headed
than Anakin ever did in the prequels. He only uses violence in a controlled
manner to help others. The only time he gives into rage is when the Emperor and
Vader are goading him.And the Ewoks, they might be acceptable if they didn’t beat
up a squad of storm troopers. Granted there attack serves as mostly a
distraction while Han and the rebels do the heavy lifting, and granted it’s
supposed to make some point about imperialism. But it’s still stupid.
So what does Return of the Jedi have to offer? Well the
fights are pretty good. They don’t compare to the prequels in terms of raw
action but they have more heart than most of them. We get to see Luke slash his
way through Jabba’s men and another duel with Vader. While it is not as dramatic as their duel in
ESB, it is well done.
The acting is also good too, Luke the emperor are really
well done. It’s always a joy to watch McDiarmid’s Palpatine. And Mark Hamill
really makes a good Jedi. His acting here has really matured since A New Hope.
The space battle is the most impressive in the entire
original trilogy and better done than the battle of Coruscant in episode III.
You mostly follow the fighters as they dart between capital ships and engage
TIEs, in a battle which is the pinnacle of practical effects. And well I am quick to point out the movies flaws many of
the scenes I mention are still fun to watch. They are still well done, except
the Ewoks. I’m not going to defend that.
Return of the Jedi gets a lot of hate, some of it deserved
but it is far from a bad movie.
8.3 out of 10
-Gedaemon
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