Originally written December 16, 2015

Rounding out the original trilogy of Star Wars movies, we finally have Return of the Jedi. It’s a very interesting movie because the end of Empire Strikes Back left a lot of room for many potential possibilities. That’s why I find it so weird that they went with the ideas for the movie we’re left with. I think something went wrong in the planning process. I’m not saying Return of the Jedi is a bad movie or anything…it’s actually quite good. But for most of the movie, it’s not quite the epic finale it could have been after everything that went down in Empire Strikes Back.

I think it’s best to just talk about the movie in chunks. A large portion of the beginning of the movie revolves around rescuing Han Solo, still frozen in carbonite, from Jabba the Hutt. The beginning of the movie is almost reminiscent of the beginning of A New Hope, as we’re being shown different characters and parts of the universe. Our main players – Luke, Han, and Leia aren’t really around much for the first 15 minutes or so. I found this to work really well in A New Hope, but for some reason it just kind of feels wrong in Return of the Jedi. I think it’s because while A New Hope was doing world building, that’s already now been established, and Empire Strikes Back allowed us to get more personal with the characters. So it wasn’t a big deal in A New Hope when we didn’t get to spend much time with the main characters right away, but it is weird to go back to that now in the final installment of the trilogy. What we’re shown is still decent, but I couldn’t help but feel it would have been better if we simply got to stick with our characters. Luckily, this story arc does culminate in a satisfying conclusion, with a great action scene of Luke rescuing Han and Leia and getting off the planet. The ending of the arc is definitely a highlight of the movie.

The movie kind of goes off in a few different directions from there, establishing the plot for the rest of the movie. We see Luke returning to Dagobah to finish his training with Master Yoda, only to find that Yoda is pretty much on his death bed. It’s here that we get some interesting revelations and insight into Luke and his storyline. We see some conversations between Darth Vader and the Emperor about trying to convert Luke to the Dark Side, which is probably the most interesting content story-wise from the first half of the movie. Also, a second Death Star is being built, so the Rebels are trying to form a plan to destroy this new one before it’s functional. Again, this is pretty reminiscent of A New Hope, but not quite in the way I’d like. It’s hardly ever a good idea in a movie sequel for something to simply be being done “a second time.” The Rebels are basically just doing what they did in the first movie, and while it doesn’t majorly detract from the film, it’s a bit disappointing.

Eventually the heroes are brought to the forest planet of Endor to destroy a shield that’s protecting the Death Star. A very large majority of the movie takes place here, which is both good and bad in my eyes. For one thing, there’s a chase scene when they land on the planet that is quite possibly the best non-lightsaber action scene in the entire trilogy (the only other one I’m considering is the battle on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back). Endor is a cool planet, and it’s always nice to see new sides of the universe. There are also many great moments that are had on Endor, such as a conversation between Luke and Leia where Luke reveals some truths and contemplates his final confrontation with Vader. These moments are simply fantastic and are what makes the movie good.

However, there’s also a problem the movie faces while on Endor. If you’ve heard complaints about Return of the Jedi, it’s probably mostly about the Ewoks, which are little furry creatures that are on Endor. I actually have no problem with the Ewoks in theory. I think it’s no worse for these creatures to be inhabitants of their planet anymore than it is for different creatures to be on other planets. I get that people were understandably upset that the creatures were put in the film simply to sell toys, but whatever, I’m fine with the Ewoks. They don’t really detract from the movie at all. What I’m not fine with is the storyline that revolves around the Ewoks. There’s some time spent in the movie where Luke and Han are taken hostage by the Ewoks and about to be sacrificed. For whatever reason, the robot C-3PO is looked at as their king, and so there’s this whole big thing about how C-3PO needs to act the part to get the Ewoks to let Luke and Han go.

If I’m being honest, the whole thing comes off as an episode of a TV show. And this brings me to my biggest problem with the whole movie. Return of the Jedi has quite a bit of unnecessary filler, and this is a problem when the movie is supposed to be the epic climax of the entire trilogy. These story arcs where Luke is rescuing Han from Jabba the Hutt or Luke and Han are needing to be saved by C-3PO acting like the king of a race of forest inhabitants feels more like storylines for a TV series than it does for the conclusion to a trilogy. The Jabba the Hutt storyline isn’t quite as much of an unnecessary thing since Han’s debt to Jabba has been established since the first movie, but these scenes just come across as fluff more than anything. My problem isn’t that the material isn’t good either, as these are actually really enjoyable scenes. My problem is more that since Empire Strikes Back didn’t waste any time and set the stage for an epic finale, Return of the Jedi did waste time by giving us filler material before the final battle.

However, when the movie hits its peak, it’s really special. It’s just as good as we came to expect from the first two movies, and for what it’s worth it DOES deliver the satisfying conclusion that we wanted from it. One thing that’s interesting is that A New Hope decided to have its final action scene be a big space battle, while Empire Strikes Back decided to be more grounded and have it be a one on one duel between Luke and Vader. Return of the Jedi decides to do both, and I think it succeeds really well. The Rebels attack on the second Death Star is really fun to watch. However, it is obviously a lot more fun to watch Luke’s final confrontation with Vader, who is being manipulated by the Emperor. What we see is an interesting dynamic, because it involves the Emperor trying to turn Luke to become evil, while Luke is trying to turn Vader into becoming good. It provides a really satisfying conclusion to the story of the whole trilogy. I do have to say the ending of the movie is a bit questionable though. I couldn’t help but feel it isn’t the original intended ending. I had read somewhere that George Lucas had originally wanted to end the movie with Luke turning to the Dark Side (I’m not sure if this is true), but that he was pressured into making it a more victorious ending. I feel that not everything fits together exactly as it should in the end, but for the most part it does still work.

Overall, I really like Return of the Jedi, a lot. The only real level where I think it fails a bit is as the final movie of a trilogy, at least until its third act. The material we are given is really good still, but it didn’t seem fitting for the movie. Return of the Jedi is a movie that has a series of great moments, but doesn’t succeed on the same level that Empire Strikes Back did with tying it all together really well. The movie does boast some of the best action scenes of the entire trilogy. It’s probably my least favorite movie of the original trilogy, but it’s still a great movie. Unlike movies where I’ll criticize it because I didn’t like it, I only criticize Return of the Jedi because of my love for it. Star Wars as a series is generally really amazing, and so while I love Return of the Jedi, I only wish certain things about it could have been a little improved.

4/5