The concluding part of the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy is a little bit of a bumpy landing for a franchise that, up till this point had managed to pull of the seemingly impossible task of getting ‘Lighting in a bottle’ twice in a row. And while it still manages to succeed on most fronts. I have to be honest when I say that its an entry that really struggled to hold my interest.

The plot picks up around 6-12 months after ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Hans still frozen in Carbonite, Luke has vanished to complete his training and 3PO and R2 are back on Tattoine trying to rescue Hans cryopod from the lair of Jabba the Hutt.

After a somewhat spirited escape, its revealed that the empire has been constructing a 2nd EVEN MORE powerful death star that, this time is reinforced by a shield thats being beamed up from the planet Endor. While Luke goes to confront his father and the Emporer once and for all, its down to the rebels to get down to Endor, drop the shields and take out the deathstar once and for all.

And, realistically, there isnt a tremendous amount to criticize the film on visually. While (I feel) it may not pack the punch that ‘Empire’ managed with its use of colour, composition and blocking. Its still a rather nice film to look at that has a keen eye for a good visual and the use of colour, while a bit more muted, is still pretty decently handled.

The direction too is pretty solid as well, with some heavier Blue screen and CSO work creeping in to the fray compared to the previous two entries. The film still manages to utilize cutting edge technology from the time to deliver a creatively compitent piece that mixes in a wide range of styles and methods to deliver an end product that…while not UTTERLY breathtaking, is still a damn site better than a lot of the stuff that was coming out by this time.

Equally, I cant fault the soundtrack, which…now seems to have a bit more of a poppy influence in places vs the previous two movies…but for the most part is business as usual…if not a little strange at times.

For me? its the script where things really seem to have started to go a bit wrong. at 2 hours and 11 minutes, this is the longest film in the ‘Original Trilogy’ and was kind of the last chance this series had to make these films run to 2 hours or less. After this it was kind of a set standard that these movies (FOR SOME REASON) had to be 2+ hours long…Even if it was to the total detriment of the film itself.

My criticisms for the script really arnt anything new, with the biggest issue I found simply being that it feels like Lucas and Co sacrificed giving the trilogy a coherent and high quality send off, so that they could instead insert AS MUCH opportunity to make and sell merchandise as possible. Its no secret that Lucas decided to ask for a percentage of merch profits in lue of an actual payment for these films…and it feels here like he was basically trying to ‘Cash Out’ after the success of ‘Empire’.

From Jabbas palace, to Bobba fett, to the Ewoks EVERY. SINGLE. THING. that happens in this script is seemingly motivated by ‘how many T-shirts can we make with this characters face on?’ or ‘How many micro machines playsets can we sell of Jabbas palace or the death star?’

Its an element that basically infects and influences almost all other aspects of the production. The characters all feel underwritten, in part because I think they realised at this point that ‘Star Wars’ was a VERY lucrative kids market, so they toned back the nazi-isms and more philosophical tones in favour of making it more kid friendly, but also because of the toy-commercialization of the film itself, it means Han, Luke, Leia and the gang just…arnt really in this film that much…and if they are they’re more just standing around or trapped somewhere rather than ACTUALLY directly engaging in the plot…And no. In my opinion BEING there while the actual plot unfolds…But not really doing anything DOESNT constitute ‘Being involved.’

The Ewoks are fine in my opinion, but slowly become more and more prevelant until…basically it becomes impossible to really do anything other than watch the Ewoks do stuff. It really undercuts the ending of this film to go from a very Poigniant moment between Luke and Darth Vader, to a Ewok jamboree 5 minutes later with funky dunky ewok music and the little bastards doing cartwheels.

Because of this, the pacing takes a hit too, we end up with a Firey and fantastic action packed opening act, that gives way to a yawning chasm of a 2nd act…and then, just as things start getting kind of interesting in the 3rd act it all comes crashing to a halt with the Ewok Jamboree.

It leaves the audience with a script that DEFINITELY feels geared towards much younger kids vs what came before it, thats sacrificed some of its darker tone, its complex characters and its interesting narrative direction to push Ewok lunchboxes. I can only imagine what went on in a kids head who saw the original ‘Star Wars’ when they were 8, and were greeted with THIS as a 14 year old…

The other issue for me really is the performances, they dont feel as acidic, they dont have the darker tones to them. I dont believe Han ACTUALLY even shoots anyone in this film. Everyones been toned up a little more, they’re lighter, more comedic. The will they/wont they between Han and Leia has been simplified into a younger persons concept of love, rather than the more mature direction of it in the previous films. Harrison ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie fisher are all still delightful to have on screen. But you get the feeling they were done with the series by this film, and the overly simplistic dialogue and scaling back of the bite probably only weathered them further on the production. They were good! But not great…

For me? ‘Return of the Jedi’ IS fun and IS watchable…But its NOWHERE near as good as the rest of the films in this trilogy, its the first (of many) missteps in the franchises history and while I wont begrudge another rewatch in future, I dont think i’d ever really CHOOSE to just watch this one. Its definitely in the upper half of the ‘Star Wars’ films…But it lacks the ‘spark’ to take it into being something truely ‘Great’.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/return-of-the-jedi/