Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - Movie Review

All right, the final Star Wars review before The Force Awakens, let's do this.

While Empire Strikes Back is definitely my favourite Star Wars movie, I love the other two so much that it's hard to rank them beyond that, because they have so many great things in them. I think that Return of the Jedi is a great finale to the original trilogy, it closes up the story perfectly, and feels so triumphant at the end.

The movie begins by returning to Tatooine, where we see the most illogically planned rescue of Han Solo that could have been planned. The plan is that Lando will infiltrate and hide as a guard, then Leia will bring in Chewbacca and threaten everyone with a grenade, and then break Han out of the carbonite. Then, when she's captured, they send in Luke, the magical Jedi Knight. In my opinion, they probably should have sent in Luke first and just let him take care of everything, or thrown in a couple of thermal detonators.

But we needed Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini, that was absolutely necessary for the...for the...story...what was I talking about?

From when Luke first appears in this movie, it's very different from when we last saw him. He walks into Jabba's palace in the shadows, dressed all in black, and Force chokes two Gammorean Guards that try to stop him, just like we saw Vader do throughout the last movie. George Lucas actually gave Luke that costume and wrote the scene that way because we're supposed to wonder whether he's turned to the dark side, which is a great way to open it. It's little touches like that, when Lucas really knew what he was doing, that makes these movies so great. You don't even really know that it's Luke until he takes off the hood, and what I love about this movie is that all trace of the farm boy is gone, Luke is now just a sweet Jedi. We get an example of that when he's dropped into the rancor pit, and we see him use only the resources that are in there, because he didn’t bring his lightsaber.

For some reason.

But it's a really good way to show how far Luke's come, seeing him kill this enormous monster with just bones. Again, it's little moments and human touches to this trilogy that make me love it so much, because when the rancor's dead, its owner sees it and starts crying. And he would, because we saw it as this giant monster, but there would be someone who had to take care of that thing, and would love it, and that moment really stuck with me as a kid.

The Great Pit of Carkoon scene might be my favourite in all of Star Wars. It works so perfectly because of (shocker) the music. It's just building up slowly, you see where all the heroes are, and then R2-D2 pops the lightsaber into the air, and it just explodes. We see more of Luke being completely awesome, because once he gets his lightsaber, there's no fancy sword twirling or over the top acrobatics, his lightsaber is basically just a baseball bat, he's just whacking people with it. And kicking people two feet away from their face.

The only real downside to this scene is Boba Fett's death, because he was set up as the ultimate bounty hunter. Then Han Solo, still blind from the carbonite, hits him in the back, and he flies through the air, hits the sail barge, and falls into the Pit. People have made jokes about how lame that death is for years, but when you really think about it, we never see him do anything cool in the actual movies, it's all in the expanded universe. And since that universe no longer exists, all we have now is the movies, so hopefully his character will be expanded on significantly in a future spin-off or something. As of right now, he's about as efficient as a stormtrooper with a jetpack.

And I actually really like that they gave Leia something to do in this scene as well, because she's the one who kills Jabba the Hutt. When the power goes out, she chokes him out with the chains she was attached to, that's awesome.

So after everyone leaves, Luke goes to Dagobah to see Yoda, and he learns that Leia is his sister. And like I said in my last review, I really don't like this plot twist. It feels really unnecessary, and I think that George Lucas just wanted a resolution to the whole love triangle between Luke, Han and Leia that was there. But there must have been another way to do it, because Lucas also went on for a while that he always had these scripts written, but that's a load of crap, there's no way he had it all planned out.

So the Rebels learn that the Empire is constructing another Death Star, because they just never learn. But the Emperor himself is going to be there this time, so this is their best chance to take him down. The heroes go to Endor, where the shield generator is located, and we meet up with the most polarizing thing in the original trilogy: the Ewoks. I went back and forth with them, as a kid, I loved them, then I was an angsty preteen and I didn’t have time for those stupid little teddy bears, but now I like them again. I think I’ve just realized that it doesn’t really matter. Sure, they were more than likely created to appeal to kids, but they're fine, they're harmless. The dumb part is that the Emperor sent "a legion of his best troops" to Endor, and they get taken down very easily by these little teddy bears.

While all this is going on, Luke handed himself over to Vader, and he's taken up to the Death Star, and to the Emperor. What's so great about the dynamic between these three is that Luke is trying to turn Vader back to the light side, the Emperor is trying to turn Luke to the dark side, and Vader is caught in the middle. So when that conflict eventually comes to a head, and Luke and Vader face off once again, you feel the stakes, and the emotion behind it, which is what makes the lightsaber battles in the original trilogy work better than the prequels, they actually mean something. This fight is all the better for it, mainly because of the second half of it. After Vader cuts down a catwalk, Luke gets out of sight and hides from Vader, and you see that half of his face is in the dark, and half of it is in the light, I only caught that symbolism now. Vader is taunting Luke while reading his thoughts, and then he realizes that Luke has a sister, and says that if Luke won’t turn to the dark side, then maybe she will. And Luke just snaps, he starts whaling on Vader, he beats him back and down, and cuts off his hand, but before he kills him, he stops, and realizes that he's becoming just like Vader, and he throws away his lightsaber, refusing to fight, and refusing to join the Emperor. And this is the point where as a kid, I decided that the dark side was better, because moving stuff is cool, but shooting lightning out of your hands is way cooler.

The Emperor is torturing Luke, he really wants him to suffer for not joining him, but Vader redeems himself, and lifts the Emperor and throws him down the main shaft of the Death Star, killing him. When this happens, it’s such a powerful and important moment, you see Vader look at Luke, then back at the Emperor, then back at Luke, and even though he's wearing a mask, you can see the conflict, you can see the decision being made. And this is where the changes that George Lucas made get really insulting, because for the Blu-Ray release, they dub in Vader going “noooooo” when he picks up the Emperor. It completely ruins the point of the moment, and it actually makes me angry that Lucas thought that needed to change.

So Luke says a final goodbye to his father, the Death Star is destroyed, the heroes celebrate on Endor, everyone’s singing the yub nub song. Or the newer version of he music, which I personally prefer. The ghosts of Luke's Jedi mentors appear before him, including Anakin Skywalker, and George Lucas photoshopped in Hayden Christiansen over the original actor, because we needed more of him.

We see a celebratory shot of all our heroes, and that was the end of the Star Wars saga. I love Return of the Jedi; it's fun, it's adventurous, it's emotional, and it's such a satisfying ending to the story. Words can’t describe how excited I am for The Force Awakens, to see this story continued, with new characters, new filmmakers, new ideas, because Star Wars is my favourite thing, and I’ll never complain about getting more of it.

And we're getting a lot more of it, like The Force Awakens, and Rogue One, and Episode VIII, and the Han Solo spin-off, and Episode IX, and the other spin-off...OH GOD I'M READY. CANCEL MY LIFE, I WILL LIVE BY STAR WARS!