Star Wars Month: Mini-review - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

So, we come to talk of the final chapter of the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi

So it has all come down to these battles. A battle with against Jabba the Hutt, and a battle against the Empire.

Both battles carry emotional weight, but for different reasons, the right amount of humour. And a little too much of Leia in that awful outfit she war for Jabba.

We also get the first (and last) outing of Admiral Ackbar

And this guy (does anyone know who this guy is?)

Anyway, the action is well rounded, the music is decent, the acting is excellent, the puppetry is brilliant, the Green Screen backgrounds are... to be honest terrible, but not everything will ever age well from a movie this old.

We meet a new species called the Ewoks, who are... erm, primitive teddy bears? Meh, it's a cute concept, they seem to be good with all the logs in the trees of the moon... ah it all makes more sense when you watch it.

The empire themselves are on top form, managing to manipulate the rebellion almost throughout the entirety of the attack. Don't know how so many Bothans died, but sadly it wasn't worth it.

It was nice to see Lando in a bit more of an action role, even if he doesn't engage in any fist-fights, he spends almost the entirety of the second/third acts being a flight commander, with whatever his name is by his side.

Yoda gets his moment as he sadly passes away (he's degenerated a lot in the last 40 years or so, given that he's 900 now and how he was in the prequels) it's not that important in the overall story, serving only really so the Jedi could finally die out, with Luke being the first of the new Jedi.

Speaking of which, I think Luke does some very un-jedi things in this. He uses threats against Jabba, then carries out those threats, then he lets his anger and hate get the best of him on several occasions in his battle with Darth Vader, allowing Vader to find out about Leia being his sister (suddenly those romantic scenes between the pair are very awkward)

We finally see the Emperor in action, commanding his force-lightning until Darth Vader throws him... wherever he does.

Problems there are a few: Were the empire so reliant on their force-field that they had a direct path into the central core of the death-star open this time, when last time, it required a perfect shot down a 2m diameter hole?

Also, the action on the moon is great, until they start hover-bike chase scenes, green screen technology had not yet reached a stage where they looked good.

This movie was made on pretty much the same budget as the last one, this film is a lot more reliant on the action scenes, which make up most of the movie, and allow for character development within them. As a result, there really isn't a lot of exploration in this. And since adventure is one of the key parts of Star Wars it's disappointing to see.

Rating 75/100

Next up, we start the prequel trilogies, which takes everything to the other extreme

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Images used in this review are from Star Wars Episode VI and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.