Defending Return of the Jedi

When asked whether people liked Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi better, the answer will almost always be Empire. While some of this sentiment may be a result of a scene from Kevin Smith's first film, Clerks, it also seems like the latter film gets lumped in with the prequels as "things that ruined Star Wars". While people are certainly welcome to prefer whichever movie they choose, I'm not sure that Jedi warrants the hate that it gets.

Being the geek that I am, I thought I would try to take a crack at mounting a defense for this, I believe, under rated picture. This isn't going to be a review per se. The movie's decades old and I'm quite certain that it's a moot point by now. I am, however, going to try to make the case that this movie, for all of its faults, still meets the criteria for "good".

OK, first things first, Ewoks. I'm not even going to try to fight you on this. They're stupid; I don't like them either. They are a definite strike against the film, but this seems to be the go to excuse to write off the film as a whole. I don't think that's fair, as there is a lot of good stuff to be seen in the remaining portions of the film.

Another point brought up is that Boba Fett goes out like a punk. I'm sorry, but Fett's reputation is not deserved at all. Watch Empire again, he doesn't do anything! This image of him as the ultimate badass was something the audience totally projected onto him.

Let's take a moment to look at the positive aspects. The Jabba sequence that opens the movie is quite enjoyable. We get introduced to a new villain, who has become something of an icon in his own right, and we get plenty of great sequences like the rancor fight and the final battle on the barge.

On the other end of the film, we have Luke's confrontation with Vader and the Emperor. Not only is this part of the film good, it's magnificent. You've got Luke trying to fight the darker urges within himself (with the Emperor goading him on all the while), you have him never giving up hope on his father and making a sincere effort to get him to change, not to mention Vader's redemption. It's a strong character driven sequence that acts as a nice counter-balance to the big space battle going on outside (which itself is pretty impressive as well).

Speaking of character, we have some nice growth here. There is the aforementioned redemption, but Luke himself matures a great deal whereas in the early films, he was a bit of a whiner (runs in the family I guess).

The movie's not perfect. It does have its flaws, but there's so much good stuff to be seen that it's unfair to dismiss it entirely, let alone lump it in with the prequels.

You can read another review of the film that I wrote here.