Of all the Star Wars films, this one was my favorite for the longest time. Critical viewers tend to admonish this film for showing an army of cutesy furry Ewoks turning the tide of the last battle. But I’ve always enjoyed this film for its subplot featuring Jabba the Hutt, the cool speeder-bike chase, its epic space battle over Endor (which comes very close to being my favorite space battle of all films, second maybe only to the battle of Coruscant in Episode III), and most importantly, for showing the final confrontation between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. All of the major conflicts are resolved in this film once and for all, and regardless of how unlikely it is for the Ewoks to overcome the Empire, I find the final fight between Luke and Vader to be very invoking, and the final space battle to be very awesome.
The story is quite straightforward, offering just a little more insight on the characters and the previous films’ loose ends, so as to answer any questions the audience may still have. It suffers just a little drag between the Jabba the Hutt scenes and the Endor scenes, but otherwise, the pacing is quite high. As it is with any major film trilogy, Return of the Jedi offers an excellent finale with excellent closure.
The film is competently-made, with decent photography and editing. I still enjoy the actors’ performances; Mark Hamill is probably at his most earnest here, while Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and everybody else reprises their roles well. Writing is not bad. Production value features good sets, props, costumes, and special effects. Music is good.
5/5 (Entertainment: Perfect | Story: Perfect | Film: Very Good)
This film appears on my Top 100 Favorite Films list at #35.
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