Back when people could talk about Star Wars without causing a massive screaming fest which was when the original trilogy was ending, it felt like the story about sci fi wizards battling a tyrannical overlord had finally come into its own and won over more people than it initially did with A New Hope. After the staggering new areas that were explored in The Empire Strikes Back and the several bleak uncertain choices that were left open about the future of this story, it was undoubtedly a thrill waiting for the final instalment to finish things up. In 1983, Return of the Jedi was given to the public and it’s safe to say that this was the most polarizing film in the Star Wars franchise (back when that title was a rarity). Picking up a year after the events of Empire Strikes Back, a now more qualified and professional Luke Skywalker (played again by Mark Hamill) goes to retrieve Han Solo (played again by Harrison Ford) from the clutches of the crime lord, Jabba the Hutt. Once the team is put back together including Luke, Han, Leia (played again by Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (played again by Peter Mayhew), R2-D2, C-3PO (voiced again by Anthony Daniels) and Lando (played by Billy Dee Williams), its revealed that a second Death Star is being constructed with Emperor Palpatine (played by Ian McDiarmid) being on-board the vessel for its completion. Seeing this as a chance to finish the war once and for all, the rebels take to the planet of Endor to prepare for the final assault, while Luke tries desperately to appeal to his father, Darth Vader (voiced again by James Earl Jones) and bring him away from the dark side, while he and the emperor try everything to sway Luke to the side of the Sith. While the movie did generally well critically and people still viewed it as a nice enough ending to the trilogy, a lot of people were left feeling pretty divided on how to view this conclusive entry. This is a very accurate reaction as the movie does a lot of things better than usual, while also doing things that feel like poor retreding. It’s a complete back-and-forth movie that is incredibly difficult to pin down.

One of the sourest notes for the film is the amount of backtracking that comes with its story and its tone. The overall plot, pacing and trajectory of the narrative is where it is very noticeable that it is pushing to follow in the heels of something like A New Hope as opposed to Empire Strikes Back, as the literal recreation of the Death Star just feels like a franchise recycling its own elements as a means of ending on a big note again. This film is oddly goofy in nature with a lot of light-hearted elements and sequences that trail away from the dark, oppressive, and questionable nature of the past film. Despite still featuring Lawrence Kasdan from the last film as a writer on this film, this is not in the same kind of vein that was being presented previously. While Empire was bleak and raised some unclear choices and situations that muddied the waters of this once-thought black-and-white environment, this movie rears right back to the fairy-tale like atmosphere where everything is resolved happily, and no real repercussions are taken. This change makes more sense as Kasdan and Lucas (who both wrote the film together) had differing thoughts on how the climax of this story should go, with Kasdan hoping for a more bleak and uncertain ending akin to a Spaghetti Western, and Lucas wishing for a more optimistic and upbeat ending in hopes of pushing more merchandising. It’s evident that this wasn’t meant to be a trilogy, as several aspects that could’ve been interesting to explore like Vader’s morality (as well as Luke’s) and the sibling relationship between Luke and Leia aren’t given much breathing time to even be properly discussed, leaving them feeling like last-minute ideas that Lucas created on the spot rather than planned-out components of an over-arching franchise. The pacing is especially off in this movie, with the opening act going on for far too long and not featuring enough essential content to warrant its length. The tragic thing is that despite these repeated elements and the dumbing down of the tone, there are still some very impressive scenes in this movie. The director for this film was Richard Marquand, who had previously directed movies like The Legacy, Birth of the Beatles, and Eye of the Needle. For what he’s saddled with (leading the final Star Wars film), he does shine in the moments that are really strong. The scenes between Luke, Vader and the Emperor during the final fight are easily the best part of the film; the scenes are dripping with atmosphere, the set and lighting gives the room a wonderful sense of menace, the writing is simple but memorable, and the acting from all three is very good.

The acting went from pretty awkward, stilted, and directionless in the first movie, to very effective, gritty, and distinct in the second film, and ending in mix between the two for the last film. Nobody is really bad as it feels like most of these actors have improved over the years, yet there’s usually either an awkward line-read or a bad take that sticks out just enough to be noticeable. The characters have not been the most complex ones but were likeable enough for people to stick with them, and that stays true here. Most of the recurring faces don’t really go through any new substantial developments, which for a final movies are a bit of a disappointment, especially given the ideas that were sprinkled in this movie. Luke is probably at his best in this film where his main goal is to redeem his father, yet the movie’s insistence that he could turn evil never feels like a worry as he never does anything that bad in the grand scheme of things, it just feels like an element that could’ve been interesting to explore but has come far too late and isn’t really delved into here. Vader is a similar case; seeing this merciless bad guy turn to the light side sounds great in concept, yet nothing in the film really pushes for why he would turn or even why he is really evil. For someone who committed as huge atrocities as he did, it would need more time and elaboration for it to feel truly earned when he turns back. With that said, its portrayed in a manner that would be akin to a fairy tale (not based on logic, but works from an emotional standpoint), and the final scene between the two is pretty good. The side characters become very pointless in this final film, contributing what feels like side-mission material. Despite the revelation that Leia is related to Luke (and by extension Vader), nothing even comes of that in the story, instead feeling like a tool just to force her to get with Han Solo (unlike the original direction where Luke and Leia weren’t related and were going to be a couple earlier on),  Lando’s sole purpose of destroying the new Death Star doesn’t feel as impactful as he’s still a relatively newcomer with no basis in this narrative, and Han Solo is really put through the wringer in this film. Originally being presented as a relatively cool and capable supporting character, he’s made incredibly goofy and incompetent in this movie, which makes sense once you realize that he was not meant to survive this film (only being saved due to Lucas’ insistence). Han and Leia become so pointless that most of their scenes are either packed with stupid comedy lines that don’t work or ridiculous love-triangle moments that become pretty invalid as the audience is aware of the situation, so they feel completely wasted in this final instalment. Jabba as a character is given too much screen-time for someone who doesn’t play a part in the remaining length, but he is at least a pretty cool character with some pretty great puppet-work. The Ewoks were characters that fans were not a fan of, as it only cemented the more kid-friendly tone when the latest creatures of focus were a bunch of teddy bears.  While it is a bit strange seeing these creatures taken down the empire and its fleet with nothing but sticks and rocks, they thankfully aren’t annoying or unlikeable, it’s just an odd decision.

This movie is probably the best-looking Star Wars film out of the original three, which is impressive as each Star Wars film looked fantastic for the time they were released. With a budget of around $32.5 – 42.7 million, you can see where the money went as the effects on display are very impressive for the time and the illusion is never really broken in these obvious big scale events. Using Lucasfilm’s own company, Industrial Light & Magic, for the effects, Lucas himself was very cautious about not wanting to go over-budget which happened during Empire Strikes Back, so using their own source cut the spending cost a decent amount. The puppets are still really impressive with a lot of Jim Henson people still working on them, the space battles features some really impressive shots done by Alan Hume and Alec Mills, the woodland environment adds a nice new landscape that help make the large robot droids stand out more and show off their cool designs and effects, and they stay pretty consistently good throughout the whole movie. The fight scene between Luke and Vader in the climax really is where a lot of the best stuff happens in this film, as it has a lot of great weight to it given the consequences as well as the purpose behind the conflict, the characters actually feel like they’re changing and evolving throughout the fight, the set for the throne room is a great looking location and is effectively imposing, and the score done by the ever-incredible John Williams gets wonderfully theatrical and climatic near the end, it just sounds phenomenal.

This is easily the hardest Star Wars movie to gage. While all the others film has noticeable problems, they usually have enough of one to sway them over to a specific side, whilst this one is perfectly unbalanced with its good and bad qualities. Even with these negative elements addressed, it’s hard to say that they still don’t technically work in the overall picture. The early scenes with Jabba are pointless and last too long, but they’re still entertaining to watch, the movie isn’t as dark and ambiguous as Empire, but it’s mainly a return to its New Hope roots, and the fairy tale happy ending does ruin a great bittersweet closer that it originally was going to be, but that wasn’t what Lucas wanted and at the end of the day, it’s his story. It’s pretty tragic to think that in the mainstream Star Wars movies, Empire was the last and maybe only truly amazing Star Wars movie, as every other entry into the universe has always flopped in certain areas and have never been able to reach the same level of depth, intrigue, and expansion to a universe that it managed to achieve. However, though Jedi has some truly great moments, overall, it does feel a like a noticeable downgrade. It’s still a good movie that can be watched, but just don’t expect to be surprised by any of the closing moments. This was when the Star Wars name was originally put to rest, if only they knew the storm that would be created once they came back.

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