Let’s start with this. The title is misleading. There’s been so much that has been said and written about this movie, and yet nobody ever calls out the title, which makes it sound like the Jedi are back. But this movie isn’t about the Jedi at all. It’s about the rebels. Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, and the team of rebels that are finally taking down the empire. And yes, Luke is a Jedi, but he’s the only one. The Return of the Jedi makes it sound like he finds others, and the Jedi knights are reestablished and come back.
Moving past the title, this is a good movie. It’s the weakest of the three original films, but it still has a lot to offer. The first movie, A New Hope, was by far the best. It told a complete story from start to finish, and featured multiple missions, one that lead into the next. It also featured a gutsy plot that began by following robots around through multiple scenes, until they lead us to our main characters. That movie introduced its protagonist, Luke, somewhat late in the game, and even killed off the main mission halfway into the movie (destroying planet Aldoran, where Luke and his team were trying to reach, in order to deliver a message.) That one was a truly excellent film.
The second movie, The Empire Strikes Back, was also pretty good. Especially in its first and third acts. The first act, on the ice planet, Hoth, really packed a lot into it’s opening between Luke’s being captured and then escaping from a cave monster to the Empire’s giant vehicle attack and battle against the rebels. The second act, involving Lukes training with Yoda, and Han and Leia bantering until they fell for each other, was the weakest part of the movie. But then the ending more than made up for it, with its morbid fate for Han (the movie ended with him being frozen in carbonite and then taken away,) to its light saber battle between Luke and Darth Vader. And then of course there was the big reveal about Luke’s father. Many regard the Empire Strikes Back as the best movie in the trilogy. It’s not. It has a weak second act. But it’s still a damn good movie.
The Return of the Jedi doesn’t feature a terrific story the whole way through like A New Hope, and it doesn’t even feature a great first and third act, like Empire does. Instead, what it features is a great first act. Jaba’s palace. Now this first act is absolutely terrific. It takes what was easily one of the coolest scenes in the original film (the cantina sequence, featuring tons of strange looking alien beings,) and brings it up a notch, putting them all in Jaba’s secret hideout, (a lair which looks like a building from the outside, but a cave from the inside.)
Everything about this sequence is fantastic, from Jaba’s evil laugh behind the curtain when Leia is caught trying to rescue Han, to Jaba’s advisor who seems to have something that resembles a white snake wrapped around his neck, to the giant monster in the dungeon that stands on two feet and eats whatever poor soul is sent down to him. All of this is great. The sequence on the ships, over the pit, with Luke walking the plank, is also great. And Jaba is a fantastic villain. But once he’s out of the way, the movie stops being as cool.
For one thing, the Jaba storyline doesn’t really lead to anything. Unlike the first movie, where every story or mission lead to the next, and there were real consequences to everything that happened, the Jaba the Hut storyline seems to be disconnected from the rest of the movie. If the rebels stayed at Jaba’s hideout after he was killed, and made the lair their own training base or camp, it would have been cool. But instead they leave the area, and never return.
And that brings us to the next part of the movie. Act 2. Luke goes Degobah to finish his training with Yoda (a nice call back to the second movie, where he left abruptly in the middle of his training.) Only now, Yoda is dying. He passes, and then Luke meets a force ghost of Obi Wan. So within just a few minutes of each other Luke has a conversation with both Yoda and Obi Wan. And in both of these conversations, Luke discusses his father, and whether or not it is true, what Vader told him.
With Obi Wan, Luke also learns about his sister, Leia. Some people feel this twist just a copy of the father twist in the second movie. I disagree. It’s more like now completing the whole picture. Luke and Leia were always brother and sister, from the very beginning. We are just filling in the missing pieces now. To that end, one does have to wonder how much was in the plans by writer George Lucas, from the very first movie, and how much really only got figured out for the second movie.
And that brings us to the Emperor. In the first movie, A New Hope, there is no Emperor. There is no mention of an Emperor. And if that movie had not done well financially, there never would have been an Emperor. Darth Vader would have been the villain, the movie would have ended with blowing up the Death Star, and that would have been it. But when A New Hope did so great at the box office that not one, but two sequels were ordered, the playing field opened up. Suddenly they could have a movie that ended on a cliffhanger with one of the leads being captured and the others heading off to save him. And suddenly they could introduce a villain in hologram projection form in one movie, and then actually show him in the flesh in the next movie. This is something that the later Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens and Revenge of the Sith, also did, introducing Snoke in hologram form in one movie and then showing him in the flesh in the next.
A good deal of the Darth Vader storyline in Return of the Jedi deals with the Emperor. First, it’s Vader arriving on the new Death Star and telling the Empire workers that the Emperor is coming and will not be pleased with their lack of progress on completing it. Next, there is the Emperor arriving and being greeted by Vader. And then there are the scenes of the Emperor and Vader discussing Skywalker, and how the force is strong with him, and he needs to be made to join the Empire. It is only in the final act of the movie that Skywalker shows up, does battle with Vader, and confronts the Emperor. In other words, most of Vader’s storyline in this movie is just standing around, talking about Skywalker, waiting for him to show up.
Before we get to all of this, however, we are still in the second act with Luke on Degobah, after the Jaba’s Palace, first act. Luke is there for Yoda’s death, and then he leaves and retests with his friends, Han and Leia, who are on a rebel ship planning the destruction of the new Death Star. There is a planet that controls a shield which is protecting the new Death Star. Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and their droids (R2 and C3PO,) volunteer to go to the planet and shut off this shield. And just like that we have a mission for the second half of the movie.
Not long after arriving on this foresty planet, our heroes are attacked by Storm Troopers on flying bikes. This leads to a fight between them, with both Luke and Leia getting on the bikes themselves and being chased or chasing after the Storm Troopers, shooting laser blasts at them as they go. It’s a pretty cool sequence. And it leads to Leia getting separated from the group. That’s when the Ewoks come in.
The Ewoks as a new addition to the Star Wars universe is one of the biggest things about this movie. They help our heroes take down many other Storm Troopers that come their way, this time while riding huge vehicles such as ATSTs (two legged walking machines.) Chewbacca even gets inside one of those at one point, and uses it to help the rebels. The Ewoks, in all honesty, aren’t the greatest. They’re cute and fun, but there’s something that just doesn’t seem or feel right, with all of their grunts, and pretty much no talking.
And that brings us toward the end of the movie. The final act. Luke confronts Vader and the Emperor while Lando is leading a bunch of spaceships on an attack of the new Death Star, and Han and Leia really don’t have a whole lot to do. They make it seem like the Han and Leia storyline is the one about turning off the shield, so that Lando has a clear path to lead his ships through, but Han and Leia stay outside the enemy base the whole time. This should have been about the two of them sneaking in and going on a secret mission to infiltrate the base, find the shield and turn it off. Instead, their story is mostly characterized by Ewoks. It’s kind of a mess.
And then there’s the Luke-Vader-Emperor showdown. The moment we’ve all been waiting for. And it only partly delivers. Luke fights Vader in another light saber battle, and it’s pretty cool. Then the Emperor tells Luke to kill Vader and Luke refuses. This makes the Emperor fire at Luke with laser blasts from his hands. And this goes on for a long time. Too long. We keep cutting back between the Emperor, Luke, and Vader. And it’s the close ups on Vaders helmet as he’s just watching this for a while that really make it feel too long. I’m guessing there are about five close ups on Vader, just watching. It completely telegraphs what Vader is going to do, instead of having that be a surprise. It takes what could have been a cool moment and makes it a little too corny and campy.
But Vader does eventually join in and throw the Emperor down a pit and save Luke, (boy he sure took his time. It’s a wonder that Luke didn’t die.) And then Luke helps his father take off his mask. This moment is pretty cool. Seeing what Vader looks like under the helmet. It’s a nice way to end the villain.
From here we get the parties in Ewok village, and really all over the Galaxy as the Empire has finally fallen. We get Han learning that Luke and Leia are brother and sister, which is played for a joke at first, with Han getting jealous until he knows the truth. And we get Luke standing over a funeral pyre as his fathers body is burned. It’s a fine ending to a good movie. Just not nearly as good as the other ones.