Review: The Return of the Jedi

[author_by_night]

Yay, LJ is back!

So julibeth and I watched Star Wars on the phone... yes, that's right, we talked while both watching the same movie. We have to compensate for being on other sides of the country somehow.  Anyway, I decided that since I reviewed the last of the new ones, it would be fitting to review the last of the originals! 

Well, basically, I loved it.

Vader's transformation back into Anakin was amazing... I really liked how Luke "unmasked" him, and found his real father. To be honest, I started sniffling  at that point!

The Ewoks were adorable. *Squishes Ewoks.* I know there's people who hate them, but I don't know how, when they're so cute.  

The Leia/Han was also sweet. Leia's response to Han saying "I love you" - "I know" - was brilliant, as it was what he said to her the movie before. And of course, Han's understanding that Leia was in love... with her brother! The look on his face was terrific. "Your... ohhhh." (Well, not exactly, but practically.)


I loved the ending, with Yoda, Obi Wan and Anakin watching. Only question - where was Padme?

I also have to pose another question relating to her... it seems Lucas may have goofed, because at one point, Leia actually says she remembered her mother. Yet in ROTS, Padme dies... that is a little strange, is all.

Overall... very good movie!

Comments

[victorialupin.livejournal.com]

I ♥ Return of the Jedi. It's undoubtedly my favourite SW movie, even though a lot of people seem to think it's the weakest point in the original trilogy. I think it actually has the most heart and emotion of all of them.

I like to pretend that Leia was either strong enough with the force to remember her mother vaguely from childbirth, or that she was just thinking of her adoptive mother. But, realistically, Lucas probably did goof up.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I think it is possible that she was thinking of her adoptive mother. You could also be right, that it was the force... I just sort of pretend that Leia took a little longer to die than RoTS implies. ;)

BTW, love the userpic - it's one of my favorite lines in the movie.

[ghostlygrove.livejournal.com]

forgot you said you reviewed...

luke and leia were twins, right?? 'cause then i guess you could say lucas goofed, 'cause one couldn't really have lived longer with padme than the other... they would've both had to have been (that looks weird, but it's late, and i can't quite place why, hehe) given up for adoption (or whatever).

k, really going to bed now. later.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

That's the other thing - RotS has them as twins, but in the movie they don't even mention "twins", just brother and sister. Not to mention that Leia looks at least a couple of years older than Luke, althoguh that could just be casting. (And one could argue that she also had to grow up much faster than Luke did.)

[bratty-jedi.livejournal.com]

RotJ mentions twins. I don't remember if it comes up in the Obi-Wan and Luke conversation, I'm fairly certain it does not in the Luke and Leia conversation, but I know it does in the Vader and Luke duel. When Vader pulls the information from Luke he says "Sister. So... you have a twin sister. Obi-Wan was right to hide her from me. If you won't turn, maybe she will," and Luke comes out swinging to protect Leia.

By the way, that entire quote may not be word-for-word since it's been a bit since I last watched RotJ, but I know the twin thing is right.

And Carrie Fisher is younger than Mark Hamill.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Ah, see, at that point, it was hard to catch all of what he said, because there was a lot of noise on both ends (phonewise.)

[bratty-jedi.livejournal.com]

In case the screen name isn't a dead give away, I am a huge SW fan. Considering there are more books, comics, and movies to love and its been around longer, I'm a bigger SW fan than a HP one (though I'm more passionate about HP now).

RotJ has a special place in my heart. I hated Sci Fi as a kid, and this included Star Wars. When I was 12 or 13, my sister was watching RotJ on HBO in the living room and I came downstairs to get a drink from the kitchen. It was in the middle of the battle of Endor and I watched the TV for a bit, yelled "Attack of the Killer Teddy Bears!" at the top of my lungs, and sat down to watch the rest of this really cool movie. I've basically never stopped watching and reading Star Wars ever since. Going back to the beginning (A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back) was a bit odd since I knew about Leia/Luke and that Vader was their Daddy, but I've got it all straight now and have never regretted the way in which I was introduced to the saga, which also means I have a particular fondness for the often disparaged Ewoks.

I think the stuff with Luke and Vader in RotJ are the best scenes of any of the Star Wars movies. And as I said, I love the Ewoks so everything on Endor is great. But RotJ as a whole is not my favorite Star Wars movie. That honor goes to Empire Strikes Back. I have two large issues with RotJ that prevent it from claiming the top spot as a movie, despite the power of certain parts of it. The first is the idea of the Empire building a second Death Star. Come on. Give me something new. The other is that the two halves of the movie, Jabba and Tatooine versus the Emperor/Vader and Endor, just don't mesh together into one movie for me. They are completely disjointed with nothing connecting the two. Both halves are pretty good, but they do not make one movie.

The many contradictions between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy (Leia remembering her real mother as one) are annoying but I don't think any of them are completely insurmountable. Oh, and Padme can't show up because they are Force ghosts and Padme wasn't Force strong.

Just my two credits, which you probably didn't need.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

RotJ does have a few flaws, Jabba included. It didn't seem to fit.

Interesting about the way you were introduced... I was introduced b/c they had some Star Wars thing going on at the mall where I lived at the time, including a showing of A New Hope. So my parents took me to see it. And then a few years later, they had Phantom Menace, and I saw that one. So now the only one I've never seen is Attack of the Clones, and although I probably will see it, it's not a Must See.

[ronluvshermione.livejournal.com]

After seeing Episode 3, I just supposed that Leia was talking about her adoptive mother. It didn't bother me much. But Padme dying? That bothered me. She goes from the kick-ass queen in Ep.1 and 2 to this wallowing princess-in-a-tower that won't even fight to stay alive for her children. Ugh.

I agree on the Ewoks too, I love them. And Han/Leia... Aw.

[sea_thoughts]

RotJ is the first SW movie that I remember watching, too. And the cuteness is the reason that a lot of people hate the Ewoks, though I don't. I think they're hilarious. Luke's talk with the dying Anakin tugs at my heart strings every time. My other favourite part is Han running through the forest yelling "Move! Move!" His hand movements are hilarious.

Did you know that the original response to "I love you" was "Well, you just remember that, cause I'll be back"? They did so many takes with it, and Harrison eventually just said "I know" and it worked. His remark to Lucas was "George, you're a great director but you can't write for shit." Oh Harrison, how we love thee.

Padmé wasn't there because she wasn't a Jedi. And no, it isn't fair.

You spotted the flint. There were massive howls after RotS came out and Padmé died in childbirth because it completely contradicts what Leia says in RotJ (specifically because Luke asks her about her "real" mother). And yeah, they're twins, they were born at the same time.

[jan-aq.livejournal.com]

The orignal trilogy rocks so much more than the prequels.