Of furballs and a fitting end to the Star Wars trilogy

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 1998)

Being forced to choose, I would pick this movie as the lesser of the Star Wars trilogy. I agree that it's mostly due to the Ewok factor, but for me it's not the cute furballs themselves. It's the sight of a fully-equipped Imperial force being brought to its knees by a bunch of primitive antics that grates on logic. In a genre that calls for some suspension of disbelief, this is not too good -- bad even, for some viewers I suspect, so be prepared.
That aside, this is a more than competent conclusion to this chapter of the Star Wars saga. George Lucas continues to keep it all moving along with his vision (a rarity nowadays among sci-fi film-makers), and production-wise you can expect improvements over its predecessors. The best scenes are those revolving around the Skywalker Jedi legacy, the well-done space battles, and of course the final confrontation that sees a long-overdue redemption leading to the inevitable triumph of Good over Evil.
Despite its relative weaknesses, Return of the Jedi still stands as part of the one of the most accomplished and enduring trilogies yet. And it takes much more than a forest full of furballs to completely sink a Star Wars movie.