What a miraculous thing...

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2000)

happened when I saw this movie again. I, who actually always had not understood why so many people like this film a lot better then The Empire strikes Back finally understood it. I mean I had seen this film about seven or eight times before, but when I saw it again, I realized what a great film this is. I'd immediately have given it a ten out of ten if it wouldn't have been for the beginning of the film, which I think sucks a bit. First of all I do not like that singing performance in the beginning that much, but that is not what bothered me. What really bothered me were the bad, bad, bad effects in the Rancor vs. Luke fighting scene. The bad effects draw all the attention to them than to focus it on the action and that was so bad no 10 can ever be given by me to this film. Apart from that this film is just one enormous accumulation of excitement, fun, action, emotion, surprises and twists which will not let you out of it's grip until the end. All this is held together by the performances of the great cast of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Billy Dee Williams (Lando) , Clive Revill (Emperor Palpatine) and the Voice of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader. As you may have noticed during my other reviews I really like Harrison Ford as Han Solo most but I must say my other personal favorite is Carrie Fisher as the Princess who does not mind to get her hands dirty. This (again) does not mean I do not like the other characters, as a matter of fact I like them all, but these two have the biggest amount of memorable scenes together. My other favorite pair in this trilogy (mostly due to this film) would (of course) be Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

Now, to not bore you more with my views on this trilogy I'd like to say something about the whole Saga. It actually is more or less aimed at George Lucas and all the original cast of Star Wars, but they'll never read it anyway so here it goes. With the prequel Trilogy taking it's form as we speak there is an enormous hope going around Star Wars fans everywhere that Lucas will also do the last Trilogy. Lucas himself though said that he won't do it and it has been also said by other participants of this Trilogy that they won't return. Let me give you my view on it. In my opinion, opening weekends and box  office results have shown there still is an interest in the Star Wars stories and regarding that one is probably safe suggesting that people would go and see the last Trilogy too. I mean, The Return of the Jedi is a good ending of an epic story, but the fact there is more, makes me wonder what more there could be to the story and I must admit, I need to know how it continues. So in my opinion Lucas should have a poll on his Star Wars site on whether or not the public wants to see the last Trilogy as well. If the outcome is yes he should polish up the story and go to all of his original cast (Fisher, Hamill and Ford) and ask them to return for their roles, for I presume the crowd wants to see their old heroes back on the screen. I mean I would understand it if Lucas said he doesn't want to do it, but maybe the fact that the people want to see his stuff without even knowing what it is about, makes him feel so honored that he'll do it anyway. Plus, I mean with the technology of this day, he could shoot all three films back to back (as was done with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy) and he would be done fast, rather than spending more than 6 years on the whole Trilogy. As for the original cast, I could understand them, if they do not want to return, I mean for they all do not need the money, but it would be nice to see them again in the roles that made them famous. I am not going to say now that they owe it to the audience to return as Leia, Luke and Han to the big screen, because the audience watches their films, buys their books and stuff. No, I won't and you know why? Because that is not true they don't owe us anything. They do what they like and we watch it if we like and that's it. We want to be entertained and they provide us with entertainment. I mean it is not like fame has served all of the stars of this Trilogy well (except maybe for Ford) and we have to respect that too. It is their life and not ours and so it is up to them if they want to re  enter that Star Wars frenzy or not. Cause a frenzy it is. All I do hope, is that Lucas really thinks about making the third Trilogy of the Star Wars saga and I also hope all of the other original' cast and crew members do the same, because I want to see the ending of an epic story, knowing that all the people I know' worked on it.

Watch, be surprised, entertained, sad and jolly.

May the force be with youalways.

9 out of 10