fine wrap-up

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2016)

Han Solo is locked in Carbonite imprisoned in Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tatooine. Luke Skywalker is now a Jedi master. The group has a daring plan to rescue Han. The empire is building a new Death Star. The rebellion plans to destroy it by taking down the shield generators on the moon of Endor. There they are aided by the diminutive native Ewoks. Meanwhile, the Emperor is trying to lure Luke to the dark side.
I first saw this in the theater but lineups made us late. We were stuck in the front row. I've seen it many times since. The Jabba the Hutt section is terrific. Slave Leia taking control of the deck gun is amazing. Almost everything is perfect. The speeder bike sequences are terrific action and the space battle is great. The allure of the dark side is powerfully shown. The only drawback are the Ewoks. They simply look too much like teddy bears and speaks to Lucas' need to play to the kids. Some at-st destruction seems too unlikely. It's like a kid imagining fun silly ways to destroy his toy at-st. Those are minor problems. As for the Special Edition changes, most are fine and unnecessary. There is one glaring, horrifying change. The song and dance at Jabba the Hutt's palace is undeniably bad. It is one of the worst things ever in Star Wars. I can excuse Jar-Jar but I cannot excuse that.