Sum of my thoughts

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2019)

My favorite movie of the original trilogy. It feels much more personal and human than the first two, which were in my opinion primarily focused on space battles.
The space battles themselves would never have been able to elevate the Star Wars films where they are now. It was the characters that made it what it was, and I'm glad this movie focused on developing the characters of Luke, Leia and Vader more than the first two.
I honestly didn't enjoy the space battles in any of the first three movies, that is of course because of me growing up with movies with better special effects. However, that's not my only problem, especially in this movie. The final space battle took place at the same time as the lightsaber fight between Vader and Luke. That fight meant so much more for the film and felt much more important than a ton of spaceships firing and missing all the time. The fight was much more tense and overall more interesting than whatever was happening elsewhere.
Mark Hammil remains my biggest problem with the whole trilogy. His acting was just as bad as in the previous films (Daniel Radcliffe at least got better over time). He more or less just says his lines, he doesn't seem to actually feel anything. Compare that to Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher, who actually put on good performances. Ford manages to do that even with minimal screen time especially compared to the first movie.
Another big problem was Palpatine's death. The greatest force in the whole universe thrown over the ledge like a ragdoll. That was actually pathetic.
Next big problem is Richard Marquand, who puts no personality into this film at all. No vision, no style, barely any memorable shots or sequences (just one from the final swordfight comes to mind).
A lot of people seem to dislike the Ewoks in this movie. I actually found them likeable and cute, but I get it.
Overall, this film passed by more quickly than the first two, mainly because I found it's content more interesting and the finale actually exciting.