a little too much fluff, but still good

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 1999)

Although we all can poke a little fun at the Ewoks and the muppet type characters throughout the movie, and they are a little too fluffy and fun loving for the Star Wars genre, the very ending was about the only way the story could end. I think all great stories are built on characters and personalities, and Star Wars certainly is built on the duality of the good guys vs. the bad guys, but redemption is vital to this one very much.
Darth Vader is humanized at just the right time. We see the Empire collapsing and the Death Star about to explode and right at that split second the Father realizes what is truly important in life. Let us not forget that this IS a Hollywood type ending and not a George Lucas type ending. I think had George Lucas intervened a bit more, the quality in the storyline throughout ROTJ would have been on par with the first two installments. I am most certain that Lucas would have developed more on the Luke/Leia story more and given us more into the story than just "It runs deep in my family, you have it too"...that sort of thing.
The Ewoks however are just too cute for the movie. Light sabers and Ewoks just don't mix. The singing scene at Jabba's palace was a bit too much to stomach also. I like to think that a more ferocious and terrifying race of occupants on Endor would have done the movie a world of good. The movie never had a heightened sense of danger the first two had so splendidly displayed. I felt like no matter what happened someone fuzzy would save the show....
All in all though, I feel as if the movie was just good enough to make me feel like I did not get robbed of just over two hours of my life and that maybe the ending of the whole thing saved a bad example of teamwork and good acting. (Lets face it, Ford was way below par on this one as the cynical and resourceful Han Solo) Fisher looked tired and aged of the whole Star Wars scene and ready to move on. Mark Hamill was good as usual, but I was somewhat disappointed in his sometimes lack of energy that he normally puts into his work.
Clearly the first two installments are above this one, but those were tough to beat no matter what. The special effects in ROTJ were above the norm.