A letdown, but a dazzling one

Rating: 6/10 (23 October 2000)

(SPOILERS below for those of you that, unlikely as that may be, have never seen this film)
As a high school senior, I skipped school on Wednesday May 25, 1983 to see the first non-preview showing of RotJ with 20 of my fellow classmates. We took up an entire row of the theater with the only 70 mm print with THX sound, no less! What an event. We had waited three years, speculating and reading anything that might give a hint at how the cliffhanger of "The Empire Strikes Back" would be concluded. And here we were in rapt anticipation.
When the credits started to roll two hours later, we were happy. We had finally seen it! What a film! What fun! What action! The special effects! What a ...
And then, as we actually thought about it, we realized that we had just seen a very average film. The acting was far worse than in the previous two films. The story was poorly mapped out and the humor badly timed throughout. Leia was hardly the strong and determined heroine, and Han was *stupid*. They were all caricatures of the people we grew to care about.

I decided to see it again. I mean, was it really that bad? Yes, it actually was. I was embarrassed to talk about the film, it was so bad. And there was a political correctness to the story that annoyed me beyond words. For example, the Millenium Falcon should have been destroyed. One of the main cast probably should have died (besides Vader). The evil characters could have stood to be less one-dimensional. But Lucas was pandering to the audience and the marketers. Twenty minutes of the movie was an elaborate Muppet show.
And then, there were the Ewoks ...
Question: How do you kill the tension of the danger you and your entire rebellion is constantly in?
Answer: Just add Ewoks.
I personally had no problem with them as a race or as characters. They were quite clever. But they diminished the tension factor in the *ENTIRE STORY* by a factor of 10. Watch the movie again and notice how the movie goes from a rapid action film to an extraterrestrial "Wild Kingdom" when they meet the Ewoks. In the words of Mr. Cranky, "UGH!"
When this film came out as a special edition release, I elected to go out and miss it. I saw the other two, but not this inferior sequel. And I'm glad I did.