Bears, Snares and the Final Shabang

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2003)

Your best friend has been frozen in intergalactic concrete, you begin to suspect that girl you really liked and sexual fantasied about might be a relation, the most evil man in the universe has confessed he's your Dad just as you were getting ready to kill him, you've lost a limb and worst of all you're been pressured to take over the family business which would be fine were it not for the fact that this means the enslavement and oppression of the entire galaxy. Yes, Welcome to Return of the Jedi - the episode where Luke starts to dress like a guest at a wake and nearly gets eaten by an unconvincing stop motion animated monster.
It all looked very bleak for Luke and company at the end of EMPIRE, and now its looking like game over as the Empire build a second Death Star, a moon sized can of whoop-ass. Return of the Jedi also sees the return of the incredible stupidity with which they quite reasonably had become associated, only this time its the Empire's turn to leave their brains at the door. Hedging his bets in a big way, the Emperor (Ian McDarmid), decides the easiest way to wipe out the rebellion is to tell them where the new Death Star is, how to destroy it and where they can disable its protective shield. The plan hinges on the ability to the Imperial forces to wipe out the rebel fleet. So why is he so confident? A look at history should have given all concerned a bad feeling about this. These are the troops that a hundred strong can't lay a single hit on an untrained boy and a taped down 19 year girl (A New Hope), these are the star-destroyers that can't capture a single ship (Empire Strikes Back) and hang on, aren't these the same Imperial forces that lost the original Death Star to a farmer with a penchant for bombing womprats 'in the caverns back home'? It all looks like a cock up of epic proportions and sure enough it is only this time the Empire is up against forces even more sinister than girls, farmers or old men... Say Hello to the Ewoks - Teddy Bears armed with sticks, rocks and swing ropes. An Empire this damn unprepared doesn't deserve to survive so their end must be a welcome relief for them as well as us. Admiral Needa certainly looks as if hes had enough.
Jedi is a feel good conclusion to the original trilogy but isn't as tight as its predecessor. Before we can get into the meat of the plot they're is unresolved business with Jabba the Hut to get through. Thus the first 40 minutes of Jedi looks like an explosion in a puppet factory as Lucas and puppet director Marquand (bullied and undermined throughout apparently) opt for a child friendly environment at the expense of a harder edge, with one eye firmly on the cash tills. Blue Elephants, bletching alien frogs and a horrid creature that laughs like an evil old woman provide the 'menace', while Luke's rendezvous with the Rancor will scare all those who can stop laughing for long enough to watch.
Once thats out of the way the story moves to Redeeming Anakin Skywalker/Vader, destroying the Emperor and camping in the forests of Endor. Lucas returns to his favourite theme of the a high tech enemy being overwhelmed and defeated by a low tech, god faring opposition (was he on the American's side in Vietnam I wonder?). Fans looking for the dark character dynamics of the previous episode have to wade through a lot of kiddie friendly cuteoids (its a word now, OK?), almost compensated for by MacDarmid's terrific turn as the Emperor. Vader's redemption seems a bit forced with the benefit of hindsight, taking just an hour of screen time, a bit of amateur reverse psychology from Luke and the sons impending death to reverse years of ingrained evil doing. There are precious new elements to the story too thanks to the decision to stick with the original climax despite it having been already used in Episode IV. So alls well that ends well and its good to know that despite having been complicit in the death of millions and being a right bastard for most of his life, killing the Emperor and saying sorry was all that was needed to join the happy glow-lucky Jedi afterlife.
Gives us all new hope doesn't it?
*Some notes on the 1997 Special Edition*
The pit of carcoon looks a bit like Audrey II from Little shop of Horrors thanks to some ill advised digital additions and the musical number that Lucas thought "might be funny" in the middle of a Star Wars film, isn't. We all know what George's sense of humour can produce - the likes of Jar Jar Binks. The nights must fly by in the Lucas household. The extended finale works quite nicely, tieing the film to the prequel trilogy and makes for a more universally satisfactory conclusion. This is one film however that looks set to be in a constant state of revision. At time of writing in 2003 there are reports that Lucas is planning further additions, such as scenes of Padme being pasted in (during the Luke/Leia conversation perhaps?). Fine George, just don't add the prefix "Indiana Jones and the..." to the title OK?