The best of the series, no matter what anyone else says

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2020)

This is it, the best of the series, and the original conclusion to the saga. It took everything great about the previous movies and brought it to unbelievable heights. I could go on for hours about what makes this movie so good, but I'll try to keep it short.
Of course, there are those that have their complaints about the movie, some even saying that it's the worst of the original trilogy, and I'm left wondering if we even saw the same movie. Some people complain about the whole beginning with Jabba, and how it almost made it feel like two different movies, or that the first part was more of a prologue. That's a fair point, and I can sort of see that, but I didn't mind it, and actually found it very entertaining. It was a nice change of pace from what we've seen of Star Wars. And I loved the creativity and the creatures and stuff we saw. In fact, when I was much younger, this was my favorite portion of the movie because of all that. Not anymore, obviously, but I still find it highly enjoyable. And it also served to show us how strong Luke became as a Jedi since Empire.
A lot of other people complain about the fact that the rebels needed to destroy another Death Star, calling it a rip-off of A New Hope, but that didn't bother me either. I don't remember people complaining about similar premises in other movies. For example, no one said anything when another Terminator had to be stopped in T-2. No one said anything about James Bond needing to stop another terrorist organization. No one said anything about another big car race in the numerous Fast and the Furious movies. Etc, etc. So this complaint is just a stupid nit-pick to me. Especially since the stakes have been raised a lot higher and the climax was much greater.
And then there's the Ewoks. This was also another complaint that a lot of people had where they whined about how a bunch of primitive teddy bears took down the empire. I never had a problem with this, and it seems that people keep forgetting that they didn't take down the empire, this was just a very small portion of the empire's army, and there was also rebels fighting along side them. And despite the Ewoks primitive way of life, they had home-field advantage and superior numbers. It's just like how an army of ants can take down a much larger, much deadlier enemy like a tarantula or a scorpion with their overwhelming numbers. The whole thing also delved into the technology versus nature trope, but this was before that theme was used to death over the years. Overall, I didn't really have any issues with the movie and consider it a masterpiece. If I did have one real complaint though, it was suddenly revealing that Leia was Luke's sister. That really came out of nowhere, and it made a few other scenes between them from the previous movies a little... weird.
But lets talk about the best portion of the movie. The big climax. I've always been a fan of a big, epic climax, and here we get not one, not two, but three of them. The space battle to destroy the Death Star, the ground battle on Endor to destroy the shield generator, and the light saber battle with Luke and Vader. That's a three way battle taking place at the same time, each one unique and epic. Actually, we even get more than that, as there's also the internal battles going on with Vader and Anakin, and the struggle between Luke and his temptation to the Dark Side. Seriously, what more could you ask for? And it all comes to a head at the same time with Han and Leia destroying the shield generator, Lando blowing up the Death Star's main reactor and then racing for the exit, and Anakin coming back to the Light and killing the emperor. Speaking of which, you know I've got to talk about this scene. One of the greatest scenes in movie history in my opinion. Luke accepting what he knows will be his death and completely rejecting the Dark Side, the emperor unleashing a power we've never seen before, and then Anakin's redemption when he casts off his identity as Darth Vader and comes back to the Light. Oh, I could watch this scene a 1,000 times and never get tired of it. Actually, I probably have.
This movie really has everything. It takes all the great stuff from the previous films, rises it to new levels and new heights, and delivers us an epic and awesome movie that leads to a climatic finale that few movies can even come close to before bringing the saga to a satisfying conclusion. From my first time seeing it until now, Return of the Jedi always has been, and always will be, the greatest Star Wars movie ever made, and one of the best movies in history of film, no matter what anyone else says. I don't know what else to say but thank you George Lucas for not just this near-perfect movie, but for this series as a whole.