The Least of the Originl Trilogy but Still Very Good

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2015)

Return of the Jedi (1983)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
The third in the original trilogy has Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) being held captive by Jabba the Hut so Luke (Mark Hamill), Leia (Carrie Fisher) and the rest of the gang must try to break him out. After a massive fight the attention turns to Darth Vadar who Luke hopes to bring back from the dark side.
RETURN OF THE JEDI is the weakest of the original three films but don't for a second think that it's a bad movie. In fact, it's another very good entry in the series and for the most part it's a nice way to end the original trilogy. This film, once again, tries to be even bigger than the previous one, which it is in many ways but at the same time there's no denying that you start to feel the 134 minute running time.
Still, there are so many great moments here that you can't help but get caught up in everything going on. You've got Hamill, Fisher, Billy Dee Williams and Ford all in top-gear and they obviously deliver strong performances. Chewbacca is back and naturally steals every scene that he's in. The action scenes are some of the best of the series with the stuff in outer space looking 100% authentic but we also get some fun stuff on land including the aircraft race through the forest.
Yoda, R2-D2 and C-3PO are all return but we're also introduced to the Ewoks. It seems fans are split on how "good" they are. I'm sure kids loved seeing these little creatures and while I won't deny they're cute, at the same time I'm not sure how much they add. With that said, RETURN OF THE JEDI falls just short of the previous two films but it's a nice way to close out the trilogy.