Star Wars Month #3: Something, Something, Something Dark Side

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2014)

Following two really great and imaginative films, Return of the Jedi seems a bit like a letdown. Its not that its bad, I just feel slightly annoyed when I watch it. The story is understandably under pressure to live up to Episodes VI and V, but it doesn't really stand as tall. There are some good things though, so let's take a look.
The conclusion of the trilogy entails the threat of a new (yet somehow half finished "OPERATIONAL") Death Star. This time the Emperor himself (played fiendishly awesome by Ian McDiarmid) has come to lure Luke Skywalker into joining the Dark Side, but Luke's only concern is to free his father Anakin Skywalker from the darkness of Darth Vader. Meanwhile, after freeing Han from Jabba the Hutt, which takes an inordinately long time I may add, the our heroes go to the teddy bear infested toy store... I mean Ewok run moon of Endor to destroy the Death Star's shied so Lando Calrissian can destroy the station's jumper-upper thingy.
There are, unfortunately, very weak elements to this story even though it should really have been more epic and emotional. The stuff on Tatooine with Jabba the Hutt goes on for far longer than it should, but Jabba is a rather interesting fellow, so at least that carries us through it. The dialog and characterizations are really bad in this one, and I mean really annoyingly bad. Luke barely smiles once in this movie, and for the most part, he looks and sounds depressed. His platitudes aren't that great either when he talks to his father. Leia and Han are equally as boring. There is just no more spark between any of them anymore, and they seem like they're either playing role models to a fault, or they are caricatures of themselves.
The element that really does bug me is the reveal of the fact that Luke and Leia are twins. Add the fact that they had kissed each other romantically and formed a sort of love triangle in the previous two films...EEWWWW!!!!! It wasn't necessary at all, so why it was done is completely beyond me.
When I talk about the dialog, it comes off as stilted and muted. Words aren't emphasized, and when they are, people use them as catchphrase, i.e. "It's A Trap!" Family Guy best summed up the Emperor's dialog by repeating the words "Dark Side, Good, Complete, my Young Apprentice or Operational." The rest is really default word placement, i.e. something, something, something, Dark Side. No one talks normally in this movie, and it truly annoys me.
Now onto the good things. The effects are truly spectacular, some of the best in the series, namely found in the Death Star dogfight. Here it looks like effort was really put into the movie to make it stand out. Bravo. The emotional journey of Darth Vader is actually handled very well, and the moment when he removes the mask that keeps him alive to really look upon his son is very sad but we are reminded that he has redeemed himself in the process, bringing balance to the force.
So I do have mixed feelings about Return of the Jedi. It's not bad, but its not that great either. Now we move onto the controversial Prequel Trilogy. I will try to handle these films as fairly and as best as I can.