The saga is complete

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2010)

When The Empire Strikes Back ended on a cliffhanger a sequel was inevitable. The audience wanted more and closure to the saga. Whilst Return of the Jedi was the weakest of the original trilogy, it is still a very entertaining film and Star Wars is one of the few trilogies which is a great as a whole.
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamall) and his allies have to save Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) who at the end of The Empire Strikes Back sealed in carbonite and in the clutches of the gangster Jabba the Hut. Luke and his allies Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), C3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2D2 (Kenny Baker) set out to launch an audacious rescue of the coolest pirate in the galaxy. When that business was taken care of they go back to the Rebels where they have receive intelligence that the Empire were building an even more powerful death and that Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) and the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) himself were overseeing the construction. The rebels have one chance of a surprise attack, which requires a ground assault on the forest moon Endor. This is led by Leia and Solo and they ally with the local, primitive tribe of Ewoks to destroy the shield protecting the Death Star. Luke is also on a personal mission, to try and save Darth Vader from the dark side to help defeat the Emperor, but the Emperor believes he can turn Luke. This leads to a mental and physical battle of the soul.
Return of the Jedi is a very enjoyable film with great action sequence to match the first two. There is a very good light sabre fight and Luke's skills as a Jedi are truly expanded. There is a good battle which shows a futuristic force are having to fight a primitive race using spears and bows and arrows. There is a interesting battle of wits between Luke and the Emperor and shows this is more then a sci-fi action film, but a emotional battle for souls. There is excellent art direction in the film like in the first two film and there is more ambition in showing a wide range of alien race compared to The Empire Strike Back. But some alien designs were not as good as others, the Ewoks looked like teddy bears, whilst the Admiral for the Rebels looked ridiculous. The acting sticks to form with the other films, with Harrison Ford and James Earl Jones being the best performers and Ian McDiarmid was wonderfully slimy and evil as the main villain of the piece.
Return of the Jedi is not as dark as The Empire Strikes Back, which in itself not much of a problem, but the including of the Ewoks made the film a little too childish. There were some interesting ideas to be had with them, but as stated they look like teddy bears that children would want to hug not a realistic alien race. As well the general plot of the film was basically very similar to first film, development of a Death Star, action set on Luke's home world and attack a weakness in the Empire's defends.
Return of the Jedi is a very good and entertaining film which closes the circle of the Star Wars saga.