Uneven, but still a fitting close to the original trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2005)

Starry-eyed as my 22-year-old self was on opening day for what was then (1983) simply called "Return of the Jedi," I recognized that the special effects wizards at ILM dominated this show. Given what we've seen to date in George Lucas' prequel trilogy, "Jedi" was a harbinger of what was to come: increasingly hyper-detailed CGI landscapes populated with sketchy characters. Nonetheless, this did bring the original trilogy to a satisfying, if uneven, close. The battles raging on the forest moon of Endor and in the heavens above the new Death Star, spectacular as they are, really take a back seat to a smaller- scale conflict involving Darth Vader, the Emperor, and a young Jedi that both are trying to bring over to the Dark Side of the Force, Luke Skywalker. It's this aspect of the story that gives the movie's title (which has a few meanings) its resonance.
Oh yes, there are major complaints here. There's hardly a memorable image or scene to compare to what we saw and heard in the two previous movies; the dialogue is often dull when it's not forced. The Ewoks, while embodying one of Lucas' original concepts for "Star Wars"--primitive warriors overcoming advanced technology--are at times just a little too cutesy. Worst of all is the neutering of Han Solo, who doesn't have a tenth of the swagger and brashness that made him stand out in what are now called Episodes 4 and 5. But all in all, as a resolution to the conflicts laid out in the first two movies, it gets the job done, and is still measurably superior to what we've gotten thus far in the prequels. As to the changes made for both the 1997 "Special Edition" re-release and the DVD, they're of a piece with the modifications to Episodes 4 and 5: some are effective, some detract, and some are of little consequence. Most controversial, of course, is the substitution of Hayden Christiansen for the late Sebastian Shaw in a brief visit by the spirit of Anakin Skywalker (the younger actor plays Anakin in the second and final installments of the prequel trilogy). It makes perfect sense and makes no sense at the same time.