I’m going to say it up front, even though a lot of people won’t like it: my Return of the Jedi review puts it above The Empire Strikes Back. I probably would have rated it higher than Empire to be honest, because it had all of the elements I wanted. A lot of people didn’t like this one because they thought the Ewoks were too childish, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a super solid movie from start to end, and I walked out of the cinema happy. It’s the end of the trilogy, and it feels like one, with every thread getting its payoff and the main characters all together at the end. Closing out a trilogy is a hard job, and Spider-Man 3 is the other one I’ve had to judge against it.
Below is a proper walk through of the story, spoilers and all, followed by what I loved, what the arguments are about, and where it lands for me. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d stop here and go and watch it first.
The story so far: rescuing Han
The fights start right from the beginning, with the rescue of Han Solo. A year after Empire, Luke goes back to Tatooine, where Han is hanging on Jabba the Hutt’s wall like a trophy, still frozen in carbonite. The rescue is a slow, clever plan, with Luke sending C-3PO and R2-D2 ahead with a message, Lando sneaking in as a guard, and Leia turning up in disguise as a bounty hunter with Chewbacca as her prisoner. When Leia frees Han from the carbonite he’s blind and weak for a moment, and then she’s caught by Jabba herself, which sets up one of the most talked-about costumes of the whole series.
Jabba’s palace is full of weird creatures and strange music, and it’s a whole other world from anything in the first two films. Luke has to deal with Jabba’s rancor first, a huge monster in a pit under the floor, and he gets out of that in a way that makes you grin. Then Jabba puts them all on his sail barge to be fed to the Sarlacc, a giant pit in the desert, and it all kicks off. A huge battle breaks out above the sand, with Luke leaping about with his lightsaber, Lando nearly swallowed, and Boba Fett taking an unlucky fall. They get away and Jabba doesn’t, killed by Leia with the very chain he’d put her in. It’s one of the best openings in the series, a whole little adventure before the main story even starts, and it has everything: a rescue, a monster, a desert battle and a big, satisfying ending for the crime lord.
Dagobah, and a bit of news
Luke is a different person here, calmer and more sure of himself than he’s ever been. He walks into the palace like he owns it, and he’s turned into a proper Jedi. After that he goes back to Dagobah, where he finds Yoda dying. Yoda confirms what he learned in Empire, that Vader is his father, and says that there’s another Skywalker. Obi-Wan’s ghost fills in the rest, and tells Luke who the other Skywalker is. That’s a quiet, sad scene that sets up everything that follows, and it’s the one place the film slows down to let the weight of the trilogy sink in.
Meanwhile the Rebels are planning their next move. The Empire is building a second Death Star, and the Emperor is coming to see it finished, so the Rebel leaders decide to hit it while it’s still unfinished. A strike force, led by Han, will go to the forest moon of Endor to knock out the shield generator that protects the station, while the fleet, with Lando and Admiral Ackbar, waits to hit the Death Star the moment the shield goes down. It’s a bold plan, and it hangs on everything going right.
The forest moon and the Ewoks
The battle on the forest moon is great, with a speeder bike chase through the trees that I could watch again right now. It’s fast and wild, and the trees whip past so quickly that you feel like you’re riding right along with them. When Leia gets thrown off her bike and meets a little furry creature called Wicket, the whole thing changes tone, and we’re in a forest village full of Ewoks. They capture the heroes and nearly cook them, until C-3PO convinces them he’s a god.
The Ewoks are where the opinion splits. I know people who think they’re too cute and too childish, and a bunch of teddy bears beating the Empire’s troops isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. For me they worked. They’re part of what makes the forest moon feel like a place, and they help the heroes in a way that fits a story about the little guys beating the big bad Empire. Wicket and his friends bring them food and a place to stay and eventually a fight, and it’s a fun choice that didn’t spoil the fighting one bit. The way they use logs and slings and traps against the Imperial walkers is clever and cheeky.
Luke, Leia and Vader
Meanwhile Luke has been quietly working up to the thing he knows he has to do. He tells Leia the truth about who she is, and then he gives himself up to Vader, hoping to turn him back. It’s a brave, strange decision, and it means the whole Endor mission goes ahead with Luke already on his way to the Death Star. When he’s taken to the Emperor, the Emperor is the real villain here, a quiet, hooded old man who wants Luke to give in to hate. He’s all patience and menace, and he’s the first time we see who’s really been pulling the strings.
The Emperor shows Luke the fleet being drawn into a trap, because he’s been waiting for the Rebels all along, and he tries to push Luke into a rage by telling him that his friends are about to die. Luke fights Vader and is pushed right to his limit, and at the end he throws down his lightsaber. That’s the moment the film’s been building to, and it’s a moment I didn’t see coming the way it plays out.
Three battles at once
While all that’s happening, the other half of the plan plays out. Lando takes the Millennium Falcon and leads the fleet towards the second Death Star, and it all goes wrong at the last minute when they arrive and find the Empire was waiting for them. That’s the kind of twist that gives the battle real tension, because the fleet is stuck out there, getting pounded, while the ground team scrambles to finish its job. It keeps cutting back and forth between the forest, the Death Star throne room and the space fight, and every cut raises the stakes a little more.
I loved how all three battles are going on at once, and how they all depend on each other. The big space dogfight, with the ships swooping around the half-built Death Star, is as exciting as anything in the series. Han, Leia and Chewbacca fight their way through the Empire’s troops on the ground, and the Ewoks are right in the middle of it all.
Vader and the Emperor
I won’t spoil exactly what Vader does at the end, but it’s the emotional payoff I wanted from the whole thing, and it was worth the wait. Vader sees his son being tortured by the Emperor, and he makes a choice that changes everything. Back outside, the shield goes down, the Death Star goes up in a fireball, and everybody celebrates, and I was happy to join in. Seeing Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin standing together at the end felt right too. After everything that happens to these people it’s nice to finish on a high, and I came out feeling like it was the right way to wrap it all up. Seeing everyone back together at the end reminded me of the way Journey’s End brought the whole Doctor Who gang back for one last big push.
It’s a film where every big character gets a real moment, from Han and Leia to Lando in the Falcon to Chewbacca on Endor, and nobody gets left behind. It’s the same trick The Avengers pulled with a much bigger cast. The score swells at just the right times, the creatures in Jabba’s palace are strange and wonderful, and there’s a real sense of everything coming together. Again, a super solid movie from start to end.
Why I rate it above Empire
I know it’s an unpopular call. Empire is the one everyone points to, and I love it, but Jedi was the one with all of the elements I wanted. It had great fights right from the start with the rescue of Han Solo, then the battle on the forest moon, and then the final battle with Vader and the Emperor on the rebuilt Death Star. Empire is dark and brilliant and leaves you hanging, and I can see why people rank it first. But Jedi finishes the job, and it does it without losing the fun that made the first film so good.
The Ewoks aside, which I’m happy to defend, I can’t think of a single stretch where it dragged. Every sequence has something going on, every character has a part to play, and the story finally gets to where it’s been heading since the first scene of the first film. That’s a hard thing to pull off, and it’s the reason I’d put it ahead. Rating: higher than Empire, and that’s saying something. I loved every bit of it.
