The title of my favourite Star Wars film changes upon every rewatch. At the minute it is Return of the Jedi. RotJ picks up where episode V left off and concludes the first trilogy. We pick up with Luke (Mark Hamill), Han (Harrison Ford), Leia (Carrie Fisher) and the rest of the rebels. We soon discover that the empire is constructing a second death star, so whilst the rebels work on a way to destroy it, Luke surrenders himself to his newly discovered father, Darth Vader (James Earl Jones/David Prowse), in an attempt to bring him back to the light side. Whilst I enjoyed the scenes with Luke, Vader and Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), I do wish we had seen more of Luke with Han and Leia together. The three of them have such good chemistry together and it is a bit of a shame that the film did not fully utilise this.
There are some things in the episodes IV and V that I think were greatly improved on in RotJ. One of which is the action. If you compare the battles between Luke and Vader during V and VI, the action in this one is far better and way more engaging. I also liked Mark Hamill a lot more and thought he gave a far better performance in this than the previous episodes. It also goes without saying that the visual effects had vastly improved, although this is a factor that can come down to the release time and the limits of technology. One thing I think was weaker is the storyline- while it is nowhere near bad, it could never match the pacing and writing of Empire strikes back. Although, don’t think this means that RotJ is weak at all. Among many things, one of my favourite parts of the trilogy is Han’s arc from going to a selfish, jock who is kind of an arsehole, to a reliable friend who ultimately falls in love with Leia. I loved the way this film (somewhat) finished his arc and did it so well. I will also never stop laughing at the moment where Han finds out that Luke and Leia are siblings.
Overall, Return of the Jedi is a brilliant ending to one of the greatest trilogies of our time that means so much to so many people around the world. #maythefourth be with you all!
