By now you can tell my rating when comes to this movie, that’s for sure. Even though this would probably be the “weakest” of the original Star Wars movies. I know some people hate the Ewoks, or see them for what they were – marketing ploy to sell more Star Wars merchandise. I don’t really mind them, I understand those people. You could also say most of the action on the Endor planet is ridiculous, as these teddy bears are holding their own against Stormtroopers, rendering them as not that big of a threat. And look… that’s a good point. To some extent, pretty valid one.

But I am not one of those people. Yes, the Stormtroopers should’ve never been a “real” threat to anybody, and the Ewoks just used the environment to their advantage. And re-watching this episode you can actually tell plenty of them dies during the battle, so I’d not be as harsh on Ewoks.

Let’s talk about something else than Ewoks, before my entire blog turns into Ewok admiration weekly 🙂

When I said this is probably the weakest one of the original trilogy, I wasn’t referring to the quality of the movie, not at all. I was only referring to those two movies prior being giants in the way they influenced and to some extent outgrown the medium, whereas this movie just neatly ties everything together and doesn’t break any new grounds. Which is only an issue if you make it. Sometimes, film needs to serve a function and this movie’s function was simply to finish on a high note, tie everything together and make some money on the way. Return of the Jedi definitely succeeded, hitting every one of those.

We get a second Death Star (because if something works first time, why bother?) we get an awesome confrontation between Luke, Vader and Palpatine while he watches his friends getting defeated in the space, we get the final revelation of this trilogy about Leia (I won’t spoil this just in case somebody still doesn’t know) and everything flows really well.

That’s one thing all the Star Wars movies have in common – doesn’t matter if it’s the original trilogy, prequels, or sequels – they all have given us a movie where there are 3 battles going on and we cut from one to the other almost flawlessly. This one has the battle of Endor, while Luke is having a confrontation with Darth Vader WHILE there is an attack on the new Death Star.

If anything, I’d love for other movies to get inspired and try to give us more of this, coherent action that happens simultaneously, where it doesn’t have to be edited to bits.

I really liked writing reviews for the original Star Wars movies, but I still feel like given the fact that everything has already been said about these movies in the past 40 or so years, it’s hard to try to come up with something new. Just hope you can tell from these reviews how much I adore these movies, and I hope you found them enjoyable. Onto the prequels we go (oh boy… that won’t be controversial at all :-))

That’s all for this one. What did you think, did you like the way the original trilogy ended? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I know what you’re thinking – hey, this isn’t start of the franchise, this is the second movie, you dummy! And yes, technically you’d be right, except as I mentioned in my previous review for Episode IV, only because of the massive success the original Star Wars was, the studios established this would be a trilogy.

When I talk about “the start of the franchise”, this doesn’t touch on just these movies, by the way. As I was talking about in my previous review, where things weren’t planned, this is the total opposite to that and to some degree influenced our pop-culture even more, as in here we are seeing world building (several different planets, not just space ships), we see characters who are established here for the final movie (fan favourite Boba Fett, which I have never understood why as he doesn’t really do much in either movie) and obviously the ending that only “ends” this movie but not the plot per say, if that makes sense. There is no finality to this episode, as it ends on the (in)famous plot twist, on a darker note where our heroes are down. This doesn’t end with celebration and medals.

In my mind, this is what makes this movie the fan favourite in all the “Skywalker Saga” and that includes me. I am so fortunate to have seen this movie when I was around 11/12 years old, without it being spoiled for me (I know right!) so you can imagine how my young mind, who’s seen the original Star Wars movie a week prior, was enjoying this movie and then the twist came and I was mind blown. I remember thinking this was so mad, how could this be!

When I was re-watching this movie 2 weeks ago, nothing has changed. Yes, I wasn’t as flabbergasted as I was before, I was there for the ride and what a sweet ride it still is, even though it’s now been 40 years. I still admire that somebody had the balls. after the almost lighthearted original where good guys win and everything is great, to come up with a sequel that ends on a (especially in 1980) darker note, kudos to Irvin Kershner.

What I’ve also noticed about this while re-watching it, is how in here we establish more who these characters are – Han doesn’t look like he’s changed as he wants to leave (again), but upon hearing Luke hasn’t returned, he risks his life to find him and get him to safety. Leia embraced the leading role, where she has the wits to back it up and struggles with her feelings towards Han. And Luke struggles with fulfilling his destiny and becoming a Jedi, as he’s worried about his friends getting killed, but at the same time realising what’s at stake if he doesn’t finish.

Empire Strikes Back is my favourite Star Wars movie, but it’s not by a mile by any means, as all three films from the original trilogy in my eyes are almost equal, and choosing the “best” ones from them is like choosing between Ferrari or Porsche. Either way, you’re going to ride a pretty great car. It’s splitting hears, looking for tiny details where it’s up to you which movie you gravitate towards more. I couldn’t fault you for choosing any of the other two movies for being your favourite Star Wars film.

That’s all for this one? Which one is your favourite Star Wars movie? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Is there anything new I can say about Star Wars? THE Star Wars? The movie that influenced everything from the way movies are made, to pop-culture, merchandising… I’m still not quite sure if I can grasp how influential this movie was, not just for its time, but for most of our culture now.

And to think this was supposed to be just a one movie, where you have a beginning, the middle and the end… to think how it was originally just named simply Star Wars, no episode number, no New Hope, nothing, as nobody expected this movie to do anything box-office wise. BTW, it’s still the 2. movie of all time box-office wise (adjusted for inflation, see it for yourself here).

I don’t think I can really add anything new here, to be perfectly honest with you. But I’ve recently re-watched all 9 “Skywalker Saga” movies (because that’s how we are calling them now, apparently) and just realized how much I love Star Wars, mainly the original trilogy, so I will write a review for all of them.

If I could just say one thing – where big studios are trying to re-create this magic, they always seem to forget about one thing – this wasn’t supposed to happen, therefore you can’t recreate this. What I mean by that is George Lucas (before all the special additions and truly unnecessary and frankly annoying touches he’s added to the film over the years) delivered something that was just a singular piece of film making, where there was just one story, with a beginning, a middle and the end. No sequel in mind, no setting up this character for later on, because that’s what we deserve, as movie going public. To see a movie, not a something that’s trying to setup another movie/trilogy. Plenty of people seem to miss this nowadays in a hope (heh, see what I did there?) that they might just come close to replicating this.

This movie (and the entire original trilogy) will always be like a warm blanket, like a cozy corner on rainy Sunday afternoon, where I just feel at home while watching it. Sure, I could probably find some flaws (pacing, mainly in the beginning) but I couldn’t for a life of me lower my rating of this movie. For the Star Wars movie reviews that will follow, with some I might have 2 rating scales, the “objective” rating, and my rating. You will understand once we stumble upon the prequels. 😉

But this one doesn’t need 2 rating scales, just one.

That’s it for the very first (or fourth) Star Wars movie? Do you love it as much as I do? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke