Spoiler Warning
Almost anyone with an in-depth knowledge of the Star Wars fandom will know that the Original Trilogy are the undeniable favorites. Many Star Wars fans tend to rank all of these three films over the other eight (The Prequel and Sequel trilogies as well as the two spinoff films). The final installment, Return of the Jedi, is the only one that seems to draw criticism.
As an avid Star Wars fan, I consider Episodes 4 and 5 to be among the best of the franchise… but I consider Episode 6 to be among the worst.
I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a bad film. That being said, Return of the Jedi is filled with bad moments, bad scenes and just overall weak writing. I have heard some legitimate defenses of this film and I will admit that there are some high points to this movie. In fact, a lot of the overarching plot threads are good when examined from a broad perspective. It’s only when you start to take a closer look that a lot of the film starts to fall apart. There’s certainly enjoyment to be had in this film and I can respect the opinion that it’s a good movie, but I’ve found myself liking it less and less with every new viewing over the past few years.
Before I dive into the plot, I do want to preface by making one point. Unlike most Star Wars fans, I don’t hold the OT (Original Trilogy) to be infinitely superior to the others. I enjoy all the movies, and I think that (for the most part) the originals don’t have as many flaws as the other films, but I don’t consider every aspect of them to be better. The reason I make this point is because I don’t find the OT characters to be any more engaging than I do the characters from the PT (Prequel Trilogy). In fact, a story centered on Anakin and Obi-Wan might hold more interest for me than one centered on Luke, Han and Leia.
So, maybe I simply don’t have as much emotional attachment to these characters (though I think they’re great characters) as other fans, and maybe that’s why the plot just didn’t click for me.
Now, onto the plot.
The very first scene is Darth Vader’s arrival on the Second Death Star, still under construction. This is one aspect of the movie that has gotten flack that I don’t agree with. Making a second Death Star may seem silly at first glance, but keep in mind that the only reason Palpatine was able to disband the senate in Episode 4 was because of the Death Star. Without such a powerful weapon, he has no easy means of keeping the galaxy under his control, so constructing a new Death Star is the easiest and best solution.
So, while the weapon may not have been as effective as Palpatine had hoped, the symbolic power of it is vital to his authority. Also, he does make an effort to correct the weakness of the old one by constructing the shield generator on the Forest Moon of Endor, so it’s obvious that he’s at least trying to correct his previous mistakes. The Death Star II is still destroyed as a result of its uncompleted nature, but that was necessary to his plan, hoping to trick the Rebels into thinking the weapon wasn’t operational yet.
Is it a bit of a rehash of Episode 4’s setting? Yes, but it does make sense in-universe.
From there, we move into the movie’s first act, the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba’s Palace. And almost immediately, problems begin to arise.
Let me say, before I delve into these problems, that I do like this part of the movie… mostly. I like seeing the heroes deal with a threat other than the Empire, and I think there are some really great moments and set pieces on display here. Unfortunately, there’s just so many problems here. The main one is the heroes’ plan for rescuing Han.
Let’s examine the situation the heroes are in first. Jabba has captured Han Solo and is holding him deep within his palace. Luke Skywalker (now a Jedi Knight), Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and the two droids are on the outside, plotting a break-in with Lando already undercover inside. So, what do they do?
Luke sends in the two droids and hands them over to Jabba to be his servants, all while R2-D2 holds Luke’s lightsaber, placed there for no other reason than so Luke can be captured and we can have a big reveal for his new lightsaber later in the film. Then, Luke sends in Princess Leia, disguised as a bounty hunter, who hands Chewbacca over to be imprisoned by Jabba. First question, why would he ever do any of this? Seriously, what possible good does giving Jabba three new prisoners do? Also, why does he need to send Leia in? Surely it would be easier for Lando, disguised as a skiff guard, to gain access to Han than some bounty hunter who just showed up that morning.
How in the world are they supposed to extract the three new prisoners, even if Leia can get Han out? Does Luke really have the foresight to know they would all get taken to the Sarlaac Pit where they would have to face less of Jabba’s gangsters? What if Jabba had executed them at the palace? In fact, he tries this. He drops Luke into the Rancor pit! What if he’d done that with Leia? Or Chewbacca? Sure, the droids would be pretty safe, but what about the two of them? Presumably, Leia getting captured wasn’t part of the plan. But if not, why have her attempt to rescue Han? Was she just going to slip out with him, and then leave Chewbacca and the droids behind so they would have to come up with another insane rescue plan?
This isn’t even just me trying to pick apart the plan and point out some dumb parts of it. Literally none of this plan makes sense, and I have not been able to think of a single explanation for why they would have tried any of this.
Among the better plans are:
1) Luke goes in and demands Jabba hand Han Solo over to him. If he keeps his lightsaber, Jabba’s gangsters can’t capture him.
2) Lando sneaks Han out, with everyone else waiting to come in as back-up.
3) Leia uses the thermal detonator to demand Han’s release, rather than money she isn’t going to spend and doesn’t need.
4) Luke gains entrance to the palace the way he does, except he orders Bib Fortunna to take him to Han Solo instead of Jabba, and then leaves the palace with Han.
However, once you get past this nonsensical plan, this sequence gets pretty good. Luke shows up, attempts to negotiate with Jabba (after having already sent all his friends in to get captured). I will say, Luke’s intro is amazing. It has the perfect level of mystery to it and even, in a weird way, menace. It’s immediately clear that he’s no longer the whiny farm boy that we’d come to know and love over the previous two movies.
However, his negotiations fail and he's thrown into the Rancor pit. This is a good, tense sequence, but is unfortunately hampered by the times. There was no real way to convincingly show the Rancor attacking Luke at the time, so the efforts to hide this via camerawork are a bit obvious. Still, I like what they were going for. Also, in all fairness, the way Luke kills the Rancor (by dropping a massive door on it and crushing its skull) is pretty awesome, showing him use his intelligence instead of just brute force to win the battle.
From there, we get one of the movie’s best action sequences, with the heroes being captured and taken to the Sarlaac pit via desert skiff. Luke’s plan finally comes to fruition, as R2 tosses him the lightsaber and he ignites it, revealing the first ever green lightsaber (in real world chronology).
It's a good action sequence, seeing Luke leap from sail barge to sail barge, taking out one henchman after the next. It’s nice to see a look at what a Jedi fighting in their prime looks like, especially since this isn’t something we see much outside of the PT. We also get to see Leia get in on the action as she strangles Jabba the Hutt.
Unfortunately, another thing we get is an incredibly disappointing death for Boba Fett, as Han accidentally bumps into him and sends him falling to his death. All we got out of him was a very brief exchange with Luke earlier in the movie, leaving this cool looking and menacing character to die without him doing anything. Thankfully, this would be soft ret-conned later with the Mandalorian Season 2 and the Book of Boba Fett, but for this movie, this is a glaring waste of this character’s potential.
That brings an end to the lengthy prologue (which is probably one of the better parts of the movie) and from there, Luke journeys back to Dagobah, where we get a really touching scene between him and Yoda, before the old master reveals Vader is in fact his father, before succumbing to old age and dying.
It's sad to see one of my favorite characters die, but they did give him a great death. He gets to have a heartfelt conversation with Luke, before dying a peaceful death, leaving his apprentice as the last Jedi and the only hope for the galaxy. Of course, Yoda and Obi-Wan have different ideas of what this is supposed to look like than Luke does, bringing me to one of my favorite tie-ins to the prequels (as well as favorite things in the film).
In Episode III, once Yoda and Obi-Wan discover Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side, their immediate plan is to kill him, with there being basically no effort to redeem him (though Obi-Wan shows more than a little reluctance at fighting his best friend). This is still where these two masters are; they want Luke to fight and kill Vader. Luke, however, refuses to give up on his father, and is determined to reach him, no matter what Obi-Wan or Yoda says.
I really like this part of the movie, even if Obi-Wan’s revelation that Leia is Luke’s sister is a bit exposition heavy. Apart from that, there’s some really great dialogue here and it does a wonderful job of setting the stage for the core conflict of the movie. Because this conflict is the best part of the movie, not only does it make these dialogue heavy scenes much more interesting, it also elevates the film over what it would have been otherwise.
Yes, there’s the basic level of the conflict: Jedi vs Sith/Rebels vs Imperials. And then Episode 5 added the familial aspect: son vs father. This movie adds another level, as Luke has to struggle against the flaws and failings of the previous generation of Jedi. He has a chance to correct their mistakes, and it’s this mercy that he extends to Vader that ultimately succeeds in defeating the Emperor and freeing the galaxy.
Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t exactly keep the momentum, or even interesting ideas, going. I know we’re starting the second act and things are inevitably going to slow down, but it’s not that this part of the movie is slower… it’s that it’s just plain boring.
The Rebels are presenting their attack plan on the Second Death Star, explaining how they got the shuttle, and just a lot of exposition. Then, the main heroes are selected to lead the mission and there’s really no interesting dialogue here. There’s no personality or character to the dialogue that’s laying the groundwork; each line could be said by almost anyone.
Once the heroes embark on their mission, things start to pick up a little, but not much. Han and Lando share one scene where they talk about the Falcon, which is another odd moment. Why are Han and Lando suddenly okay? Yes, Lando helped rescue him, but Han clearly blamed Lando for his capture (reasonably so) and there’s no scene where they hash out their differences… they’re just magically fine.
I’m not saying there needed to be a lot of conflict between them. This is the same universe where Luke got over the deaths of his guardians in a few minutes of movie time, and Anakin forgot about his mother’s death after a few scenes. I just wished they’d addressed it. Just a couple of lines would’ve been nice, especially since it would’ve broken up all the boring exposition.
Now, I know this information is important, but it’s important to find some way to give this information in an interesting way to keep the audience engaged. The trick is to not let the audience know they’re hearing exposition. Other Star Wars films struggled with this (like Episode 1), and others got it right. The briefing in Episode 4 doesn’t feel like exposition. It’s short and to the point, and just as much time is it spent emphasizing the hopeless odds as on giving you the relevant emotion. Even small moments like Han’s eye roll at the Rebel optimism goes a long way to preserving the pacing.
Episode 6 doesn’t include any of these small moments here and doesn’t supply much of a tone, either, so the movie starts to stagnate. I know this isn’t an overly long stretch of the movie, but part of the problem is the timing. Dagobah gave us some really great dialogue and ideas, but at the same time, it is still downtime. Not only that, but they are dialogue scenes between two characters just sitting there, not doing anything. For one scene, this isn’t necessarily bad, but when you have a long string of dialogue scenes back-to-back, if there isn’t any kind of change in setting or some type of set-piece to the scene, the dialogue has to be really good to keep people from getting bored.
This is why a lot of people checked out in Episode 1 during the Coruscant scenes: it was just one dialogue scene after the next in the council chambers, of all the Jedi sitting/standing there. Episode 2 corrected this by having Obi-Wan visit a variety of locales (a diner, a library and a Jedi classroom) during his investigation. In these Episode 6 scenes, there’s nothing visually interesting happening, which only compounds the problems of the boring exposition.
The pacing of Episode 6 might be better than that of Episode 1, but it’s still bad. Especially since there’s much, much more downtime ahead of us. In fact, there’s really only one more action sequence until the very end of the movie. Honestly, this has some of the least action of any Star Wars movie, and that really starts to be felt in scenes like this.
Thankfully, things start to pick up after these scenes. As they’re flying the shuttle to Endor past the Imperial fleet, Luke and Vader sense each other, providing us with some tension and a tease at the coming reunion between father and son, giving us a scene that, while totally lacking in action, was enough to get me interested again.
And the movie picks up more steam once they reach Endor, as they launch into another good action sequence, the speeder bike chase, which is still a lot of fun in spite of the dated special effects. Seeing Luke get to use his Jedi training once again is a lot of fun, especially since this time he’s in much more danger, given that he can’t just automatically win by swinging his lightsaber around. Also, seeing Leia and Luke working together in a battle is amazing, as it’s one of the only scenes in the entire franchise where we get to see that.
And then we get to the Ewoks. By themselves, I don’t have a problem with the Ewoks. Yes, they’re cutesy and obviously aimed at kids, but… this is Star Wars. Lucas specifically said he made these movies for kids (I think it was either ten or twelve that he said was the target age). So, it’s not so much the Ewoks themselves I have a problem with as it is what they do.
First of all, keep in mind that we can’t understand anything the Ewoks say, so the scenes the heroes spend at their camp aren’t overly interesting. They can’t really develop these new characters much, because they can’t speak, and that also means they can’t really develop the heroes very much. This isn’t a huge problem since this sequence doesn’t last all that long, but it does contribute to the already slow pacing of this film, because, once again, these downtime scenes are legitimately boring.
And it also brings me to another problem I have with this movie: the character development. My problem being the almost complete lack of it. Every single bit of character development occurs between Luke and Vader. Anything else that changes between the characters is a change that occurred off screen. Han and Leia are nice to each other, presumably because of her profession of love last movie, but since we don’t get to see that growth in this movie, it doesn’t make us feel like anyone’s developing. Han and Lando are buddies now, but again, this is something that changes occurs off screen.
The only argument you could make for other character development is Leia finding out she’s Luke’s sister, but this really doesn’t go anywhere. He tells her, and then leaves almost immediately after that, and they never speak to each other again on screen until Episode VIII. Yes, Leia being his sister resolved the awkward ‘love triangle’ (although I feel like Leia telling Han she loved him already kind of did that) and it does serve to motivate Luke into fighting Vader later in the film, but it doesn’t change her character whatsoever. Leia’s and Han’s characters are completely stagnant in this movie.
Of course, given that Luke and Vader have some great character development, this does help matters, but it still leaves all the scenes without them present feeling just sort of… bland. Yeah, some cool stuff happens, Han and Leia are still fun characters, but they’ve lost some of the edge that made them so much fun. It’s nice to see them not fighting so much since they’re supposed to be on their way to becoming a couple, but there is also something to be said for their slightly more abrasive personalities in the previous two films.
The other problem I have with the Ewoks is their inexplicable ability to easily defeat an entire legion of Stormtroopers. I’m not going to get into all the details of the battle just yet (as I have lengthy comments on it) but since I’m on the topic of Ewoks, I should mention the fact that seeing little teddy bears stab trained soldiers (wearing armor and armed with blasters) to death with tiny spears is completely unbelievable. Also, since Lucas was never going to show cute little teddy bears getting gunned down in droves by Stormtroopers, we see only a handful of Ewoks die (and I think all of them are to indirect fire from the Imperial walkers), making the incompetence of the Stormtroopers even more painful to watch.
Also, we find out why the Rebels decided to send C-3PO on a stealth mission (you know, the loud, slow, shiny guy that can’t keep his mouth shut): so he can appear to be a deity to the Ewoks and convince them to help. In all fairness, this is kind of funny, what with the Ewoks going to kill and eat the humans as an act of worship to C-3PO. It doesn’t make sense that he’s on this mission in the first place, but at least they get some laughs out of it.
Anyway, with the heroes now at the Ewok’s camp, Luke realizes that Vader will be able to sense his presence, and thus lead him to the rest of the Rebels. As such, Luke decides it’s time for him to leave and face Vader once and for all. This leads into some of my favorite stuff in the movie. First of all, Luke is completely set on redeeming Vader. He has no intention to fight him whatsoever, even if it means his death. We see this when he surrenders himself to Vader, handing his lightsaber over to the Empire. I love seeing this aspect of Luke’s character, as he’s embraced the true meaning of what it is to be a Jedi, something even Obi-Wan and Yoda seem to have forgotten.
We also get my single favorite scene of the movie, when Luke and Vader talk on the bridge before heading up to the Second Death Star.
This is where we get to see some of that character development I was talking about earlier. Vader begins to show signs of true conflict here (up until this point, the only signs we’d seen was his reluctance to kill Luke on Bespin), with him seemingly showing regret that he can’t be redeemed. This is made even better now that the Prequels have been made and we’re seeing not just the start of a villain’s redemption, but the return of a hero we actually know.
It's also at this point where the movie moves into what is (at least conceptually) one of the movie’s best set pieces: the three battles occurring at once. Unfortunately, the battles have their fair share of problems, but most of them are focused on the ground battle on Endor.
Let’s start with the positives. I like how they split up the heroes and give all of them an important job. Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids have to disable the shield generator so the Death Star can be destroyed. Lando has to lead the attack that will destroy the Death Star, while Luke must face the two main villains alone.
However, the problems begin to set in almost immediately.
Let’s start with the space battle, because that is by far the easiest one to talk about. I love seeing Lando get to do something important, and I think this space battle is a very entertaining action sequence. I only have a couple of minor nitpicks with this scene. First of all, there is a lack of major characters in this sequence. Lando’s the only real character in this battle (Wedge is basically the definition of side character), and while this is perfectly understandable given that they had to divide the heroes up between the three battles (and I’m glad Leia and Han got to lead the ground assault), I think it keeps this particular phase of the battle from ranking among Star Wars’ best.
But I think my biggest problem with this battle is that we don’t see the heroes use any strategy or trick to outmaneuver the Empire so that they can win. The Rebels are always presented as the underdogs. Even knowing the Death Star’s core weakness and even having the TIE fighters outnumbered in Episode 4, the heroes only win because Han arrives at the last second to save the day and because Luke has such a strong connection to the Force.
Here, it seems like the Emperor’s trap essentially just boils down to lining up the Imperial fleet with the Rebel fleet and having them shell each other. Now, admittedly, the Death Star’s shield being disabled wasn’t part of the plan, so the Empire does lose its deadliest weapon due to that. But they make a point of saying that the Star Destroyers alone will be able to destroy the Rebel Fleet (in the words of Admiral Ackbar: “We won’t last long against those Star Destroyers”). The Empire shouldn’t need the Death Star to win, so it does feel like kind of a cop-out that the Rebels just beat the Star Destroyers with no explanation. Maybe I’m over-thinking this, but this victory seems like it kind of goes against the underdog vibes that they were going for in the previous two films.
On another note, and again this is a small nitpick, the Super Star Destroyer shouldn’t immediately crash into the Death Star simply because the bridge is destroyed. A big capital ship like that isn’t going to be controlled by one guy with a steering wheel on the bridge. (By contrast, in Episode 3 The Invisible Hand doesn’t careen out of control when the pilot droids are destroyed, it’s only after it gets shelled so badly that it can’t stay airborne). Again, this isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s just another little convenience to let the good guys win that begins to add up over time. We will see many, many more of these on the ground battle.
This is the part of the movie that I have the most criticisms with. First of all, as the heroes are taking over the bunker, the stormtroopers charge in, ordering them all to freeze. Keep in mind, this happens right after Han kills the first guy they send in to ‘arrest’ them. Remember when the stormtroopers broke through the door on the Tantive IV and told all the rebels with their blasters drawn to freeze? Yeah, me neither, because that would’ve been stupid. Maybe the motivation is that they don’t want a fire-fight inside the bunker (which, I’ll admit, could be the case), but this is by no means the only dumb moment in the battle. Not even close.
Then, the stormtroopers take their prisoners outside and round them up in a big circle, showing no signs of escorting them away from this vital installation, and then the Ewoks attack. As I already said, Ewoks killing stormtroopers in droves is ridiculous, but it actually gets even worse. Almost all the stormtroopers, and literally all of the AT-ST’s, charge into the forest, away from the bunker, to chase after the Ewoks, leaving their base, which is supposedly their main objective to defend, almost completely unprotected, aside from a handful of stormtroopers. Of course, it doesn’t go as bad as you might expect for them, as all the rebel commandoes disappear from this part of the movie. I’m serious, I have no clue where they’re supposed to be. Maybe they’re in the background in a couple of shots, but they aren’t featured in any kind of a prominent way for the entire battle.
However, what happens to the stormtroopers in the forest does go exactly as one would expect. They are all slaughtered, because they’ve charged blindly into unknown territory, where they can be easily ambushed over and over again by the Ewoks. On the other hand, however, I will say that the destruction of the AT-ST’s by the Ewok traps is one part of this battle that I legitimately like.
Of course, there’s also the idiot who opens the top hatch of the AT-ST because there’s an Ewok on the roof annoying him. This allows Chewbacca to capture the AT-ST (which is nice to see Chewbacca get something done and not just be the sidekick) which will set up another dumb thing that happens. First, however, we get to see the stormtroopers make another inane effort to capture the heroes (after they’ve been fighting a pitch battle), by sending two stormtroopers over to Han and Leia after the latter gets shot, so Leia can (of course) kill both of them.
Then, using the AT-ST and an imperial disguise, Han calls the base and orders them to send out more troops so they can chase after the Ewoks (and leave their base undefended of course). The Imperials send out ten soldiers (which can of course make a difference in a massive battle) so the heroes can ambush them, enter the bunker, and blow it up.
Here's the thing… this is a movie. I get that there are going to be some conveniences so the heroes can win, and I get that there’s going to be some incompetence on the part of the bad guys. But… there’s not one thing the bad guys do that’s intelligent here. One stormtrooper shoots R2-D2 while he’s trying to force the bunker doors open, and that’s the only point where the bad guys seem to accomplish anything (unless you count the fact that the AT-ST doesn’t get destroyed by having small rocks dropped on its roof). There’s no real tension. Yes, the AT-ST’s do present some kind of a threat, but that’s literally the only part of this battle that works.
In Episode I, we saw a lot of incompetence on the part of the Trade Federation, but they still accomplished things. The battle droids destroyed the Gungan shield generators, they captured Padme (which actually makes sense, since Gunray needed her alive). In Episode IV, the stormtroopers put the heroes in tough spots, like when Luke and Leia are cornered on the bridge or when all the heroes are trapped in the cell block. Also, this is the final battle of the movie, not something that just takes place in the first or second act. This is the final battle, and all we really get to see are just one long string of conveniences and stupid decisions on the part of the Empire, perfectly aligned so that the heroes can win. They win through convenience, not through any skill of their own.
However, there is still one other battle we have left to talk about: the lightsaber duel aboard the Second Death Star.
I have more complicated feelings towards this segment, but let me just preface by saying that I absolutely love the scenes between these three characters before the battle gets going. These three guys are what make the movie, and without them, this movie would probably be unwatchable. We get to see Palpatine in full form, trying to tempt Luke into killing him, as Luke struggles to control his anger and stay on the Light Side.
However, things begin to dip almost immediately.
First of all, as soon as Luke seizes his lightsaber from Palpatine, he immediately swings for his head… but Vader blocks the attack. I have just one question.
Why?
So, considering that this movie was made before the prequels established the rule of two, I’m not going to fault the movie for the fact that, apparently, the Sith want Luke to become the third member of their group.
What I will fault the movie for is the fact that Vader, in the previous movie, clearly states that he wants Luke to join him and overthrow the Emperor. While some have argued that Vader was lying, I disagree. Personally, I think that scene was one of the only scenes in the entire OT where Vader was actually showing who he really was.
And, even later in the battle, Vader keeps goading Luke to fight him and give in to his anger. If Vader doesn’t want him to kill Palpatine, what does he expect him to do with his anger? Does Vader have a death wish? Or maybe, Vader doesn’t want Luke to go evil so he prevents him from killing the unarmed Emperor. If that’s the case, then Vader’s repeated and insistent efforts to goad Luke feel out of place.
Other people have argued that Vader’s actions are intentionally inconsistent, because of the emotional conflict he’s experiencing. I’d be more willing to accept that explanation if it weren’t for the fact that this is the only thing Vader does which is inconsistent with turning Luke to the Dark Side. Every single other thing he does or says in this duel is to force Luke to choose between either death or giving in to the Dark Side. Blocking this attack is the only thing he does which would suggest this indecision and I feel like that’s just not enough to make such a big assumption about his motivations. Explaining away such a glaring inconsistency with ‘he’s conflicted’ could only work if there was something in the scene to suggest that (a change in tone, or even a single line for example). As it is, this argument comes across as just a way to rationalize this inconsistency.
If this is the case, the only way that Vader’s action can be explained is, ironically, with the Rise of Skywalker. If Vader knows Palpatine will possess Luke if he kills him, he clearly would not want that, so stopping this attack would make sense.
Now, it probably seems like I’m overthinking this one attack that opens the duel, and that may be true. However, I dwelt on that for so long because it’s integral to my problems with the duel. The motivations behind the duel don’t make a lot of sense, so it’s hard for me to get invested. It seems like the writers just wanted this duel to happen, but they had no reason why it should happen and that takes me out of the movie and drags this duel down in my opinion.
I will admit, however, that their lightsaber lock inches from his face while the Emperor simply laughs is an amazing visual.
From there, the fight properly breaks out… kind of.
As I said before, I have mixed feelings about this battle. So, I’m going to start with the part I like: the story behind it. I love that Luke is still trying to stick to the pacifism of the Jedi, still trying to redeem his father, etc. I like the idea that Luke embracing the Dark Side is what lets him beat Vader, giving him an easy way out of this battle, but that he chooses the Light Side (and probably death) over winning with the Dark Side. I also like the revelation of Vader being this broken man, and the parallelism between their mechanical hands. All of that stuff is great.
However, from an action standpoint, this duel is pretty weak.
First of all, the duel is far, far too short. If we’re only counting time where they’re fighting and not them just talking, this is one of the shortest duels in the saga… and it’s supposed to be the final duel. I’m not saying that it needed to be Anakin vs. Obi-Wan long, or even as long as the Episode V duel… but it should’ve been longer than this.
For the first half of the duel, the choreography is pretty solid. It’s nice to see Luke fighting like a real Jedi, posing a legitimate threat to Vader. Unfortunately, Vader doesn’t seem like much of a threat to Luke, which really bothers me. You can’t just take the coolest and scariest character in the saga and then make him this weak for the ending.
Think about Count Dooku, a throwaway villain who basically just existed to fill out the middle of the PT and then die at the start of Episode III to foreshadow Anakin’s fall. Giving him a good sendoff wasn’t exactly necessary, but they still did it to one degree or another. He’s a challenge to Anakin, even after all the progress he’s made from Episode II, so Anakin’s victory has more meaning.
The case has been made, however, that Vader isn’t fighting as hard because he doesn’t want to kill Luke. If this is the case, why is he fighting him? Is it to turn him to the Dark Side by making him embrace his anger? If that were the case, surely, he wouldn’t have stopped him from killing Palpatine. On the other hand, perhaps Vader wants all three of them to rule together. If that were the case, why does he keep fighting Luke after he deactivates his lightsaber and, more tellingly, why does he go for multiple killing blows against Luke? Or perhaps he wants to kill Luke. This, of course, can’t be the case, not after Vader worked so hard to convince Palpatine to recruit him in Episode V and then intentionally let his shuttle land on Endor so he would surrender himself to Vader.
This is where the plot holes start to crop up, as the characters’ motivations start to become less and less logical, as I mentioned before. Also, the idea that the final duel is happening and neither party is really invested in the battle kind of makes it feel underwhelming. You can have a hero and villain who are only reluctantly fighting each other, but there needs to be some kind of stake to the battle that’s forcing them to fight to keep it interesting. This duel doesn’t have that and it quickly gets boring from an action standpoint. Story-wise, it’s still pretty good except for the weak motivations behind the duel.
However, where the duel really falters is in the conclusion. After refusing to fight Vader until he threatens to turn Leia to the Dark Side, Luke embraces his anger and attacks Vader, displaying some of the worst choreography of the entire series as he flails around blindly, with Vader becoming suddenly helpless against him. While I like this from a story perspective (as I mentioned earlier), the horrible choreography makes it feel completely unbelievable and Vader’s sudden defeat feels extra underwhelming considering how outmatched he’s seemed throughout the rest of the duel.
Typically, in movies, it annoys me when the hero suddenly overpowers the villain because the villain says something triggering and the hero gets angry. With Star Wars presenting anger as part of the Dark Side (aka the ‘Quick and Easy Path’) I’m okay with this resolution, except for the fact that it’s too much of a shift and too big of an imbalance between the fighters. It just feels like a switch gets flipped and Luke immediately defeats Vader; we don’t get to see it played out in an interesting way. If nothing else, I will give it the positive of the score being really good.
However, Luke refuses to kill Vader and Palpatine attacks him with his force lightning. I like how here we see Palpatine use an entirely new power, showcasing just how much more powerful he is than Vader, Luke or Obi-Wan, so that, even though he’s killed immediately after, he doesn’t just feel like some easily defeated threat. Also, on a side note, I like that Yoda’s the one who warns Luke of how powerful the Emperor is, because he was the only one still alive (aside from Vader) who’d seen it.
We also get a really great moment where Vader turns on the Emperor because of his son’s pleas for mercy. He finally rises up, grabs the Emperor and throws him down the reactor shaft to his death. Seeing Anakin finally turn on the man who’d manipulated him for thirty years and turn back to the Light Side is a great conclusion to his character, and a great death for Palpatine.
I liked the end-point of this sequence, but I hated half the things they had to do to get there and the parts that were good seemed glossed over and underdeveloped.
On this note of the final battle, I’d like to briefly mention the final battle of Episode 1 which sort of copied this structure, splitting the final battle into four segments… almost all of those segments hold up better than the corresponding ones in Episode 6. When Obi-Wan uses his anger to kill Maul, we see Maul legitimately try to fight back and we see Obi-Wan actually using skill, not just blind-flailing. So, Maul’s defeat is more satisfying than Vader’s because it feels earned. Similarly, the Gungans (with relatively primitive technology) are outmatched against the technologically superior Trade Federation, unlike the Ewoks who score an easy win over the Stormtroopers.
I’m not saying Episode 1 is better than Episode 6, but I think there are too many similarities (both in pacing, story structure and character moments) to just ignore the parallels. Obviously, Episode 6 does some of those things better, but there are others that Episode 1 does better. With all of these similarities, I can’t really look at Episode 6 as being one of the better Star Wars films. It seems pretty clearly to be one of the weaker ones to me, as I find a lot more in common between it and Episode 1, than between Episodes 6 and 5.
There are a lot of great themes in the movie, but the quality of the writing and a lot of the execution of those ideas is pretty weak. It could’ve been really good. There might even have been the possibility for it to be on par with Episode 5… but it wasn’t. I think almost everyone can agree with that statement, so I’ll just leave it there. I know most of my reviews are hot takes, but I feel like I might have already topped all of those reviews with this one, so I won’t drag out the controversy anymore.
Even if whoever’s reading this didn’t necessarily agree with my opinion or my reasoning, I hope you can at least see where I’m coming from. Also, I do honestly respect liking this movie (even if I don’t agree with this) as I genuinely do try to get as much enjoyment out of any Star Wars movie as I can (even if that’s ironic enjoyment sometimes). I know I roasted this movie, but if you like it, that’s great. I just don’t find the enjoyment in this movie that I did when I was a kid, or that I find in a lot of the other installments.
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