"Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" (1983) - Movie Review

There is always nicer way to tell the worst of things. “Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi” beats that trend. How can I say this without being harsh? Yeah I can. It sucked big time. The charm of the first Star Wars dissipated in the second and is vanished beyond doubt in this. Nothing happening apart from a cycle of capture, rescue, capture, rescue and fill in dark side and emperor to get a film to be bored. It is a shame that a franchise which had some good direction but hazy execution in second gave in to this sham of giving in to the blockbuster criteria, a very bad one indeed.

Luke (Mark Hamill) and his crew comes to rescue the frozen Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from the society of gooey creatures with Jabba the Hutt as the leader. 3PO, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) captured. Boom, Luke saves. Luke and crew into the shady jungle where the “shield” for the new death star resides. A quick chase with the enemies and Leia captured. Then every one else is captured by a clan of fur ball creatures. Boom. 3PO becomes a god to them and an unnecessary bad joke to make them friends. Why? So that when the troops of the rebel decreases, these beings would do comic stunts (attempt). Luke leaves to confront his dad Vader. Get captured himself. Emperor boils the hate as it is the dark side of the force. Boom. Luke does not give in and dad Vader comes to the “good” side. And we are captured forever into this mess of bad film residing in galaxy so very much among us. This is bad.

Remember I said in the review of Episode V on how the film wisely allowed the character of Yoda to bring that maturity and insight much needed for the film. Well, Yoda dies after the script pours in two words into his mouth before he dies. There is another Skywalker. What is the necessity of that? Definitely not another episode because this is it where the emperor either get killed or turn into good man, which of course is highly unlikely. Not with the given frightening make up. What is the problem with the rebels with emperor? Did he torture the people? Did he raise taxes? Did he went to war with zillions of other planets which Lucas invents as he goes along? They played with the invisible force in the first, I did not mind. In second they used it for some enlightenment for Luke to get some life lessons, felt ok. Now with more dark side and good side, it becomes a prop for picking sides. Intolerable. Damn the Force !

There was an incredible opportunity landed on the laps of these creators to do anything they want and could have made anyways a box office hit. It is not like the Indiana Jones wherein we need a little bit of layered study into the crazy adventurer unless it aids a funny moment on the screen. May be that is what the Lucas and team deduced of the characters out of this film. If that has been the case, why the journey in to zen way strategy in the second? What we see is a spectacle of idiotic plot situations wherein the result was imminent escape. Not even a single bit of interest intrigued me to see what would be the end of any stunt.

Luke is more conflicted than Vader. Vader has pretty much accepted his master the emperor man and does his deeds faithfully. He is even ready to get his son straight to the master and get names. Luke is stirred rightly by the emperor of the hate but what brings him back to the ground of the deception planned on him? A simple Yoda speech does not suffice this greatest resistance to pass on blind rage. And what does emperor do all day? Foreseeing stuffs and then leaving the destiny take its path does not seem to be tough. He builds death star and destroy every living thing in this galaxy and rule who? When there is no one to control, what is the fun in that.

If these are the wrong questions to be asked for Star Wars, then the film gave me ample time to ask these which tells a lot. Generally films which go through the sequels and prequels get the time many films do not have the luxury of. They can make amends of the flaws in a character. Bring in the element of human imbalance and the way to solve it by their personality and situations. Star Wars definitely is not a dumb portrayal of cheesy stunts. It had something more than graphics in the Episode V which did not heighten to the skies but this film is tragic and very sad to witness such a failure done with laziness and compromises.