Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

My Grade:  A

The final leg in the original Star Wars trilogy hit theaters May 25, 1983 and completed the epic saga that changed cinema forever.  This third installment brought the third director (Richard Marquand) but kept Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas as writers.  This final chapter also boasts a considerable boost in budget from its predecessors.  According to IMDB.com, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back had budgets of 11 million and 18 million respectively, but Return Of The Jedi was made for an estimated 32.5 million.  Apparently Lucasfilm and FOX had a lot of faith in the box office draw this film would have... which is understandable.  This film, like the others, was nominated at the Oscars for Art Direction, Effects, and Sound.  It also garnered John Williams his 19th Oscar nomination for his epic score (two other nominations came from the other Star Wars films but he only won for A New Hope).

This film is about the same as the other entries in the original Star Wars trilogy.  The story is great while the dialogue gets a bit cheesy at times; but, despite how epic the story gets, it still keeps its focus on the hearts of the characters.  So it is fantastic.

The thing that any Star Wars fan will cite as their reasoning for liking one episode over another is the locales, the aliens unique to that episode, and the action that takes place.  It's really a personal preference thing.  Return Of The Jedi suffers from the problem of the ewoks.  While the ewoks are cute and get across a considerable amount of emotion for only speaking gibberish, the things they do to save the Rebels are somewhat unbelievable.  You are made to believe that something that is essentially the same size and build of a teddy bear can take out a Stormtrooper (full grown man in body armor with a laser gun).  Oh yea, and the ewoks do it with primitive, caveman style weapons.  It's up to you if you can get behind that or not.

Whether you like the ewoks or not, you can't argue that Return Of The Jedi is a satisfying conclusion to the Star Wars saga.  Luke completes his character arc by becoming a jedi, remaining on the good side of the force, and even helping Darth Vader (his father) reach some sort of redemption.  Also, the Rebels win the ultimate battle giving you hope that good really can defeat evil in real life.  Han and Leia resolve their issues and finally agree that they are in love.  And there's a great party... you can't go wrong if you end with a party!