In a splurge of nerdiness I haven't experienced in some time, I not only watched an episode of Dexter today, but also finished watching the original Star Wars trilogy with the little lady. We had watched A New Hope some time ago, and she enjoyed it. We tried to make The Empire Strikes Back a family movie night, but our elder foster daughter checked out pretty early, and the rest of our viewing was therefore disjointed. Also, I think the little one had trouble sticking with that one - it's a much more interesting movie when you are an adult, even if it is one of the greatest movies ever made.
Our viewing of Return of the Jedi marks a return to the atmosphere we had for A New Hope - one in which the little lady was completely interested. I know she's interested when she is making way too many damn comments and asking way too many damn questions. I don't resent her doing this - she is nine, and is more interested in things than her brain has capacity to fully comprehend - but man, does it get exhausting. I just get into the movie, and bam, I'm answering twenty questions just as the lightsabers come out.
This movie has always been the one I remember the least. About ten years ago, I bought all three of the original films when they came out on DVD for the first time. I barely remembered what happened in Return of the Jedi - the other two films were much clearer in my mind and far more memorable. I did, however, watch it and enjoy it thoroughly. Some parts were moving, others clever, and overall, I felt it was a fitting conclusion, more fitting than I remember it being, which wasn't hard - as I already stated, I didn't remember much.
I have watched it probably three times since then, and each time, I think it gets worse and worse.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the movie. As far as movies go, it isn't bad, but it also isn't really all that good. In terms of movie-making, it doesn't have as much fun with the characters as the previous films did, relying more on spectacle than anything else. The characters feel different, and so many of them take unexpected turns in their development. The goofiness factor rises considerably and things don't seem timed very well. Overall, there are some distracting flaws.
But let's not get ahead of myself - here's the play-by-play.
The movie begins, as I always forget, with Darth Vader arriving at the new Death Star and stating that the emperor himself will soon be joining them. The emperor has appeared before - one scene in The Empire Strikes Back, if I recall correctly - but the little lady doesn't remember this. I take this time to tell our foster daughter that the emperor will show up soon. She nods and understands. I hope I have eliminated some questions for later.
We then get to spend what is always a surprising amount of time at Jabba the Hutt's palace. I have for a long time touted this whole opening sequence as among the very best (I will no longer be doing this). It's an exciting, tangled web of a plan that seems to have been concocted over some long period of time. So long, in fact, that Luke has somehow become a verifiable Jedi Knight with abilities we never saw him acquire with Yoda. It's been so long, in fact, that Lando has wormed his way into the place as a guard, right underneath Jabba the Hutt's nose.
Wait, it's been this long? Have they really been spending this much time trying to free Han Solo? Aren't they fighting the Empire? Han Solo must be pretty freaking important to the Rebellion if they are going to spend this long trying to get him free.
About a third of the movie is over before this entire sequence ends, moving on to what is effectively another movie. Han Solo is no longer blind, Boba Fett dies in a silly way (the first over-the-top goofiness of the movie, and unfortunately not the last), Luke shows that he can hack and slash his way through any crowd, and we all get to stare at Leia in her golden bikini. All this opening sequence seems to do is reintroduce us to the characters and remind us that hey, the gang is back together again and still trying to worm their way out of tight spots. The only difference now is that Luke seems to be a tad pigheaded. Overall, the first third of the movie turns out to be more or less a waste of time.
Luke goes back to Yoda to finish his training ... the training that it seems he has continued since the end of the last movie. Wait, he hasn't gone back to Yoda, and he can use Jedi mind tricks and jump around like crazy? This is where the movie first becomes problematic in terms of time. I am not ignorant enough to ignore the time problems in The Empire Strikes Back, but as a friend of mine stated to me not long ago, the movie is so good that no one really cares. Here, the movie is not nearly as good, so we care, damn it. Sloppy movie-making makes me so angry sometimes.
We then find out that Leia is Luke's sister, and moments later, when something else is going on, we realize that Leia kissed him full-on, on the mouth, in the previous movie. I have no idea what was happening in the movie at this time - I was probably thinking only kind of seriously about vomiting. I just know that this news was sprung on us so quickly, without any lead-up and barely any hints. It kind of hints at it in the previous film, when Luke is able to communicate to Leia where he is located, dangling among the clouds, but that isn't necessarily a bond - it could be Luke using his mind powers that Yoda didn't teach him. But really, that's it - they just throw it at us, and Luke happens to guess it after just thinking really hard.
This is the first time in this movie that anyone with the Force seems telepathic, or able to see things they ought not to see. Sensing other Jedi's presences seems fair - if you are sensitive to the Force, it seems natural to sense a reservoir of it coming at you from some direction, I guess. But being able to glean thoughts, or see things for which there has been zero evidence? Come on - that's just lazy storytelling. How do we get Luke to realize he has a sister? How do we get Darth Vader to realize he has more offspring? Let's just make them figure it out by reading minds or something - they have the Force, after all!
At some point, they all get captured by Ewoks. A freaking JEDI KNIGHT gets captured by Ewoks and needs to make C-3PO look like he has magic powers to escape? And up to this point, the movie makes Luke look like a freaking pro. Well, except for when he continues to whine about "not being able to do it alone." Those moments bug me, but at least that's consistent with how he has acted ALL OF THE TIME up until this movie. Here's one of the biggest cases of the lack of continuity for the characters in this film - Luke is just no the person we expect him to be. Maybe it kind of works in the case of just this movie, but when your movie exists in a series of films, you need to be more careful. More sloppiness, guys.
It's about this point, after the Ewoks accept them into their tribe and Luke heads off to be an emo mess with his emo mess dad, that I start wondering what there is to care about in this movie. The drama seems to be centered around Luke and his relationship with his sister, a relationship that we do not care about in the slightest. It seems to have been introduced as a way to get more jealousy from Han, only to have an easy way to erase that jealousy at the end of the film. Why has this relationship been introduced? Just because it was alluded to in the previous film? And will it actually be important in the end, as Yoda seems to indicate in The Empire Strikes Back? Nothing pans out here - it ends up being all about Luke and Vader working out their severely messed-up relationship in which they keep trying to kill each other for no good reason.
The next twenty minutes of the movie shifts between the Ewoks doing more than they seem capable of doing, the emperor trying to make Luke angry and Luke refusing to be angry, and Rebel ships getting devoured by the Empire. It is not interesting.
The movie does have some surprises up its sleeve, though, as a few rather poignant moments follow. The first is when Luke seems to be hiding from Vader, only to have Vader threaten to turn Leia to the Dark Side, forcing Luke to get so angry he pops out and goes completely bonkers on Vader. The music works perfectly here, and they choreographed this brief bit of fighting perfectly, watching Vader look completely outmatched for the first time ever. It's jarring when Vader loses his arm, and even more so when Luke glances down at Vader's mechanical arm and then back to his, somehow overcoming his anger as he reminds himself that he is about to kill his own father. It's a phenomenal series of events in a movie plagued by spectacle and "hey, you know these guys, so let's just be goofy" dialogue.
This all gets ruined, though, if you are watching this on Blu-Ray, because when Darth Vader saves Luke from the emperor, he shouts "Nooooooo!" as he throws the emperor down what I affectionately call the electronic pit (don't ask). God, that just ruins the scene. Come on, Lucas, really? Was this entirely necessary? No, not at all - it just sucked the humanity out of the scene, a scene that works because we don't really see it coming.
At least, I don't think I ever saw it coming when I first saw the movie. Darth Vader, up until that point, shows no sign of "having a good side," as Luke puts it. As a matter of fact, why does he do this? We are given no reason, really, and I have gone back and forth on whether I like this or not many times. I am on the opposing side right now - Darth Vader is a ruthless killing machine throughout the first two films, so this sudden shift seems like a sentimental writer wanted a happy ending. More lack of continuity from the characters, I guess.
I think that's what gets me more than anything else - these characters don't bounce off of the screen like they do before. Luke is too confident and it sucks the drama from his story. Han is too good and respectable, even if he still bumbles through surprising storm troopers. Leia acts awesome but gets none of tough-girl dialogue we have come to appreciate from the last two films. Chewbacca makes a freaking Tarzan-yell when he swings on to the Imperial walker, finally crossing the line from just goofy enough to way too goofy. The story is decent and could have been carried by the characters, but it just doesn't happen here, making Return of the Jedi more disappointing than anything else.
Anyway, the Ewoks take down the Empire despite all of the odds being against them, a space battle takes place that we care little about because the Ewoks are so damn cute and the Luke-Vader story is way more interesting, and we get the happy ending we were hoping for. There is one more poignant moment in which Luke burns Darth Vader's body, another moment I will credit to John Williams more than anyone else. He manages to churn out amazing scores for all six movies, no matter how good or bad the actual movie turns out. Kudos to you, sir. Beyond that moment, however, we don't get much. The ending is nice, and as opposed to most people, I kind of like putting Hayden Christensen in at the end of the movie, mostly because it's the best acting the man has ever done. Seriously, he smiles in a more genuine way than he ever did in episodes 2 and 3, and since he never opens his mouth, he doesn't have that acting barrier with which to contend. We still get too many Ewoks, though, which made the little lady happy, but makes me want to die a little bit.
So, why write about this now? Well, it's because of how strong this feeling gets with each repeated viewing of this movie. Sure, it has never been my favorite - The Empire Strikes Back is too good for that to ever have been the case - but my disdain for it seems to grow considerably each time I end up watching it. Do other people feel this way? Do we give this movie a free pass because of how bad the prequel trilogy was? If you can answer those, post it in the comments below, because based on what I hear from other Star Wars fans, I feel kind of alone in how critical I am of this film.
Speaking of the prequel trilogy, that's what we get to show the little lady next, so that we can take her to The Force Awakens in December. Wish us luck as we watch Anakin and Padmé make stupid conversation in Attack of the Clones and watch intense fights get interrupted by terrible dialogue in Revenge of the Sith. Thanks for the memories, Lucas. You horrible, horrible man.
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