A notable come-down from the brilliance of The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi is an altogether middling experience, replete with fine moments but overall lacking in the emotional heft and dramatic richness of the franchise's superior films. Always my favourite of the originals as a kid (a consensus shared, in my experience, by many), Jedi has left me more disappointed than most in this rewatch series, the previous entries of which can be found here. No doubt hampered by my own high-expectations, the film nevertheless has issues beyond my personal ones, and it remains that the long stretch on Endor, which I'll talk more about later, is one of the most misjudged stretches of any blockbuster ever. However, in keeping with the rest of this series, I've tried to be more positive than negative, attempting to analyse the Star Wars saga from the standpoint of a viewer who hasn't watched them since he was a teenager. Thus, it must be said, that Return Of The Jedi is a fine film in its own right. We've come full circle on the saga (for now), and what's been made most evident is the incredible narrative symmetry Lucas and his varying teams have depicted, which is indeed continued here. Add to that the usual stunning tableaux (which we've come to see Star Wars is brimming with), and an end duel which gave fans everything they'd ever wanted from the Vader/Luke dynamic, and you get a fitting finale to the greatest pop-culture institution since The Beatles. Honourable Mention: Leia's gold bikini, which I didn't want to "Lad Bible" by dedicating a whole section to but which nevertheless needs mentioning. It's supernova-hot.Dis-honourable Mention: The Ewoks, which I didn't want to dedicate a whole section to because they've been bashed enough but which nevertheless remain one of the greatest WTFs in cinema history. Cute, though.
