I love it. I even love the ewoks. Fuck you, ewok haters. Yub yub!

Decidedly not in favor of Hayden Christensen appearing at the end.

EDIT: I'll also say I don't like that Boba Fett was clumsied to death.

Last edited by Zarban (2011-01-06 00:13:26)

2 things i remember from the original viewing: The way the speeder chase unfolds felt like a video game. Like they were setting up the game tie-in. The first time i felt cynical about SW. And the 2nd deathstar was underwhelming.

I don't hate ewoks in general but there's way too much of them in this movie. They throw great parties, though. The scene with Carrie Fisher and that first ewok is wrong somehow - she'd be a lot more imperious, and might straightup murder it on the spot. Her voice is low in Jedi, was she a chain smoker back then?

DIF might as well do the special ed, nobody cares that much about jedi and it'd give you a chance to talk about the special ed's in general. Next up, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure!

edit: There's stuff i like too. Luke's a real Jedi (but not really: "Last mistake you'll ever make." "Hohoho.")
The slavegirl bikini. Nuff said.
R2 as an undercover agent working as a waiter. I swear to God someone needs to write a Chinatown caliber story with R2 as the gumshoe. Zarban when you're finished with ManBat vs Clam Demon could you get on that please?

Last edited by beldar (2011-01-06 07:43:57)

I was talking about the Ewoks. Never before had the heros actually cared about the native population of a planet

Yes, sir. All those height-of-pre-cgi-vfx TIE fighters racing past us (just before Doomed Asian Dude screamed "There's too many of them!") was a thing of beauty. Just pretend you didn't see the infestation of matte lines.

Crazy awesome is right.

Return of the Jedi is probably the weakest entry in the OT, but it still has some great moments. All the Luke and Vader stuff is right up there amongst the best of Star Wars and the space battle, oh my. There's a shot of a few fighters flying across the Death Star surface, an X-wing darting in and around towers and pylons and then diving into the superstructure entrance that is just... fucking brilliant.

It's hands down the best special effects shot of the entire series (and possibly ever).

For the commentary, I guess you could talk about the aborted sequel trilogy and Lucas' growing ennui over Star Wars, about Lucas' divorce and its effect on the editing, about the transformation of Star Wars into a merchandise-driven enterprise, about how the experience of ESB changed Lucas' approach and resulted in him getting gun-for-hire Richard Marquand instead of someone who would make the film their own... also, you could probably mention how Lucas ended Star Wars prematurely to go on to make other 'independment art' films and yet 30 years later he's done nothing else in his career but exploit Star Wars in some way or another (and Indiana Jones).

In terms of storytelling, Jedi is a bit of an oddity because it doesn't really follow the 3-act structure. It's first half is like an extended James Bond intro, with the heroes all getting involved in an adventure that has very little to do with the main plot. It's only at the midpoint of the film that we are told what this story is about, ruining the Emperor's day and winning the war. And I find that unusual.

Performance-wise, in this one it's Ford and Fisher that don't do quite so well, whilst Hamill knocks it out of the park. Ian McDiarmid's Emperor was a truly terrifying character and I distinctly remember that it was him more than anything else in Star Wars that scared me, the way he grits his teeth as he's killing Luke in particular. It's not a subtle performance, but it's definitely minimalist - which is the complete opposite from his acting in the prequel trilogy where it's over the top and almost pantomime.

It's just that the other stuff hasn't worked. He wanted WILLOW to become the next Star Wars. You know he did. If somehow that had blown up the way Lord of the Rings did we'd be talking a whole different Lucas (and maybe Ron Howard, who knows). THAT should be the commentary that follows up Jedi.

well, from an effects standpoint, Willow gave use morphing...

Indeed, it ws groundbreaking for it's time. I remember seeing it in the cinema back in 1988 and I loved it