| I think the seemingly consensus opinion that ROTJ is the weakest of the originals would turn out, on re-viewing, to be fanboy nonsense. I think it's by far the most fun of the originals, and a flat out better film than Star Wars - much of whose reputation, relative to the sequels, rests on its status as both a phenomenon unto itself, and the beginning of the whole thing. Which isn't to disparage that first one, it's still a classic and a great entertainment, but if you watch them without bias or nostalgia and just take them on their own, I think it's clear which is weakest. The complaints about the ewoks never made sense to me either. Regardless of what Lucas did or didn't intend them to be (ie, if he had begun selling out altogether by then, and they were the first representation of this that actually made it onscreen in one of the films - an open concession to commercialism that was thrown into the art), they function perfectly well within the film universe, and don't hurt the art, which is all that should matter.
Also this is all referring to the original versions. Lucas added some really awful stuff to ROTJ (the Hayden ghost, and especially Jedi Rocks) that far outweighs the nice fixes (clean up on the rancor and sarlacc).
But I loved ROTJ as a kid and find it holds up fine. And obviously like the other two, it's on a completely different level from the prequels. |
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