Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

With Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars saga reaches its climax, and the film's story takes on the highest quality and consistency. For me, the third (sixth) episode of Star Wars is the best ever made. Everything is perfect, I wouldn't want to repeat myself, but the plot, the special effects, the production design, the music, the costumes and make-up effects are (for their time) flawless. In short, an incredibly spectacular ending to the most famous space saga that deserves one of the brightest spots in cinematic history. (21/08/2014)

The conclusion of the saga brings the return not only of the titular Jedi, but also of Lucas’s lack of seriousness, as well as his playfulness and naïveté. Though fans don’t want to admit it, the frolicking with the Ewoks was not a misguided diversion or a departure from the intended development of the style. On the contrary, The Empire Strikes Back is the anomaly in Lucas’s fairy-tale space opera due to director Irvin Kershner’s fanfiction approach. If the fifth (originally second) episode, constructed the pillars of Star Wars fandom, then the sixth (third) inevitably arouses the resentment of fans, as the style reverts back to the naïveté of the first film, as it literally states that it is targeted at children and inadvertently undermines everything that is sacred to the fans – an example illustrating all of this is Boba Fett, who is transformed from a cool badass into a ridiculous fool who suffers a belittling and undramatic demise. The greatest hatred has been borne by the cute Ewoks, who have been bumped out of first place on the fans’ hitlist only by Jar Jar Binks. The Ewoks became the personification of the series’ childishness and thus the embodiment of Lucas’s supposed betrayal of his supposedly adult fans. But as frightful as it sounds, if anyone deserves to admonished, it’s Irvin Kershner, who did the worst thing possible – he showed the potential that the Star Wars saga would have had if it hadn’t been in the hands of George Lucas, who always conceived it as a spectacular sci-fi fairy tale for the whole family. (11/10/2015)

Probably the most fairytale-like episode of the existing series of Star Wars. It almost looks as if George Lucas found himself in the effects which brought us Critters, Gremlins, or the legendary series Dinosaurs. All of those monsters and freaks look just as good. But, I have to say that I don’t mind this deviation. On the contrary, I was happy not only because of them, but because of Chewbacca, who is on stage a lot more than usual. And when he isn’t there, you can still hear those odd sounds of his somewhere in the background. And the finale? That’s literally top-notch. It’s a shame that I will never get to know the feelings the fans back then had to have when they finished the movie and then realized they actually didn’t know how it all began and had to wait for it for almost twenty years. (04/11/2015)

The Skywalkers definitely don't limp to the finish line, but there are a few stumbles along the way. The very slow introduction of the main characters on stage, in fact, misses the desired effect, and it's not until Luke takes the lightsaber in his hand that I finally got the atmosphere of the classic Star Wars. However, what The Return loses in the beginning, it gains in the end. The final hour with the ultimate clash of lightsabers, non-stop action, last revelations, and inevitable goodbyes captivates and moves at the same time. (20/05/2006)

A pretty uneven climax to the most overrated story in the history of cinema. The scenes with the Emperor and Darth Vader are great, the events on the forest moon are unnecessarily ruined by the childish Ewoks, and the opening half hour in Tatooine is almost unbearable. It’s decent fun, but putting Star Wars at the level of other fantasy and science fiction worlds is way too much. (21/02/2009)