Am I the only one that thinks Return of the Jedi is a turkey?

[JLeezy23]

Re: I'm I the only one that thinks Return of the Jedi is a turkey?

The Ewoks were Jar Jar prototypes.

Actually they were originally thought of being Wookiees, they couldnt find lots of tall ppl and didnt have the tech back then, the comedy of Wicket was Jar Jar prototype (as the Jar Jar in the Naboo battle shows the similarities to the Wicket's Endor battle scenes) but the idea as a whole was Wookiee-inspired... So, Lucas put Kashyyyk into the prequel movie and made his long lost dream come true.

They say ROTS completes the saga, but in Star Wars timeline, ROTJ completes the saga which is why i have nothing against it, Vader returns as a Jedi and (after 30+ years) finally brings balance to the Force. the Prophecy didnt say the chosen one would kill ALL Jedi and ALL Sith, but wat the h3ll, its pretty balanced now LMAO

 

[burningman]

I personally hated jedi from the word go. When the ewoks came out I was like WTF or whatever my adolescent version of that was.

The worst thing for me was the damn song at the end...god just shoot me.

 

[rodneyfaile]

I like all the Star Wars movies. Even the prequels. Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls was worse than any of the prequels, but it was still ok.

Dont let Randall hear you talking about Jedi!

YouTube - The Greatest Debate of the 21st Century

 

[scoutrooper]

ROTJ is my favorite of all the Star Wars movies! Dare to be cute was the saying at ILM for the ewoks!

 

[dangerstudios]

God, this movie would be pure gold if they didn't get rid of Fett. Just imagine, Boba destroying rebel ships, Slaughtering Ewoks, shooting Luke and still manage to win Leia.

 

[niennumb1]

Don't know if I already posted, but I'l say in the company of many ROTJ dislikers.... It's my favorite of all the Star Wars films honestly.

What can I say... I was 5 years old when it came out in theaters (the original). I never not liked the Ewoks truthfully.

As a kid I looked up to Luke Skywalker and him now becoming a Jedi was the coolest thing to see. The second he flashed on that green lightsaber in the dune sea I was just in total awe.

It was a huge turning point that we see Vader has questioned what he's done and you start seeing his remorse. The only time I have ever seen emotion from an emotionless mask too. That is hard to do.

I absolutely love the creatures in this film. The full Jabba's Palace stuff was just incredible and I LOVED Lapti Nek before they destroyed it and called it "Jedi Rocks."

How do you not like the Rancor? How can you deny the awesomeness of Jabba and his Palace of monsters? Leia freing Han Solo from the carbonite? Luke taking out all those guards at the pit of Carkoon? The most emotional final duel of Vader and Luke? ADMIRAL ACKBAR??? Ackbar is the most badass Admiral in the galaxy and he was the only one with the balls to tell everyone it was a trap!

The Speeder Bikes.... one of my favorite sequences ever.

I really loved everything about the original version of ROTJ. I'll always remember that being my favorite moment in time was ROTJ. Of course it makes it different now that the prequels filled with fast-moving Jedi action make Luke seem slow, but I felt the emotion was more there in this film than the prequels, although Obi-Wan vs. Anakin was pretty emotional for a change in the prequels.

Anyway I'm all over the place and probably not making any sense. As I grew up I went from not liking Han so much to REALLY loving the character. I've regarded ESB as much higher on my list of favorites as opposed to when I was little I liked it the least because it was so dark, but now it's up there as one of my favorite because it's dark, hehe. Tastes change over time, but I never stopped loving ROTJ the most.

 

[Galactifan]

Yes, the Return of the Jedi film was the weakest of the original trilogy, but I'd say that Jedi is pure genius compared to those new Jar-Jar Binks movies that try to pass themselves off as Star Wars. Long live the Original Holy Trilogy!

 

[Shingouki28]

Don't know if I already posted, but I'l say in the company of many ROTJ dislikers.... It's my favorite of all the Star Wars films honestly.

What can I say... I was 5 years old when it came out in theaters (the original). I never not liked the Ewoks truthfully.

As a kid I looked up to Luke Skywalker and him now becoming a Jedi was the coolest thing to see. The second he flashed on that green lightsaber in the dune sea I was just in total awe.

It was a huge turning point that we see Vader has questioned what he's done and you start seeing his remorse. The only time I have ever seen emotion from an emotionless mask too. That is hard to do.

I absolutely love the creatures in this film. The full Jabba's Palace stuff was just incredible and I LOVED Lapti Nek before they destroyed it and called it "Jedi Rocks."

How do you not like the Rancor? How can you deny the awesomeness of Jabba and his Palace of monsters? Leia freing Han Solo from the carbonite? Luke taking out all those guards at the pit of Carkoon? The most emotional final duel of Vader and Luke? ADMIRAL ACKBAR??? Ackbar is the most badass Admiral in the galaxy and he was the only one with the balls to tell everyone it was a trap!

The Speeder Bikes.... one of my favorite sequences ever.

I really loved everything about the original version of ROTJ. I'll always remember that being my favorite moment in time was ROTJ. Of course it makes it different now that the prequels filled with fast-moving Jedi action make Luke seem slow, but I felt the emotion was more there in this film than the prequels, although Obi-Wan vs. Anakin was pretty emotional for a change in the prequels.

Anyway I'm all over the place and probably not making any sense. As I grew up I went from not liking Han so much to REALLY loving the character. I've regarded ESB as much higher on my list of favorites as opposed to when I was little I liked it the least because it was so dark, but now it's up there as one of my favorite because it's dark, hehe. Tastes change over time, but I never stopped loving ROTJ the most.

You, good sir, have summed it up perfectly for me; I couldn't of put it better myself. And don't forget the epic space battle, with all the fantastic new ships that were introduced. The Millennium Falcon, weaving in and out at breakneck speed between those huge capital ships, pursuing and pulverising the TIE Interceptors blew my young and impressionable mind.:love And the moment Luke catches and ignites that lightsaber still gives me shivers of excitement to this very day. I too saw this movie as a 5 year old boy...It's the happiest of my childhood memories

 

[niennumb1]

You, good sir, have summed it up perfectly for me; I couldn't of put it better myself. And don't forget the epic space battle, with all the fantastic new ships that were introduced. The Millennium Falcon, weaving in and out at breakneck speed between those huge capital ships, pursuing and pulverising the TIE Interceptors blew my young and impressionable mind.:love And the moment Luke catches and ignites that lightsaber still gives me shivers of excitement to this very day. I too saw this movie as a 5 year old boy...It's the happiest of my childhood memories

Thanks! Yeah my reply was all over the place, but I could talk for hours about ROTJ and how great it was for me.

Totally though... that part when Luke jumps, turns and pops himself back up and then turns around in time to catch the saber R2 was holding and ignite the green blade... I was just completely taken back and couldn't believe what I was seeing! Such a major transition from his control and skill in how far his training had come from Empire to Jedi.

I never really hated Luke's development throughout the films. Sure he was whiny in the first one... "He's just a boy." As we grow and get older we have things we want and can't always have. As you mature and have more structure and knowledge in life you grow as a person. I saw someone who had no direction in life to achieving his life's ambition of becoming a Jedi. I just thought that film was Luke's shining moment where you just wanted to be like him to see what he went through to get there.

Oh well. Still to each their own. For me, unashamefully ROTJ forever! :love

 

[Jeyl]

the film certainly feels more like a lazy attempt to cash in from the first Star Wars film. I mean, a second Death Star? We couldn't have gone with just the Super Star Destroyer?

Also, I hated, hated, HATED Vader's redemption. I'm sorry. All those decades of betrayal, murder and genocide cannot be wiped clean by simply tossing an old guy off a catwalk. And that stupid line:

"Tell your sister you were right."

Oh, yeah. Sure. I bet that will make her feel so much better after you killed her friends, tortured her for information and destroyed her entire home planet! No apologies, no hope for forgiveness, just let her know that you were a good man in the end! Still selfish even to the end, you a@*$le.

 

[niennumb1]

the film certainly feels more like a lazy attempt to cash in from the first Star Wars film. I mean, a second Death Star? We couldn't have gone with just the Super Star Destroyer?

Also, I hated, hated, HATED Vader's redemption. I'm sorry. All those decades of betrayal, murder and genocide cannot be wiped clean by simply tossing an old guy off a catwalk. And that stupid line:

"Tell your sister you were right."

Oh, yeah. Sure. I bet that will make her feel so much better after you killed her friends, tortured her for information and destroyed her entire home planet! No apologies, no hope for forgiveness, just let her know that you were a good man in the end! Still selfish even to the end, you a@*$le.

And to your credit it makes it even worse too that now we've seen all he's done in the prequels with slaughtering women & children and many other innocents. That's like having the Green River Killer murder thousands of people and then he does one good thing and expects forgiveness and "all-is-good."

I'm not sure Lucas' original intent of Anakin's younger years were truly to be as cold and nasty as they made it out to be in the prequels. My impression from the OT was that he just betrayed Obi-Wan and helped hunt and destroy the remaining Jedi. That was bad enough, yes, but to kill children and other innocents was just pure monster. Killing the Emperor was a redemption for helping the rebellion and all, but didn't really redeem everything he did to others.

 

[cayman shen]

I can't even recall if I posted...but though it's my least favorite, it's still like a 9.85 out of 10. NOT the stupid SE, the original, mind you. The only part I can't stand is Leia on the Ewok walkway. "Hold me!" Bleeech. That's the ONLY moment in the entire OT I genuinely dislike.

EDIT: Never mind, I guess I weighed in on page 1! Sorry!

EDIT 2: It's impossible to be objective about this movie: I was 7 when it came out, and I had all the toys, book, soundtrack, played SW with my friends...there's no way for me as an adult to see this without a huge feeling of nostalgia. All arguments are null and void in the face of the fact that it makes me feel warm and cuddly. I'm not joking. I can't point at a few plot holes and negate hours and hours and hours of my childhood. I recuse myself from the discussion!

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Oh, yeah. Sure. I bet that will make her feel so much better after you killed her friends, tortured her for information and destroyed her entire home planet! No apologies, no hope for forgiveness, just let her know that you were a good man in the end! Still selfish even to the end, you a@*$le.

To be fair I never saw that scene as him knowing Leia was Luke's sister. He simply knew from Luke's feelings that he had one.

As I said before... Weak? Ya, a bit. Light years better than the prequels though.

IMHO none of the original trilogy "sucked". Rare for a trilogy of that calibre. Even Indiana Jones was only 2 for 3.

 

[Jeyl]

To be fair I never saw that scene as him knowing Leia was Luke's sister. He simply knew from Luke's feelings that he had one.

I can see how that can be true, but considering how Luke comes to the conclusion that Leia is his sister, and Leia always felt that Luke was his brother, it's not a long shot to assume that Vader now knows as well. After all, I doubt he would bring up "Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me, now his failure is complete" is he didn't know who to look for.

 

[Solo4114]

I can see how that can be true, but considering how Luke comes to the conclusion that Leia is his sister, and Leia always felt that Luke was his brother, it's not a long shot to assume that Vader now knows as well. After all, I doubt he would bring up "Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me, now his failure is complete" is he didn't know who to look for.

Man, if that's true, there are some moments in the first two films that are even MORE uncomfortable. :sick

As for Vader's comment, it could be just him messing with Luke, trying to get him pissed enough that he'll turn to the Dark side.


Although, actually, that kind of brings up an issue with the whole concept of turning to the Dark side. Realistically speaking, what do Vader and the Emperor think is gonna go down exactly if Luke DID turn?


I mean, really, think about it for a sec.


First, Vader wants to off the Emperor and take over. Second, the Emperor wants the "trade up" to Luke as his apprentice, so where's that leave Vader exactly? What, there'll be three Sith now? Not bloody likely.

So, I guess they figure they'll....what....make Luke freak out, tell him "Sucks, don't it? Now kill the other dude and I'll make it all better!" I mean, let's say Luke DOES go nuts and turn Dark, why would he side with either of the two? Why not just kill 'em both and say "Ok, now I'M the friggin' Emperor!"


I dunno. I guess something along those lines was what Lucas envisioned, given what happened with Anakin. I still don't think that his motivations quite translated from the highly personal (I MUST save Padme and will do anything to accomplish that!) to the generalized (I will RULE THE GALAXY with an iron fist!!). I guess Lucas' calculation is that once you go bad for ANY reason, you're bad all around. Or maybe the whole thing revolves around Vader projecting his self-loathing onto the rest of the universe after "killing" Padme. But then, even when he's talking to Padme about saving her, he starts saying "Oh, yeah, and we can rule the whole galaxy! Wouldn't that be cool?" So, somewhere between flying from Coruscant to Mustafar, he works it out that he'll save Padme and -- I guess because of the corrupting influence of the Dark Side? -- he'll also take over the galaxy. Or something.


This is why I always figured Vader's motivation made more sense from the perspective of what he says in ESB, where he at least TALKS a good game about wanting to save the GALAXY from itself....and the only way to do that was to rule via terror and brutality. I can very easily see a guy who starts on a path of "I have to do terrible things to save everyone" but gradually loses sight of his more "noble" reasons for acting, and just craves power for its own sake. And ultimately it's that spark of nobility -- the desire to help people, at least in the beginning -- that Luke could capitalize on.

But that still doesn't explain what either the Emperor or Vader figured was gonna go down as soon as Luke showed up and flipped sides. Each of them had to know that ONE of the two was going to have to "get got."

 

[Satxer]

I love how everyone ignored the fact this thread was dead for 7 months and has become a ZOMBIE THREAD!!!!

After reading through though, I will contribute to the newly raised zombie thread.

Actually, I only had one thing to say: People note how the Empire didn't want to cover that big gapping hole that leads to the core. I wonder if people remember, this thing is still being built. The primary defense is a shield generator on the local moon, and the Deathstar is pretty much immobile. The hole is obviously there for them to USE SHIPS in the building process of this thing. I.e., it isn't a design flaw that they overlooked and decided to repeat from the first movie. In defense of the Empire of the first one, "The empire doesn't expect a small 1 man fighter to be any threat". It was a "Small Thermal Exhaust Port", meaning, they can't completely cover it, perhaps they couldn't really put anything over it, without it causing a serious problem.

 

[timelordjedi777]

Good points about Jedi.
Slave Leia
Lukes lightsaber
Force lightning
speeder bikes
Luke using the mind trick
Luke using Force choke on Pig alien (sorry don't remember what they are really called)

That's all I can come up with.

 

[LM1]

For what its worth, heres my 5 cents:

A New Hope - No changes
ESB - No Changes
ROTJ - NO EWOKS
TPM - NO Jar Jar Binks, Darth Maul does not die ( rage in anakin towards maul starts
AOTC - No Count Dooku, no Grevious rather Maul in their place ( fights Anakin and wins, more rage in Anakin towards Maul )
ROTS - Maul faces Anakin ( Anakin lets his rage run loose )

All three PT films should have been darker, more sinister. I know they were aimed for both young and old, but all kids grow up and a more adult approach would have made these all the more memorable.

 

[wolf]

Return of The Jedi was a long time ago, I was 12 , , the hype was amazing, the picture book was already out, the Panini sticker collection was out, the making of book was out. I saw the first clips on No. 73, a childrens Saturday morning show, I was incredibly excited to see this movie. I had loved everything about the previous movies and had a nice wee collection of played with toys.
My Dad took my wee Brother and I to see ROTJ , a very rare moment as we had to get a bus to Bangor. When the film was over I was still very excited , I thought it was great!
Today I know about the making of the movies, the problems, the issues at that time.I can now see the "flaws" in this movie in comparison to the previous two. Watching it now as a 40+year old, yes things are not so good but I do hold the memories dearly.
Composing a well thought out reasoning regarding the good and bad of ROTJ is fine and most of us have heard all the points before.
I have just recently built a Biker Scout costume, I suspect it is because the small spark is still burning in my mind, the Scout troopers were super cool, we could go to the woods as kids and be in Endor!
I may be one of the folks who can still enjoy the movie , even if the fast forward button gets pressed here and there but so what.
John D.

 

[micdavis]

Yet people say it's not because their inner child is dead (or perhaps being run over by their early adulthood cynicism) that they hate the prequels.

I laugh once again at the haters.

I have six movies I enjoy, they don't simply because they can't let it go.