I have always loved Return of the Jedi too. I always have. I was spoiled and got to see it 3 times on opening day back in ‘83. It made quite an impression with the crowd being quite rowdy, an excitement in the audience that I can only liken to being at a massive concert for your favorite band, before it begins like during soundcheck, the anticipatory pins and needles, every sensation heightened by a fully armed and operational adrenal gland... people were screaming and shouting (in a good way), when it began, just after the 20th Century Fox distribution reel ends, some guy jumped up on his seat in the center of the theater and in the pitch black room as blue text appeared on screen, unable or unwilling to contain his excitement any longer, he yelled out at the top of his lungs:
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the audience roared approvingly but was overcome by the abrupt orchestral blast as the Theme to Star Wars erupted from the speakers...
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I am sure you are getting some kind of picture of what the rest of the movie experience was like. It left quite an impression on me to say the least.
I swear, until I started reading the boards here on theRPF, I never realized anyone hated the ewoks, from a story believability perspective, to the merchandising scheme aspect (George forced his products onto himself and his own movie franchise and placed them in character roles), to the extreme primitive culture doing what the far advanced culture cannot in regards to defeating the Empire... I just always thought everyone felt the same way I did.
I remember after the OT, people complained about Hamill not being a good actor.
Then when the PT came out, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, and Lucas took the brunt and I never heard a word about Hamill’s acting ever again.
Then the ST came out and I haven’t heard a peep about Jar-Jar or Little Ani, and everyone begging Lucas to use the time machine he developed at ILM and go back before the ST was made and keep STAR WARS the very same perfect STAR WARS we always had and loved before the Sequel Trilogy ruined it!
I am loving the Mandalorian. The show has been handled respectfully, and has not broken rule #1 I have imposed over SW during these Disney-owned years: don’t stress out about giving me some new ground breaking tech, story, or character; everything is already there, on cruise control. JUST DON’T SUCK*!
*By “just don’t suck” I mean, don’t change anything now or going forward that will change what came before, or don’t take those characteristics of a character that are so central to the identity of that character that it defines to the audience who that character is and then just throw it in the toilet, or if either of these do happen have a very good reason** for doing so.
**By “very good reason” I don’t mean switching a characteristic to its polar opposite because you the writer like to switch the defining characteristics of characters to their polar opposites.
The Mandalorian to me feels very much like old Star Wars and also like something new. I love the attention to detail, the blasters, the AT-ST, the use of known species, fantastic casting with Clancy, Burr, Gina, Carl Weathers, Taika, Nolte, and especially that weird-ass Werner Herzog.
And of course, the child, Baby Yoda. Who ever did the design on that little guy deserves a raise!
