original ending for Return of the Jedi ? HUH?

[madmikeee]

I was barely a year old when RotJ came out. I probably first "saw" it when I was 3 or 4. And by "saw," I mean my parents called me out to watch the Ewoks when they were on screen. Other than the Ewok scenes, my only exposure to anything Star Wars was the Ewok cartoon and the 2 Ewok movies (which are STILL my favorite Star Wars movies). I didn't see a full SW movie until I was in high school, and it was RotJ. I had no knowledge of anything else from the series. I did watch the first two movies after that, and I did see the Special Editions and prequels in theaters, but meh. I love RotJ, I love the ending of RotJ, and the Ewoks and Ewok movies are still and always will be my favorite thing from Star Wars. Well, that and some of the early EU books. And no, I have no intention of touching anything that Disney puts out, because I refuse to ignore the EU.

Don't read my above quote saying how I cheered every time one of those furry little bastahds bit it then . Also my first question when I saw the new battlefront come out was whether or not I could hunt and kill ewoks. I still don't have an answer..although I know in the first battlefront you could if you were the Empire... I hated that.

 

[Riceball]

I can counter your saying it wasn't a turd with one phrase. "FRACKING EWOKS!" (Edited for the virgin ears)

Hell I CHEERED every time an Ewok Died when I first saw the movie...and I was frikkin 12. Simply put Lucas just plain SUCKS as a director and refused to actually listen to anyone else. I do like your idea of replacing the space bears with Wookies though, THAT would have made a HUGE difference. Not only in the battle scenes but to learn a little about Chewies species.

Except that he didn't direct Jedi, Richard Marquand did. Despite popular belief, Lucas only directed one movie in the OT and that was ANH, both Empire and Jedi were directed by others although it could be said that he was more directly involved in the crafting of the story in Jedi than he was in Empire. Having said that though, I am firmly of the belief that Lucas could not direct his way out of a wet paper bag.

 

[Clutch]

This sums it up for me. ANH - 18 viewings in theater. ESB - 2 viewings in theater. ROTJ - one viewing in theater.

 

[Apollo]

:lol AMEN! I mean YUB YUB! :lol

We're basically discussing different ways to polish a turd for the best outcome.


In the end RotJ is still just a turd.


/thread

 

[batguy]

If ROTJ is a turd then maybe I should have more respect for the potential of turds.


If ROTJ had been a non-Lucasfilm non-SW movie from 1983 then I think we would have lots of love for it.

It just fails to measure up to the first two SW movies. That's a damn high bar to set for anything. It also commits the sin of being too cute, which the sci-fi/fanboy community tends to find disproportionately offensive.


Heck, just think about how much more difficult it would be to get girlfriends to watch the OT if it wasn't for Ewoks. The second movie ends on a big downer. The third one consists of Jabba the Hutt + a metal bikini that they don't want to encourage your interest in.

 

[Edraven99]

The problem with using wookies instead of ewoks was that:

a) They've already been established as technologically savvy
b) They've already been established as super strong

Lucas wanted to hammer home the whole 'primitive vs. technology/David vs. Goliath' thing so wookies wouldn't have worked.

I personally don't have any problems with ROTJ... I think it may have been my favourite of the three films when I saw it as a kid for a time... I loved the space battle and Luke as a powerful Jedi...

There are more films out there I'd call a turd long before I'd call out Jedi.

 

[Halliwax]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSuLSU9aTLk

LOL i never noticed that!

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

The problem with using wookies instead of ewoks was that:

a) They've already been established as technologically savvy
b) They've already been established as super strong

Lucas wanted to hammer home the whole 'primitive vs. technology/David vs. Goliath' thing so wookies wouldn't have worked.

You say that, I remember Lucas saying that... and that "reasoning" is fallacious. If they're being kept as slaves and denied access to technology, then even though they're technologically savvy they wouldn't actually have that technology. Moreso if they were taken from their homeworld to one with no native sapient species or technological infrastructure. I expect they'd do the same thing the VC did -- to keep up the VietNam allegory: sharpened stakes, tiger traps, tunnels and stashes, smuggling little tidbits from the worksite... They'd adapt and overcome. Especially once Our Heroes show up with gear and weapons for them to use, and free their hostage children from the Empire's evil clutches -- the only thing that kept them working and from rising up.

--Jonah

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. What may have been, what could have been, why it should have been; we got what we got. There's no reason in crying over 30 year old spilled milk.

 

[CessnaDriver]

In 1983 I was giving up on the film halfway through but the Luke/Vader stuff and space battles dragged it across the finish line for me.
It closed the story on those characters for me. So no interest in JJ Wars take on what happens after that's for sure. It was already tapped out by then.

 

[batguy]

In 1983 I was giving up on the film halfway through but the Luke/Vader stuff and space battles dragged it across the finish line for me.
It closed the story on those characters for me. So no interest in JJ Wars take on what happens after that's for sure. It was already tapped out by then.

Hmm . . . maybe they should have introduced a batch of younger characters for the new SW movies this time, and shifted the focus on them as things went along . . .

 

[CessnaDriver]

Hmm . . . maybe they should have introduced a batch of younger characters for the new SW movies this time, and shifted the focus on them as things went along . . .

They did. Tons of Ewoks! LOL