Return of the Jedi

What an adventure this has been already! Getting to finish the original Star Wars trilogy again always fills me with joy because I'd argue that those three movies provided the best story in that universe, and not very many follow-ups have come close to this.

The story starts off with Luke Skywalker and Leia, played once again by Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, heading back to the desert planet of Tatooine to rescue Han Solo, played once again by Harrison Ford, from the evil gangster Jabba the Hutt. Once that plotline concludes, the main story starts in earnest, with three plotlines running at once. The first involves Han Solo and Leia attempting to take down the shields on the Empire's new weapon which is...another Death Star for some reason, which is powered by a generator on the forest moon of Endor, which is populated by a race of primitive teddy bear like creatures known as Ewoks. The second has Luke heading to the Death Star to confront Darth Vader and the Emperor, played by Ian McDiarmid, hoping to turn the former to the light side after the previous film reveals that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, Luke's supposedly deceased father. The third plotline is all about the space battles with Lando Calrissian, played once again by Billy Dee Williams, taking the helm of the Millennium Falcon, and going to destroy the Death Star.

The storytelling, while exciting, does feel a little uneven in this one. I feel that the rescue of Han Solo is a little drawn out, and, although it brings Solo back to the story, which is much appreciated, it means that it takes awhile for the main meat of the plot to really get started. After that, though, the rest of the story is tight and well told.

Although this film is more hopeful in tone than Empire, that doesn't mean it skips out on character development, with the scenes involving Luke, Vader, and the Emperor probably being some of my favorite interactions in the whole film. I do think that it was a little silly for the Ewoks to have featured so heavily in the Empire being taken down, since they felt very much like kid-appeal characters to me, but I still have fun watching those scenes regardless.

Overall, while this one is a bit uneven, and it definitely isn't as tightly paced as the previous two films, I still would highly recommend watching it. I enjoyed myself immensely while watching it, and, for all its flaws, it really does bring the original Star Wars trilogy to a satisfying conclusion.

Next time, we will take a journey back before the Empire took over the Star Wars universe, before Luke Skywalker was born, to a Star Wars galaxy that is more focused on politics and trade disputes than rebellions. Regardless, something evil is on the horizon. See where the Star Wars adventure began when I review Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mario Marathon Part 6: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

I have to say, Mario way back in the early days of gaming used to be so creative, and this game is no exception. I mean, just like its predecessor, it's very weird, but that's what makes it so charming and fun to play. As with the first Mario Land title, this game was released on the Game Boy, but for being a game on such a simple console, they did quite a lot with the visuals and world designs. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that this game makes the first Super Mario Land look like a tech demo by comparison. The story is the usual flavor of weird that the first game had as well. Mario's castle that he just...has for some reason, has been taken over by the evil Wario and the door to the castle can only be unlocked by going to six zones and finding the golden coins that reside in each. Yeah, this game has a weird story. The six zones are really where the game shines, in my opinion. There is the tree zone, which is a grassland type area that takes place in a giant ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 4: Super Mario Land

Well, this was certainly a game, or at least, a good demonstration of one. This is one of the more bizarre Mario games out there, so let's talk about why that is. Super Mario Land was the first portable mainline Mario game, released for Nintendo's black and white Game Boy. So how did Mario on the go end up doing? Well, quite weirdly as mentioned earlier. While it is a 2D platformer like the other games reviewed so far, this game definitely tried to stand out in ways no other Mario game really has done before. The story follows Mario as he tries to save the kingdom of Sarasaland and its princess, Daisy, from the evil alien Tatanga. Already a departure from the norm for sure, but even the enemies are weird. For example, Koopas now turn into bombs when you jump on them instead of just hiding in their shells so you can kick them later on. The game plays like the first Mario game, but in black and white, with more bizarre enemies like the aforementioned Bombshell Koopas, and actual ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 1: Super Mario Bros

I like Mario, that much is clear from the random beginning of this specific marathon, but regardless, there has been so much Mario content that has come out over the last few years that a review of all the Mario games I consider important sounds like a no-brainer. Well, after a couple weeks of thinking about this, that's exactly what I am doing, and what better place than the game that started it all? That, of course, is Super Mario Bros. Now, this game is hardly the most complex thing out there. It's a sidescrolling platformer where you play as a plumber named Mario who has to save the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom from the villainous turtle dragon thing known as Bowser. But even this simple plot was revolutionary for gaming. You see, prior to this game, video games didn't have any sort of story to them and really were just things made to rack up high scores. This was the first game to really give a more fleshed out story than "Get as much points and then, I don...
Read more