Anniversary XL: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was supposed to be the final (chronological) chapter. Ever since its release exactly 34 years ago today, George Lucas maintained that the story was over, and if he made any more Star Wars films, they would be prequels. Obviously this changed in 2012, but since I'm no expert in that era of Star Wars, Return of the Jedi is still, in my mind, the final chapter. How does it hold up long after its 1983 release?

Return of the Jedi is the Star Wars film that I've had the hardest relationship with. After I had seen all six episodes, I decided Return of the Jedi was my fifth favorite of the six. Later it became fourth, and it became sixth even later. While my favorites ranking of the other five in relation to each other has always been the same, Return of the Jedi has jumped around the board a lot. Now, however, I can solidly say that it's my fifth favorite of the six episodes that I've seen, exactly where it was in my initial assessment.

From a filmmaking and directing standpoint, however, Return of the Jedi is easily the weakest of the saga in my book. I still think it's good, don't get me wrong, but the pressure that Lucas felt to make this the final chapter (which was not his original plan) is really evident here, much more so than in the other "final chapter", Revenge of the Sith. For those of you who don't know, Lucas did originally plan to make a total of nine episodes, and that was still his plan after The Empire Strikes Back was released. However, when he got around to starting the third Star Wars film, he was just... done. Gary Kurtz, his producer for A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, left after disagreements about how the story should continue, and Lucas's wife divorced him in 1983 because of how much time he was spending on this silly space opera. At this point in time, Star Wars had drained George Lucas, but he needed to make at least one more film, given the cliffhanger that The Empire Strikes Back ended on.

I'm inclined to believe Lucas when he says that the overall themes and general story of the Star Wars saga were part of his original plan when he was drafting what eventually became A New Hope. Filmmaking evidence, however, points to the more specific details being added as the movies were written and filmed. Return of the Jedi is the only Star Wars film where this really shows, namely because of the revelation that Luke and Leia are brother and sister. When the ghost of Obi-Wan tells Luke that he has a sister, Luke very quickly realizes that it's Leia, without any hints. That feels really rushed to me, but it's Leia's reaction to the news that I really have a problem with. Luke tells Leia that they're twins, and Leia's response? "I know. Somehow... I've always known."

If that's true, then I highly doubt she would have kissed Luke on the lips in The Empire Strikes Back. I don't have a problem with her kissing him on the cheek on multiple occasions throughout the trilogy. I mean, I'm a heterosexual male, and I've kissed my brother on the cheek a few times. It's a very natural family kind of kiss. But Leia displaying zero type of a shock reaction to this revelation just feels like a major cop-out.

This is one of the reasons why for a time, Return of the Jedi was my least favorite Star Wars film. I went without watching it once for two years, not because I didn't like it, but because I was a lot more excited about finally owning Revenge of the Sith on DVD. It was only when I bought the Blu-Ray set of the complete saga in 2011 that I watched Return of the Jedi for the first time in more than two years... and was reminded of how much there is to love in it.

The opening sequence where the gang rescues Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt is still really fun to watch. The Jabba puppet is wonderfully grotesque, and the battle over the Sarlacc Pit is a well sequenced action scene. Even the added song "Jedi Rocks", which is admittedly quite silly, isn't enough to take away the rest of this very well done sequence. The death of Yoda is emotional and tragic, and the speeder bike chase on Endor is pretty darn groovy.

Then, of course, we have the Ewoks. I'm not their biggest fan, by any means, but I love what their presence represents: nature overcoming the unnatural (the Imperial invaders). They're cute, but very smart and resourceful, especially when they use multiple fun methods to take down AT-STs. The Ewoks may not be my favorite Star Wars creatures, but I've got nothing against them.

My favorite moments in Return of the Jedi, however, are the sequences of the final battle focusing on Luke, Darth Vader, and Darth Sidious. While my favorite Sidious moments are in the second half of Revenge of the Sith, he has some very well-delivered and chilling lines in this film also. The way he just gradually pushes Luke's buttons until things get physical is masterful, and Luke's fight against Vader is definitely one of my favorite lightsaber battles in the saga, because of how much weight is behind it. After seeing all the previous five chapters, one really gets the sense that it all comes down to this.

The payoff is great. Luke defeats Vader, but then has that moment of silence where he realizes that hate is not the answer, and he's able to back off from the dark side. From a certain point of view, this adds more meaning to Sidious's line from Revenge of the Sith: "If one is to understand the great mystery, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Jedi." And when Luke gives up the fight and lets Sidious torture him, he finally reaches his father through love, the very love that drove Anakin mad because he lacked proper guidance on how to deal with it. The silent shots of Vader watching Luke get electrocuted add some nice tension, and especially after watching all five previous episodes, it's so satisfying to watch Anakin Skywalker return and finally defeat that shadow that has haunted him since he was nine years old. Even in the Blu-Ray edition of the film, which adds Vader saying "No!" twice while killing Sidious, the silent moments aren't taken away, and it's tactfully added. I really don't think it makes the film any worse, and it's a nice callback to Anakin saying the same word in Revenge of the Sith, when he stops Mace Windu from killing Sidious out of anger.

Anakin's final words out of the mask are positively touching, and when I watched the film last night, I said "Be at peace, Chosen One" when he died. After that, the film (and saga, in my eyes) ends on a very satisfying note as Lando Calrissian blows up the second Death Star, the galaxy is shown celebrating its freedom, and the surviving Rebels have their celebration on Endor, ready to return the galaxy to its glory days. As a side note, like George Lucas, I'm in favor of having Anakin's ghost reappear as Hayden Christensen. Lucas himself said it was done to signify that Anakin returned and overthrew the Vader persona that took over him when he swore himself to the dark side, which makes sense to me.

While its mishandling of the Luke and Leia relationship makes Return of the Jedi the weakest Star Wars episode in terms of filmmaking and directing, it does what every good final chapter should do: gives the story a climactic and very satisfying ending. It's only my fifth favorite, simply because aside from the ending, there are moments in the other four films that I like more, but it's still a very worthy Star Wars movie and a great conclusion to an epic saga.

That's all my Anniversary XL reviews, right in time for the official 40th anniversary of Star Wars. Special thanks to my parents for introducing me to half of the story, my grandparents for introducing me to the second half, and a very special thanks to George Lucas for, you know... everything.

Anniversary XL Reviews Ahead!

Yeah, I haven't posted a thing on here in six months. For the few of you who are still following me, I have a series of posts planned for the next six days leading up to the 40th anniversary of Star Wars. For the next six days, I will write a reflective review on each of George Lucas's Star Wars episodes (so, not Episode VII or Rogue One, which I haven't seen), talking about what I love about each one, some of my favorite moments and elements from the film, and how I like it in comparison to the other five. These are my top 6 favorite movies of all time, so don't expect me to blast my least favorite episode just because I happen to like the other five more.

I will be going in "flashback" order, that is: IV-V-I-II-III-VI. I believe this is the best order to view Lucas's saga in a full movie marathon (I'll just be watching one a night and write my review of it the following day), as it combines the perks of chronological order (I-II-III-IV-V-VI) and release date order (IV-V-VI-I-II-III) while avoiding the major drawbacks to both "obvious" orders. The best proof I can offer as to why this method works best is in the form Drew McWeeny's series of essays on introducing the saga to his kids in this order. If you haven't read them, they are well worth your time.

Also, I will be using the 2011 Blu-Ray versions of all six films for these reviews. They are the current version of the saga that the creator is most satisfied with, so I think it only fair that I discuss these versions. This will mostly be irrelevant, except when I'm briefly talking about the major changes from the theatrical and DVD cuts. I mentioned in an earlier post that I don't think any change takes away the heart of what made Star Wars what it is, so don't expect to see me blast George Lucas for "ruining my childhood."

Hope you enjoy reading these reviews! I'm looking forward to writing them.

What It Means to be a STAR WARS Fan

In my introductory post, I mentioned that I would be blogging about some controversial subjects, and Star Wars is likely what I will be discussing the most.

Ever since I was introduced to the Star Wars saga in 2004, I have, according to the definition of the word "fan", been a Star Wars fan. That is, I enjoyed the movies and the story they told, and I soon became obsessed with learning more details than the movies told me about this galaxy far, far away. Really, anyone who has a liking for at least one Star Wars film or even one TV episode or Expanded Universe story can be considered a Star Wars fan. If they like an aspect of Star Wars so much that they'd like to write about it, that's great. I'll come back to this definition later.

Over the last several years, however, I have had a harder time calling myself a Star Wars fan. This trend began when I started getting involved in the online Star Wars fan industry. It seems that there, the definition of being a Star Wars fan, in addition to the ground rules I laid out in the previous paragraph, includes spewing as much hate as possible towards George Lucas, the saga's creator, endlessly complaining about the prequel trilogy and the special editions of the original trilogy, and putting down anyone who doesn't conform to this line of thinking.

Obviously, I'm being very general, because hardly every Star Wars-related webpage has content of that nature, but so many do. If this was what you had to do to call yourself a Star Wars fan, then I didn't want to be one anymore. Why? Because I passionately love the prequel trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III) and consider them to be highly underrated films. I also have no problem at all with the special editions of the originals, although admittedly I don't have the proper background to take sides on this debate. I have actually never seen the unaltered cuts of the originals (Episodes IV, V, and VI), but I do know the bulk of the changes that have been made in the special editions. From my perspective, these changes have no effect on any of the elements that made Star Wars what it was to begin with, and it seems a little irrational to me that so many fans are complaining that the unaltered cuts are no longer available, because the cuts that are available tell the same story with the same characters. Like I said, though, take my words with a grain of salt. I haven't seen the unaltered cuts, so I'm not in the best position to judge. The one change I can kind of understand people getting angry about is the infamous who-shoots-first scene, but even then the anger over it seems really blown out of proportion. For my money, the scene works either way, because in both versions the intentions of both characters were quite clear.

The prequels, though... I have a lot more to say in regards to their effect on me as a fan. After seeing all three of them for the first time in 2005, I was blown away at how much I loved them. Yes, you read that right. I loved the new worlds, ships, droids, aliens, characters, stories, and inner struggle that all the protagonists went through over the course of that trilogy. I even loved Jar Jar Binks. Again, yes, you read that right.

For a while after I entered the online Star Wars fan industry, I got somewhat bitter after seeing the non-stop hate spewn at them from nearly every corner of the web. I've seen YouTube comments telling anyone who likes the prequels to kill themselves, I've seen people getting applause for jokes about murdering George Lucas, and I've seen online film channels repeatedly taking potshots at the prequels despite making their opinions about them very clear on multiple occasions. I've even seen some of the prequel fans on the Internet snap under the hate and respond to the criticism in a very rude and derogatory manner.

A common phrase prequel fans have used is, "If you don't like the prequels, you're not a true Star Wars fan." I myself said something to that effect when I wrote a rather angry rant on my Facebook page in January 2013, after Disney cancelled the 3D releases of Episodes II and III that were scheduled for that fall. (Being introduced to the saga in 2004, Episode III was the only one I was able to see in theaters, and I was highly anticipating the opportunity to revisit the entire saga in this venue.) I've realized, however, that that's a hypocritical statement on our part. Fans of Star Wars don't have to like every single Star Wars product ever released, in the same way that fans of the Harry Potter books don't necessarily have to like the movies to remain fans. The prequels are movies, and movies are a form of art, and art is subjective. I'm not trying to say anyone is "wrong" for liking or disliking the prequels (or any other form of art). Different forms of art resonate better with different people, and when fans of one artist or series of artworks can bond over their shared love of this art, or when they can politely discuss their differing opinions or theories about said art, it almost always creates quality memories.

If two Star Wars fans disagree about something, however, they're quickly at each other's throats, both trying to assert their positions as the objective "right" way to look at whatever they're debating over. Compare that to the calm disagreements that arise in other fandoms, and you'll see why lazypadawan of the Star Wars Prequel Appreciation Society wrote a post about "The Fractured Fandom" last fall. The fact of the matter is, there will never be a time in which every single Star Wars fan will agree on which episode is the best one. There will never be a time in which every single Harry Potter fan will agree about who should have ended up with who. There will never be a time in which every single Lord of the Rings fan will love or hate the Hobbit movies. There will never be a time in which every single Disney Animated Canon fan will agree on whether or not Tangled is better than Frozen. What's the point? The point is, stories can resonate with different people for several different reasons, and trying to force your opinion of one story down the throat of someone who has a differing opinion will likely get you nowhere. All that does is fracture the fandom more.

I like the Star Wars prequels slightly more than the originals. I still like Jar Jar Binks. I like the different worlds. I like Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen's performances as the younger Anakin Skywalker. I'm not bothered by the political exposition. I have nothing against the concept of midi-chlorians. I like the updated effects in the special editions. I don't care whether Han shoots first or not. I have not seen Episode VII for personal reasons, and I don't plan on seeing Rogue One this winter. 

Am I going to force you to agree with all of this? Of course not. If you disagree with one, or even all, of the sentences in the above paragraph, feel free to. I wouldn't dream of accusing you of not being a Star Wars fan if this were the case. In future writings, I will likely expound on why I feel the way I do about these aspects of Star Wars, sometimes using evidence from the films to back my opinions up, but I will never assert these opinions as the one-and-only-view-you-can-possibly-have-to-call-yourself-a-Star-Wars-fan.

I agree with lazypadawan in that right now, the Star Wars fandom is fractured. I think a big step in repairing it is simple acceptance, writing about what you like rather than what you dislike, expressing yourself in a calm, respectful manner, and most importantly, agreeing to disagree.

May the Force be with us all.