Ep. VI - Return of the Jedi
I lined up for this one outside the theater EARLY in the morning for the first showing. It was one of those theaters where you bought your tickets at the window outside, and then go inside. And each window had above it one of those little black boards with the white letters that you can clip in to show the different movies and times. When we got there, the line in front of the window with the board that had "Return of the Jedi" on it was already stretching into the parking lot. We got in line and waited. Counting the number of people ahead of us, we would definitely get into the first showing, but probably wouldn't have great seats. I had a walking cast on my left leg, so I was moving slowing, and Richard would have to go in and quickly grab out seats after we got tickets. But...well, people sometimes don't think things through properly. Once the ticket windows opened up, they weren't likely going to staff all the windows. Not that early in the day. But another window or two would be open. And people didn't seem to realize that, the way this theater did things, there wasn't a single line for all windows. You lined up behind whichever window you were going to. So when the staff later arrived and they prepared to open the windows, we saw which other window they were going to open that did NOT say "Return of the Jedi" above it, and Richard strolled right up to that window and got our tickets instantly, and we went in with our great seats. /strategy
Anyhow, my 12-year-old self enjoyed the heck out of this movie. The only thing that didn't work is my main slight annoyance to this day, which I will touch on below. But as a whole, this was such a great then-ending to the Star Wars trilogy. It took the dark ending of TESB, acknowledged it, built on it, and brought us back to the light with a suitably triumphant victory over the evil empire and the redemption of the galaxy's most feared villain.
Three things that worked:
-Jabba's palace rescue, as a whole. Yeah, there were some moments that, in retrospect, were perhaps a bit too silly or slapstick. But that sequence as a whole was so much fun. And it nicely set up that Luke has legitimate powers now, as well as a potential dark side.
-Vader's conflict and redemption. Yeah...
-Luke's arc as a whole...he has come so far. He isn't the whiny kid anymore. He has seen a lot of things and been through a lot of things that changed him, and it works.
-3.b: Seeing walkers outside the snow. Yeah, minor thing. And after the passage of so much time, it doesn't even really seem like a thing. But at the time, I and others just had it in our heads that, like the snowspeeders, AT-ATs and AT-STs belonged in the snow. It was a little thing, but it was cool to see them in the forest.
Three things that didn't:
-Parts of the battle of Endor. As a whole, it was great. But at times, it crossed over to be a bit too silly/slapstick to the point where it momentarily took me out of the moment a few times. I don't hate ewoks. But there were times when I just felt like the cute/silly factor was taken just a bit too far and crossed the line. And when you add in Chewbacca doing a Tarzan yell...
-C3PO: 3PO as comic relief had now officially crossed the line for me. He wasn't yet the abomination he would become in the PT. But I felt it was definitely over the line.
-I struggle to come up with a third, so I'll go with something I haven't harped on TOO much yet: Re-done scenes. I don't remember many outside Jabba's palace. But a lot of what was added felt not only unnecessary, but detracted from the overall feel of the film for me.
Minor tweaks that could have made it better: Eh, as I've said in the two previous installments, there isn't too much I'd mess with. Yeah, there are things I think could have been done better. But overall, the trilogy was great, so I don't feel like it's beneficial for me to substitute my own personal judgment for that of the filmmakers at the time. I just subjectively wish Lucas would have dialed back the silly just a bit. Again, it's pretty subjective. But he could have still appealed plenty to the people he was trying to appeal to without making others potentially eyeroll at parts.