As I said in my The Empire Strikes Back review, I didn't grow up watching the Star Wars movies. But when I did watch them a bit later, this is the one that stood out to me most at first. So I've developed some of the biggest nostalgia attached to the original trilogy through this movie. Objectively this film isn't fantastic. But I love it.
This movie's first portion feels like a separate film than the second portion. But I actually like that in a way. I've always thought this film opened up Star Wars for future expansion. It has some very interesting planets and systems introduced. I'm talking about the system of bounty hunters and crime that are fleshed out in this movie and would be expanded upon in future Star Wars properties such as the Clone Wars series. And it set up some more universal feeling travel in this huge galaxy. The story itself takes a bit of a backseat to world-building and that can be frustrating at times. But it's not too much of a hangup for me because I just enjoy the ride. It gets more focused towards the end and it's a really good story once it gets to that point.
I usually cover something related to the main characters but I've done that twice in my reviews of the first two movies. I will say this though, at the time that Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO were all sitting in a ship together. (Pictured on the right) I made the statement to my friend that those 6 were some of the best fantasy characters ever put to film. And I really believe that. One more thing, Ewoks get too much hate. I love the Ewoks, I don't even care if they were there added for marketing purposes and toy sales. Wicket the Ewok is one of my favorite side characters in all Star Wars. I don't even know why but I love him.
Visually I think some portions have aged a little poorly compared to other parts of Star Wars. But they don't age awfully. I enjoyed a lot of the action set pieces in this film. The Rancor fight was fun, um the speeder chase was also a fun time. The Luke/Vader duel was spectacular. And all the scenes of Luke, Vader, and Palpatine were also great. The cinematography was about equal to the previous films and was equally as enjoyable. Again in the Luke/Vader duel, I think the cinematography was especially high quality.
Though it's not the greatest Star Wars film, it is a fun one. And one that I enjoy a lot on rewatch.
Now enjoy a few extra photos.
