The stuff with Luke and Vader and the emperor is genuinely great, an emotionally thrilling climax to the trilogy. And while the cynical part of me thinks George designed the Ewoks to sell toys, I don’t mind them that much. But other than the climax, this feels pretty artless and tasteless and doesn’t compare to the prior two. Honestly, it feels rushed and like nobody’s heart was in it (except for Ian McDiarmid and Mark Hamill, bless their souls).
My understanding is that Empire was not that well-liked at first. Folks have told me it took about a decade for that film to be appreciated. That checks out. We don’t really like middle films in trilogies, and they are awkward on their own. Nobody had really done a “middle chapter” as a film before Empire, so I can understand the resistance.
I bring this up because it feels a little like Jedi is a response to Empire’s backlash the same way Rise of Skywalker is a response to The Last Jedi. It’s a lot of fan service with very little substance. Want more Tatooine? Brought it back. You liked the Death Star? Brought it back. It’s a remake disguised as a sequel. This movie is fortunate Empire gave it so much to do, because otherwise there’d be even more familiars ground.
It’s not that it’s all bad; it’s just not all good, which makes it the first of many middling (or worse) Star Wars entries.
Some other notes:
- Jabba the Hutt is cool. The weird aliens and monsters are some of the best parts of Star Wars.
- the speeder chase is super cool and better than the podrace on nearly every level
- the music is super dope. Love the emperor’s theme. This is also the only film in the series where the emperor is actually frightening and sinister, in my mind. But that might be because he freaked me out as a kid.
- seriously, the climax in the throne room is A+ and clearly what they spent most of their time thinking through during the writer’s process
- the special edition additions in this are especially terrible. When will Disney release the originals? George Lucas’ tinkering sucks.
- I do not understand why so much of the camera work here and lighting is so terrible. Empire looks great and was shot very competently. This looks mostly like garbage, especially the shots with C3P0 where he’s overexposed, or the shots where the on-set lights are too bring and blooming too much, etc. It’s just tasteless and clearly rushed compared to Kershner’s work on Empire, which was subtle and expertly done. (Kershner made an art movie, and Marquand made an 80s sci-if adventure, and it’s obvious which I prefer.)
- I’d take this over any prequel, but at least 3 of the new movies are better than this (Awakens, Last Jedi, and Rogue One).