Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Rating:
Summary: great end to the trilogy
Review: i think the reason it shows the punk kid is because that is anakin at the last point in his life (barring his turn back in front of the emperor) where he was a member of the light side of the force. i, too, would have given this movie five stars but for one thing. those damn ewoks. those furry little punks completely ruin the movie. the only subplot worth watching is luke's. why couldn't there be an army of wookies in the forest? the reason people hate ewoks is because they remind people of kids, and everyone hates kids because all they do is eat and whine about not having enough allowance. the last thing i want to see in a movie with lightsabers and an incredibly awesome lord of evil is a bunch of little brats running around making squeeking noises. too bad they didn't destroy endor.

Rating:
Summary: Good film but bettered by Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back
Review: Of the three major Star Wars movies, Jedi is the lesser. Why is difficult to define... it has great action sequences like the Battle Of Endor and the rescue from Jabba The Hutt. It also boasts the climactic confrontation involving The Emperor, Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker. It even introduces the overly cute Ewoks for the first time (although it is significant that George Lucas has edited their appearences down a tad in the dvd release). Yet Jedi justs sits there behind the other two films in terms of overall entertainment. Nor do I think mine is a solitary view on this. When I was a student, I worked part time in a cinema to help fund me through my studies and both Empire and Jedi were films that were shown during my time there. Jedi simply did not do the level of business that Star Wars and Empire achieved. While it was busy, it never quite seemed to fill up. People seeing it for the most part all said it was good but not like the previous films in terms of entertainment.
I view Jedi as a film that could and should have been better and I put the why down to the way it is directed. Richard Marquand was a fine action director but if you compare the direction to say that of Empire Strikes Back then flaws emerge.
I often wonder what Jedi would have been like if George Lucas had let the director of Empire Strikes Back - Irvin Kershner helm that film too....
To put it simply I think that Irvin Kershner did a better job of Empire Strikes Back, nothing in Jedi for example comes close to the chase through the asteroid field for example.
I also think that on the strength of the dark scenes from Empire such as the Vader/Skywalker confrontation and others, that Kershner would have taken the really good confrontation at the end of Jedi between The Emperor, Vader, and Luke and made it truly great. Missing from that is the dark moodiness of the similar scenes in Empire which if they had been realised in Jedi, would have lifted it up the scale significantly in content and enjoyment factor.
To sum up, good as that end sequence is in Jedi, it could have been even better with Irvin Kershner helming it... and that pretty much sums up the film as a whole basically.

As to the controversy of the editing that Lucas has made to the dvd releases, my feelings are as follows:
I loved the originals and have the vhs versions of all three. However, with nearly 20 years between Jedi and The Phantom Menace there were always going to be continuity issues concerning casting and SFX. Play an original vhs version of Star Wars, and you will soon see that the mattes have not aged well and stand out visibly. Yet did we notice them at the the time of the films release? No of course not because the SFX then were state of the art. Now with the passage of time and SFX having come on in leaps and bounds, George Lucas decided to update the former films.In my opinion he has done a good job too SFX wise. The casting editing is more to link with the newer editions of the franchise than to improve the quality of the originals, so my thoughts on that are mixed though. I can see the reason for doing it but I simply prefer the original actors in their roles. Clive Revill's Emperor in Empire Strikes Back I think is the deletion that was most unnecessary.
Overall though I am glad that I have a choice and can either watch the originals on vhs or put on the updated versions on dvd.
I have looked forward to the dvd release of these films for years and am delighted with finally being able to blast them across my home cinema set up. The picture on 16:9 anamorphic is great on a widescreen tv. All sound channels are crisp and totally clear of any distortion. Laser blasts and Tie Fighters shoot across the room to varying degrees...Such is the effect of being able to do that, it has returned me to the awe struck kid seeing Star Wars for the first time in a cinema. Thanks for the dvds, George, it may have taken a while but at least they are here now.



Rating:
Summary: Who is Anakin?
Review: The only reason I gave this dvd 3 stars instead of 5 stars is because when you watch the end of the movie and you see the "spirits" of Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin sitting there together it WAS Sebastian Shaw who played Anakin in ROTJ BUT for some reason it was decided to place the current actor who plays Anakin in the newer movies in that scene. Why they did this I don't know. I think it ruins the entire movie seeing that whiny snot-nosed kid sitting there instead of Sebastian Shaw!