Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

A pretty uneven climax to the most overrated story in the history of cinema. The scenes with the Emperor and Darth Vader are great, the events on the forest moon are unnecessarily ruined by the childish Ewoks, and the opening half hour in Tatooine is almost unbearable. It’s decent fun, but putting Star Wars at the level of other fantasy and science fiction worlds is way too much. (02/22/2009)

With Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars saga reaches its climax, and the film's story takes on the highest quality and consistency. For me, the third (sixth) episode of Star Wars is the best ever made. Everything is perfect, I wouldn't want to repeat myself, but the plot, the special effects, the production design, the music, the costumes and make-up effects are (for their time) flawless. In short, an incredibly spectacular ending to the most famous space saga that deserves one of the brightest spots in cinematic history. (08/21/2014)

Apart from the fateful ending, it's just a childish and terribly stretched borefest with a weak production design, bad effects and long dialogues. In addition, there is almost no editing (a similar flaw from the other old episodes), so we get several minutes-long sequences connected into a long and pseudo-fateful film. Thank God for the new episodes. This is almost laughable and cannot be compared artistically. If it wasn’t for the sentimentality, it would be rated significantly weaker, even considering how long ago it was filmed, because the effects are by far the least of the problems. (11/25/2012)

Probably the most fairytale-like episode of the existing series of Star Wars. It almost looks as if George Lucas found himself in the effects which brought us Critters, Gremlins, or the legendary series Dinosaurs. All of those monsters and freaks look just as good. But, I have to say that I don’t mind this deviation. On the contrary, I was happy not only because of them, but because of Chewbacca, who is on stage a lot more than usual. And when he isn’t there, you can still hear those odd sounds of his somewhere in the background. And the finale? That’s literally top-notch. It’s a shame that I will never get to know the feelings the fans back then had to have when they finished the movie and then realized they actually didn’t know how it all began and had to wait for it for almost twenty years. (11/04/2015)

The episode where George Lucas's imagination was perhaps at its best – unfortunately. My impressions are aptly characterized by the well-known story of David Lynch (yes, that David Lynch); he was Lucas's main candidate to direct episode IV, and the two met in person before production began. Lucas started talking excitedly about all the weird SW characters and worlds, and Lynch, who wasn't interested anyway and only met him as a courtesy, told him it would be best if he directed it himself. And so a total unknown Richard Marquand was brought in and the viewer got a bunch of funny elves at the end of the greatest space saga of all time, among whom Harrison Ford, Hollywood's biggest dude, looks a bit like Mr. Bean driving a Ferrari. On the other hand, the storyline around Luke works just fine, the aura of the dark side is very tangible (even if it contrasts with the goofing around with the Ewoks), and the special effects are clearly the best of the trilogy, so we do get an exciting experience. I really wonder what it would have been like with the master of depression Lynch at the helm, but actually, thank goodness for that enthusiasm – without him, Star Wars probably never would have been made, so how else would it have ended? The new millennium will give us an ironic answer. 75% (08/03/2018)