December 4, 2009

Return of the Jedi (1983)
#14 on my Top 100 List
I'm going to get this out of the way first - I really don't mind the addition of Hayden Christensen into the end of the DVD version of this movie. It appeases my sense of continuity and links the two trilogies together. (It almost makes up for Leia's discussion about remembering her mother, which is impossible, since she was minutes old when Padme died in Revenge of the Sith.) There are a lot of things that I love about this movie, from the Ewoks smashing an Imperial Walker between two logs, to the entire Jabba's Palace and sail barge sequence, to the celebration at the end (which includes my favorite moment in all of Star Wars when the Ewoks use stormtrooper helmets as drums and also now includes a shot of Naboo). I know that it's campy when compared to the other two, but I love it anyway. The three parallel battles in the end are shot and edited beautifully. Yoda's death scene is moving - the most moving death of a backwards-talking puppet ever - and works as an appropriate reveal of the Skywalker twins' existance. Though, I gotta say, for a Jedi who's supposed to be all about peace and defense, Luke kills people in this movie left and right. Even so, Jedi Luke is hot.
My Netflix rating: 5 stars