**THE WACPINE OF 'RETURN OF THE JEDI'**


WRITING: 8
ATMOSPHERE: 7
CHARACTERS: 8
PRODUCTION: 9
INTRIGUE: 7
NOVELTY: 7
ENJOYMENT: 7


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**The Good:**


I love Luke's darker persona as he has to fight to stay on the light side. It shows how much he has developed throughout the trilogy, but also how he is similar to his father.


The climactic lightsaber duel is awesome, as is the operation to destroy the second Death Star.


The production design is impeccable, the costumes look amazing and the music and sound design are top-notch. I'm happy that the model work and basic visual effects have been conserved, even in the altered versions.


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**The Bad:**


The added song performance in Jabba's palace is the most cringeworthy and unnecessary addition to the original trilogy. I wish the Disney+ version would have edited that part out.


The Jabba sequence, while at times exciting and well-made, just feels like a prolonged intro before the real film begins. The same goes for the endless Endor sequence before the Battle of Endor begins.


One of the main problems is the fact that this film doesn't divide the action into several smaller blocks of a story like the previous two films, and only really focuses on three very long acts (Jabba, Endor, final battle). That makes Return of the Jedi feel slower than the first two films.


The new characters don't stand out this time, and most of the old ones remain fairly bland. Luke, Leia, C-3PO and Vader are the only interesting characters.


While I understand that adding Hayden Christensen's force instead of the original one at the end is a way to tie the original trilogy closer to the prequel trilogy, it doesn't make any sense. Yoda and Obi-Wan look the way they did when they died, so Anakin should be older here.


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**The Ugly:**


Is it just me, or we're the Ewoks created just to boost plush toy sales?


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**WACPINE RATING: 7.57 / 10 = 4 stars**