In class the other day we touched on a longstanding debate among Star Wars fans about the merits (or demerits?) of Return of the Jedi. Here's one guy's opinion from a while back, in a piece entitled "50 Reasons Why Return of the Jedi Sucks." Anyone care to weigh in?
By the way, this post's title is an allusion to an infamous remark by Hugo Dyson in a meeting of the Inklings in Oxford. Reportedly, Tolkien was about to read from his "new hobbit book" and Dyson, who was lying on a couch, groaned "Oh, no! Not another [insert expletive here] elf!"
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I have never seen nitpicking at such an extreme. Vebber whines about things like Vader's shuttle being the same as other Imperial shuttles and "fake-looking aliens." He also uses "dumb dialogue" and the like as several different reasons and grumbles about a few similar lines in the script. Moreover, Vebber critiques the "sub-par" effects and costume designs which, as far as I know, were the best there were in 1983. On top of it all, he goes so far as to criticize John Williams' brilliant score. I can count the number of points that I agree with on one hand. The rest of Vebber's complaints are repetitive, trivial, and subjective. I'm in the long process of deciding whether I like Empire or Jedi better, but this critic's carping is just silly.
As Sir Bob has so brilliantly asserted, Mr. Vebber is quite an idiot. I need not expound this point any further.
But I'm going to.
One of the problems I have with Vebber's argument is the inapplicability of his list's title: "50 Reasons Why Return of the Jedi Sucks." Many of his complaints regard A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, such as his dislike of Artoo's inconsistent character or his critique of the undesirably muppet-like aliens (most of which appeared in Episode IV).
Basically, Vebber is "nitpicking" (Latchaw 1) unnecessarily.
i feel that through all of this hate, the film needs a little love. i was the student who incited this post and i would say that after reading the 50 reasons why it sucks, i am quite convinced. However, i said that i liked it as a kid, and i have not seen it since. When i was a kid, the ewoks were awesome, and the potential incest didn't really catch my attention. It was more the amazing special effects, the fact that they destroyed the death star, and if Return of the Jedi has no other redeeming factor, it always has the greatest film quote ever: it's a trap!
For musical commentary on the role of the Ewoks in the film, with the help of Billy Dee Williams, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdd0edT-BeE
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