When I was a kid, I absolutely adored RETURN OF THE JEDI. As I’ve gotten older and revisited it, it’s clear to me that it is inferior to the other films in the original STAR WARS Trilogy in every way. There really is no reason that STAR WARS needed to have its original story shoehorned into a trilogy, as RETURN OF THE JEDI short-changes all of the development and build up set up in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, filling this movie with on-the-nose direction, moronic revelations, and kid-friendly sub-plots that aren’t going to interest anyone over the age of 13. The scenes with Luke, Vader and Emperor Palpatine are the only truly strong thing the movie has to offer in the way of plot. The epic battles in space are truly breathtaking to behold, however doing a re-hash of the Death Star battle from the first film keeps it from being the great set-piece it could’ve been, it’s a failing of the plot, rather than the special effects or the direction. The movie feels like George Lucas wanted to be done with STAR WARS and didn’t really take time to think about a proper way to finish the story in one film and instead put together something for the kids. What a shame.