mat@hou5a.UUCP (05/28/83)
These are some impressions of Return of the Jedi. The visuals are nothing short of fantastic. I especially liked Jabba's floating `barge'. Before I go further with specifics, let's hit a few general points. SW-ANH and TESB were good enough to stand by themselves. NO WAY for this flick. There was very little continuity of action, and contrary to other folks who have said that Mark Hamill can't act, I feel that he had the only believably written part in the story. The dramatic pace of the show was very badly handled, and many important scenes weren't believable. Now specifics. Jabba was ok, but there some things that weren't believable. The glimpse after Luke destroys the Jabba's monster where some of Jabba's folk mourn for it is not realistic. In a place such as Jabba's hall where fear and pleasure alternate, it seems unlikely that the guards, who might at any moment be terminated, would have had either the time (high turnover in a place like that) or the inclination to gain affection for the beast when they stood a chance of being a meal for it sooner or later. And it just doesn't WORK in the film. And the pace was wrong. The original picture of Jabba and his hall was a little comical, but it grew frightening very quickly. From a purely technical point of view, the comic relief should have been held awhile. When Leia was releasing Han, she said she was ``Someone who loves you ... a lot.'' This was not all that realistic. Think about it -- she is trying to get him out of there. The greeting card schamltz would have waited. And we would have seen Leia PROVE her love by enduring Jabba's abuse. How many women would allow themselves to be raped by another species (submitting to bestiality) in order to pull off an impossible rescue of a man who might not love them? This should have been brought into sharper focus. Even a remark from Han would do it. When Leia strangles Jabba, it seems to be a little too pat, too easy. It seemed too melodramatic, as well. And Jabba, being apparently a lover of torture (applied to others) would probably have carried the cat-and-mouse with Luke a little further. Next, why did Luke wait until they were about to make him walk the plank before fighting? After all, he could have jumped/flew out of the monsters pit immediately. Was he just playing cat-and-mouse with Jabba? If so, his demeanor with Jabba (``You should have bargained. I will destroy you.'') was all wrong. Luke would almost certainly have been more coy. And this is not acting. It is writing. Yes, acting might have saved the day. (``-offhandedly: You SHOULD have bargained. I -gravely: WILL -quietly: destroy you.'') But let us not fault Hamill for not being Brando. In the opening, the introduction reads ``Little does he know that the Empire is building a new Death Star'' or some such. OUCH! I had to pull the corncobs out of my ribs -- and it got worse when Luke found out AFTER rescuing Han abouth the new Death Star. That tidbit of information was carried into the movie by an unmitigated Deus Ex Machina. If it was important enough to rate explanation in the opening, why was it tossed into the plot exposition with that kind of devil-may-care attitude? In the big scene -- the scene with the Emperor -- the Wrath of the Emperor is badly handled. He jumps up and gets VERY physical, throwing sparks all over the place to zap Luke. Why? He does these things with his mind. It would have been far better if he sat with his eye closed as the sparks engulfed Luke -- and as Luke resisted by clearing his mind of hatred. And, just as the Emperor is about to overcome Luke, just as all his energy and conciousness are focused on Luke's destruction, Vader smites the Emperor with Luke's light sabre and they both are engulfed in a blaze of glorious purple (not blue, please) sparks. A horrible scream is heard, and the Emperor's body disappears. Then he appears in ``holographic'' form, and, with a look of panic and terror, fades thinner and thinner until only a shadow is left. Finally the shadow fades as well. That is how it COULD have been. Why didn't the battle with the Empire's fleet more closely track the battle between Luke and the Emperor? Yes it might have been corny if overdone, but is could have been believable> If Yoda, on his deathbed (contrived, no?) tells Luke that Luke had learned all he needed from Yoda, why was it that in TESB Yoda wanted Luke to stay? And why wasn't Yoda available in ``holographic image'' just as soon as he died? Ok, it's not unreasonable, but not explained either. And why didn't Anaken Skywalker, after his salvation from The Dark Side of the Force, disappear immediately upon dying? And, if Leia is strong of the Force, and has experienced it (when Luke called out to her near the end of TESB) why didn't she at least have some view of the Three Transfigured Jedi (Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anaken (sp?)) when Luke could see them? At least to feel their presence? Then there were the scenes where the furry litle people are destroying the two-legged tanks (whatever they are called). They find about six or seven ways to do it, and this is a little TOO much comic relief. Also, they could have been saved for a whole bunch of action-twists, each alternating with a hopeless or disasterous situation. And why was the rebel cruiser able to withstand the planet-bursting blasts of the ``fully operational Death Star''? If it had been only partially operational, it might have been more credible from BOTH the point of view of the cruiser and the point of view of the amount of time needed to complete the station. Oddly enough, Obi-Wan's explanation of how he had not lied was believable -- perhaps because that is the way I would have written it myself. What else? Well, in going from the destruction of Jabba, to Yoda on his deathbed, and back to the battle group, the pace was lost. After the first drawn-out and terrible vanquishing of an enemy, we should either set up for a higher tension or see some kind of escape valve (eg comic relief) before the vastly different type of emotions needed to deal with the Yoda scenes -- and we should have had a little more build-up on the way back. The placement and handling of the Yoda scene destroyed the flow of the action. Well, I could say a lot more, but this should be enough to start things going. Mark Terribile Duke of deNet