Imagine, if you will, being somewhere between the ages of 3 and 7. You've been exposed to a delightfully colorful cartoon about adventure and magic, featuring little teddy bear-like characters called 'Ewoks', and you're really quite taken. Soon, your parents inform you that there's a movie with these guys in it, and before you know t, you have your first exposure to the 'Star Wars' universe. And with that, allow me to get out of the way the fact that I NEVER minded the Ewoks, as they were quite literally what lead me to this franchise. It's dark times for the Rebel Alliance. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) has been frozen and taken to the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt (a giant slug Muppet) by Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch). The film starts with a drawn out rescue mission, where Luke (Mark Hamill), Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewy (Peter Mayhew), the droids (Anthony Daniels/Kenny Baker) and even Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) team up to outsmart, and outwit Jabba. Being as that's within the first 35 minutes of the film, it's probably safe to assume everyone knows they escape with their lives. The whole think is pretty equal to the Battle of Hoth in 'Empire', right down to the fact everyone splits up when they're done. Luke returns with R2 to Dagobah, but he finds a sick and dying Yoda. Among his last words are a heap of information, including confirmation on Vader being Luke's father, his death will make Luke the last of the Jedi (this is why I never had a problem with 'Episode VIII's title), and that there is another Skywalker (revealed very quickly to be Leia). He's also told that his Jedi training will be complete when he confronts Vader, who wants to turn him to the dark side and partner up to rule the galaxy side by side, as father and son. Meanwhile, the rest of the Rebel Alliance obtain schematics of a new Death Star, which is being protected by a shield generator on the close by forest moon of Endor. Luke (who since returned from Dagobah), Leia, Han, Chewy, R-2 and 3PO lead a team to Endor to find the shield generator. With the generator down, Lando and the rest of the rebels, lead by Admiral "It's a Trap" Ackbar (Tim Rose) can attack the Death Star head on. It all provides the senses with some great special effects and music, setting the mood for this epic battle perfectly. While all this is going on, Luke finds himself on board the Death Star, facing his father and the Emperor as well as his own internal struggle with balancing the force. For as deep and darkly awesome as 'Empire' is, and for as much as it's my favorite, this one has much more of a nostalgic tie to it. It was my first 'Star Wars' movie, and as a kid that young, I think I appreciated all of the creatures more than anything else going on in the movie. Everyone in Jabba's palace was creepy and interesting, and Yoda... actually kinda scared me at first with his death, looking like a frog getting strangled. With that, allow me to semi-correct the fact that this was my real introduction to Yoda. It just didn't mean anything. I had to eventually watch 'Empire' and 'Jedi' in order to really get it. So I still give 'Empire' credit for really introducing me to the character. He was like a face you knew in the hall, but never talked to until you met through someone. I already mentioned how the Ewoks never bothered me, and truth be told, they still don't. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but they add to that side of charm with these movies where sometimes the cheesiness was some of the best stuff. And by the way, I never gave them any credit for overthrowing the Empire like everyone else seems to. I have a particular order on what really did it, and several characters are involved, but nowhere have I ever thought Ewoks did it; they just helped, really. Not to spoil too much, but I give most of the credit to Vader on this one. I know I didn't cover much 'Special Edition' stuff in my 'Empire' review, but that's just because there wasn't much to cover. I think of all of '97's 'Special Editions', 'Empire' did it the best, where the changes were mostly subtle. However 'Jedi: Special Edition' does have my most hated change in any of the three films, and it's weird that it upsets me so much more than others. The scene I speak of is Sy Snootles (Annie Arbogast) singing at Jabba's palace. To put it simply, the original song from '83 was way better, catchier, and even had that little edge of dark oddity to it. Here's a link. Really, it could have just been cleaned up a bit. For me, that song was a big part of it. For anyone else, it would be like scrapping the Cantina Band song from 'New Hope'. With that aside though, any changes made, I pretty much accepted. But I do have to ask why George Lucas felt it necessary to crowbar in a "NOOO!" from Vader, very similar to the only truly horrible part of 'Revenge of the Sith' (I actually otherwise LOVE that movie) for the blu-ray editions, which is now just how it is. If there's one thing I can match most 'Star Wars' fans on, it's the fact that it REALLY sucks that we can't just have parallel editions to these films. The original trilogy is now incredibly hard to find in its original cut, as they've been done over at least twice now (probably more, but I'm counting the '97 Special Editions and the 2011 Blu-rays). If there's one thing we deserve as die hard fans, it's the original cuts made available to us. On that note, that wraps up my thoughts on the original trilogy and what these films mean to me on a bit of a deeper level. This trilogy still represents a good chunk of my youth. 'Jedi' introduced me to 'Star Wars', 'Empire' made me feel pretty deeply about something fictional for the first time, and 'New Hope' eventually lead to my true fandom of the franchise. To watch these movies now is to take me back to a time when this fandom wasn't so toxic. In those pre-internet days, people didn't get so up in arms if things didn't go their way. It was just a simpler time when movies were still movies and not some over-analyzed concept. I'm happy to know that I was around to see those times, and that my introduction to the 'Star Wars' universe was done right... just in the opposite viewing order. 4/5
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