The Star Wars trilogy ends with this movie so it really needs to be a good one! The trilogy started out on a high note with the first film, but the second one wasn’t quite as good. This one beats the second film, but could it match up to the first film? I don’t think so and during the review you will find out why!

The plot involves Luke Skywalker as he needs to free Han Solo and help his friends. That’s the plot for the first 30-40 minutes and from there we realize that Luke and Han need to disable the force field so that the rebels can destroy the Death Star. To do this, Luke may have to confront Darth Vader. This may be tricky because of the whole “I’m your FATHER!!!!” plot twist, but we hope for the best while expecting the worst. It’s a pretty basic plot overall, but the villains are intent on stopping Luke Skywalker from succeeding.

All right…..there are some pretty iffy moments going into this so I suppose that I’ll get one of the big things out of the way first. That would be Luke Skywalker’s personality and overall skill set. In this film, he is an experienced fighter who presumably knows a lot about the Force. Well, he looks pretty bad in this film and I still have to wonder how I became a fan of this guy. It must have been somewhere in the expanded universe, but I believe that I may have only liked him in theory. That does happen sometimes, where I like someone because he/she should be cool in theory, but when I actually see the media…I’m underwhelmed. That may be what is happening in this case which would mean that I actually do not like Luke.

His very first scene is pretty bad as he makes a deal that endangers the lives of his friends. It’s one of the worst plans that I have ever seen since Luke walks into the base completely unprepared. He doesn’t have his Lightsaber on him and he nearly loses to a random beast. Luke is not very adept at The Force, but it doesn’t look like any being is in the movies. The Force is a much greater power in the expanded universe. (Just check out Star Wars Unleashed!) Skywalker makes a great number of mistakes which also include the fact that he throws away his weapon in the climax of the film. He definitely did not think that one through and what really makes this scene a sad one is the fact that the villain was unarmed and would have lost.

I’m afraid that isn’t all of it for Luke’s mistakes. He also hesitates for a very long time while his friends are being incinerated in front of him. He can potentially stop this by defeating The Emperor and going over to help, but he has no time for games! There’s also a vehicle chase scene where he seems to forget how to use The Force to stop objects, but he may not be skilled enough to use that ability. I’m sure that there are more moments like the ones that have been mentioned, but Luke is definitely not a likable main character. He talks a really good game, but he can’t back it up. It’s also a little disappointing how he barely seems to be more skilled than the average human with a sword. Unfortunately, there is another character who didn’t look very good in this film.

Darth Vader has definitely fallen a long way since the first Star Wars film. In this one, he’s nothing but the Emperor’s lackey. He basically does whatever The Emperor wants and he acts like a complete slave. At least he mentioned a plan to overthrow the Emperor in the last film, but this time he seems content to just serve him. In the end, Darth Vader has his big moment, but I feel like he hesitated for a little too long. It was nearly too late to do anything by the time he stepped in. He was also very weak since Luke was able to defeat him with ease once he got serious. Darth Vader performed decently when Luke wasn’t fighting back, but once it was a real fight…there wasn’t really any contest about who would win. Unlike Luke, I do know that Darth Vader is a good character thanks to the EU. I have seen Darth Vader in the comics and I can say with certainty that he was a much better character in the ones that I have read. He’s also vastly stronger as he would be considered pretty low tier in the movies. Please Understand that I may have appreciated the characters more if I did not already know about their cooler appearances…but alas, it is too late for that.

Unlike the previously mentioned characters, Han Solo actually shows some signs of improvement. It’s a win/lose scenario as he gets better in some aspects while worse in others. On one hand, he seems to have matured and he doesn’t flirt nearly as much as he used too. On the other hand, he’s not as much of a rebel as he used to be and he seems to have mellowed out. Still, he’s a much better character than he was so I give the film props in that regard.

Leia is still around, but her role is definitely smaller and she doesn’t get many action scenes. She still knows how to use a gun and she manages to defeat several scouts who were masquerading as Storm Troopers. It was too bad that she was captured by Jabba, but it was pretty much unavoidable thanks to Luke’s awful plan. She wasn’t a bad character by any means, but I suppose that she was pretty unmemorable in this one.

Boba Fett is the guy who steals the show and aside from one questionable scene, he does a good job. Believe it or not, he actually gives Luke a decent fight and he’s not someone that you will want to mess with. He has a pretty cool demeanor and he seems pretty experienced. He has an air of confidence about him and he reminds us all why he is the top agent around here. I wouldn’t mind a whole film about Boba Fett since that would be pretty awesome. His role is pretty brief and there are some inaccurate moments, but they tend to happen, we just have to try and tune them out.

We’ve still got C-3PO and R2D2. They’re as annoying as usual and R2D2 continues to get them into some pretty big messes. If R2D2 would actually listen to C-3PO once in a while, then maybe the heroes would stand a chance. That being said, he is prone to giving bad advice at times so you won’t always want to trust him. Chewy is also still around and he gets to yell a lot, but that’s really all that he ever does. I don’t think that he’ll ever make the transition to being a likable character, but they can’t all be winners right? That being said, we had more annoying characters than usual in this film.

The Ewoks were terrible and I mean terrrrible characters. Every minute that they were on screen made me cringe inside. A part of me died whenever they would defeat a Storm Trooper and I’m not exaggerating when I say that they may have been some of the worst supporting characters that I’ve seen in a movie that was part animal in a very long time. They were responsible for 90% of the film’s cheesy scenes and moments of innacuracy. They definitely should not have been in the film.

The Storm Troopers don’t get the respect that they deserve in this film. They’re trained professionals and they should be defeating all who get in their way. One of them managed to defeat Luke in a high speed battle/race which is saying something, but that was their only really good scene. They would easily defeat the Ewoks so it was a little upsetting that they did not. There was also a decently large amount of plot hax in the whole climax since the rebels should have been completely wiped out. They were vastly outnumbered and would have been incinerated very early on, even without the Star Destroyers.

The Emperor himself is a pretty underwhelming character as well. Not only is he a very old person, but he’s not exactly the best close combat fighter. He’d quickly be overwhelmed by anyone with a decent amount of ability and his plans don’t really make any sense. Why Darth Vader works for this guy is completely beyond me. Lando is around…and he stays around for the whole film while not really doing anything. Granted that he’s still a decent character overall.

Unfortunately, the film falls into the holes that the last one fell into like the animal violence part. There is less than the last film, but it’s still sad that it had to happen. There isn’t really much romance to distract from the plot in this film, but to make up for that, we have a lot of inaccurate scenes that are just sad to watch. We also got to see a great villain wrecked throughout the movie. Princess Leia also had a very unnecessary costume change for a short part of the film and we have to remember that the Ewoks are a major negative to the film. This movie definitely made its share of mistakes, but we’ve also got the positives as well.

Boba Fett was a solid character and he never backed down from a fight. He was a brave man until the bitter end! The fight scenes were solid (When Lightsabers were involved) and Luke’s Lightsaber looks a lot more formidable than his old one. This one is a green blade that is very thick and looks pretty menacing. The film is pretty fun to watch and it won’t drag out all that much even though it is very long.

Overall, Star Wars was a pretty solid trilogy and I can see why it is so legendary. It was a fun watch from start to finish. While Yoda really didn’t end up contributing at all by the end of the trilogy, we got to see some good fights and establish a new universe. The end of the trilogy leaves a lot of room for a sequel and it would appear that the sequel will be coming out at some point in the future. The expanded universe will continue to grow for this series and you can expect a Star Wars related review to come out on the blog at some point within the next few months. I can safely recommend this film and it’s actually a solid jumping on point for new Star Wars fans, although the first film is the best so I would recommend that one the most. I wonder if the Prequel trilogy is as good as this one….

Overall 5/10