I started watching Return of the Jedi at about 6am, and its issues outweighed the good for the first time. Honestly, it gets worse each time I watch it.
I have been going through a similar experience with ROTJ but I don’t think I’ll ever see it as being anything less than okay. What was the one aspect of the film that caused you to change your opinion?
Nearly every character is misused and flat compared to their dynamic counterparts from the previous films. Han has nothing to do and is stupidly jealous, Lando’s betrayal is not addressed, Leia could be interchangeable with anyone, the sister plot twist has never sat well with me, Vader goes from wanting to overthrow the Emperor to being fine with having Luke kill him to prove a point that doesn’t make sense, the “I can turn him to the good side!” is incredibly naïve and sounds very childish, “A certain point of view?!”, Boba Fett didn’t need to be in the movie, the Ewoks ruin the film’s pacing, I could probably go on. These issues just got to me where the parts I usually enjoyed couldn’t save the film anymore.
The only point I disagree with is when you said Luke seeing good in Vader is naive. He surely should have felt something in Vader when he was offered a place at his side. I wish Luke could have said something like “Bringing our father back won’t undo all the things he’s done but it’s a start” or something stating the realistic nature of redeeming the right hand of The Devil.