I just don’t understand how anyone can hate TFA and call ROTJ an extraordinary film.
If we take George Lucas out of the picture, the other people who made Return of the Jedi were more talented and crafty at the various things they did compared to the people who made TFA. I can admire the pacing, the framing or blocking, the editing, the emotional conflict, the attention to detail, all of it, which I find nowhere present or nearly nowhere present in TFA. ROTJ’s script is also not a Frankenstein’s monster, amalgamated from the disparate ideas of creator, writer, director, several producers, a couple people in marketing, some other corporate suits at The Mouse, and that smelly guy over there. ROTJ tells a story, whereas TFA attempts to be an amusement park ride that whisks you by this and whisks you by that, a few moments at a time.
Yes, ROTJ is not as good a film as Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back–that I agree with. It’s main drawback is occasional tackiness and silliness. The quality of the production at Jabba’s palace was extremely uneven, to be kind–almost like a B-movie. And while I have no problem with many of the Ewok scenes, silly nonsense like the Ewok spinning around on the bike speeder, or cute teddy bears taking out elite soldiers with rocks and sticks … yeah, those are blemishes on an otherwise well conceived and well made movie.
But if George’s occasional nonsense and bad taste is what turns you off, how about I suggest going back and looking at the scenes that are a true work of art? Can you not watch Yoda’s death scene and admire how it was filmed? The craftsmanship that went into the puppet and its acting, the use of wide shots and very few cuts? What about the appropriate humor–which is pure Star Wars humor-that makes you chuckle in a wry and fond way? And then there is the mood: something the OT always got right was mood and atmosphere. Those films were allowed to breathe!
I recently saw someone posting on here about how they can’t stand to watch the middle section of Return of the Jedi, and all I could think about was the Shuttle Tydirium scene. Just admire the beauty and dramatic mood in the cross cutting between the heroes in the shuttle and villains on the command ship. Admire the subtext in the dialogue, where so much is said by the characters from what they allude to, and not so much with their words. A glance from Leia. It’s all there to behold.
None of these things were present in TFA. At a conceptual level, the film was a disgrace. It had no story to tell, and it had no vision, and it lacked unity of composition. At an execution level, the craftsmanship was sometimes good, usually not good, but not really incompetent. I think perfunctory would be an apt description, which seems par for the course for something that was just a safe and derivative cash grab.