Each day Return of the Jedi becomes worse and worse of a movie in my mind. Even just a few months ago, my opinion of the movie was much more generous. And it makes me quite sad since I used to love it as a kid.
The sister reveal is definitely one of those things that stands out as a glaring issue but now even what used to be the good things about Return of the Jedi for me have turned into weaknesses. I used to think the stuff with Luke, the Emperor, and Vader was the saving grace of this movie but now all of it just feels cheap, contrived, and lazy. With the emperor saying things like “You, like your father, are now mine.”, or Vader saying “It is useless to resist”. They turned the dark side into some sort of dark force that tempts you and takes control of you. I kind of miss the days when the dark side was simply another philosophy by which force users would follow. When Luke made his decision in Empire Strikes Back to not join Vader, it actually seemed like a hard decision when I was a kid. Vader was his father, they could technically beat the Emperor together, and then rule the galaxy together. It actually seemed like a viable option and Luke was still able to make the right choice. In Return of the Jedi, the Emperor couldn’t have done a worse job of trying to convince Luke to join him. Why is it that because Luke loses his cool for a few moments, would maybe turn him to the dark side. For gods sake, even when he refuses to kill Vader and throws his light saber away it is starting to feel cheap and contrived.
It’s all just probably my mind becoming more and more cynical in thinking but oh well. RIP Return of the Jedi.