Just for the record before I give my take, I love all OT movies alot better than the PT, but if I look at ROTJ not as a SW fan, but as a movie, it is a so-so sequel. But I still love it cause it has my characters I love, and continues and finalizes the story I got so entrenched with in the first two movies, but I will still say ROTJ is not a classic movie. In saying, none of the Prequels are good movies either, just from a movie point of view, infact by viewing the Prequels, I realized how much better ROTJ was, and TPM proved what a dud SW movie is.
I say we should be lucky because how many movie series have classic sequels? I love the Terminator, but T2 is very good, but not as good as the original. Same with Superman, Back to the Future, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, they are all classic originals, follow by either really good, good, or average sequels. The only one that comes close is Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but since they were filmed together, I tend to look at that as one big movie, not three.
SW was once in a lifetime shot for Lucas, and he deserves credit. Everything fell into place, perfect characters, perfect story, perfect editors, perfect effects, and perfect time for it to come out. I give Lucas credit for directing a classic, but that doesn't make him a great director. Alot of directors do direct one or two great films, and then a series of average ones after that. Lucas had American Graffiti and Star Wars, but Spielberg or Coppola he aint.
Andrew Davis directed The Fugitive, a truly brilliant movie in 1993, what has he done lately? Kevin Costner won a boatload of awards with Dances with Wolves, what has he directed since? Johnathen Demme directed The Silence of the Lambs, then Philadelphia, and went on to have a very good career, but nothing in the range of Lambs. There aren't many Spielbergs, Ron Howards, Coppolas, or Scorceses out there. And I wont say Lucas was lucky with the original SW, but that was his moment to shine, that was his movie, and he took advantage of everything he could to make it one of the greatest films of all-time.
So what did he do for ESB? Less. He got someone to write the screenplay, got someone direct, and took a pretty much hands off approach to it. He was building Skywalker ranch, while EVERYONE ELSE was using his ideas to make this great sequel. The reason ESB is nothing like SW, but still good? Cause Lucas didn't write or direct it, and if he did, it probably wouldn't have been as great. The one thing Lucas did on ESB that he never did again was take a chance. He made it darker, the bad guys win, and have a cliffhanger ending, I would have said he was nuts if I read the screenplay in '79! I would have said it has to be more like SW '77.
After that Lucas had his business, and sure he got Marquard to direct and Kasdan to write ROTJ, but you could see that the magic wasn't there on this one. It is still very good to me as a part of the OT saga, but when I compare it to SW & ESB, it pales. And you know what, that was bound to happen, you just can't keep churning out classic movies with the same story, it has never happened.
The PT, Lucas had total control, writing, directing, etc. Are you telling me he was going to make 3 classic movies again? Every series usually stalls at the third movie, it is just inenviatable. And the PT made SW go from really great movies, to fans accepting mediocrity. For the first time you hear fans saying, "Well, no film is perfect," or, "Yeah, the AOTC dialogue is bad, but I am not going to let it ruin the movie, " or "Yeah, Jar Jar is annoying, but you just have to put up with him." The new fans excepted that the movies were not great, and what was on screen was good enough for them. Just notice how they defend Jake Lloyd or Padme losing the will to live, they will come up with anything to justify what Lucas did.
In the OT, SW & ESB are classics and perfect, and I will defend them to anyone who says they are not, but ROTJ I will not sit there and defend it and say it is a great movie, but I recognize that it is SW, and I can live with one movie that is not a classic, but 4 out of 6 that are not great?
If ESB had been a good sequel, but not as good as the original, I don't think we would be here today. There would have been a ROTJ, but many would have viewed it just like Jurassic Park Series or The Matrix Series, except for the diehards: Great original movie, but the sequels were OK. And there would have been no prequels if ESB were average.
ESB is so good it makes me enjoy ROTJ more, cause it completes ESB, so in a sense that is the glue that makes SW-OT a saga, rather than your typical trilogy of great original, and so-so sequels. In saying this the original Star Wars is my favorite movie of all-time, and in 4 months, I can finally watch the real version again!