Bingowings said:
ROTJ was badly written, badly structured, directed in an anodyne way and at times it's painfully cartoonish (Henson style puppets around that time were very much the equivalent to the CGI creatures of today. ESB Yoda = LOTR Gollum, ROTJ Jabba's court = TPM Jar-Jar and most of the Pod Racers including Anakin).
While some of the special effects were amazing achievements those that were were undermined by some really sloppy work mixed in.
If it wasn't for the original cast (some of which are not doing their best) and Ian (who does a lot more work in the film than people give him credit for) it would be just as bad as the PT.
No major characters were killed in ESB but there is a palpable feeling of danger throughout.
Almost every loose end character is dispatched in ROTJ but at no point (even when I was 13) did I feel that our heroes were in serious danger.
The way Yoda is removed from the picture is almost comical in it's current form.
After a few weeks training Luke in the previous film and waiting for him to save Han, Yoda hangs on just long enough to die after a few sentences..."Hi Luke, nice to see you back, I've got a bit of a cough, I'm a bit old, actually I'm going to die right now, oh yeah Vader's your dad...Ben will explain the rest byeee!".
The whole film just feels like a giant post-it note floating in space saying, "Contractual Obligation Finale" in big amber letters.
George Lucas doesn't get Star Wars (he hates the "I know" line).
It's the heavy weight champion of paradoxes.
He gave us all this amazing toy and then charges us cash once in while to watch him smash it in front of us and we still come back for more.
ROTJ was badly written, badly structured, directed in an anodyne way and at times it's painfully cartoonish (Henson style puppets around that time were very much the equivalent to the CGI creatures of today. ESB Yoda = LOTR Gollum, ROTJ Jabba's court = TPM Jar-Jar and most of the Pod Racers including Anakin).
ROTJ's writing had some faults, but it was written much better than you seem to be giving it credit for. ESB's Yoda was way better than LOTR's overrated and unconvincing Gollum. Jabba's monsters were way more real than the horrible 2-dimensional cartoon cgi creatures in TPM. Not that there weren't some faults in the Jabba creatures -the Gammoreans weren't always convincing. But give me three dimensional creatures that at least try to be convincing any day over cartoon creatures that look 2d and seemed designed to be comical with no attempt at believability.
If it wasn't for the original cast (some of which are not doing their best)
There's a myth that Harrison did poorly in the film. But I looked very closely at his performance today and it proved to be the best performance in the movie. Leia isn't given a lot of good material, but Carrie Fisher is still good. Mark Hamill is at his best and does a great job maturing Luke. I don't see where they fall short. Lando is good. Kenobi is good. James Earl Jones is great. Quality performances all around.
Ian (who does a lot more work in the film than people give him credit for)
He does a very good job in ROTJ. It's overacting, but it's calculated controlled overacting that works as a believable distinctive character. Whereas his ROTS portrayal includes hamming that's just plain horrific wild hamming and falls flat. I now pretty much roll around laughing every time he does that horrific "gooood" in ROTS. He said "gooood" in ROTJ, but not in that awful overdone way.
it would be just as bad as the PT.
I think there's a lot more than good acting separating ROTJ from the PT. A lot of sincere feeling and heartfelt stuff. A conviction of vision. It's vibrant and alive and feels genuine. Maybe too cutesey at times, maybe a bit childish at times, but the foundation feeling is genuine. Whereas the prequels never ring true.
The way Yoda is removed from the picture is almost comical in it's current form.
After a few weeks training Luke in the previous film and waiting for him to save Han, Yoda hangs on just long enough to die after a few sentences..."Hi Luke, nice to see you back, I've got a bit of a cough, I'm a bit old, actually I'm going to die right now, oh yeah Vader's your dad...Ben will explain the rest byeee!".
Maybe if you look for a fault there you can find one, but if you don't it works quite well. Luke's final encounter with Yoda and Yoda's death are portrayed well.
The whole film just feels like a giant post-it note floating in space saying, "Contractual Obligation Finale" in big amber letters.
Not at all. The film feels energetic, alive, vivid and heartfelt. There's lots of life and feeling. And the Luke-Vader part is striking stuff. There's tons of sincere real feeling in this movie, so it's way more than fulfilling a contractual obligation.
No major characters were killed in ESB but there is a palpable feeling of danger throughout.
There's a palpable feeling of danger in ROTJ. On the death star. In Jabba's palace. To be honest, I don't find that ESB always has a feeling of danger.
Almost every loose end character is dispatched in ROTJ but at no point (even when I was 13) did I feel that our heroes were in serious danger.
Maybe you didn't, but I did, as much as I felt they were in danger in the previous two films.
George Lucas doesn't get Star Wars (he hates the "I know" line).
It's the heavy weight champion of paradoxes.
He gave us all this amazing toy and then charges us cash once in while to watch him smash it in front of us and we still come back for more.
That much I can agree with, but with regard to more recent things than ROTJ. George did fine in ROTJ as far as I'm concerned. It wasn't perfect, but it was still a great movie.