Jaskoen said:
It's interesting that the OP and I were exactly the same age (11) when we saw Jedi in '83, and yet our opinions are wildly different. I love Jedi and while some parts, I agree, could have been done better - I enjoyed it immensely when it was released and felt it was a fitting end to the trilogy. None of the OP's criticisms ever crossed my mind in '83. And Leia's bikini? Yeah that had an effect on my 11 year-old brain.
One more thing - while Wookiees instead of Ewoks would have certainly been cool, it brings up other problems since Wookiees weren't primitive - they were space-faring and already allied with the rebellion. It would have been a completely different movie, beyond simply replacing Ewoks with Wookiees, is what I'm saying.
It is fascinating! I agree.
As for the Wookiees, the point that the empire was xenophobic is not as overt, although present by default (in the OT, there are no aliens serving anywhere in the Empire). Lucas' intent to show that a technologically superior race gets toppled by the primitive locals gets muddled when they are designed more to sell toys than make a sociological statement. As I say in my blog, the single shot where two Ewoks get shot and one of them mourns the dead one - that IS seriously powerful. In my opinion, they needed a lot more DRAMATIC TENSION like that. The price paid for freedom, as it were.