Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

ROTJ is a poorly-conceived movie with ridiculous plot holes and a shoddy structure, that is totally rescued by the wonderful additions of two memorable characters: Jabba, and the Emperor. Every scene with those characters in them are marvelous, and the juxtaposition of a wrinkly old evil sorceror with this high-tech space battle is fabulously done. The climactic scene with Vader, Luke, and the Emperor is on a par with anything in the OT.

Win!

The three-way climax really was a fine piece of propulsive editing (thanks again, Marcia), elegant and rousing in equal measure. I still want to stand and cheer when Lando makes it out of the Death Star, and I still get misty when Luke looks at the ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda and Sebastian Shaw. Even though ROTJ is a lesser film than its predecessors, I've always found it satisfying as a character piece.

And I'm totally fine with the Ewoks. We actually got to know them, which I why I like the storytelling scene even though it brings the film to a dead halt. It's odd really - I like all the parts of ROTJ, but they don't quite fit together.

In defense of ROTJ, I've never found it to be as childish as it's often said to be. Sure, it was the one easiest to like as a wee lad, but the business with Luke, Vader and the Emperor was very adult, and very morally complicated (not to mention scary as hell in places). Even the central relationships between Han, Leia and Luke seemed more mature, like when Han catches himself on his macho bullcrap and apologizes to Leia. And even though the structure really falters in the middle, I've always found some charm in it - I don't know of many mega-budget franchise-ending blockbusters that were so quiet in the middle act.