I was being serious. Provocative yes but serious. My comments are genuinely what I believe is beyond dispute about ROTJ.
- Re battle. I meant a military engagment... a "Star War" if you will. So the Hoth ground battle, Yavin DS assault and the capital ship battle from ROTJ. Nothing at stake? Ackbar and Lando deciding to stay and face certain death for the entire rebellion on the slim chance that Han and co can pull through? It's a massive gamble! "We've gotta give him more time!!". Correct me if I'm wrong but the term 'Stake' is from gambling ;-)
- I'll assume deep down, you agree that the Falcon looks amazing in ROTJ since you've elected to discount just because Lando is piloting?!?
- I've watched an unhealthy ammount of cinema xD but honestly can't think of a chase in any other film that takes you into the rush of movement like the Speeder Bike chase. Name one?
- Again with the FX. If you think ANH and ESB GOUT doesn't have lapses in Green screen or sub par matte paintings think again. Semi-transparent snowspeeders being just one example.
And I wasn't joking about the pacing of ROTJ.
ANH starts with a bang but then settles down to introduce various characters and locations on Tatooine for a full 40 minutes 'til Han turns up and kicks the film into gear. The pace doesn't let up after that but almost half the movie is gone. Even Lucas has said he kept it slow because he didn't think audiences would be able to keep up with this new type of film making.
In ESB Han and Leia are essentially in a holding pattern through the middle of the film until they are needed to get into danger just in time to interupt Luke's training. The genius of ESB is that the banter between Han and Leia in this mid film 30 minutes is so electric that you never care. In a normal film your main characters having engine troubles for fully 1/2 an hour would be painfully boring. In ESB it's turned into a plus.
In ROTJ, everything is always moving in a fluid way from thrilling scene to thrilling scene.