Ewok love: Is Jedi better than Empire?
Thoughts on a rewatch of the holy trilogy
I don’t remember the first time I watched Star Wars. That’s because it was before I was physically capable of forming long-term memories. My dad sitting me in front of a faded VHS copy, recorded from TV, for the hundredth time is still one of my earliest recollections, though, and it is so ingrained that I half expect an advert for Woolworths to interrupt the films at particular points.
A long time ago, in a cinema far, far away…
When the prequels came out, my youthful rose-tinted specs were such that I thought they were amazing and defended them well into my twenties. Over time, that faded, though I still wouldn’t hear a bad thing said about them until a few weeks ago.
That’s kind of how I felt about the original trilogy too. I was always more into Trek, and as I grew up, my collection of Star Wars EU novels dwindled and my Blu-rays went unwatched. Even the advent of the new movies inspired more mild disdain than anything else; right up until that second trailer hit…
“Chewie, we’re home”
With those words, I was right back in the Star Wars fandom, actually excited about Abrams’ update, even after he’d farted out a half-arsed Trek reboot. In preparation, I started rewatching the saga.
The prequels were, alas, largely indefensible. Even my childhood excitement for them and enjoyment of their highlights — The Duel of The Fates, Samuel L Jackson, Obi-Wan vs Jango Fett, Obi-Wan vs Grievous — couldn’t hide the fact that they were all just a bit poor. Not really a surprise.
The surprise came later when I got up to the original trilogy. A New Hope was A New Hope. I’ve seen it so many times that I can genuinely recite the dialogue. Empire was magnificent as ever — the less Lucas was involved, the better the film — but when I got to Jedi, I found it was… better… That was a shock.
Imperial troops have entered the base…
Of course, the Hoth sequence is probably the best part of all six movies, but I think that has coloured people’s view. The asteroid chase is far from a low point of the films, it’s crammed with classic lines, but it is just filler; it’s a setpiece to break up the slightly-tedious Dagobah episodes. Yoda is, of course, a fun character and the cave sequence is eerie, but it’s really just a montage to get Luke to the point where he can fight Vader.
After that, Cloud City is pretty but pointless, right up until Vader turns up and things pick up again. All of this builds to the final fight with Vader and the epic revelation. The fight, however, is significantly-less impressive than most of the new-FX-laden duels in the prequels. Likewise, once you know Vader is Hayden Christensen, that sequence stops being so emotive. You could, of course, say that about any spoiled plot twist, but that doesn’t stop the film losing some of its power.
Best laid plans of Jedi and Wookies…
Return of The Jedi, on the other hand, opens with an almost-as-brilliant sequence on Tatooine, rounding off the trilogy where it started. I mean, of course, the plotting of it makes absolutely no sense when you think about it. You can just imagine that strategy meeting:
Luke: So, here’s the plan: Lando, you’re going to go work as a low-rent bodyguard for the next month or so; Chewie, you’re going to sit in a dank prison cell for a week; Leia, you’re going to be sexually assaulted by a slug monster; and Artoo, you’re going to smuggle a lightsaber to me so I can kill everyone, but only when I’m about to die, no matter what happens to anyone else. Oh, and tell Threepio he’s being sold into slavery — it’ll be funny.
Everyone else: …How does… any of that… actually, you know, help us rescue Han?
Luke: It all makes sense… from a certain point of view…
Regardless, the prologue is fun and doesn’t manage to upstage the rest of the film, unlike the Hoth sequence in Empire. Equally, Luke’s planning skills may not be that logical, but you can’t say you were ever more impressed by him than when he backflips off that walking plank and catches his lightsaber. It all makes sense when you’re a kid.
General Side-Parting and Old Fish Head
Then, we actually get to meet the Rebellion as a whole for the first time and Mon Mothma, General Side-Parting and Old Fish Head are pretty cool. The space battles are the most impressive of the trilogy (the end of the first film doesn’t count as it all happens above the Death Star) and Lando actually gets something to do, along with his own sidekick, despite not being white! Go Hollywood.
Luke, meanwhile, gets to meet the Emperor, who looks a lot better than the bug-eyed version from the pre-retcon Empire. We get the best lightsaber fight in the original trilogy and Vader’s redemption, which is still handled well, turning the one-note villain into a complex character (at least until the prequels).
Cannibal Holocaust
Finally, we get the rest of the gang’s adventures on Endor. Now, as someone who has seen and enjoyed both Caravan of Courage movies, I’ve never understood what the problem was with the Ewoks. I mean, I didn’t fully understand everyone’s hatred for Jar Jar Binks when I was a kid, so that’s not saying there’s nothing wrong with them. However, the idea of a gang of feral teddy bears sticking it to those jackbooted Imperial thugs is still pretty amusing.
Sure, it seems implausible and there’s no justification for wooden arrows and rocks penetrating Stormtrooper armour, but if you watch carefully, the Ewoks are getting slaughtered for quite a while before they turn the tide using some pretty-sizeable tree trunks (which Mythbusters have shown works) and the film is even-more entertaining if you posit Family Guy’s assertion that the Ewoks ate the Stormtroopers after the battle...
While containing almost as many classic lines as Empire, these scenes have much more of a sense of fun than the darker sequel. Dark may be the current zeitgeist, and Star Wars has always had a bit of an edge, but it’s meant to be a swashbuckling adventure series and silly-with-high-stakes is more fitting to the tone than bleak.
The effects are also an improvement. Compare the puntastic Salacious Crumb and Rancor to the asteroid worm or Wampa; even the Tauntauns’ stop-motion was a little ropey. Empire was actually the only film of the three that needed a Special Edition polish.
Blue-tinted specs
Ultimately, I’m not criticising Empire; just registering my surprise that Jedi held up to Empire a lot better than I remembered. As with any film you’ve seen this many times, the next viewing might yield different results. However, it may be worth rethinking the common opinion that Empire is the only Star Wars film without fault.
Now I’m off to see Force Awakens. May the force be with you.
