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Peace-bwu
Guest
As an adult I have to agree with you a bit here, but as a kid who loved Star Wars, Return of the Jedi was more kid friendly. I recently had a Star Wars Marathon with my kids, with popcorn and all, and was most impressed, as an adult, with Empire Strikes Back… but Jedi holds a special place in my childhood memories, so it is the best to me!Empire:
Best direction (because it wasn’t George Lucas), most character development, best use of real drama and storytelling. You could tell that Empire had the least involvement from Lucas, because it is the movie most capable of standing on it’s own merits. It was well written, well staged and had the most story of the first three movies (which means it had the most story of any of them since the prequels are about as deep as a puddle in my shower). Die hard fans always point to Empire as the pinnacle of the series.
I’m kind of bummed that someone mentioned the holiday special before I could. Now that was a prelude of things to come from the mind of George Lucas. shudder
You are right, though, the character development was best in Empire. My husband and I enjoyed Return of the Sith, but were disappointed with Anakins turn to evil. We just don’t think there was enough intensity to CAUSE him to do the horrible things he did. It didn’t show enough in his descent to evil. The story line was ok, but they didn’t make it convincing enough. We just didn’t see enough of a transformation before he starting killiing younglings. It didn’t fit well enough. We had the rushed feeling that they were simply trying to hurry and tie up the loose ends of the story. If you compare the Return of the Slithand Empire Strikes back you will see what I mean.