Return of the Jedi is Still Awesome

This was confirmed to me by today's theatrical experience: 

A movie I was happy to see theatrically... even if it was the “Special Edition.” A few weeks ago when the announcement was made that this would be playing for a week at cinemas as a 40th anniversary celebration, I jumped at the opportunity to have such an experience. In the past I've reviewed Return of the Jedi along the other two in the original trilogy. Those are films that mean a lot to me as they were watched more than a few times on VHS when I was a kid and loved, all of them were. What happened to Star Wars as a franchise after 1983 (I'm talking about film and the streaming shows) is a shame. That duly noted, while the EU I've hardly experienced, at least some of the videogames were fun and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Walt Disney World is cool-if not as awesome as it could have been-with a pair of awesome attractions.

Unlike typical, this review is being posted a few hours after I saw a film. Time was available for a mid-afternoon screening so this course of action was taken. While I think Episodes IV and V are even better-I don't hate the Ewoks but even I can admit they are a little silly-this does a great job of concluding the trilogy and delivering an incredibly satisfying denouement to an epic story that anyone can enjoy. Admittedly, I've come to better appreciate the general idea of how it is stirring that even a diminutive race of furry fuzzballs can rise up and use their natural weapons to help take down and entire Empire.

The prequel trilogy's story was a germ of a good idea that was just executed in a rather questionable fashion; the SEQUEL trilogy on the other hand... without getting to my controversial opinion of each movie, it will forever boggle my mind that they apparently did not have a firm set of plans, a road map for the plot of that trilogy, resulting in the chaos we received instead. It is simply incredible how massively disappointing Disney Star Wars has been.

Believe it or not this was the first time I've seen this “Special Edition” in full. All the changes were to the film's detriment; thank heavens then that I have the ORIGINAL theatrical versions in HD quality as part of my collection-nevermind how... plus, those moments weren't so awful that they ruined the experience, or prevented me from enjoying the plot, the practical effects, the iconic music, and everything else. No matter all the times that the Star Wars franchise has been part of the dark side these past 4 decades, the OG trilogy is something I will always be fond of.