Denis Villeneuve throws shade on Return of the Jedi

"it became a comedy for kids"
"Dislikes the Ewoks to this day"

No argument from me. Still a hugely disappointing film 41 years later. It didn't need to be darker than Empire or even just as dark as it but there was no need to make it so juvenile either.

Villeneuve can go stuff it.

"I wanted to take a cab and go to L.A. and talk to George Lucas — we were so angry"

Most of us were kids when we saw it , whether that was when it came out , or 20 years later .

So does it matter ? I enjoyed it many times .
I've not watched it in decades for this reason - its full of teddy bears , but , I enjoyed it many times back in the day.
I was 12 when it was released

Yeah. They're children's films.

I suspect he reacted so strongly to Jedi because he was sixteen when it was released. So, 1) he'd grown out of it, and 2) that's exactly the kind of age people choose to assert their own purported maturity by sneering at children's films. 'Ugh, this is for babies.'

Sure. But no more than Star Wars was. You just happened to have been ten when you saw that one.

That said, he's right that Jedi isn't very good.

I remember back in the 80s and 90s Jedi was considered a real let down in the fandom of starlog, cinefantastique, cinescape/SciFi Universe etc and just generally (and when Phantom Menace came out it was like 'the worst since Jedi', 'Jedi is no longer the worst one' etc).. The negative focus obviously on the ewoks and the retred of the first films plot (with obvious bright spots being the Emperor, end duel/battles) , and it kicked off 'the 3rd film never delivers' thing that then also happened to Superman, Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Alien, Terminator, Blade, Spiderman, XMen and later made fun of in XMen Apocalypse (ironic as that was the 3rd one/worst one in the new XMen cast series). I later noticed in like the late 00s/10s Jedi was more considered as part of the trilogy as a whole like BTTF/Indy/LOTR and its the greatest trilogy of all time (its status as lackluster disappointing trilogy end all but forgotten, until now.. )

The problem with Jedi is that the first two star wars films are proper war films (but set in space) while Jedi traded that war theme for stuff like ewok treehouses and jabba's pimp lair.

If Denis ever makes a movie that doesn't suck, I'll start caring about his opinion.