It is that extra level of detail that makes the Star Wars pictures much more than just space operas. Other movies might approach the special effects. Other action pictures might approximate the sense of swashbuckling adventure. But in "Return of the Jedi," as in "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back," there's such a wonderful density to the canvas. Things are happening all over. They're pouring forth from imaginations so fertile that, yes, we do halfway believe in this crazy Galactic Empire long ago and far, far away.

"Return of the Jedi" is both a familiar movie and a new one. It concludes the stories of the major human characters in the saga, particularly Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Darth Vader. It revisits other characters who seem either more or less than human, including Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi, Yoda, Chewbacca, and the beloved robots C-3PO and R2-D2. If George Lucas persists in his plan to make nine Star Wars movies, this will nevertheless be the last we'll see of Luke, Han and Leia, although the robots will be present in all the films.

The story in the Star Wars movies is, however, only part of the film -- and a less crucial element as time goes by. What "Jedi" is really giving us is a picaresque journey through the imagination, and an introduction to forms of life less mundane than our own.

In "Jedi," we encounter several unforgettable characters, including the evil Jabba the Hutt, who is a cross between a toad and the Cheshire Cat; the lovable, cuddly Ewoks, the furry inhabitants of the "forest moon of Endor"; a fearsome desert monster made of sand and teeth, and hateful little ratlike creatures that scurry about the corners of the frame. And there is an admiral for the Alliance who looks like the missing link between Tyrannosaurus Rex and Charles De Gaulle.