"Rank the Star Wars Films

[msbhaven]

The what movies haven't you seen thread got me thinking about this since a lot of people haven't seen all or some of the movies there, and a lot of other people who have were commenting on the various chapters. So if you have seen them all rank them in order for me and tell me why you put them where you did. Here's my list.

1 The Empire Strikes Back. Quite simply the high point of the series for me, it had the best story, the best script, the best acting and the best director of the series. It also had the best light saber duel of the original series and the special effects hold up quite well for something made over 30 years ago.

2. Revenge of the Sith. I know this is hearsay to a lot of people but I really liked this film. It was clearly the best of the Prequels, had the best special effects of any of the movies, the most extensive light saber dueling of any of the movies and brought the entire series full circle.

3. The Phantom Menace. I know this is also going to catch me a lot of flack but this movie has a couple of things going for it for me. First it has the best light saber duel of the entire series, second the Pod Race sequence was very entertaining to me, and third getting to see Jedi in their prime is worth a few flaws IMO. Speaking of which, while Jar Jar was annoying he was no worse then C3PO in the original movies if you ask me, and this movie isn't any slower or more ponderous IMO then A New Hope was.

4. A New Hope. The reason the original is so low for me is that the exposition and set up for this movie is painfully slow, the light saber duel sucked ass, the directing and script were really no better then anything in the prequel trilogy and the special effects look seriously dated even with the updates in the special edition. I do give props for this one starting it all and being innovative for it's time. I still enjoy it but not as much as when I was a child seeing it for the first time.

5. Attack of the Clones. Props are given for Jango Fett, props are given for getting to see Yoda light saber duel, but that's about it for this movie. There is so much to dislike about it. Christopher Lee is a bit long in the tooth to be cast as a Sith Apprentice, Hayden Christiansen is just awful, Padme's character arc makes no sense, and the Jedi have to be about as dense as a black hole to let so much shit slide by without catching it.

6.Return of the Jedi. The only reason that Clones isn't on the bottom of this list is because of this piece of crap. This movie could have been so good if the Ewoks hadn't replaced the original concept of Wookies taking on the Empire, and if the dialogue weren't so awful, and if Stephen Speilburg hadn't been blocked by the director's union from working on this, and, I could go on all day. Just fuck it! Jedi was a huge missed opportunity after the greatness that was Empire.

There's my list, have it me, trash my rankings, make your own and share your opinions.

Ashlee

[Quiet Reflections]

Empire, New hope, Jedi the other 3 are a wash

[trish]

For me the New Hope is the best, mostly because of the body language and facial expressions of the main characters, how they reacted and played off of each other. I feel like the original cast was into it and acted their parts. I enjoyed the Empire Strikes Back and the opening rescue in the third of the original trilogy...thought it went downhill with the Ewoks...puppets just can't act like people can...not in a full length film.

[BluegrassCat]

I agree with all your comments but not necessarily your rankings. I would keep most of your rankings but move up Return of the Jedi to #4, New Hope to 3 and Phantom to 5. I think the same reasoning that you use to excuse Jar-Jar from Phantom applies here to the Ewoks. If you ignore or just discount those creatures you have a great film. Jabba's palace: the best creature-sfx (Jabba, the Rancor, the Sarlac) of the original series, our first glimpse of a what a real Jedi can do, memorable lines "Someone who loves you." "Well, I can see you're serving drinks." and "Bobba Fet?!" plus Leia in a bikini.
Not all of Endor was lame. The speeder-bikes were awesome at the time and the scene still holds up today.
The space battle was the biggest and craziest of the original series with the super-star destroyer plunging into the Death Star like a knife and of course the famous, "It's a trap!"
And the emotional climax of the entire series in the Emperor's chambers with some good verbal sparring, "your faith in your friends is yours'" and some good actual sparring. We see electricity hands for the first time and then Vader's big moment. This is the whole reason for the prequels, that Vader had some good in left in him and to explain how we got here.

I put Phantom at 5 mainly because the dialogue in all the prequels is just awful and no one fills the cool-void left by Han Solo.

[Wendy Summers]

1) Empire
2) A New Hope
3) Revenge of the Sith
4) Attack of the Clones
5) Jedi
6) Phantom Menace

[GrimFusion]

I don't dislike StarWars, as I'm definitely more of a StarWars fan than a Trekkie, but there are aspects in all the movies that just put me off... like the fake-as-hell lightsaber battles, the Ewoks, Jar-Jar Binks, and Jabba the Hutt.

I included the three made-for-tv additions as well, but here's my list:
1.) A New Hope
2.) The Empire Strikes Back
3.) Revenge of the Sith
4.) Attack of the Clones
5.) Return of the Jedi
6.) Caravan of Courage
7.) Phantom Menace
8.) Ewok Adventure
9.) Star Wars Christmas Special

[Cecil Rhodes]

I don't dislike StarWars, as I'm definitely more of a StarWars fan than a Trekkie, but there are aspects in all the movies that just put me off... like the fake-as-hell lightsaber battles, the Ewoks, Jar-Jar Binks, and Jabba the Hutt.

I included the three made-for-tv additions as well, but here's my list:
1.) A New Hope
2.) The Empire Strikes Back
3.) Revenge of the Sith
4.) Attack of the Clones
5.) Return of the Jedi
6.) Caravan of Courage
7.) Phantom Menace
8.) Ewok Adventure
9.) Star Wars Christmas Special

Trekker not Trekkie

[Wendy Summers]

Blasphamy!

The Holiday Special is amazing! (if drunk, high or under the age of 5)


I don't dislike StarWars, as I'm definitely more of a StarWars fan than a Trekkie, but there are aspects in all the movies that just put me off... like the fake-as-hell lightsaber battles, the Ewoks, Jar-Jar Binks, and Jabba the Hutt.

I included the three made-for-tv additions as well, but here's my list:
1.) A New Hope
2.) The Empire Strikes Back
3.) Revenge of the Sith
4.) Attack of the Clones
5.) Return of the Jedi
6.) Caravan of Courage
7.) Phantom Menace
8.) Ewok Adventure
9.) Star Wars Christmas Special

[JenniferParisHusband]

My historic 300th post, and I'm about to go geektastic in it. Oh well. <sigh>

There is only one Star Wars movie, it ends with Luke blowing up the Death Star. I do not count any others as "Star Wars." They may have the characters names and same actors, but the stories get stupid after the first one, and the continuity goes out the window. So the correct answer is...

1.) Star Wars.
2.) NOTHING!

[msbhaven]

I agree with all your comments but not necessarily your rankings. I would keep most of your rankings but move up Return of the Jedi to #4, New Hope to 3 and Phantom to 5. I think the same reasoning that you use to excuse Jar-Jar from Phantom applies here to the Ewoks. If you ignore or just discount those creatures you have a great film. Jabba's palace: the best creature-sfx (Jabba, the Rancor, the Sarlac) of the original series, our first glimpse of a what a real Jedi can do, memorable lines "Someone who loves you." "Well, I can see you're serving drinks." and "Bobba Fet?!" plus Leia in a bikini.
Not all of Endor was lame. The speeder-bikes were awesome at the time and the scene still holds up today.
The space battle was the biggest and craziest of the original series with the super-star destroyer plunging into the Death Star like a knife and of course the famous, "It's a trap!"
And the emotional climax of the entire series in the Emperor's chambers with some good verbal sparring, "your faith in your friends is yours'" and some good actual sparring. We see electricity hands for the first time and then Vader's big moment. This is the whole reason for the prequels, that Vader had some good in left in him and to explain how we got here.

I put Phantom at 5 mainly because the dialogue in all the prequels is just awful and no one fills the cool-void left by Han Solo.

See I disagree with a lot of what you are saying about Return. I think Wookies fighting the Empire might have saved a not very good film, or Speilburg might have saved it, but I don't think Jedi was good even without taking the Ewoks in to account.

First, I hate the way they killed off Boba Fett in Jedi. If Luke had taken him down like Mace took his father down that would have been satisfying but just to see him die for nothing more then a lucky break on the part of a blind guy? And we are suppose to believe this is the most dangerous non force user in the galaxy? Awful just awful.

Second Han really should have died in Jedi as a kind of sacrifice for the group type of conclusion to his character arc. The scoundrel sacrifices himself in a supreme act of nobility for the friends he has grown to love. That's great story telling, even Harrison Ford wanted that for his character.

Third, Mark Hamil's acting was just putrid, even Hayden didn't sound as stupid saying those dumb lines in Clones as Mark did in Return. I mean I cringe and look for the Fast Forward button every time I see that conversation between him and Vader on Endor. And boy did he do a great job showing grief when Anakin died....NOT!

Fourth the dialog was wretched, not surprisingly the "I know" scene in Empire turned out to be totally ad libbed by Harrison, and Kershner, the director, had the good sense to see how brilliantly it worked. Yeah there were a couple of funny or memorable lines in Return. But there were a couple of memorable lines in ALL of the movies, things like "Why do I get the feeling you're going to be the death of me," or "Why you waving your hand like that you think your some kind of Jedi?"

Fifth, Palpatine must have developed Alzheimer's or something by that point because he lost even the most basic reasoning or common sense in handling the problems he was facing. The Death Star plot was plan stupid. You are telling me a brilliant dark lord of the sith that took down the entire Jedi order couldn't think of anything better to do then build another copy of a weapon already shown to have serious defensive flaws? Look Sidious was very appropriately named as was the Phantom Menace because he had a shit load more subtlety to his evil then that. Not to mention his attempts to turn Luke were incredibly weak. He took years and years to turn Anakin who was a demonstratively weaker individual from a character standpoint and he thinks he is going to turn Luke in a few minutes???

Sixth, what the fuck do Yoda and Obi Wan expect to accomplish anyway by sending a half trained Padawin up against both Sidious and Vader anyway when the two of them couldn't take down those two together? Neither one of them acted like they believed Anakin could be saved or turned back so what the Hell were they banking on anyway? Talk about boneheaded wishful thinking.

Seventh, the light saber duel in Jedi sucked ass. Vader was NOT that weak even with the suit, he doesn't even hardly use his ability to draw on the force outside of his dueling ability. And it's not like they made Luke like a dueling champ either. The dumb SOB hacked at Vader's blade like 10 times before he realized oh yeah there's his wrist why don't I just chop it off. Giving in to the hate make's you more powerful not more stupid.

Eighth, Yeah the space battle was probably the highlight of the movie for me but because of the FX limitations they didn't haven nearly enough one man fighters for the number of capital ships present. Every other source material in the Star Wars universe puts the fighter compliment of a single Star Destroyer or Mon Cal cruiser at somewhere around 60 fighters or more. There probably weren't that many fighters in the entire movie. Plus in the original cut Lando didn't make it out of the Death Star with the Falcon. That's why Han talked about having a funny feeling like he wasn't ever going to see her again half way through the movie. The way it ended up being cut though it looks like they accomplished everything with only the sacrifice of a few throw away bit players. Hell not even Wedge Antilles bit the big one in Jedi.

Ninth, ret conning Lea and Luke to be brother and sisters was stupid, lazy and cheap IMO. Originally Luke's sister was supposed to be another person entirely but that's when Lucas was still writing the series such that there would be 3 more chapters after Return of the Jedi. Lucas you lazy hack you still owe us 3 more chapters to this story. See that whole concept made more damn sense because Luke AND his sister would have made a tiny bit more sense taking down Vader and Sidious then Luke by himself. Not to mention it was supposed to involve a lot more effort even in THAT scenario. It's as if Tolkein has said after The Two Towers, "Awe fuck it, I'm tired of this, I think this is a good stopping point as long as I ret con in a super quick way in to Mordor to get rid of the ring. '



And I've already covered the Ewoks but let me say I'm not excusing Jar Jar but then I don't think Jar Jar is comparable to the Ewoks, I think he is more comparable to C3P0 and that the Ewoks are more comparable to the Gungan Army as a whole. I'll take Gungans as a concept for outstanding warriors over Ewoks any day even with Jar Jar around. C3PO really serves no purpose as far as I can see other then to give R2 D2 a voice and maybe for comic relief, if that is, you think his dumb shtick is funny. In fact he is one of the reasons I don't like Clones very much. They simply had him acting like too much of a prissy idiot for my taste in that one.

Sorry that my rant went on so long but my GF Savannah loves Return and I just can't make myself see it no matter how hard I try. When you watch Empire and then watch Return you can't feel anything but a giant sense of disappointment IMO.

[HbgDon]

For me it's

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Return of the Jedi
3. A New Hope
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Attack of the Clones
6. Phantom Menace

[southern81]

1-Revenge of the Sith(bad guys WIN. i love it)
2-Empire Strikes Back (Great ending really dark)
3-A New Hope( don't know just like it)
4-Attack of the Clones(don't know why i just like it)
5-Phantom Menace
6-Return of the Jedi(i hate the ewoks)

[BluegrassCat]

First, I hate the way they killed off Boba Fett in Jedi. If Luke had taken him down like Mace took his father down that would have been satisfying but just to see him die for nothing more then a lucky break on the part of a blind guy? And we are suppose to believe this is the most dangerous non force user in the galaxy? Awful just awful.

Third, Mark Hamil's acting was just putrid, even Hayden didn't sound as stupid saying those dumb lines in Clones as Mark did in Return. I mean I cringe and look for the Fast Forward button every time I see that conversation between him and Vader on Endor. And boy did he do a great job showing grief when Anakin died....NOT!

Fifth, Palpatine must have developed Alzheimer's or something by that point because he lost even the most basic reasoning or common sense in handling the problems he was facing. The Death Star plot was plan stupid. You are telling me a brilliant dark lord of the sith that took down the entire Jedi order couldn't think of anything better to do then build another copy of a weapon already shown to have serious defensive flaws? Look Sidious was very appropriately named as was the Phantom Menace because he had a shit load more subtlety to his evil then that. Not to mention his attempts to turn Luke were incredibly weak. He took years and years to turn Anakin who was a demonstratively weaker individual from a character standpoint and he thinks he is going to turn Luke in a few minutes???

Sixth, what the fuck do Yoda and Obi Wan expect to accomplish anyway by sending a half trained Padawin up against both Sidious and Vader anyway when the two of them couldn't take down those two together? Neither one of them acted like they believed Anakin could be saved or turned back so what the Hell were they banking on anyway? Talk about boneheaded wishful thinking.

Seventh, the light saber duel in Jedi sucked ass. Vader was NOT that weak even with the suit, he doesn't even hardly use his ability to draw on the force outside of his dueling ability. And it's not like they made Luke like a dueling champ either. The dumb SOB hacked at Vader's blade like 10 times before he realized oh yeah there's his wrist why don't I just chop it off. Giving in to the hate make's you more powerful not more stupid.



I think a lot of your complaints are about how Lucas resolved the story from an inside-baseball type of view. I'm evaluating it just as a movie for entertainment. So I treat the story arc as revelation, either good or bad, but not open to revision.
But a few things: I've never defended Mark Hammil's acting, but it was just as bad in Empire as in Jedi. "Ben...Ben..."

No one ever said Fet was the most dangerous non-force dude in the galaxy, maybe the coolest, but not the most dangerous. But yeah, his death was weak.

I think the attempt to bring Luke to the dark side made sense from every character's point of view and was emotionally satisfying. It wasn't the Emperor's idea, but Vader's - probably driven by the vestigial desire for family. And remember how greedy Palpitine was for a new, younger, more powerful apprentice? Well he's older now and become more arrogant, with the Jedi Order ended. Luke wasn't trained in the Jedi Temple like Anakin, he took a summer course in a swamp and should be easy to break, plus you have his father leading him in. So the Emperor wanted Luke but was quite content to kill him off when he wouldn't replace his father. Makes perfect sense to me.

And by comparison with the prequels there aren't any good light saber duels in the originals. Empire's duel was fun because Vader used the force to throw the whole city at him. Jedi's duel had an emotional arc, from "won't fight", to "sister" to hatred (all with a great score by Williams) to a recognition by the son of humanity in the father and finally by the father a recognition of humanity in himself. It's a great scene, again in spite of Hammil's acting.

Oh & C3PO was actually funny in the originals but a whining school-marm in the prequels.

[msbhaven]

I think a lot of your complaints are about how Lucas resolved the story from an inside-baseball type of view. I'm evaluating it just as a movie for entertainment. So I treat the story arc as revelation, either good or bad, but not open to revision.
But a few things: I've never defended Mark Hammil's acting, but it was just as bad in Empire as in Jedi. "Ben...Ben..."

No one ever said Fet was the most dangerous non-force dude in the galaxy, maybe the coolest, but not the most dangerous. But yeah, his death was weak.

I think the attempt to bring Luke to the dark side made sense from every character's point of view and was emotionally satisfying. It wasn't the Emperor's idea, but Vader's - probably driven by the vestigial desire for family. And remember how greedy Palpitine was for a new, younger, more powerful apprentice? Well he's older now and become more arrogant, with the Jedi Order ended. Luke wasn't trained in the Jedi Temple like Anakin, he took a summer course in a swamp and should be easy to break, plus you have his father leading him in. So the Emperor wanted Luke but was quite content to kill him off when he wouldn't replace his father. Makes perfect sense to me.

And by comparison with the prequels there aren't any good light saber duels in the originals. Empire's duel was fun because Vader used the force to throw the whole city at him. Jedi's duel had an emotional arc, from "won't fight", to "sister" to hatred (all with a great score by Williams) to a recognition by the son of humanity in the father and finally by the father a recognition of humanity in himself. It's a great scene, again in spite of Hammil's acting.

Oh & C3PO was actually funny in the originals but a whining school-marm in the prequels.

Fair enough I may be rating it as a fan girl. But let's face it Jedi would never stand on it's own as a movie by itself. Hell only A New Hope can do that and the maybe Phantom Menace. And if it can't stand on it's own then it should be evaluated within the canonical arc and in comparison to the other movies in the saga. On that basis I think it stacks up poorly.

You're right now that I think about it. Hamill sucked from beginning to end. Who can forget, "But I wanted to go in to Toshi to pick up some power converters!" in A New Hope. (Hmm anybody else notice he whines just like his dad used to besides me) It's just that in Empire Frank Oz did a brilliant job with Yoda, Harrison Ford was very good in his role as Han, and even Carrie Fisher held up her end of the bargain as Lea. I suppose that's the problem with Jedi. Once they were done with the training scenes there was nothing left for Yoda to do but die. Once they thawed out Han and put him back together with Lea there was really nothing left for him to do either except kill him off or let him ride happily in to the sunset. Harrison Ford is on record that he thought Han should have died and I realize now that he is probably right. With Han and Lea given little to do, and Yoda dead Luke became the central protagonist of the rest of the movie and Mark Hamil simply was not good enough to carry a movie on his own. Making Lea and Luke siblings only compounded the problem because it kicked the legs out from under the romantic triangle Lucas had built in the first two movies. It's bad story telling when you get right down to it and a shitty cheapo way to end an epic trilogy.

I won't dwell on Palpatine and Luke other then to say it felt forced, rushed, and half assed. Maybe Palpatine just didn't want to be bothered with dealing with Luke anymore but I wonder what he would have thought of Mace's comment about Anakin in Revenge when he said putting the two of them together (Palpy and Anakin) was dangerous, and I especially wonder if something like that occurred to him as he was plummeting down that reactor shaft.

I also disagree about the light saber duel in Empire. From a technical stand point it was every bit the equal of any duel in the Prequels albeit not as flashy or as twirly. But then we never saw anybody with light saber skills as poor as Luke's were in the prequels except maybe the younglings. It is a thrill for me to watch Vader toy with Luke, first easily defeating his attacks one handed, then manipulating the force around him to leave him battered and bruised and finally barreling in on him like a freight train at the end. The best part to me was at the very end when Luke got a lucky strike in on Vader and Vader got so pissed off by it that he disarmed Luke and chopped his hand off in about 2 moves. Vader was a serious bad ass in Empire and I came out of that movie actually admiring him. Jedi just destroyed all of that in it's light saber duel. It was almost like he had forgotten most of what he knew about the force when he faced Luke a second time. And yes the emotional arc of the duel in Jedi was fine but the execution of the fight scene was not. Again it looked half assed and weak.

You know what, I think that is really my biggest complaint about Jedi. It was like Lucas just wanted that shit to be over with so he could move on to other things. So he cut his story arc short, slapped an idea together to tie up all the loose ends, threw some scenes together and just phoned it in. When he couldn't get Speilburg to direct he got some nobody to fill in as director and just said to Hell with it. And on top of everything else he decided to make his movie more cuddly because he had just become a father. So he threw in those dumb ass Ewoks, made sure that nobody important died but the bad guys, and showed a resolution where no major sacrifices had to be made by the good guys.

Like I said, Jedi could have been soooo good and just missed the mark on so many levels that it ended up being a huge disappointment to me.

[BluegrassCat]

Fair enough I may be rating it as a fan girl. But let's face it Jedi would never stand on it's own as a movie by itself. Hell only A New Hope can do that and the maybe Phantom Menace. And if it can't stand on it's own then it should be evaluated within the canonical arc and in comparison to the other movies in the saga. On that basis I think it stacks up poorly.



I was thinking the same thing about New Hope & Phantom being the only two stand alone pictures, and all the others, especially Jedi & Sith, had high expectations about what had to happen to resolve everything. So I would agree that the gap between the actual and potential Jedi movie is greater than the others but that's largely a function of the potential being much higher as well. Empire had the luxury of fucking shit up and then walking away, leaving us wanting more. Jedi had a bigger task and no doubt could have done it better.

But again, the Jabba's Palace segment (too long to be a called a scene, right?) was one of the most fun in the originals. The only other competitor is the time spent aboard the Deathstar in New Hope, which as you mentioned had the luxury of introducing the characters to us, rather than wrapping up their stories. I can't think of a similar segment that was as much fun in Empire, tons of great smaller scenes though. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm revising my order to put New Hope first.

A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Revenge of the Sith
Return of the Jedi
Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones

[msbhaven]

But again, the Jabba's Palace segment (too long to be a called a scene, right?) was one of the most fun in the originals. The only other competitor is the time spent aboard the Deathstar in New Hope, which as you mentioned had the luxury of introducing the characters to us, rather than wrapping up their stories. I can't think of a similar segment that was as much fun in Empire, tons of great smaller scenes though. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm revising my order to put New Hope first.

A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Revenge of the Sith
Return of the Jedi
Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones

Actually my favorite segment of Empire has always been the Asteroid Chase/Luke's training (meeting Yoda). I love the music from the Asteroid scenes and I love Yoda's theme. Come to that Empire had the best music of all of the movies as well IMO. Only Duel of the Fates from Phantom deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the original Imperial March from Empire if you ask me.

[Ben]

The what movies haven't you seen thread got me thinking about this since a lot of people haven't seen all or some of the movies there, and a lot of other people who have were commenting on the various chapters. So if you have seen them all rank them in order for me and tell me why you put them where you did. Here's my list.

1 The Empire Strikes Back. Quite simply the high point of the series for me, it had the best story, the best script, the best acting and the best director of the series. It also had the best light saber duel of the original series and the special effects hold up quite well for something made over 30 years ago.

2. Revenge of the Sith. I know this is hearsay to a lot of people but I really liked this film. It was clearly the best of the Prequels, had the best special effects of any of the movies, the most extensive light saber dueling of any of the movies and brought the entire series full circle.

3. The Phantom Menace. I know this is also going to catch me a lot of flack but this movie has a couple of things going for it for me. First it has the best light saber duel of the entire series, second the Pod Race sequence was very entertaining to me, and third getting to see Jedi in their prime is worth a few flaws IMO. Speaking of which, while Jar Jar was annoying he was no worse then C3PO in the original movies if you ask me, and this movie isn't any slower or more ponderous IMO then A New Hope was.

4. A New Hope. The reason the original is so low for me is that the exposition and set up for this movie is painfully slow, the light saber duel sucked ass, the directing and script were really no better then anything in the prequel trilogy and the special effects look seriously dated even with the updates in the special edition. I do give props for this one starting it all and being innovative for it's time. I still enjoy it but not as much as when I was a child seeing it for the first time.

5. Attack of the Clones. Props are given for Jango Fett, props are given for getting to see Yoda light saber duel, but that's about it for this movie. There is so much to dislike about it. Christopher Lee is a bit long in the tooth to be cast as a Sith Apprentice, Hayden Christiansen is just awful, Padme's character arc makes no sense, and the Jedi have to be about as dense as a black hole to let so much shit slide by without catching it.

6.Return of the Jedi. The only reason that Clones isn't on the bottom of this list is because of this piece of crap. This movie could have been so good if the Ewoks hadn't replaced the original concept of Wookies taking on the Empire, and if the dialogue weren't so awful, and if Stephen Speilburg hadn't been blocked by the director's union from working on this, and, I could go on all day. Just fuck it! Jedi was a huge missed opportunity after the greatness that was Empire.

There's my list, have it me, trash my rankings, make your own and share your opinions.

Ashlee

I agree. Empire Strikes Back.... Of the first three [I haven't seen the others] Empire is the best. I mean, well, I enjoyed all three.

[BluegrassCat]

Actually my favorite segment of Empire has always been the Asteroid Chase/Luke's training (meeting Yoda). I love the music from the Asteroid scenes and I love Yoda's theme. Come to that Empire had the best music of all of the movies as well IMO. Only Duel of the Fates from Phantom deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the original Imperial March from Empire if you ask me.

The asteroid chase/parking in the space-worm was what I thought of too. And Yoda's introduction still cracks me up. Never much cared for the training scenes though; probably Mark Hammil's fault.

[rydermorrison]

empire strikes back, return of the jedi, new hope, ep 3, ep2, ep 1..

[hippifried]

I imagine I'd have to watch them first. Odds aren't good for that hapening.

[Brianman90]

This is easy,
1)A New Hope

2)Empire Strikes Back

3)Return of the Jedi

4)episode 3 gets an OK at BEST and 1&2 suck and never should have been done, totally aimed at kids and not the kids who grew up with the original 3!! I felt very let down after all the hype. :fu: Even the re issues of the first 3 were way better! Don't mind me but they were better when I was growing up and still are.

[hwbs]

Empire...new hope ..and return of the jedi....other ones don't exist to me

[Ecstatic]

There were six? Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope wasn't tacked on until its 1991 re-release) and The Empire Strikes Back are galaxies far, far away better than any of the remaining four films. In many ways Empire was indeed better written, directed, and acted (and had a much bigger budget; the original was made for only $11 million and, adjusted for inflation, is the second-best selling film of all time as of 2010). But it was incomplete, demanding the continuation of Jedi, which was flawed (though not nearly as badly as the prequel trilogy).

Star Wars was a complete movie; it did not require a sequel. While the acting (sans Sir Alec Guinness) was stiffer than Empire or Jedi, it had humor (often overlooked or poorly handled, as with Jar Jar Binks) and followed the full cycle of the Hero with a Thousand Faces (Campbell). And in 1977, it was a revelation; with the sole exception of 2001, no previous SF movie hit the high notes Star Wars struck (though I've always been a fan of Forbidden Planet, which took its form from The Tempest rather than Campbell and which was the previous high water mark imho).

[TheGuard]

V
iv
iii
vi
ii
i

[Ecstatic]

BTW, this thread should have a poll!

[msbhaven]

BTW, this thread should have a poll!


Done!

[jimbo1974]

Say this like Roy Hodgson, and its an entirely different question

[GIJedi]

The Star Wars Saga has had a huge impact on my life since I first saw Star Wars in the summer of '77 with my Father when I was just Six years old. When the SE's released in '97, I took my Seven year old Son on opening night for all three, we both sat at the edge of our seat with our mouths open in awe, there is some magic in the story that still rings true today. BTW, Star Wars became Episode IV when it re-released in '78.

I admit that Lucas has seemed to have lost touch since the end of Jedi and has made a few mistakes in dabling with Original Trilogy. Jar Jar has got to be one of the most hated characters on in the Star Wars Universe, replacing Sebastion Shaw at the end of Jedi with Hayden, Ewoks, Hayden, and let's not get into the who shot first debate.

As far as my rankings:

1) Empire Strikes Back-This is the strongest of all the movies.

2) A New Hope-The movie that changed movies as we know it forever, a genre defining film that still rings true today.

3) Revenge of the Sith-The fall of the Jedi and the Republic and getting to see Anikin's whiney ass get beat down by Obi Wan, finally.

4) Return of the Jedi-Everthing comes full circle, I agree that Lucas should stayed with the Wookie idea.

5) Attack of the Clones-Yoda was a real badass.

6) The Phantom Menace-Weakest of the six, but still had it's moments.

[south ov da border]

Empire was the best one of all of them. There were good scenes in all of them, but all together Empire. Also There were some things that they did that could have been left out, Jar Jar, Bringing Han back for the Return movie, etc.

[alpha2117]

Empire - It stands up as the best film to re-watch
New Hope - It really was groundbreaking
Sith - Of the new trilogy it's the one with the most oomph

Clones - 4th by a fair margin
Jedi - other than the EWOKS it's okay but it feels like a retread of the earlier films
Menace - It looks fantastic and I'm not the hater some are but story wise it's a bit weak and Jar Jar just doesn't work.