"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.

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.