So I was bored this week and wound up watching Episodes I-VI again, in that order. A few thoughts: - The prequels are like fungi.. they stink, but they do grow on you - III is so overrated, though. The first half of the movie is terrible and after the climactic battles (which are good) it's just one big scramble to stitch it to IV with silly contrivances and rushed explanations - II, on the other hand, is unfairly criticised. The whole film is well-paced and carries a sense of sadness and foreboding quite unlike any of the others, except maybe V - I would like a plush Ewok, they kick ass Since I don't have 6! poll options, I'm assuming most people don't drop IV and V out of their top two, keep III and VI in their middle two, and dump I and II in their bottom two. That makes for a tidy eight permutations, which leaves one slot for the univac-approved 5-4-6-2-3-1, and one slot for weirdos who prefer Jar Jar to Han
Other. Never seen them... well over the years I've seen bits and pieces of some but I couldn't tell you which ones.
Empire New Hope Return of the Jedi Revenge of the Sith Phantom Menace Attack of the Clones The last two are pretty interchangeable with their awfulness.
I'm with you, univac. My ranking: The Empire Strikes Back - The original, non-special edition version is one of the finest films ever made. Aside from the lack of a true beginning or ending(it is the middle chapter of a trilogy after all), I can't think of a single flaw. Great character development, amazing puppetry by Frank Oz, John Williams' finest score, the baddest villain in cinematic history(if you ignore what the prequels did to him), and a ballsy dark, cliffhanger ending with maybe the greatest movie plot twist of all-time. Star Wars - A great film in its own right. It just lacks the character depth of Empire. But the non-special edition version of Star Wars(I refuse to call it A New Hope) is still one of the finest and funnest two hours ever committed to celluloid. Return of the Jedi - A great capper to the best trilogy ever made. It's brought down slightly by Carrie Fisher's coked-up, zoned-out "performance" and the neutering of Vader(although I do love the payoff of his arc at the end). To this day, I still love the Ewoks. I don't get the hatred fans have for those little fuzzballs. And the first 25 minutes in Jabba's palace are a slow build, but there are so many brilliant little moments in that sequence(the robot being tortured, the fat dude crying over the Rancor's death) plus of course, Leia in the slave girl outfit. Attack of the Clones - The only prequel I liked. The love story is cheesy and extremely rushed. Actually, that's being kind. There is no love "story" really. Anakin and Padme fall for each other only because the plot requires it. But the rest of the movie is a lot of fun. The clone army mystery with Obi-wan is intriguing. Most of the action scenes are terrific. Jango, Dooku, and Palpatine are all effective villains. John Williams' score was butchered in the editing room, but I did like most of his new themes. And of course, Yoda showing that he is the baddest MF'er in the galaxy. Revenge of the Sith - A major disappointment. Despite the massive letdown of The Phantom Menace and the minor but significant flaws in Clones, the opportunity was still there for Lucas to salvage the prequel trilogy with a kickass finale. And did he ever drop the ball. I'm still waiting to find out why Anakin turned to the Dark Side. Sure he wanted to save his wife, but I have to think there was a better way than betraying his surrogate family and committing mass genocide(including the slaughter of innocent children). Ian McDiarmid was solid as Palpatine and awful as Sidious. General Grievous was a complete waste of time. Dooku was wasted. The clone army/Jedi archive subplot from Clones was never resolved(or even addressed for that matter). There were glaring plotholes and contradictions with the original trilogy. On a personal note, I hated the fact that the entire movie was shot in front of a bluescreen. And as for Vader's long-awaited return, I have but one word: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" The Phantom Menace - Maybe the most disappointing movie of all-time. No, it never could've lived up to 16 years worth of built up expectations. But it could've been 1000 times better than what we got. The acting was lazy and uninspired, the dialogue was often times horrendous, the CGI was overbearing, the action sequences were mostly underwhelming, the space battle was a joke, and in terms of the characters, Jar Jar is the Sofia Coppola of the Star Wars saga, almost single-handedly ruining this movie, and Jake Lloyd was so bad that he hasn't worked since. The only reason to own this dreck is because 1) you're a completist and 2) the podrace and lightsaber duel make great demo material.
When I was young I used to like ROTJ the most and thought ESB was the worst, but as I grew older and watched them over and over again, ESB became my favorite with ROTJ even falling behind episode 4. So now for me it's 5-4-6-3-2-1
dare I say, Phantom Menace is my favorite the nostalgia from seeing star wars back on the big screen was unbelievable for me
Empire Strikes Back Revenge of the Sith Attack of the Clones Return of the Jedi A New Hope Phantom Menace Me thinks a lot of people don't give enough credit to the prequels while giving too much to the original trilogy. Empire agreed is on a whole other level; it was my least favorite as a kid but now my favorite as an adult as I can appreciate the story it was trying to tell and the character development. Revenge of the Sith is a wow film; some truly classic moments though it does have a few flawed bits, but not many. Attack of the Clones is a nice rebound from Phantom Menace. The story is better, though the political talk is a little grating. Hayden's emotional moments are hard to bear at times but he's leagues better than Jake Lloyd. The action scenes are incredible and felt like original trilogy to me (namely the factory scene toward the end). You can tell Ewan feels much more comfortable in his role in this one. Return of the Jedi...this used to be my favorite as a kid but now I've come to realize that the Ewoks, while cute, couldn't possibly take down a battalion of the Emperor's elite stormtroopers. If the Ewoks were to be in it, they could have at least been accompanied by the last vestiges of the Wookie civilization, hungry for revenge. It also has some slow moments. And then a New Hope. Personally, when I've gone back to watch it now, I realize it's not some grand pantheon of a movie. It has incredibly slow moments, and actually boring at times. It is what it is; an origin movie. That's not to say it doesn't have some classic moments and scenes though. And then Phantom Menace; I actually loved it when it first debuted. After watching it numerous times since it has become considerably weaker, but it's still fun to watch. It has memorable moments (the duel of the fates is one of the best scenes in the whole series...and the pod race is excellent even if it is a tangent from the main story). What's sad is the flaws could have been easily non-existant had they done things differently and I'm perplexed as to why Lucas chose the direction he did (why get an 8 year old Anakin, just hire Hayden from the start...replace the Gungans for the Wookies, Jar Jar for Chewbacca, Naboo for Kashyk...if there ever was a race more deserving of screen time in the Star Wars verse it was them...you could easily slide those changes in and it wouldn't effect the movie or it's sequels at all; and it would make it a lot more serious.
Excellent taste and analysis, Dooku. I'm sorry you got decapitated It did make the poll much easier to create, though.. I never thought of it that way, but you're absolutely spot-on with those ideas. The only good thing that came out of Phantom Menace, in my opinion, was Watto - Toydarians fit perfectly into the Star Wars universe A sentient computer that lurks on ClutchFans..
Empire is what movie making is supposed to be. It is one of the greatest films ever. After that, it gets hard. Episode I is a joke, I think on most people's lists it goes straigt to the bottom. I have to give props to Episode IV. When it came out, it revolutionized the movie industry. I think its STILL a lot of fun to watch, and the best thing about the movie, and what makes the original trilogy so great, is it makes you fall in love with the characters. ROTJ is next for me. Its tough, because I thought the end of Episode II is highly under-rated, the last 30 minutes are actually spectacular. Episode III has some pretty iconic stuff and I have to admit that Obi-Wan vs Annakin fight actually did not disappoint for me, but I still have to put ROTJ there. It gets the nod because it was actually the first movie I ever remember seeing in the theaters...I was about 4 or 5 years old. The images of the Imperial Shuttle flying "casual" onto Endor and Luke Vs Darth Vader are burned into my memory forever. Many people like to slam the movie because of the Ewoks, and I agree that the Ewoks are basically stupid, but the rest of the movie is so darn good I can look past Ewoks not trash the whole move because of them. Episode III and II are almost a toss up after that, then I kind of wish I could forget Episode I was ever made except for the Darth Maul fight scene. As for replacing Gungans for Wookies, I agree. At least make a kick butt race of warriors, and make Jar Jar an actual cool character, you probably could have overlooked having a little kid as Annakin.
I'll also go with Empire New Hope Return of the Jedi Revenge of the Sith Attack of the Clones Phantom I might be alone on this, but New Hope comes VERY close to Empire for me. Mainly because it was such a great self-contained movie on it's own. I was too young to see any of the originals in the movie theaters. But when they had that special screening maybe 10 years ago, when they rereleased the original trilogy in theaters, it goes down as one of the best movie theater experiences I ever had. I wasn't a big Star Wars fan, but after seeing the originals on the big screen I was in awe. I finally understood why people could become die hard Star Wars geeks. And it had nothing to do with the legacy, I came in not expecting any more appreciation for the movies than I did going in, which was nothing more than some decent action flicks. As for the newer trilogy, I came out of the theater thinking 'meh'.
I'm a little unorthodox. New Hope-by far the best to me. I know the action wasn't as great, but it's always been my favorite Empire Jedi Clones Sith The one that shall go un-named Sith was average, but the patchwork ending where they tried to make it fit into continuance infuriated me so bad that I'd rank it last by far if not for Jar Jar. The death of Padme and the stupid scenes where she names the children and then they split them and stuff. All that is such a huge part of continuance and they just turned it into a little crappy scene because Lucas forgot that storytelling is what made Star Wars so lasting. Oh, and who forget NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
