ST Best Opening Space Battle

ROTS is too cute and flashy without the matching gravitas. TLJ had humor and also, that gravitas aspect.

 

RotS space battle is kind of just background noise. The primary function of that opening is the rescue of Palpatine.

For that reason, I will go with TLJ.

 

It also has a 2 minutes tracking shot following the Jedi fighters through the battle. It is the single longest shot in the whole saga. Very dramatic with all the ships firing on each other at close quarters like in Napoleonic naval battles.

 

ROTS because it was the biggest space battle and also just had so much going on.
TLJ is second though

 

Tension? There was tension when Obi-Wan was about to become Buzz droid fodder. And really, what made the Battle of Coruscant great was that it made the battles far grander and too large to be told in one film. Which makes Anakin and Obi-Wan's rescue all the more intriguing because the film never lose sight of them despite teasing us with various other stories and battles going on at the same time. In essence, it summarizes what the main focus of the Star Wars Saga is about while also establishing it's only one of the many stories that the universe has to offer.

It felt like the films featuring the Battle of Normandy in World War II. Battle is the same, but each film about it focuses on different perspectives in the eyes of a few soldiers.

 

it wasn't done well. buzz droids? the anakin - yes, master banter? some of the worst dialogue in the saga.

it didn't show off anakin's piloting skills either. When yo watch the pod racing scene, u see anakin's skills. u literally never see that he was "the best star pilot in the galaxy" as ben says in ANH. You might say, "but he landed the ship on coruscant". I'm just not wowed by this.

 

The difference between Anakin and Obi-Wan's piloting skills are visually clear. Anakin is reckless with his piloting, but he always comes out top. He tricked the two missiles into destroying each other with his spinning trick. In contrast, Obi-Wan tries to be more careful with his flying and hates it, and he got into big trouble with Buzz Droid missiles.

The rest are subjective. The dialogue was not bad for me. In fact, it was quite nice to see the two friendly bantering in the middle of the chaos.

 

Obi Wan is not a good pilot. He is a BAD pilot. It doesn't help to contrast Anakin and Obiwan.

Look at what Poe Dameron does in TFA and TLJ. That is what Anakin should be.

edit: Anakin should be better than Poe.

 

Obi-Wan has shown himself to be capable of handling Jango Fett during the astroid chase in Episode II, but he's not an ace like Anakin Skywalker who is prone to taking a lot more risks and gets more rewards.

And really, Poe Dameron being better than Anakin only tells me that Disney has been trying dilute the significance traits of Anakin and Luke into "random" characters, unintentionally weakening the story rather than strengthening it. It should have been Rey doing all of these cool pilot tricks...

 

The beginning of ANH isn't much of a space battle, so RotS is naturally the only real answer. It had dramatic tension with characters you could care about, while TLJ has some no name pilot and another no name who tries to drop the bombs. The whole necklace thing was a shallow way to try and inject the pointless scene with some cliche sentimentality, and the death of the asian woman was only there to give some motivation to Rose, a character that was entirely unnecessary. I cared more about the clone pilots in RotS.

And because OP neglected to mention it, the TLJ battle was also CGI.

 

Preferring one does not mean you have to dislike others.

I do love the scale of the Coruscant battle, and the silliness of the Buzzdroids too. I love it's pulp insanity.

It's a battle at the height of Galactic civilisation.
After that, you've got Rebels fighting desperate battles, not quite at the same scale. I hope one day they show Jakku, when the Rebels are at their peak.

But I also love the Endor battle. It was beyond cutting edge special effects for its time.

Indeed the original New Hope Death Star run was stunning in its time. You can't see the strings holding up the spaceships. Though it's a bit bare now. Though I'm glad it wasn't excessively Special Editioned.

And Scarif is just a gorgeous and well designed battle. Perhaps I'll give that the award.

TLA? I loved it. It was a bit ridiculous, but that's Star Wars. But it wasn't meant to be a battle for a battles sake. It was setting up character paths.

 

Thanks for pointing this out. OP, can I change my vote?

 

Rey did quite a job herself piloting in TFA.... not sure that argument makes sense.

Obi-Wan got schooled by Jango. He almost got killed. He was lucky to survive.

 

The point is that Rey should have all the best piloting tricks given her Force status. As for Obi-Wan, he managed well enough for some speculators to think Rey's piloting skills are signs of her being related to Obi-Wan. He's not an ace, but he can manage himself not to get killed.

Regardless, the point is Anakin is simply better than his master at flying visually in ROTS and the rest of the PT. He's reckless but in control of the situation. And he would have gotten a few more piloting tricks such as doing TFA's hyperspace planetary entrance that Han did according to the TPM draft.

 

I may be wrong, but only RotS started with so much action as TLJ, I guess.

It was cool in its own way.

 

Each one is distinct from the other to each filmmaker's credit. They're not just empty battles. You could say ROTS one but it does have a point: to put Anakin and Ob1 together, demonstrate Anakin' piloting skills, an the plot to rescue the Chancellor Ovaltine. Looked at that way, it is not empty spectacle.

 

Is this an autocorrect? Either way, I may start calling Palpatine "Ovaltine" from now on. That is so great.

 

LOL. No, it was intentional. I guess I have watched A Christmas Story too much the last 24 hours.

 

Episode III's opening battle was much better than TLJ.

 

ROTS should win this running away, but buzz droids.

TLJ for me. Great visuals, but better drama and higher emotional stakes. Gave me goosebumps.

 

Hmmm... gotta go with TLJ, but mainly cause the opening of ANH barely qualifies as a space battle. And although ROTS had its moments, there were bits I really hated (buzz droids).

The best space battle of the series so far is the Battle of Scariff in R1.

 

Except Obi-Wan wasn't trying to kill Jango. He had to follow him and survive and NOT kill him. He did that.

Jango was more heavily armed, bigger ship, more resources and he couldn't kill him and was fooled by a simple trick.

 

Very funny. But I wrote it as a little sarcastic quip. There often is an implied negativity when the CGI in the PT is mentioned, while it's ignored in the Disney movies. Both battles had as much CGI, but it was only mentioned for one of them.

 

Amazingly, the Sequels have more CG than the Prequels. The Sequels use NO models and miniatures. So these movies actually have more CG than the Prequels. Double standard? Yes.

 

TLJ opening battle wasn't bad visually but it breaks continuity, focuses on the characters I don't care about and the bomber thing wasn't well thought out (gravity aside, wasn't air supposed to go out?)

ANH is not really a battle, ROTS shows the battle in the background while following the two starfighters, we actually see Anakin and Obi-Wan being friends. Buzz droids don't bother me too much and I don't expect Obi-Wan and Anakin to speak Shakespeare while they're in danger.