Saga Rate The Six George Lucas Films, Favorite to Least Favorite (poll added)

My favorite is Episode 1. This is because I had grown up as a child through the Original Trilogy, played with all the toys, blah blah blah...and that 14 year gap between the end of VI and the start of production for I was really a terrible time for Star Wars in my mind. Anyhow, I went to see TPM 10 times. And I would walk 3 miles to the theater and 3 miles home each time. This was in northwest Tucson, before a lot of the population expansion of the current era. Plus...movie tickets were cheap back then compared to today. Darth Maul totally rocked the boat!

In second place is Episode 3. The acting by Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine was really great in this movie. Plus, the lighsabre battles were EPIC.

The third place movie is Episode 2. I just totally loved the lightsabre battles in the arena. Plus less Jar Jar. I did not mind him that much in Episode 1, but the less joking around in these movies, the better. For me, these are serious mythological tales, unlike typical movies. I refuse to pay to see 99% of movies these days because they are not powerful mythological tales like the Star Wars series is.

Notice How I have placed the Prequel Trilogy movies at the start of my list? This is not to piss PT haters off, but I really enjoyed them more because of the way better battle scenes, better looking spacecraft, and more environments. OT just doesn't stand up to PT.

Fourth place is Episode 4. This is the first one I saw, at the age of 5. Me and my older brother used to make "Star Wars towns" in our expansive closets at home...using matchbox cars for robots, star wars figures, and other toys to make the buildings. I had a weird growing up period...never abused, never did drugs, never got into drinking even. I guess this all really had a positive effect on my life and will always be a great memory for me.

For the fifth pace installment, I choose Episode 5. I really enjoyed the facing off of father vs. son.

Last, but not least is Episode 6. Too many Ewoks in it for me. Plus, the final fight between father and son could have had more PT style action. But the most positive part of the movie was the Emperor.

 

My favorites list would have to go:
1. Revenge of the Sith
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Attack of the Clones
4. Return of the Jedi
5. A New Hope
6. The Phantom Menace

But to be honest, I like all of them enough that it was hard to rank them--the differences between them are small. And there's a definite difference between "think is a good movie" and "enjoy," so depending on one's definition of "favorite" my version of this list could vary. Also, I tend to like the OT movies and the PT movies for different reasons, which makes it hard to rank between them.

 

Maybe I have watched these movies too many times, but Attack of the Clones n A New Hope have become quite boring, maybe I just want a new battle front game. Lord knows im not watching the disney trilogy.

 

My current ranking is:

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

It's a tough call because I love them all; this ranking doesn't mean that I dislike TPM. I only think it has relatively more flaws than the others. IMO, all six are at least 4 star-films, but ESB and ANH are all-too-rare 5-star masterpieces, and are pretty much tied for first place.

 

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

 

You have my respect, sir.

 

1. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Quite possibly my all time favorite film. It has such a beautiful magic to it. The introduction of an incredible universe, and the wonderful characters we all love. I still get chills watching this film, and i love just the overall feeling of discovering the small slice of the Galaxy, knowing that, just like for Luke, there is so much more for us to see!

2. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

It took the plot of the first and expanded it into a truly excellent second chapter. It naturally developed all the characters, and further introduced us to the universe, busting the floodgates open for new characters, planets, and species. It delved into the rich mythology that makes Star Wars appeal to me so.

3. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

It builds off the incredible second chapter, and delivers a final chapter that decides to just have fun in the universe. There's a sandbox to play with, and RotJ let's them have some fun with the series.

4. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

The tone of TPM really fits with the Ot. It has a sense of adventure and exploration, and the characters all have arcs that serve a purpose. It also manages to have some fun with itself, and I appreciated it.

5. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

The darkest entry in the prequels manages to do several things right for me. Ewan was fantastic, as was Ian. The feeling of the galaxy at war was also a great joy, and added to the tone of the film. I liked the large scale battles.

6. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

I genuinely love the scenes with Obi-Wan, but the love story fails miserably for me. Lucas' writing for Anakin also doesn't cement him as a character I can see turning into Vader. I honestly felt he was a whiny turd. I don't blue Hayden for this, as most do. He only read the lines he was given, and those lines weren't very good. The weird CGI clones have also aged horribly in Ep 2/3 as well.

 

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

 

1. Empire Strikes Back - the story was simply beautiful. Luke was dealing with a lot in his soul and it really came out in Mark's acting. Plus, the reveal. I was only 1 years old when this was in theaters, so my first exposure was on VHS, but I remember being 5 or 6 and being utterly SHOCKED that Vader said he was Luke's father. At first, I thought he was lying. The entire movie was great; I didn't really appreciate it until I was older, but it holds up.

2. Return of the Jedi - I am in the crowd that thinks ROTJ is highly under-rated. People seem to always pick on the Ewoks, but I have no problem with them. It wasn't as if they defeated the entire empire; they overwhelmed a single battalion by sheer weight of numbers. But enough of that. The final space battle is still the best space battle of any of the six films. ROTS had a nice battle but it was all in the background. Vader's sacrifice to save his son is what puts the icing on the cake for me. The score of the film was breathtaking and when Vader is watching his son being electrocuted, the score of the scene almost enables you to see the anguish on his face behind the mask. That is powerful.

3. Revenge of the Sith - For the shock factor of the Jedi extermination. For the emotional distress of Obi-Wan when fighting Anakin. For the wonderful lightsaber battles.

4. A New Hope - Probably going to be put to the coals for this one, but in contrast to my stance on ROTJ, I find ANH over-rated. Lucas made it as a film akin to a Saturday afternoon serial of the 1930's. And that's exactly what he got. While I know they re-edited it (and won an Oscar for it), I still find the pacing slow. It's a simple adventure/coming of age story but it has no real connection to ESB. If you watch ANH as a stand-alone film, you can enjoy it for what it is, and Vader is simply a powerful goon. The real bad guy is Grand Moff Tarkin. By itself, you never take Vader seriously in ANH. He's nothing more than a henchman. When you compare this film to the other 5, I begin to understand why Michael Kaminski (Zombie on the forums) and others like him argue vehemently about Lucas' original intention for Vader, and question why Lucas states over and over that this is about Vader's story of redemption (which I'm not sure if it was intended to be at the beginning). At any rate, I love this film for the nostalgia sake but when compared to ROTJ, I don't think ANH holds up as well over time.

5. Attack of the Clones - Yes the acting was pretty wooden, but the battle at the end of the film was pretty cool, finally getting to see a lot of Jedi at once. I loved the Kamino scene, because the first time you watch it and they begin talking to Obi-Wan, you are in the same position as he is - completely clueless as to their intention and wondering "what the heck are they talking about?" (But that is good). I think Lucas did the community a disservice by writing this film by himself - the lines prove it. Natalie Portman is an Oscar winning actress and she was wooden and stiff in the film. Christiansen is eye candy for the girls and not a good actor.

6. The Phantom Menace - Perhaps this is unfair, but this movie was crushed under its unfair expectations levied on it by, well, the world. The film wasn't bad. But the story of the Trade Federation was awful, and the whole Gungan side of the story was disastrous. And people get upset about the commercialization of the Ewoks? I mean, at least they were warriors. The gungans were cartoonish, clumsy and largely ineffective. I am not going to criticize Jake Lloyd, because actors at that age don't have a lot of acting chops for the most part. But he was still silly.

 

Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Episode IV - A New Hope
Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Episode II - Attack of the Clones

 

Tonight, I had a change of heart for the 432nd time. I now re-rank the films as:

1.) Star Wars
2.) The Empire Strikes Back
3.) Return of the Jedi
4.) Revenge of the Sith
5.) The Phantom Menace
6.) Attack of the Clones

We always talk about how gritty and dark Empire is. But tonight I watched A New Hope again for the first time in a while, and realized it's truly a 70's film at heart. Very gritty. Even some of the shots remind me of a film Roman Polanski would do (such as Chinatown). My film tastes usually sway towards 70's cinema, so I may be biased. But the film felt more complete to me in this watching than Empire did in my last watching. I got more of a reaction of joy (more so than with Return of the Jedi). I overall feel like this is maybe a ranking I'll keep for a while.

 

Mod action: Adding poll to existing thread

 

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

I started watching the Star Wars films when I was about 8 years old and I was watched them in the order they came out of course, but I still remember going to my dad's apartment every Saturday and he would miraculously have "found" the Star Wars film that we needed that week (I think he bought them all at once), and I can remember my anticipation for seeing the Anakin Vs. Obi Wan fight was so FREAKING high that I could not stop talking about Star Wars through that 6-week or so period. And I was not disappointed...

 

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope



3. Revenge of the Sith

4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Phantom Menace



6. Attack of the Clones

 

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

 

Which two scenes, if you don't mind me asking?

 

Changing again

1. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
2. Episode II: Attack of the Clones
3. Episode I: The Phantom Menace
4. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
5. Episode IV: A New Hope
6. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

 

I see the poll was added asking what your favorite SW film is. Is there any way to add multiple polls to this thread asking what is your second favorite? third? and so on until what is your least favorite?

 

So hard! I'm gonna have to say

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


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Not possible, unfortunately. Polls can have the option of allowing multiple votes, but not for second, third and so on, so it'd be a bit meaningless. Jarren_Lee-Saber was crunching the numbers on the rankings though, he's posted updates through this thread.

Main reason I added the poll to this stickied thread was for the additional, simpler option, rather than having another 'Favourite SW movie' thread altogether. For all intents and purposes, this is the 'Favourite Star Wars Movie' thread - if you want to vote in the poll and add a post about why, but not rank all six (or maybe just rank three or four), go right ahead.

 

My favourite has always been ESB and nothing in the PT changed that but ROTS did come close.

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

and by 2019 AOTC will almost cetainly be in 9th position.

 

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

Interestingly, the order of both ANH/TESB and TPM/AOTC have flipped for me in recent years.

 

Oh, this old thing. A penetrating investigation into our relations with pop culture or just a matter of whether you tolerate Gungans more than Ewoks? I love all six films dearly, but to different degrees.

1.) Return of the Jedi
The final moments of the duel between Luke, Vader, and the Emperor, from "So, you have a twin sister..." through John Williams' painful notes as the son maims his father, and the silent (no, I've yet to experience "No!") redemption of Anakin Skywalker, literally blue in the face. Not to take revenge on the cruel tyrant who had twisted him. Not even to bring balance to the Force. But because he loved his son. Yeah, that alone does it. The pre-Special Edition Crosby, Stills, and Nash-esque celebration music? I can take it or leave it, but man, how much more NorCal can Endor get? Did the Rebels all go jump in a hot tub too?

2.) Revenge of the Sith
Was anyone else hanging around these boards in the lead-up (hype-up, psych-up) to this movie? My joy at the drip-drip of the gorgeous leaked photos in the months beforehand was Palp-able (yeah, I'm pretty sure my boy immediately post-face-melting was one of the first batch). From the first drum beats as the camera moves over the battleship into the chaos over Coruscant, this one doesn't drop the pace. Yeah, it forces some truly awful tripe out of its actors' mouths, but it's so gorgeous, a tragic play whose scenes are painted on screen (I'm thinking especially of the Order 66 sequence, which is like a work of art). But the Polis Massa medical association needs to be investigated for certifying a droid who thinks "lost the will to live" is a valid diagnosis.

The next two I consider pretty much equal...but I'll order them thusly:

3.) The Empire Strikes Back
I agree with the general consensus that it's probably the best-made overall. For me, its place in the saga is in moving the characters beyond the archetypes they began as (or, I guess, moves them along their archetypal paths). Luke journeys from near-death through spiritual journey, frustration, and grim realization with Mark Hamill's now-scarred face actually enhancing his role. Han and Leia: a couple forced together by caved-in bases, whiny protocol droids, a lemon of a ship, and uh, Empire, bounty hunter, betrayal, and "I know." Even Vader's played-up impatience with his officers' supposed incompetence (the ship disappeared from scanners! What's a Needa gonna do?) makes his silent stalking-off the Executor's bridge after his son's escape that much more powerful

4.) A New Hope
This one's so much more of a stripped-down adventure story that it feels apart. But it also sets up the whole mythic arc while being gee-whiz! fantastic. My favorite moment of the entire saga are the not-even-30 seconds of Luke peering at the binary sunset, looking down for a moment, lost in...what? Introspection? Worry? Just adjusting his eyes? In any case, he looks back up as the suns disappear behind the sand with the the Force theme soaring. "All his life has he looked away...to the future, to the horizon," we will later be told. Never his mind on where he was. What he was doing. As a kid, I felt like Luke in that scene, and still do every time I see it. Adventure and excitement? Most people do crave these things, and if they do, they love this movie.

Again, these next two are more or less on a plateau together. Any separation in rankings between them feels arbitrary.

5.) Attack of the Clones
It's not the goofy title I have a problem with. Anakin's journey in this movie never sat well with me. He goes from being genuinely creepy toward Padme to mysteriously winning her over heart and soul with some truly bizarre and adolescent outpourings of feeling. His wrathful quest for his mother and especially his stoic retrieval of her body do redeem him. He ain't no slave, and he's got no truck with these Larses who gave up his mother for dead before going back to farming their...moisture. And yet, his fuming over his slaughter of the Tuskens didn't convince me. Yes, the path to the dark side leads through anger and hate, but childish tantrums from a grown man? I never got the feeling from this movie that I was seeing Darth Vader in-the-making. But Ewan McGregor is really the star anyway, if you think of it as an Obi-Wan mystery tour of the Galaxy. "Old folks' home." Is that official Jedi Council terminology? Oh, and "Across the Stars." What a track. I totally tuned in to TRL to watch that music video premiere.

6.) The Phantom Menace
Even as a 12-year-old, I could tell that something was wrong with this film. I'm sorry to say that seeing it again in 3D, I felt the same discomfort I had in 1999, and that makes me sad. Sad because it is still Star Wars, and it's a very fun movie. But Jake Lloyd's Anakin is just plain awkward. And the Gungan attempts at comic relief are too bluntly childish compared to the droids of the original trilogy. And the central conflict of trade routes and senate elections is a little too inside baseball for most audiences (even though, yes, I know, it's all Sith plots and ploys). Still, Qui-Gon Jinn, podracing, and "Duel of the Fates."

Oh, uh, tl;dr.

 

Nostril_of_Palpatine What a creepy but hilarious user name lol

 

I'm going to revisit my current point of view:

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