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

Simon Pegg has cast his vote; his final words are great!

 

Yeah, I don't see anything great about that. He used his final seconds to reaffirm his hate for the prequels, instead of saying something like "I love the Originals." I guess his hatred is stronger, eh?

 

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

 

Hatred leads to the dark side.....and let's be honest, who doesn't want to be on the dark side #forcelightning

 

However using the dark side through differnet ways you can either end up being a powerful and wise Sith or a foolish , non-professional henchman .
Pegg would be the latter .

 

Fav ROTJ then TESB then ANH then Caravan of Courage!

 

Just back from holidays and catching up on this thread. I love this data display. It's really excellent. - Thanks Alienware

Through this whole thread I've been surprised that I like AOTC so much more than most folks - who generally really dislike it as the worst or second worst film. I can certainly see it's pitfalls and understand why it's not liked so much. For me (I do appreciate that others don't feel like this) some of those pitfalls were:

• Worse than usual clunky dialogue
• Awful romance scenes
• Hayden's portrayl of Anakin which seemed to me like a three year old in an adult body constantly threatening to throw his toys out of the pram with occasional moments of something approaching adulthood.
• And the CGI in Dexter's Diner scene never fails to make me cringe

Now my guess is that a lot of the things I don't like are also not liked by others - and yet I still really like the movie - especially if I judge it by how many times I've rewatched it. I suspect this is mostly because I just love the visuals e.g. the night Coruscant chase sequence - I always wanted to see what the capital of that 'Galaxy far far away' looked like (and for those who have read Asimov's Foundation series it's a lovely insight into Trantor at it's peak too.) In fact all the way through - with every bit that I love - it's the digital art which does it for me. (It's also quite interesting, if I think about it, each part that I really like has no or very little dialogue!)
So I'm wondering if this is why so many people have rated it poorly - because, from my point of view, if you don't like the digital art (cgi) then there's not a great deal left to left to enjoy?

 

I think I have yet to see the same ranking as mine, but yours is the closest one yet. Only ANH and TESB are switched

 

There's plenty to enjoy AOTC imo. Sure some of the dialogue is not the greatest bu that doesn't affect my enjoyment of the film like it does for others. In fact I actually enjoy the romance between Anakin/Padme I just wish it was better fleshed out it seemed to way too rushed in the film. This is where I think it would of been better for Anakin to have already been older in TPM so they wouldn't have to rush some things.

 

I think having Anakin older in TPM would have worked better overall too. It wouldn't have had to be much - say a13year old Anakin - to make all the difference. He could be this geeky teenager who falls hard for Padme and never forgets her. This fits much better I think with how he's stuck on her in AOTC. As it is it always seems weird and obsessive to me that he's 'thought about her everyday since they parted'.

 

I don't think the concept is of itself nor do I think it was the intent. I believe it's meant as a romantic take on love at first sight or One True Love. However, I do agree the presentation and execution read poorly.

 

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

 

I just got done rewatching the films for the first time since I did my last ranking, and I found my perspective on them has changed entirely, likely as a side-effect of aging and having shifting preferences.

1. A New Hope has usurped The Empire Strikes Back as my favorite film in the Saga, which is something I've felt coming for a while now. I still think TESB is a technically better film across the board (still the high point in the series in terms of filmmaking), but I've gradually come to prefer the original, finding myself both appreciating and enjoying it more and more as the years go by. For a variety of reasons I won't get into because it'll take too long, the original Star Wars tops my list. The long and short of it is, I think the film is pretty much bona fide perfection, and no other movie has more fully immersed me, sucked me in, and made me feel like I was in the movie, invisibly standing alongside the characters.

2. The Empire Strikes Back. My feelings on this film haven't changed at all over the years; it's demotion from first to second are due entirely to my shifting feelings for A New Hope. Like I said above, it's the best film in the series, despite no longer being my personal favorite. The acting is at its best and most naturalistic, as is the dialogue. The effects are a monumental improvement, due to a massively increased budget and the opportunity to further refine the previous film's revolutionary effects work, and the cinematography is at its absolute finest. The lead characters feel more real, Vader is given a chance to stretch his legs and flex without Tarkin's oversight, the scenes with Yoda are movie magic at its finest, Lando and Boba Fett are welcome additions to the series, and the story evolves the series from pulp serial into modern mythology.

3. Return of the Jedi. A more flawed, uneven movie than its immediate two predecessors, but still a great film in my opinion, and one that I've always loved. Complaints aside, I adore this movie. Whereas the first two films top my list of top ten favorite movies, Return of the Jedi is towards the bottom, maybe 8 or 9. In terms of the film's quality I still feel the same towards it as I have in the past, but for whatever reason I found myself enjoying it more this time around than I have during my last several viewings. The scenes aboard the Death Star II with Luke, Vader, and the Emperor remain my favorite in the entire series.

4. Revenge of the Sith. My feelings towards this movie also haven't changed. I think it gets a lot of flak in recent years simply for its status as a prequel film, but its a significant improvement over Episodes I and II, even if it suffers from a lot of the same problems (dialogue, particularly in the romance department, cluttered frames, excessive CGI when it's not needed, etc.). There are also problems unique to this film, such as Palpatine/Sidious suddenly being portrayed as an over the top cartoon villain, which is completely inconsistent with his portrayal in literally every other film and TV series. Regardless, I do like this film a lot, I just don't love it the way I do the original trilogy films. On the upside, finishing it gave me the strong desire to rewatch The Clone Wars in its entirety, which I think I just might do.

5. Attack of the Clones. This is the other major switch-up on my list, as I've had this dead last the past several times I've watched it. Coming back to it now, though, I've come to realize... it's not that bad. It's also not great by any means, make no mistake. The entire Anakin/Padme romance is stilted and unnatural, and lacking in any genuine chemistry. Seeing Jar Jar at all, even for a few moments, is just awful. Really, my biggest issue with the movie is the entire droid factory sequence, which wouldn't be half-bad if not for the C-3PO droid shenanigans, and the fact that the arena battle is completely and utterly defused every few seconds by those same hijinks. It's just not funny, and it's tonally jarring enough to take me out an otherwise really fun scene. There are also off-putting attempts on Coruscant to emulate real world culture in the Star Wars universe that just feel weird. Still, I don't think the movie is awful; despite some genuinely bad stuff, there's a lot of good moments in it, particularly anything including Obi-Wan. For the most part, I enjoyed it.

6. The Phantom Menace. It kind of sucks, but I straight up disliked watching this movie for the first time in my life. Usually the things I didn't like were tempered by the things I did, but this time around was different. I think, since the last time I watched the films, I've matured to the point where I won't make excuses for things I don't like, or pretend to myself that I like them. And there is so much in this film I don't like. Structurally, it's just a mess from start to finish, sequences drag on for too long, and key characters receive more or less focus than they deserve. My biggest issue is the wildly inconsistent tone, which is primarily (but not exclusively) due to Jar Jar. The final battle sequence, which is jumping between four different situations, exemplifies this issue; you have the urgency of the Padme and lightsaber duel sequences, juxtaposed against the silliness of Anakin in the starfighter and Jar Jar continuing to derail the film in the ground battle. Another example of this is the podrace, which both 1) goes on for far too long, and 2) is tonally derailed by the two-headed announcer's comments. Pretty much the entire film is like this, and it just doesn't work for me. It's not all bad, obviously; Qui-Gon is great, Ewan McGregor is great as Obi-Wan even if this is the only prequel film in which the character is poorly written, Padme is likable for the only time in the trilogy, and Jake Lloyd actually isn't terrible as kid Anakin. But still, this is the least I've ever enjoyed watching the film, and for the first time I truly understand why it's as poorly regarded as it is.

 

Just to do it for the sake of doing it....

Empire - I was in full Star Wars hype mode. So much to love.
New Hope - hey, it's Star Wars.
Jedi - still fun, just a bit sillier.

Phantom - bits I liked, but I got heavily critical with bad stereotypes, Roger Roger robots being more acceptable to kill than Stormtroopers etc. I was in my cynical 30's. Different eyes.
Sith - everything from "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" had me literally LoLing. Bad bad end to it all.
Clones. - didnt see it in the cinema. Didnt bother. On DVD years later.

Sorry. Just not a Prequel guy.

 

1. Episode 4 - A New Hope. Brilliant. My favourite scene in all of Star Wars is Luke walking around his home on Tattooine, looking up at the suns setting.
2. Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan v Anakin's climactic battle. ****ing brilliant. Has its weak points but there's just so much greatness in the fall of Anakin.
3. Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. This has gone up in the ranks over the years. Every time I've seen it I've enjoyed it more than the last time. TPM is solid as hell; **** Simon Pegg. TPM-haters' criticisms seem to always be the most absurd, minor things to pick on.
4. Episode 6 - Return of the Jedi. I've always loved Return of the Jedi and never understood the hate from old-timers (when I say 'old-timers' I mean people who saw 4-6 in the cinema on their original releases). It was the first SW movie I saw, weirdly enough, so maybe that influences me, but it has a lot of great, meaty, stuff happening. Plus, the whole sequence in Jabba's palace just rocks.
5. Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones. I feel like there's a lot of greatness that could've been had from this movie but there's just too much that goes by too quickly. It's too jam-packed. I feel like Episode 2 would've been better as two movies, not one.
6. Episode 5 - Empire Strikes Back. Always been my least favourite Star Wars movie, ever since the early 90s. I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I never understood the hype surrounding this. Barely anything at all happens! To me this movie suffers from typical "second movie in a trilogy" syndrome, where it doesn't seem to really serve much purpose beyond connecting the first movie to the third. I love it as I love all the films, but I think it's very overrated.

 

ESB & RotS (the 2 best of the saga by far imo, too close to call)
RotJ
ANH
AotC (Dooku vs Yoda made the movie lol. Christopher Lee was great. Only slightly better than TPM overall)
TPM (although Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul were awesome characters, but they were underutilized. Duel of the Fates was great)

 

Re-watched all six films this summer for the upcoming release of The Force Awakens. Here is my new hierarchy. Two of my friends completely agreed. Two others mostly agreed. In the end, it comes down to similarity of preference though because they are all amazing.

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

 

ANH and ESB change a lot for me it depends on my mood when watching them

 

Updated (WARNING: LONG MESSAGE!)

6. The Phantom Menace
Though I'd still give the film a solid 9.1, TPM does have the most flaws of the saga in my opinion, particularly the overly kiddy Jar Jar and the distracting mouth movement of the Neimoidians. Bad mouth movement bothers me in games and it bothers me here. The action scenes like the pod race and the lightsaber duel with Maul are easily the best moments but thankfully, the slower scenes on Tatooine and Coruscant weren't actually that bad compared to what a lot of others think of them. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the kiddiness of TPM. The prequels had the potential to be dark all the way through. TPM is by no means a bad film, it is just the least best of the saga.

5. A New Hope
All right, all right. Some people aren't gonna like me for this one. Don't get me wrong, I love ANH! It's just compared to the other films, it's not as good. To me, at least. The story and characters get more complex, the technology advances, etc. I'm not one of those people that ranks it 1 just because it's the first. However, this is one of the films I struggled to find cons with while watching them. I do think it would've been nice to see more of Obi-Wan. Watching the OT alone, his death isn't that impactful (don't hurt me). It would've been nice to at least see a few more locations but I do really like pretty much every scene on the Death Star and the final assault at the end. Some of the pros I typed up were Han and Leia's interaction (mostly insults), Vader period, and Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones, Harrison Ford, and Peter Cushing's standout performances.

4. Attack of the Clones
A few months ago I would've had this and ANH switched. Upon another viewing, I actually believe pretty much the only thing wrong with the film is the romance. And truth be told, the romance actually takes up very little of the film. The story is more interesting this time around, particularly Obi-Wan's. I really liked his detective-esque side story. I also like Count Dooku's character (and Christopher Lee's performance), Obi-Wan and Anakin's interaction, the duel at the end, and the arena scene. Most of the cons I put down were about Anakin's anger, the romance, and the diner scene which looks terribly fake every single time I watch it. But that scene literally takes up about 2 minutes of the movie. Am I going to let that ruin an entire movie for me? No because I am not a spoiled brat.

3. Return of the Jedi
I'm still not actually quite sure if I'd switch TESB with ROTJ or not but for now, this is my ranking. When I was a kid, I watched this film over and over and over again because I just loved it. The Jabba's Palace scene is very well executed and I don't really mind Han not dying in ESB. A rescue scene gives you the feeling there's still hope for the Alliance. I know most people hate the Ewoks but I actually like their addition in this film. It shows how unexpected allies can take down the Empire. Feel like that could be made into a TCW moral of some sort. Unlike TPM, I enjoyed all of the sides of the conflict at the end whether it be Endor, the Death Star space battle, or Luke and Vader's confrontation. In TPM, I only cared for the lightsaber battle. Only thing that really irked me was Boba Fett's anti-climactic death. A fantastic end to a fantastic saga! Oh, wait...

2. The Empire Strikes Back
TESB is everything a sequel should be: darker, more intense, more engaging, and more characters, this time in the form of Yoda (that is, if you're watching the OT on its own), Lando, and Boba Fett, all of whom are fantastic characters that are one of the best parts of the movie. It was tough choosing between this and ROTS to go in the number 2 spot but I just watch ROTS again and again so I had to pick this one, if only for Luke's reaction to the "I am your father" reveal. I cringe every time. Pretty much everything on Cloud City, from landscape shots to the actual story, is cool and fun to watch. TESB makes you care for Luke, Han, and Leia more than ANH ever did. Speaking of Han and Leia, their romance is executed much better than Anakin and Padmé's which is a plus. TESB improves upon its predecessor in every way.

1. Revenge of the Sith
I'm sorry but I just had to go with this one as my favorite. I watch it and love it every single time from beginning to end. Literally one of two (TWO!) things I found wrong with this film was that Count Dooku was killed off too soon. But, hey, no movie can be perfect and ROTS is pretty much as close as you can get. It's jam packed with adventure, action, and emotional scenes all the way from Order 66 to the final battle (yes, Mr. Plinkett, Anakin and Obi-Wan's battle had emotion). Anakin's turn to the Dark Side is chilling and even the conflict between Palpatine (amazing performance by Ian McDiarmid) and the Jedi Council is engaging. And that's almost all just talking! It ties up everything perfectly at the end, leaving you breathless after that hectic ride of a film. It ends the prequels (or saga, depending on how you watch them) perfectly!

THE.
END.

 

ROTS
ESB
AOTC
ANH
TPM
ROTJ

 

1. ROTS
2. ROTJ
3. AOTC
4. TESB
5. TPM
6. ANH

 

Thank you. I was going over this thread when I saw it, since I posted this on my very first day as a member. Yes, every single scene in TESB is interesting because of the time and attention Kershner, the writers, actors, designers, etc. took to shaping the whole film. The movie is actually quite slow, which I didn't notice as a kid, partly due to Kershner's desire for it to be a gloomy fairy tale for adults. I like all the details, such as the snakes living in Yoda's hut, and so on. Yes, AOTC will bore you out of your mind! Lol. Unless we're talking about something like Jango Fett or Christopher Lee's performance, the film just simply is not engaging. I watched it in June (during a prequel marathon) and liked it a bit more than I thought I would, but there were some scenes that I just wanted to get through, and it if weren't for John Williams' music, I might have dosed off. TPM is a visually fascinating but flawed film, and ROTS has its flaws but is great. ANH was pretty intense and amazing to me as a kid. Not to mention scary because Vader's look was frightening, and Tarkin obliterated an entire planet. I enjoyed the introduction to Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and the droids in the film.

I pretty much agree with everything I wrote there still to this day. However, I've come to see how Luke's plan for everyone to infiltrate Jabba's palace before he enters in ROTJ is ridiculous. I was paying attention to the film visually and I didn't think about it until I read some opinions on here. I'm willing to forgive it because I like the performances and the look of the film. Plus, I like how bada** Luke and Leia are in the sequence, with Luke defeating Jabba's thugs and Leia killing Jabba with her strength and the Force. And Han is amusing. The relationship between Luke and Vader is the best part of ROTJ and it alone makes it a great film. I have put forth my analysis of Vader in several threads on here. He's a cross between a tragic Shakespearean character, a Byronic antihero, and a traumatized individual. There's a lot going on in his head during ROTJ especially. Some people love Ahsoka Tano and some people hate her, and I'm in the former camp. I believe that whatever happened to her affected Vader's perception of Luke, since she is meant to foreshadow Luke in some ways, and that may have been one of the many reasons he was thinking the way he did in ROTJ.

 

1. ESB
2. ANH
3. AOTC
4. ROTJ
5. TPM
6. ROTS

 

The Phantom Menace finally passes the 1000 points threshold! (full results here)

Rank. Title - Total Points
1. Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - 2109
2. Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - 1793
3. Episode IV - A New Hope - 1755
4. Episode VI - Return of the Jedi - 1668
5. Episode II - Attack of the Clones - 1040
6. Episode I - The Phantom Menace - 1001

 

What happens to this thread after TFA comes out? Just curious.