Saga Rate the Star Wars films, TPM to TFA

I do it all the time...

its usually

Prequels

...

OT




The ST will probaly (if they do it right) be after prequels!

 

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

 

I hesitate to do this ranking while the movie is so fresh, as I imagine this list will change once I've got some more time, but since I've seen TFA 6 times already, I think I've seen it enough to throw it in the stack for now.

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

*ANH and TFA are jockeying for the #2 spot, but I'm gonna give the edge to TFA at the moment.

 

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

 

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

I've been visiting this site for a while now and finally decided to post some of my own thoughts. If anyone's interested I included my reasoning in the spoiler to avoid a wall of text.

Spoiler

1. TESB – The perfect sequel. Expanded the characters and the Star Wars galaxy. Featured my favorite lightsaber duel. Filled to the brim with everything that makes Star Wars so great – the action, adventure, humor, romance, darkness... it all fits together so well. The scenes on Dagobah are perhaps some of my favorite in the entire saga.

2. ANH – The one that started it all. A wonderful classic that harkens back to the old action serials that Star Wars was inspired by. This movie has a simple charm to it, cheesiness and all.

3. TFA – A very strong entry that is held back by lack of originality and reliance on nostalgia. However where this movie really shines and what sets it so high on my list is the characters. This movie introduced and incredible new cast that I found instantly lovable, while respecting the older generation. Despite my lack of interest in the First Order's unoriginal super weapon and a few other nitpicks, the movie feels like a great set up for the future of the trilogy and I expect episodes 8 and 9 to be even better. I also think this movie might be the funniest Star Wars movie yet.

4. Weaker than its predecessors, this movie does a lot of things very well but falls flat in a few areas. I loved the opening at Jabba's palace, the epic battle over Endor, and the final confrontation between Luke and Vader. Vader's dying scene still feels like one of the most emotional in the saga for me. However some things that bug me include the ewoks, Boba's anticlimactic death, the reveal that Leia is Luke's sister, and the general weakness of the cast compared to the previous two installments which I could go into detail on but I won't for the sake of brevity. Despite the issues, I still love this movie and in fact it was my favorite as a child.

5. ROTS – The most overrated movie in the saga from my point of view. This installment certainly has great moments in it such as the opening battle over Coruscant and the haunting execution of the jedi. However for everything this movie does right, there seem to be a number of things that hold it back from greatness. The screen time feels split between over the top, cgi filled action sequences and boring, lazily filmed dialogue scenes. However the main reason I don't put this film higher on my list is that it failed in its to convince me with Anakin's fall. The fall of Anakin felt rushed and awkward and ended up making the characters seem dumb rather than feeling like the tragic fall of a beloved hero. I will say that this was Palpatine's best movie and really gave him a chance to shine as the evil mastermind that he is.

6. AOTC – This movie simply didn't do a good job of making me care about the characters. Anakin and Obi-Wan don't seem to have much of a bond, the romance with Padme was unconvincing and contrived, and Count Dooku never really held my interest despite having a past that could have had potential had it been explored more. I will say that this movie is where Ewan Mcgregor really came into his own as Obi-Wan after not having much to do in the first installment. As well I found Jango Fett to be pretty cool, especially enjoying his brief fight with Obi-Wan. In fact I personally find Jango to be cooler than the extremely overrated Boba.

7. TPM- Though I find Jar Jar to be stupid, he wasn't my least favorite thing about the movie, nor was it the lame plot. For me this movie lacked any characters I could really care about. While Quigon was perhaps the most likable of the bunch, compared to the block of wood that was Padme or the lame, underwhelming usage of Obi-Wan, it doesn't take much to stand out. Darth Maul also feels overrated. Sure he looks awesome, but he has zero substance to make him an interesting villain. For me at least, if I don't care about the characters I can't get involved in the story. Despite pretty visuals this movie feels like the flattest of the saga and just doesn't have much to offer.

 

1. ANH - This is the one I can pop in if I just want to scratch my Star Wars itch. Not only is it the one that started it all, but I feel it's a nice, self-contained story.

2. TESB - While arguably the greatest sequel ever, it's a sequel. That's not a bad thing, but I feel like I need to know a little too much going in to just pop it in one evening, and though not a traditional cliffhanger per se, I still need ROTJ to finish out the story.

3. TFA/ROTJ -TFA was a good start to a new saga, but I I have to admit it had a few flaws. Nothing that diminished my overall enjoyment, but little, mostly (admittedly) nitpicky things. ROTJ was a great conclusion to the original trilogy.

........

4. ROTS - I don't hate this one. The positives you've probably heard before, so I won't go into it. The negatives you've heard...but I can still watch it.



........


5. ATOC - It's sad when I care more about the sub-plot that doesn't get resolved properly than I do the main plot or characters involved, but there you go. I know Dexter Jettster and his diner get a lot of negative reactions, and I won't lie that the first time I saw him my reaction was along the lines of "You've got to be kidding me", but I genuinely like the character! I also like that it showed a taste of the fact that Obi-Wan had friends and something of a life outside of the Jedi Temple.



..............

(to put it in a proper context, I'll place The Holiday Special, Caravan of Courage, and Battle for Endor here)


................



9. TPM - I just don't care. There's some decent stuff in it, like a couple of good scenes, and a few interesting set pieces (despite it mostly being CGI), but not enough to warrant my sitting through a viewing when I can just look those clips up online. I could go in-depth, but some you've heard, and some it would just take longer than I want to spend (or as of when I'm writing this have the time for) going into it.

This is, of course, merely a matter of personal preference and opinion

 

There are single shots in TFA tht have more depth then the entirety of PM.

 

That's a solid top-3...

 

From your perspective.

 

Thanks for that amazing insight! You totally just blew my mind! I had no idea I was speaking from my perspective!

 

Glad to make someone's day ...

 

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

 

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

Edited to add: I am pretty solid on all of these except TPM and TFA. I put TPM over it because I love, love, love the OWK/QGJ vs. DM fight and think it's one of the best (if not the best) of the saga. I do think TFA is better as an overall movie, but the unoriginality and the lack of a compelling villain or lightsaber duel (I am kinda on the Mary Sue bandwagon regarding Rey's abilities) hurts it from my perspective.

 

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

 

There are single pixels in the PT that have more depth than the entirety of TFA!!!!!

Also, you have positive things to say about some of the PT films in your rankings. In fact you have ROTS ranked ahead of ROTJ and just below TFA, but TFA has incredibly more depth than the film you have ranked just below it and above ROTJ? I'm not exactly sure I'm following your line of thought.

 

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

 

I was wondering why you sounded so salty towards TFA and then I saw you supported Donald Trump and disregarded everything you said.

 

Since when does RotS=PM? I would also say RotS has single shots with more substance than the whole of PM. PM is a terrible film: a film that basically has an ethos targeting a 7 year old but a script targeting poli sci majors. RotS and RotJ are both films with elements tbat I absolutely love as well as flaws that irritate the hell out of me. Honestly, the original edition of RotJ is probably slighty better than RotS, but I haven't been able to see it since the 90s. Furthermore, RotJ was always the episode that had elements that irritated me growing up. I was already in college with RotS came out. So, RotJ will always have a slighly greater burden on it than RotS will.

 

Oh, sorry! I must have been sleepy. I thought you had typed PT. In fact, I had read it more than once, and each time I thought you were referring the PT. I must have been real sleepy!

I would agree that there are big problems with its execution, but I think TPM does have substance/depth. For instance, it's interesting that the heroes "win" yet their win only helps Sidious achieve his goals at the end. Actually the celebration theme at the end of TPM is an inversion of Emperor's theme from ROTJ -- so the hollowness of the victory is even represented in the music. There's some depth there, I think, just big issues with execution and tonal consistency, at times.

 

Hard to rank. 1-6 seem like one big movie, and TFA seems like an inferior reboot.

 

Bit harsh , but ...

 

Here we go again...

1. The Film Formerly Known as Star Wars
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of The Jedi
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. The Force Awakens
6. The Phantom Menace
7. Attack of The Clones

Ask me again once the ST is done and dusted.

 

After further processing of TFA...