Will Episode III be the best SW movie? Yes or No?

Question - people who prefer AOTC to ANH or ESB - are you over 20 years of age? How can one honestly think that it's a better film? Or am I missing the fanboy gene and don't know that movies like this are evaluated solely on whether they contain "kick-ass effects?"

I'm 36, I saw StarWArs at the age of 10, ESB at 13 and ROTJ at 16 so I grew up on StarWars.

I didn't come in on it as something that was ALREADY a phenomenon, I saw it grow into a worldwide phenomenon from DAY ONE.

And I think AOTC is better than ANH and ROTJ and just barely less than TESB.

Yes, AOTC had flaws, but so did ANH, if you think that it don't then you're watching with blinders on and just waxing poetically about something you REMEMBERING in the past with fondness.

I'm far from a "fanboy" and look at these movies objectively and constructively and in my opinion AOTC is the second best in the series.

BY the way, it was StarWars that created the genre of "kickA$$ effects".

 

I apologize. I never meant to disparage your list, BothOfUs. I've just never seen anything like it. Usually you find all of one sort on top, and all of another on the bottom, with maybe a switch in the middle. Yours is unique. I applaud you for that.

>>>Yes, AOTC had flaws, but so did ANH, if you think that it don't then you're watching with blinders on and just waxing poetically about something you REMEMBERING in the past with fondness. <<<

Funny, I don't need to remember A New Hope having a tight, economical, logical, professional structure that Clones sorely lacks. It's still there when I watch ANH now. And still missing when I watch Clones. No "remembering" about it. Still evident. Whatever faults they both share are niggling. This one is not, in my opinion.

 

I think this movie has the potenial to be the best. It's got everything in it that most fans want. It's the missing link, setting up the OT. There's too much good stuff for it not to turn out a great, SW movie. However, it's compeating with ESB in my book, and that's a REALLY tough act to beat. If it turns out better then Empire though, man I'll be crappin' bricks. Bricks of JOY!

 

ESB is the best

 

No

The original three are still better stories in my opinion

 

Of course it will be, I hope.

 

If it ISN'T the best movie of the series, I will condiser the PT a MASSIVE waste of potential, and a waste of time.

 

Like any movie it all comes down to execution, Ep3 could be worse then AOTC or as good as ESB the way I see it.

My gut says it will probably be on par with ROTJ, to give you an idea of where that fits for me I see the movies as follows:

ANH: 9.5 (perfect except the acting is pretty ham)
ESB: 10 (perfect)
ROTJ: 8.5 (problematic in certain areas but still exceptionally good)
TPM: 7.5-8 (visually incredible, but the story could be a lot tighter, but still really good)
AOTC: 4 (needed a lot more script work and a much tighter edit, has a lot of potential but rarely meets it)

 

who cares really at this point... all 5 of these movies have been on par with each other as far as im concerned. by now you're into this s%$# or your not. empire has a magic to it, no doubt, but its not THAT much better then the others really. oh wait, now you're just supposed to say that though....

ROTJ still my fav by far, ewoks and all

 

the only thing that gets me threw these spoiler free days is hoping that episode 3 will be as good or not better than esb. I have concerns like the fact that the script for 3 wasnt in its final draft when shooting began like aotc. this could hurt the movie. i gain confidence when i hear that lucas is spending more time with the actors and trying to get good performances. look i can watch esb everyday because its so good. this movie has so much potential but all i can do is hope. People who hate aotc need to chill though. that movie was way better than tmp. tpm had the weakest story and acting of the prequels period. someone wrote that aotc had some of the mst powerful moments in the saga and that's true. every single scene on tatooine gave me chills it was so good. if the whole mivie could have been like those scenes we could have had a great picture. the reasons those scenes were so good ws prbably because of their enviorenment being real. ok im rambling and i got to go to work ,.... peace out fellas

 

in 77, we all walked outta the theater saying, wow, the story and acting were unbelievable.....yeah

its so funny now....

these movies are kickass special effect movies with cool villians, spaceships and intergalactic war.

what people now judge the prequels and even the OT by is so far gone from why they were loved in the first place its ludicrous.

how people complan about the story is amazing to me. the delivery sometimes, but noone really used to care... the good stuff was just so good....

 

"empire has a magic to it, no doubt, but its not THAT much better then the others really"

Well here's what I've come to realize recently. I think if ESB had not been as outstanding as it is, SW would not still be around.

If you think about it, ESB could of just been another sequel. The empire builds another super weapon, Luke and the gang have to blow it up, Vader confronts them again, Luke tries to win Leia's affections, etc.

A sequel to ANH.

But it isn't. It something that I think saved SW from going the route of JAWS (to name but one of many great films that spawned countless bad sequels) it didn't just reguritate the past film, it expanded it ten fold and went in bold new directions and unexpected turns, risky, but it payed off.

It kept the characters we loved consistent, but fleshed them all out and changed them over the course of the story (which should be the basis for all stories)

but most importantly it made SW about something. ANH is great, its a really fun movie, but its pretty shallow when you get down to it. ESB gave us a lot more to chew on, with Yoda's phoilosphizing, Luke wrong at every turn, and most importantly: "I am your father"

To me that one line is what has given SW its longevity. Even if ESB had been a decent sequel in the way I described, is there really any chance ROTJ would be any good with just more good guys vs badguys?

Is there any likely hood we would have a prequel trilogy if Vader was not Luke's father?

I think not.

Unfortunately every SW film since ESB has basically just recycled concepts from ANH (and to a lesser extent ESB) both ROTJ and TPM definitely feel like sorta-remakes of ANH and a good half of the scenes in AOTC were homaged from other SW films.

ESB has become the except instead of the rule, it lacks a lot of the standard SW staples and flies in the face of a lot of the saga's conventions, yet all the same many of us like it most. Hard to explain but true.

And thats why I don't think Ep3 or any of the others will ever beat it, because it actually transcends its own series and rises above SW, in a way like GL remarked upon its completion, "its too good".

I will say this about Ep3 though, it probably won't be the best of the 6 (at least IMHO, it would be great to be wrong) but I do think Ep3 will be the "ultimate" SW movie.

What I mean is, it will have the biggest fights, the most SFX, and it will have things like the Chewbacca cameo, Yoda vs the emperor, the most new worlds, Mace's death, grievous, the big space battle, etc.

I mean we're talking about a movie that has a scene where Jar jar, Anakin, Obi-wan, Yoda, R2, Mace, Padme, Mon Motha, Bail, Mas Ammedda, Palpatine, red guards, C3P0 and many others are all on screen at the same time. No other SW film boast that kind of get together of recognizable characters. Stuff like that will make it the ultimate SW film, but it takes more then that to be "the best" IMHO, though for others thats exactly what it takes.


The last thing to keep in mind is this:

While many of the things we've always wanted to see; the obi-wan vs Anakin duel (despite the fact there is nothing in the OT to suggest this ever happened), the birth of the twins, the emperor taking over, the jedi purge, death of Padme, the hiding of Yoda and Ben, the birht of Vader, etc

many of these things will only be powerful to us because we know how they tie into the OT and we've been waiting so long to see them. Anakin's transformation will be a bonechilling moment to be sure, but much of the impact will come from growing up with Darth Vader.

So even some of the great moments of Ep3 have to owe a lot of credit to ESB and the other two classic films.

does that make any sense?

 

well, hell RS, well said... haha, im trying to think of justfying my argument that all 5 are pretty much even but you make very good points about why esb is so killer, because of its place in the saga and the fact that it dared to go completely off course with ANH, and as a result, was one of the first sequels ever to accomplish that....that to me is its greatness more then its so much better then the others...

i wont argue that, i guess im an old fashioned fan if you will, and i feel like im not nearly as critical or demanding as most on these boards.... people constantly complain, demand etc etc from the story, the story... the whole saga, the story, from the very beginning (anh) has been so fantastic, i just dont understand the complaints.... people forget the initial magic when it was new....just seeng an xwing straffe across the surface of a moon sized battlestation is awesome to me.. ill forgive the ewoks and some of jarjars silliness.....

and i know that ep3, if not the best, will definitely be up there for me....

but well said Rebel S

 

thank you senator.

"just seeng an xwing straffe across the surface of a moon sized battlestation is awesome to me.. ill forgive the ewoks and some of jarjars silliness"

I completely agree. While I'm not big on AOTC I do like TPM and even with AOTC I accept it in my own way. Ep3 is going to be fun, no matter what its going to be the last time we get to go see a new SW.

And I agree, ANH will always be the most special in a way, because it got the ball rolling and as was said it is in many ways a perfect movie because it tells a simple story in such a great way.


"in 77, we all walked outta the theater saying, wow, the story and acting were unbelievable.....yeah

its so funny now...."

In 1977 I wasn't even born yet

"these movies are kickass special effect movies with cool villians, spaceships and intergalactic war."

Actually "kick ass" and "cool" were two terms I would never have used to describe SW until AOTC.

"what people now judge the prequels and even the OT by is so far gone from why they were loved in the first place its ludicrous.

how people complan about the story is amazing to me. the delivery sometimes, but noone really used to care... the good stuff was just so good...."

Just because the SFX wowed us, doesn't mean there wasn't good stuff underneath all that, otherwise we would stop caring about these movies as we got older.

Other then SW and IJ all the movies and TV shows I loved as a kid all seem like crap now. Real timeless films are made for all ages. I rewatched the lion king the other day for the first time in years. I actually liked it better then I did when I was a kid. Why?? Because I can see that there is real solid storytelling and filmmaking at work, it has nothing to do with childhood memories, I didn't even really like that movie when it first came out.

Quality is quality, it doesn't change with time.

 

So are any of the naysayers on this thread actually planning to go see the film when it comes out?

 

dont get me wrong im not saying theres nothing underneath the effects, of course not, but alot of the enjoyement of starwars does come from the simple pleasure of seeing starships battling, etc..... i just think sometimes people need to ligten up a bit and just enjoy. thats all im sayin...

i may say it like kickass or "cool" but thats just me, i just mean "really good!" whatever your terminology is

and i was around in 77 (albeit very young, but i do remember) and yeah, people have changed quite a bit in their expectations....

again, i agree with what your saying here RS, ill just always hammer away at my belief that the success of these kinds of movies really depends on the eyes you choose to watch them with.

yeah mark hamil was whiney and the dialogue was campy but people seemed not to care quite as much "back in the day". well, i was a litle kid though so probably not as aware of what the older folks were sayin...

 

well my post wasn't directed specifically at you S_O so I don't want you to take it personally, it was just some stuff I'd been thinking about lately. I respect your opinion and I think your completely right.

A lot of people expect the wrong things out of SW.When people say they want the PT to be like LOTR I have trouble with that, even though I like LOTR.

On one had some just mean they want the quality they see in LOTR that they feel is missing in the PT. Granted, I have to agree with that.

However, I don't want the PT to be like LOTR in that it has the same style and what not. I want the PT to be like SW. I don't want PJ to direct SW, I want GL to, its just at times I want him to do it better, or different. But thats not my call.

I agree with what you said though and that is the magic that made us all love SW to begin with.

 

"So are any of the naysayers on this thread actually planning to go see the film when it comes out? "

Of course they will. But probably only 8 times.

For what its worth, I don't think that episode 3 will be the best. Thats ANH. That will always be ANH IMHO. And TESB is 98% of ANH. I think that Episode 3 will (hopefully) be better than Jedi, TPM and Clones.

But then I love all 5 filmss. And i reckon I'll love the final film, regardless of rank.

 

I really can't see any PT movie beating ESB or ANH for that matter. Just my op, but Episode III will have to be groundbreaking, beyond the Star Wars, and even the Sci-Fi/Fantasy film franchise.

Episode III, in order to be the best SW film, will have to be one of the greatest movies to come out in like five years or more. And honestly, in order for that to happen, it really would've taken the previous two movies to be that damn good in order to make it shine.

So... no.

 

I don't think any of the PT movies, including Episode III, could ever be compared with the original trilogy films. Personally, I love them all, but where the prequels and originals differ is the amount of time the PT gives to the political arena. This is the difference between the two trilogies.

But to answer the question, Episode III will be far from the best StarWars movie.

 

I think it will be the best SW film. Unfortunately the masses probably won't hail Episode III as the best SW film until long after it has been released and people are able to watch all of the SW films sequentially.

The Cloner

 

wow, more than double the votes are going to "YES".

 

"I think it will be the best SW film. Unfortunately the masses probably won't hail Episode III as the best SW film until long after it has been released and people are able to watch all of the SW films sequentially."

But then wouldn't they think ROTJ is best?

 

Maybe but so far ESB is the best flim in my book still.
We will have to just wait and see wont we.