Saga Favorite Star Wars film and Why (Revised)

This thread continues off from the original created by @Darkslayer and has been mod-approved to reopen. Feel free to discuss which Star Wars film is your favorite and why to your heart's content!

Remember to focus the discussion on why the particular film you chose is your favorite rather than why it's inherently better than the others. I decided to have this thread focus specifically on the Saga films, however I'll edit the poll if there is enough demand.

 

The Empire Strikes Back is not just my favorite SW movie of all time, but also one of my favorite movies of all time. This movie represents the best of Star Wars, containing the best soundtrack, lightsaber duel, humor, romance, and plot twist within the entire series. From start to finish TESB is near perfect and a joy to watch.

 

The Last Jedi. It is a film that deeply resonates with me.

 

Recently, ROTJ has climbed up there. I love the childish, innocent charm mixed with the climactic weight of the Luke vs. Vader conflict. ROTJ faces stiff competition from ANH though, which is at the top for similar reasons.
I’ll have to choose ANH since it’s been more consistently in my top three.

 

A New Hope. The Empire Strikes Back might be the best film in the series, but A New Hope is the greatest. It's a warm blanket of a movie for me, something that feels comfortable to envelop myself in for two hours. It's a good story perfectly told, with all the information we need elegantly relayed to the audience, and all the information we don't need left dangling as tantalizing threads that we can't help but want to pull. It's exceptionally paced, tonally pitch-perfect, and structured as a series of building complications our heroes have to find ways to overcome until Han returns at the end as a narratively-earned deus ex machina. The film grips you from the opening shot, which is one of the best in film history, until the catharsis of the celebratory finale.

The whole thing is an act of alchemy; the simple story, archetypal characters, universal themes, elegant score, effects that still look incredible despite mostly being held together with scotch tape, and a world left mostly to the imagination, all come together to create a transcendent classic that is so much more than the sum of its parts. It's pure movie magic.

 

Appreciate the shout-out. Personally I think Siege of Mandalore should be a choice though

 

ROTS

The movie that solidified my SW fandom. The action is incredible, the movie's transition from the Clone Wars to the Imperial era is fascinating, the complexity of the characters and their allegiances is exciting, and the operatic scope of the movie is ambitious.

The planets are gorgeous, from the sunsets on Coruscant, to the colors of Felucia, to the hellish landscape of Mustafar. Hayden Christensen finds a great balance between heroic/sympathetic and brooding/conflicted, Ewan McGregor's "You Were The Chosen One" speech is some of Obi-Wan's most deep moments as a character, the Padme's Ruminations scene is beautiful, and the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan is both heartwrenching and insanely entertaining.

 

Every time I watch through the saga, The Force Awakens sets itself even further apart as not only my favorite Star Wars movie, but my favorite movie, period. There are so many things about this film that I love - characters, performances, focusing more on the 'mental' aspects of the Force after the acrobatics of the prequels, the Starkiller base lightsaber duel - but whenever I watch it, I'm just so glad it exists and that Star Wars was taken in this direction.

I was nine years old when The Phantom Menace came out. My dad had taken me to see the Star Wars OT Special Editions two years earlier, so I was already all-in. Once TPM was released to home video, I watched the Duel of the Fates at least 200 times, rewinding over and over to learn the lightsaber choreography. Now flash forward to 2015. I and five friends got tickets for the 7:30 PM Thursday (first with tickets still available, they went fast) premiere of The Force Awakens. I got to the theater around 3:15 PM to get us a good spot in line. There were a ton of people there with folding chairs and food and games. A few members of the 501st showed up in full armor. The anticipation was off-the-charts. I didn't really know what to expect going in.

Five minutes into the movie, I was blown away. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried and cheered (as did the whole theater) when Rey flipped the Falcon, let Finn take down the TIE, and blasted away from Jakku. The return of Han Solo and Chewbacca. Anakin's lightsaber. Rey and Kylo Ren penetrating each others' minds and discovering their connection. And Rey winning that battle. Han facing Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren fighting Rey and Finn. Rey pulling Anakin's saber past Kylo Ren leading to my absolute favorite saber duel of the series. Rey finally meeting Leia. And Rey and Chewbacca taking the Falcon to Ahch-To to find Luke.

When the movie ended, I knew it was my favorite Star Wars film. It does't hurt that the entire day was by far the best movie-going experience of my life. The Last Jedi has flirted with the top spot from time-to-time, but The Force Awakens is the one I keep coming back to above all others.

 

Why no Caravan of Courage?

 

Get out of my head, AF83!

I'd also add that the Battle of Endor is the greatest space battle ever filmed. And R1's Battle of Scarif is a close second.

 

I cast my vote for Revenge of the Sith. Not only is it my favorite Star Wars movie of all-time, it's my favorite movie of all-time, and it's been that way for 15 years now. There are so many great fight scenes, so many amazing character moments, and so much great scenery and world-building, along with an absolutely tragic and amazing story, that my choice really couldn't be anything else (Attack of the Clones comes closest).

The opening crawl sets the mood perfectly with just a single word: "WAR!" This is the first Star Wars movie to use an exclamation point to start the crawl, and that more than anything sold me on first viewing that this film was going to be different and mind-blowing. And then it features the most breathtaking opening sequence of the entire saga:





It has the best and most emotional lightsaber duels with incredibly high stakes



Here we see the final test for Anakin to be ripe to Sidious's schemes, and simultaneously the death of the Sith Lord who had led the CIS for 3 years and embroiled the galaxy in war.

Not to be outdone, we go to Utapau:




If Obi-Wan wins, the war is over. But wait! Sidious's schemes don't even need the war anymore. The story progresses 2 or 3 steps at a time, not one - another strength of the ambition of ROTS.



Mace and Sidious play against each other - at this point, the tension is palpable, as even the Jedi Council are wondering when the second Sith will make his play with the death of Dooku.

And let's not forget the masterful acting from Ian McDiarmid and the rest of the cast. The way he delivers his plea to Anakin to join him is absolute genius by really making him appear not that unreasonable at all and even friendly. "You have great wisdom, Anakin. Know the power of the dark side...the power to save Padme."



And then McDiarmid performs a rapid 180 in the next scene, which is the climax of the entire Clone Wars time period. Ian, SLJ, and Hayden all needed to be on top form, and they 100% nailed every aspect of the scene. Palpatine is first a cornered snake, Mace a walking paragon of justice and the light side, and Anakin the fulcrum upon which everything leans.



And then the moment happens: Anakin turns in heartbreaking fashion and the galaxy is remade forever in the most heartbreaking scene of any film I've seen:



And then we get the emotional and political climaxes of the Prequel Trilogy and an entire TV show, and they could not have been done any better:





And now with the Siege of Mandalore, ROTS has gone from pretty much untouchable to completely untouchable. It also has the benefit of being the only Star Wars movie I saw in theaters as a kid. Amazingly, it still hasn't lost that "new movie" feel. The film means so much to me on so many levels. Thank you George Lucas!

 

Revenge of the Sith

I love the first half's slow build up to Anakin's fall, the looming sense of dread, Palpatine's manipulations and the scenes with Obi-Wan and Anakin that really show their friendship which make the ending even more tragic.

The second half has arguably the most impactful and emotional scenes in the saga and two fantastic Lightsaber duels, with Yoda vs Sidious being my personal favourite of the series and all set to an incredible soundtrack by John Williams.

Also despite all the terrible things that happen in the film and the bad guys winning, the final scene still manages to end on a positive note with Luke being given to the Larses with Binary Sunset playing. The sun may have set on the Republic, but in Luke a new hope will rise and restore peace to the galaxy once again.

 

I know exactly what you mean. The movie is almost 15 years old, and it still feels like a "modern" movie. The scope and atmosphere is incredible for 2005.

 

The Empire Strikes Back

What can I say, it's my favorite film of all time and nearly perfect in every way. Can't really add to much else as everyone knows by now why this film is so great and already others have mentioned the films many virtues in this thread alone.

 

AOTC.
Beautiful mix of genres from noir to classical romance to war to political thriller. It is the most consistent film in saga (least bad parts or uninteresting storylines). It contains arguably the best sequence in all of Star Wars - Anakin's return to Tatooine in search of his mother. I think ROTS arguably has higher highs than AOTC but the consistency and rewatchability of AOTC wins out for me.

 

Well, even the sense of newness, you know, like when you see a big Marvel movie or Star Wars or whatever for the first time - that usually goes away.

Not with Revenge of the Sith. I think it's because I've never spam-watched it like I do with most movies I really like. Or maybe because it was the first Star Wars movie I saw in theaters. Or both? Or none? I don't know, but it's a really cool feeling.

 

Yeah, I get what you guys say- when I saw ROTS again recently I remembered how it felt to have seen it back when I was 11 in 2005- there is this "bigness" to the movie, for lack of a better word, that I've never felt in any other film since. There's something surreal about the last 10-15 minutes of it, where Vader gets built, Padme gives her life for the twins, and the twins are given to their respective families that I don't think any other movie will ever beat.

 

TLJ (probably) forever and always.

 

As much as my appreciation for TPM has been roaring back lately I think I have to stick with the entry that's been my favorite since that first viewing: Attack of the Clones. Simply put it does a beautiful job of conveying my preferred SW tone, a perfect combination of the epic and the intimate. The large scale action and scope are fantastic, but the film never abandons a quiet, contemplative core that's more "real" to me than any other professed formula for SW greatness.

 

The original Star Wars from 1977! Because it’s the movie that changed everything!

 

TPM - because it's 136 minutes of uninhibited joy.
I don't like everything about it, but it's definitely the strongest one in my book.