Saga Favorite Star Wars film and Why (Revised)

Empire is my favorite.

There is a weight or gravity to the movie that is lacking in other installments. That weight is perfectly balanced throughout the movie. The highs never get too high. The lows, even the lowest of the low, never get too low. The gravity of the situation surrounding the plight of the Rebellion, and the domination of the Empire is not lost in any scene. It's never glossed over whether with goofy dialog or needless special effects. Every line of dialog matters. Every line sets up the events of the movie, and there are no throw away lines. Even the witty quips and one-liners serve a purpose. Then of course, you have the reveal. A scene so powerful, the weight of it just sinks to the bottom of your gut. As if the circumstances Luke had found himself in weren't dire enough, he's a crushing reveal about the vile and evil lineage of your family. And even through the desperation and despair, and the sullen outlook of the Rebellion, it still leaves you with a bit of hope. Leia and Chewie escape to be able to save Han. Luke stands for what he believes is right and "sacrifices" himself instead of turning evil, and is rescued. And despite the bleakness, the Rebellion lives to fight another day.

 

I can't decide between Episode I, III, or IV.
I ended up choosing III, but if it's ok, I'll name of reasons why for all.

Episode I: The only sample, so far, of what the Old Republic was like before war.
The Jedi were even basically reduced to, in the words of Detective Blake, from The Dark Knight Rises, "chasing down over due library books".
Darth Sidious was perfectly mysterious in this one. And Liam Neeson made my favorite Jedi in just one movie.
The merchandising was something I'll never forget.

Episode III: Hayden, Ewan and Ian, delivered great perfomances that gripped me.
The visuals and worlds were top notch. Esp the opera house.
The final battle was everything I envisioned it would be when I had only the OT.

Episode IV: I can watch this from start to finish no problem.
Also it has my favorite planet and charecters. Jawas, Death Star Gunners, TIE Fighter Pilots, and Tatooine. Can't go wrong there .

 

Star Wars a.k.a A New Hope

As a self-contained 1977 film, it's simultaneously incredibly unqiue and bizarre yet timeless and accessible. The visual aesthetic, tone, pacing, editing, performances, are all perfect. Most of the effects shots still hold up. I've probably seen it over a hundred times and I still get drawn into it.

 

A New Hope

It is just the perfect space adventure film. The chemistry with the characters is great, and I always cheer when the Millennium Falcon shows up at the end.

 

I love all the Lucas films, but my favorite is TPM. I became a Star Wars fan during the early/mid 90's when the EU was taking off, and one of the big unknowns of the story was how did the Jedi Order and Republic transition to the Empire we see in ANH. We'd seen ancient portrayals like in Tales of the Jedi, but the stories of Anakin and Palpatine were still mysteries. I picked up the TPM novelization of TPM before the film came out (they still did that back then) and was immediately blown away by Lucas' answer, a dark conspiracy leading to an authoritarian coup de tat. It made perfect sense, Palpatine was not a great warrior or adventurer like Napoleon or Alexander the Great but a politician, always one step ahead of his enemies. Civilizations don't need to be conquered to fall apart, institutional decay does that on its own.

The film was visually stunning, the colors, characters, landscapes, aliens, all of it felt new. And the interconnected complexity of the institutions from the Jedi, to the Senate, to Naboo, to the Gungans all fits together nicely. In spite of its childish levity, it felt like a more sophisticated story than the OT, and still does imo.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I feel like complaints about any of the movies are subjective in nature, even my own complaints. I had to pick one though, I picked Return of the Jedi as my favorite. At least from a film perspective, with a budget very close to ESB it did well in tying up the main plots in a way where any loopholes would leave room for our imaginations. They did a lot with slightly less of a budget than its predecessor did.

 

Episode III (Revenge of the Sith)

First feature film I saw (that was Star Wars) in the theatre; to me it’s a masterpiece and a love letter from George Lucas to the fans and his lifelong work.

The choreography between Hayden and Ewan throughout the film was evident, the acting especially during the final act of the film showed how powerful a moment and betrayal Anakin Skywalker turn was it was masterful. From the opening Battle over Coruscant to the death and birth of the Skywalker Twins. The film filled in a lot of blanks and allowed for so much more of the medium to be explored. (We got Clones Wars series/film and Rogue One that have only expanded on this)

I have nothing but love for this film.

 

Empire, its really no choice. I love the Battle of Hoth/The Asteroid chase to meeting Yoda to the duel on Bespin and the revelation. Its a perfect movie

 

there used to be s thread where the films were rated and their scores added up together... can someone re do that again please? i quite liked the pie charts too.. think this gives a better indication on people's views which is the best film

 

Completely agree.

 

The 1977 Star Wars film is my favorite. It is magic and joy.

 

Revenge of the Sith. I love the prequel trilogy as a whole, but the final chapter really is the best part of it. I have always loved stories that end in tragedy.

Second best is The Last Jedi. It was exactly the kind of Star Wars movie that I wanted to see: mature, deep, more focused on the new main characters, etc.

 

The Empire Strikes Back

Space opera

 

For a long time, ROTS had been tied with ANH as my favorite. Episode IV is, of course, a movie classic with a lot of nostalgia attached to it. It's a fun - but still serious - coming of age story with still the best plot in the saga (probably because it was meant to be self-contained). IIt's also kind of tongue-in-cheek at times, especially during the swashbuckling sequences - a tone that wasn't quite possible to return to after TESB. ROTS is like an epic anti-blockbuster, the closes we have to the greek tragic myths on screen and maybe the only movie where Lucas full unleash his imagination on screen. As much as I adore Star Wars 1977 the trope of farmboy of destiny and good underdogs winning against all odds has become a bit of a cliche since then (especially in the fantasy genre) while the fall from grace is extremely rare (at least on the big screen). ROTS (and the prequel trilogy as a whole) has more depth and more grey areas to think about (not a knock on the OT, they came first, after all). So, ROTS wins but a very slight margin.

 

For me, this. Emphasis mine.

 

I love all GL's movies because its a story that he wanted to tell. The saga(1-6) will always have a special place in my heart. But in choosing my favorite star wars movie, it would have to be ROTS because we get to see Anakin slowly turning towards the dark side. He was a good-hearted little boy from Tatooine who cares for others and turned to a power-hungry tyrant. Anakin only wanted to turn to the dark side to gain the power to save his wife from certain death. But gaining that power cost the lives of his friends around, his beloved wife Padme, and his arms and legs. What was left of him made him turn to this machine called Darth Vader where he only fueled with hatred and suffering. All of these themes were portrayed perfectly and all the actors involved in this movie did an amazing job of portraying their characters. Towards the end of the movie you have to be thinking to yourself, "Who's going to save Anakin?" And if you watched OT you already know how the story goes. Which makes this episode even more special to me because, it connects the PT and the OT perfectly. Years ago, I watched this movie with my dad in theater and remember crying because of how things turned out with Anakin and how the movie ends with evil triumphing over good. But even though evil rules the galaxy there is always a light of hope. Which is the message that GL wants to bring to kids.

 

ROTS, it does the best job of making the galaxy feel like one cohesive universe. Seeing the Republic fall and the beginning of the Jedi Purge is a very emotional story for me, and the lightsaber duels are the most epic in the saga. Then we end where it all begins, Luke on Tatooine with Owen and Beru, Leia on Alderaan and all the pieces or in place for the OT to happen as it did.

 

ESB

The film that, IMO, turned Star Wars from a simple but effective pulpy adventure into a truly mythical saga. Proof positive that "kid" friendly Star Wars can tell adult and complex stories.

 

Easily Empire Strikes Back for me. Not only was it the best Star Wars movie, it might be the best sequel of all time.

A great sequel will not just rehash the story of the first movie but will expand on it. Terminator 2 and Aliens are other examples of great sequels that use this concept.

Think of how Empire Strikes Back expands on the Star Wars universe after A New Hope:

• A major battle right at the beginning of the movie. This obviously didn't happen in ANH.
• New planets / worlds (Hoth, Degobah, Bespin)
  
• The force concept of telepathy. That wasn't really used at all in ANH I guess besides Vader choking someone.
  
• Yoda, a bigger force user / wizard than Obi-Wan.
• Vader goes to a new level in ESB. He's kind of a 2nd in command henchman in ANH but in ESB he is an intimidating monster.
• Introduction of Palpatine
  
• The characters were kind of Flash Gordon / popcorn movie in ANH but in ESB there is real character depth introduced. We see the characters go through major trials and tribulations.
• Lando's betrayal and subsequent redemption. More character depth. You see his motivations.
• Light saber battles taken to a new level in ESB over ANH. Truly epic battle between Luke and Vader. Not often when you see the hero's movie completely overmatched by a big baddie.

 

I'd say the battle at the VERY beginning of ANH is pretty major. Not many spaceships are involved, and most of the fighting takes place inside a spaceship. Still I find the battle pretty epic. The only other one that actually opens with a huge battle is ROTS.
Oh, the battle of Hoth is NOT "right at the beginning" but almost half an hour into the movie.

 

Err ok not right at the beginning but it's in Act 1. I consider ESB to be in 3 parts:

Act 1: Hoth
Act 2: Degobah and Asteroid Chase
Act 3: Bespin

And the Hoth battle was way bigger than the thing at the beginning of ANH. I call it a thing because it wasn't much of a battle. The rebels had no chance.

 

Agreed that they had no chance, it was more slaughter than battle. Still a very intense action sequence, and in '77, no one had ever seen anything like it before. It was incredible.

 

Size or length of a battle doesn't matter to me. It's how it's represented in the movie that counts. And the beginning of ANH was mind-blowing, nobody had ever seen anything like it before. If you only count pure "spectacle" or number of ships involved, we could easily pick any battle from the ST, bigger, faster, louder, more explosions..... but it doesn't work for me that way.
As for strictly ground battles, I'm sorry to say (NOT) that I prefer Geonosis.