Rank the Star Wars films

[lord-of-sith]

I really like Awallaceunc's idea of ranking the Hary Potter books, so I liked the idea to rank the Star Wars fims. I realize the prequels will be at the bottom of most peoples lists. So please be mature about this and lets not try bashing Lucas and the prequels at every moment we can. My ranking's go as follows:

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

[Luke]

1) Star Wars
2) The Empire Strikes Back (these two are kind of interchangeable)
3) Return of the Jedi
4) The Phantom Menace
5) Attack of the Clones

Hmm...in descending order of theatrical release. I guess they just keep on getting worse.

[Disneykid]

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

Unlike some people, I've liked the prequels quite a bit, even if they're a bit wooden in comparison to the originals. Here's hoping Revenge of the Sith turns out well.

[Loomis]

Well, they really should be seen as one film. Which according to Lucas is in 3 parts....no 9....wait, I always intended 6. Yeah, 6 will do.

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Star Wars
3. Return of the Jedi (because it is just like the above - with muppets!)
4. Attack of the Clones*
5. The Phantom Menace*

*On any other list of faves, these two wouldn't make the cut. At all.

Like Lucas, I may go back and re-edit this list over the next few years. "This is what the list would have looked like had I made it now". And I'll be replaced by a CG version of myself.

(lord-of-sith - I can't believe you've ranked Attack of the Clones over A New Hope!!! Did you have the dialogue turned off in AoTC? Because it did look cool. In parts.)

[Maerj]

I really like Awallaceunc's idea of ranking the Hary Potter books, so I liked the idea to rank the Star Wars fims. I realize the prequels will be at the bottom of most peoples lists. So please be mature about this and lets not try bashing Lucas and the prequels at every moment we can.

I almost don't even like this subject even brought up anymore anywhere, just because that is what it always seems to turn into. A big Lucas/SW bashing thing. Anyway, it's hard for me to rank the films as I consider each one Holy and a gift to mankind, but here we go.

1. Star Wars/Empire
2. Return of the Jedi/Attack of the Clones
3. Phantom Menace

I am expecting Revenge of the Sith to perhaps be the best of all 6 of the films, thus making three films in a tie for number one. LOL, this list is about as objective as I can get on the subject as there are things I love about each film.

[Jack]

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

Regardless of rank, I'd rate each of the movies either 8/10 or 9/10. As far as I'm concerned, despite the flaws, its been a consistently great series. I'd say the originals are stronger in terms of characters, but the prequels are stronger when it comes to the story.

[Loomis]

I almost don't even like this subject even brought up anymore anywhere, just because that is what it always seems to turn into. A big Lucas/SW bashing thing. Anyway, it's hard for me to rank the films as I consider each one Holy and a gift to mankind, but here we go.

It inevitably will, and I have already done it, simply because Lucas is a fool who must be stopped.

He did bring us three Holy Films at one point, but then he destroyed them and our childhood dreams.

Where are the bunnies now?

They have all been replaced by CG.

Bad, Lucas, bad.

[Maerj]

Well, people complain about Return of the Jedi and pull the "Muppet" card. Yeah, there were some aliens that required the use of puppets, so what? How else was he supposed to make aliens in a film back in the early eighties? Now he uses CG and people complain about that. Seriously, how else can aliens be created for movies? You could just have people with things glued to their forheads but then it would be Star Trek.

Another complaint is that the prequels are all CG, they're not. Sure there is a lot of CG used but there's also puppet/animatronic effects, special effects make up, models/miniatures, as well as computer generated effects.

[Jack]

Basically, anything Lucas does these days will be called "sucky". That's the price of unbelievably high expectations not being met.

[lord-of-sith]

(lord-of-sith - I can't believe you've ranked Attack of the Clones over A New Hope!!! Did you have the dialogue turned off in AoTC? Because it did look cool. In parts.)

I didn't realize how low ANH was until I was all done with the post. It is a great film, it's just very slow in lots of places. Plus: Christopher Lee rocks!

[Jake Lipson]

1) The Empire Strikes Back - Quite simply perfect and on the (really) shortlist of the best sequels ever. Enough said.

2) A New Hope - Great introduction that never gets bogged down in trying to explain the world like so many first films in a series do. Engages us from the start and doesn't let go, making us want moere. If ever my scifi/fantasy book projects get off the drawing board, this and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (book) are my refrences, in that I aspire to replicate their balance from explination to story action and such.

3) - tie - Attack of the Clones - The best of the prequels (yet), this one is pretty good: solid story that moves the overall plot along nicely with hints at what must come but is also interesting in and of itself (though it wouldn't stand alone very well without them.) The Yoda/Dooku fight is the most impressive sequence in the prequel trilogy to date (though it will probably be beaten out by at least two or three things in Revenge of the Sith.) This is taken down by bad dialogue and performances that are so much less than they could be. Ewan McGroger is the best of the bunch, but a mere glance at any of his non-Star Wars films (especially Big Fish) will show that Lucas is making the very shameful mistake of wasting his extrodinarily wonderful talents. I bet Christensen and Portman are the same way. Throughout this, it seems like Lucas was contented to go for the first "decent" take of any given scene without reshooting it until he deemed it "perfect," which hurts the picture. It's good, solid, and watchable, but it had the potential to be so much more than it is. Still, very good. This is a more even film than Jedi is, which I tied it with as you will see below; however, what this gains in roundness it loses in dialogue and wasted actors, as has been discussed above, so in the end I think they're just about equal. In my tied listing, this one got listed first due to alphabetical order, A before R.

3) - tie - Return of the Jedi - Very good, but while I like the Ewoks a lot, the fact is that their presence here, especially in the finale, makes the movie uneven as it tries to seamlessly cut from the high dramatic tension of Luke's final confrontation with Vader to a bunch of cuddily things that seem put there for merchendising purposes. Taking this into consideration I've got to take the overall movie down a small notch. But it survives on the strength of the scenes that the Ewoks are not in ("I'm a Jedi, like my father before me" still occasionally makes me shiver.)

5) The Phantom Menace - Unlike most people, I think this is still a very good film in many respects and like it a lot, but...erm...maybe the 16 years between this and Jedi made Lucas lose a bit of his touch. This is a distant fourth behind the tied Clones and Jedi. Like Jedi was before it, this is extremely uneven. In being the first of the "new" Star Wars, it had to do a lot of things that A New Hope did as well, in essentially being a second introduction to the Star Wars galexy. The pitch-perfect balance ANH had is missing here, though, and the film often gets too bogged down in itself and isn't as fast-moving as the other episodes are. While I understand the need for it as it is basically a setup, the plot here, when contained to itself, isn't that great either. On a larger scale, it works well, but one of the great things about ANH is that it was the perfect setup to ESB and ROTJ but could be enjoyed on its own as a single film without any of the other episodes in the entire saga attached to it. This, however, misses that mark that ANH so wonderfully nailed. While the storyline may be coherant by itself you get a sense of incompleteness that isn't found in ANH. There's also some very corny dialogue (though not as much as Episode II) and of course Jar Jar. I like his character a lot, actulally, and will be the first to jump to his defense. I actulally think there's a nice everyman quality to him. But, that said, he and the other Gunganss are still a bit overused here and can get annoying now and then. On the plus side, there's a lot of good action (the climax is perticurarly notable) and there's a definate spark between Anakin and Padame -- innocent, not too much but still there to allow for and foreshadow what happens in AOTC.

Edit - Hang on here, when I first clicked the reply button Disneykid's post was the last response. I took long enough typing this that at least four or five people responded before I was done? Sheesh, I analyze too much. Anyway, I'd agree with the comment that while they have had their lows and fallen from "perfect" status, all five of them are still very, very good, entertaining films and we have a lot to thank Lucas for in sharing these with the world, even if he won't release the original trilogy unedited like we all wish he would.

[Swiss]

I just love Attack.

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

[MickeyMousePal]

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

[DDMAN26]

1. The Empire Strikes Back-One of the best films ever. Dark, funny and exciting
2. A New Hope-The one that started the magic of Star Wars, a landmark film
3. Attack of the Clones-Yes the dialogue is bad, but it's that way for over 90% of what Hollywood produces. But it has some amazing action sequences. And Obi-Wan totally rules in this movie
4. The Phantom Menace-This is an unfairly maligned movie imho. First of all the acting is not that bad(it was worse in Clones) Second, Lucas is setting up the story, reintroducing the Star Wars universe to us so a lot is going to spent on exposition. Look at the first X-Men and Spider-Man films. Third, Jar Jar, well yeah he does suck
5. Return of the Jedi-The good, the space battle at the end and the whole Luke/Vader/Emperor dynamic rocks. The bad, everything else, the whole Ewok section just drags the movie down. And I always hated the Jabba scene, I felt it went on too long.

[Satoshi]

1. Empire Strikes Back - Just about perfect.
2. A New Hope - Almost as good as Empire.
3. Return of the Jedi - Meh. Has some great parts, but overall can't compare to Empire or New Hope.
4. The Phantom Menace - I liked it more than most people. Definitely not on the same level as the original trilogy though.
5. Attack of the Clones - Except for the good action scenes, I think the whole thing's a big bore-fest.

[Mr. Toad]

1. A New Hope
2. Empire Strikes Back(1/2 are so close)
3. Return of the Jedi - wasnt near as good as the first two but still an essential classic and among the best 50 movies ever
4. and 5. They really dont matter. Special effects and marketing driven cutesy characters but no plot.

[Loomis]

As for Jedi, it is not simply just "a bunch of muppets", as I do enjoy it. However, when all is said and done, it is rehash of the original Star Wars, with muppets. Yes, there are new worlds etc, but it is still pretty much the same story - blow up the Death Star.

Plus, it is not so much that they are muppets, but the amount of them. All of those different species weren't really needed to tell the story - but they were needed if he wanted to sell a lot of toys!

Another complaint is that the prequels are all CG, they're not. Sure there is a lot of CG used but there's also puppet/animatronic effects, special effects make up, models/miniatures, as well as computer generated effects.

I think the primary complaint with the CG is that it is pure eye candy. Especially with the "retouched" versions - nothing is added beyond a few bits of CG, that the films could have done easily without. If the films are as great as people claim - and I believe that they ARE - then they do not NEED the additional CG.

As for the prequels, there are a few heavy chunks of CG. Jar Jar was a completely pointless character, seemingly done so that Lucas could boast the first CG companion. Now, granted, occasionally he uses CG for stuff you couldn't do without CG - the Yoda fight scene in Clones, which is very cool. But there are large amounts of pure eye candy, which isn't what Star Wars is all about. I think we get back to the "selling toys" argument again. Don't forget - Lucasfilm owns the merchandising rights as well.

Finally, I think that the main concern with the prequels isn't the excessive CG, but rather the lack of good writing. With Empire, Lucas allowed not only a co-writer, but another director to take over, and the results were brilliant. Here, he controls everything, and his weaknesses are starting to show. No longer do we have the youthful exuberance and the hero's journey (a la Joseph Campbell) that was in the original trilogy - we have a story about an intergalactic tax law and a trade blockade. Yawn. Instead of a fired up young Vader, we have a annoying-as-all-heck kid, and a pouty boy-band member. "It's not fair..."

And other sparkling dialogue, such as:

Anakin: "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth. "

Now, I'm not saying the originals were without faults, as the acting was kind of lame and had some equally dodgy dialogue. However, the Luke-Leia-Han dynamic is something that Lucas has failed to capture in the new films, and was something that made us actually care about the characters. As it stands, I can't wait to see Anakin fall (at best), but for the most part, I know what is coming and have lost interest.

For most, they will hate the prequels because they aren't the originals. And that isn't entirely fair. I'm kind of in this camp, but I dislike them because they lack what the originals had - a sense of epic adventure over special effects, and that is why we liked them in 1977, 1980 and 1983 (and why we liked Han to shoot first). To me, the new films seem to be a series of CG set-pieces, loosely linked together by a story that we already know the result of.

But that's just my opinion.

[AwallaceUNC]

1. A New Hope
2. The Empire Strikes Back (1 and 2 regularly alternate)
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Attack of the Clones
5. The Phantom Menace

4 & 5 aren't just on here because they have to be. I really like them.

-Aaron

[yoda_four]

Well, they really should be seen as one film. Which according to Lucas is in 3 parts....no 9....wait, I always intended 6. Yeah, 6 will do.

It's funny cause it's true! Even though almost everything you say about Lucas is on the dot!

As for the films:

#1: Star Wars (not A New Hope, or Episode IV, never refer to it as these ) - A perfect film IMO. One in a million. Wonderful story, dialogue, optical/hand-crafted effects.... just simply amazing.

#2: The Empire Strikes Back - I had always found this one to be my least favourite, though it had it's parts. In terms of an overall film review though, it's a very good original movie; as much as I hate how it just ends. "Luke, I am your father!" (should that require an exclamation?)

#3: Return of the Jedi - What were you expecting, a prequel?! If so, I pity you and your dispicable taste. JK. I have always loved this film very much as a kid, watching it over and over with my dad every weekend. I estimate I've seen it at least 100 times, maybe more. I loved the Ewoks, just I 'originally' liked Jar Jar; but I was a kid. I still like the Ewoks, though I know in my heart a bunch of Wookies would've been funner (Anticipating Ep. 3!), and hate how Lucas removed their Yub-Chub song at the end. Sure, it's an emulation of SW, but even at this point, I assume we all know Lucas' creativity was diminishing. Good, but not great.

#4: Episode II or Attack of the Clones - Poor dialogue, poor acting (Boba and Jango Fett while being chased by Obi-Wan) crappy CGI IMO, and I was only excited when Dooku took the Death Star plans from Geonosis. O ya, can't forget when I wet my pants seeing Yoda take on Tyrannus with a lightsaber, though I still don't like the CGI. In the end, only good for showing off my surround system in my room (those bombs from Fett are cool)

#5: Episode 1 or aka The Phantom Menace - Complete failure. It does have it's parts though: Podrace, Jedi fight, seeing 3PO incomplete. I have recently noticed how much this film tries to copy the original SW, in more hidden ways than ROTJ. I just don't like it that much. And don't get me started on Jar Jar: "Mini Me stole the fame Jar Jar was supposed to have". That Austin Powers 2 trailer making fun of SW is much better than this movie.

I really think, from what I've read and seen so far, Revenge of the Sith will not even compare to SW at all or the originals films. It will however be much better than the 2 prequels. Why? I doubt things like dialogue, pace, overall story will improve all that much. Sure the CGI will be better, but I still find that even Spider-Man has too much CGI. Why, you ask? Like I previously said, it's the things that remind you of the originals that'll make you love this movie so much. When Anakin dies and Vader comes to be, when Obi-Wan and Anakin fight it out, when the kids are left with their future guardians, when OB1 and Yoda go into exile. What else? Actually seeing why Wookies are known to pull an arm out of it's socket. How and when Palpatine reveals he's Sidious and becomes the Emperor. Seeing preliminary designs of what are to become Tie-fighters. It's all the memories that'll rush back to you from 1977 that this will become a must added addition to anyone's collection that already has to OT. I for one am excited, and am patiently waiting for May when I get to go see the midnight showing and all the geeks dressed up as Jedi.

O, P.S.: If anybody wants to see a hilarious skit making fun of geeks of SW, make sure to download the Star Wars 'Conan/Triumph the Insult Comic Dog' skit off Kazaa/iMesh/Morpheus/LimeWire/etc. or be sure to rent the DVD "The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" out this Aug. 10! You'll laugh you @ss off.

[Loomis]

O, P.S.: If anybody wants to see a hilarious skit making fun of geeks of SW, make sure to download the Star Wars 'Conan/Triumph the Insult Comic Dog' skit off Kazaa/iMesh/Morpheus/LimeWire/etc. or be sure to rent the DVD "The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" out this Aug. 10! You'll laugh you @ss off.

That is nothing short of brilliant.
I don't often like Triumph, but that particular one had me in stitches.
Definitely try and check it out.