So rather then “thread-jack” it I decided to post it here.
So down to business: Best/Greatest/Your Favorite Star Wars movie and why.
I’ll start:
1) Empire Strikes Back- does anything really need to be said about this one?
2) Star Wars- The first and still awesome.
3) Revenge of the Sith- A few campy moments, but maybe even darker then Empire…
4) The Phantom Menace- Here me out. aside form Jar Jar and the inane “Yippie(s)” out of Anakin it isn’t really that bad. Well other then teh midiclorian crap about the force, hence why the “Phantom Edit” is out on the web. I defend it on the Darth Maul light-saber battle. It was choreographed my Ray Parks the martial artist (who also played Darth Maul), and its shows, extremely dynamic. Plus the music playing “Duel of Fates” is awesome.
5) Attack of the Clones-Ahhh this could have been so much better then it turned out. Hayden’s overacting didn’t help. I couldn’t help but laugh with the “Briney Spears” belly shirt move on Padme in the Arena of death at the end (not that I was complaining mind you ;). Mace Windu beheading Jengo Fett was cool too.
Which leaves us at…
6) Return of the Jedi-Shining points: Leia in the chain mail bikini, Fett getting eaten by the Sarlac; Space battle at the end… All of this cannot be overridden by the most useless thing(s) of the entire Star Wars series… GOD D@@M EWOKS! I was 10 at the time and even then realized that the Ewoks sucked big time. Yep the Emperor’s finest legions were on Endor, then they got their a@@es handed to them by a bunch of hooped up on goof balls Teddy Ruxbin bears. No wonder the Empire lost the war to the rebels… If those were his finest troops I’d hate to see his worst.
Yeah the Ewoks wrecked Jedi for me - but the space battle rocked! Empire easily the best for me, while attack of the clones is my favorite of the three new ones.
1) Empire
2) Star Wars
3) Attack of the Clones
4) Revenge of the Sith (sucky acting from Hayden but still - that bit with the younglings!)
5) Jedi
6) Phantom Menace (Awesome lightsaber action or not, Jar jar was even worse than the Ewoks!)
ROTJ- I just love it when vader takes his hat off - mind you on youtube there is a funny bit based on this where vader plays the blues on his ‘harmonica’ mouth piece
ROTS- love the bit seeing the emperor aged and the duel between him and yoda - also general grivous is uite interesting
ANH- gets a bit annoying in parts- but can’t beat the cantina music
AOTC- 1st Starwars i saw in the cinema - the arena is just cool and mace windus purple sabre! oh and we see for the 1st time why yoda is the jedi master
TPM - bit whingey - pod race cool, elements of the jet bikes on endor here - i wonder if dv has had a part in designing these?
clones-i liked the lightsabre battle w/ duku here, not so hot on ninja yoda though. phantom menace-too childish, maul could have been cooler, death scene sucked.
Malificant
Of course you realize that it wasn't about Darth Maul's death, rather Obi-wan emerging victorious as a still then Padawan Learner. Obi-Wan is my favorite character of the whole series, a far distant second is R2!
Yeah the Ewoks wrecked Jedi for me - but the space battle rocked! Empire easily the best for me, while attack of the clones is my favorite of the three new ones. 1) Empire 2) Star Wars
AGPO
See... I knew I liked you up till a certain point and boom! There it is! :)
Man, I dunno why everyone liked Revenge of the Sith so much. I thought it was god-awful! Well, all of the prequels were bad, really - although they had their moments. RotS was definitely the best of the new ones, I admit. Here is why the new ones were bad imho (this post became longer than I intended, sorry):
1) The acting. Hayden Christensen isn’t Darth Vader. He’s a whiny idiot. The line, and how it was delivered, “In MY opinion, it is the Jedi who are evil” says it all. Yes, good point, Hayden. You have succeeded in sounding not like the crazy hate-filled tragic hero that we wanted, but a pissed off teenager who’s dad won’t give him an advance on his allowance. Now to be fair, the writing is part of the problem too (to be discussed below) but still - Hayden=terrible. (The exception to this is the scene in which Obi-wan leaves Anakin to die in the lava, which WAS appropriately hate-filled, and desperate, and I definitely approved). Also, kid Anakin is the worst actor in the history of the galaxy. And it didn’t make any sense why he was EIGHT and yet Natalie Portman was somehow inexplicably a love interest. Natalie Portman also puts in a very bad show, she can do better so that is disappointing. Attack of the Clones was okay as long as no one was talking.
2) The writing. George Lucas is the worst writer known to man or beast. “I’ve been dying a little bit more each day since we’ve been together again.” UGH. “I hate the sand. It’s course and it gets everywhere. Not like here, where it’s soft and smooth” while I stroke your arm in my most feeble and obvious attempts to be flirtatious. Vomitous! George Lucas’ dialogue proves that he has never had a real romantic relationship since he was fifteen. And since I am unaware of his marital status, I can only assume that he is sad and alone and thinks his “love stories” are tragic and moving cuz he doesnt know any better. (Ok, I’m being facetious here, but seriously the dialogue is really bad). Also, when whatisname Sam Jackson was going to kill the Emperor, why did he have to swing his lightsaber backwards? Isn’t it a laser sword? I didnt realize he needed momentum to cut through flesh. All that was was an excuse for a dramatic intervention on the part of Anakin, which is stupid. There should have been a dramatic intervention that did not depend on something that did not make any sense. Except the George ain’t a very good writer.
Now, as for BEST movies, obviously Empire Strikes Back is the best. But, I still think Return of the Jedi comes in a close second - yes, the ewoks were terrible. But, the final confrontation between Luke and Vader still gives me chills: the music, the fight choreography (minimalist!! no computer animation!!), how it’s lit only by their lightsabers (really awesome), the cold and sterile environment, all add up to what is in my opinion one of the best climaxes ever. Notice that the two best star wars movies were not directed or had screenplays written by George Lucas. Hmm…
i personally do not enjoy the emphasis on obi-wan, but i never liked him except as old ben-kenobi. the focus of the first three movies should have been more centered around anakin->vader movement. it was to some extent, but the acting was terrible and the story seemed more focused on obi-wan. and i agree with most of what khan has said. the only characters in all the movies are anakin and palpatine, and as such i feel the focus should have been on the discovery->training->fall->rise of power->redemption of anakin.
Empire Strikes Back is quite easily the best. The Phantom Edit didn’t quite go far enough, at least the version I saw (I have no idea if I saw the proper one), but there is a much better version of the Phantom Menace called The Balance of the Force. The whole feel of the film is much darker, it is amazing what you can do by changing the vocals and subtitling just a few of the characters with a different script. Lots of other smaller edits too. It was done by a guy called Magnoliafan. He has recently released his early reworks of ep2 but I haven’t seen them myself yet. I think AOTC got far more citicism than it deserved (like the Matrix sequels) so it will be intersting to see what he has done with it.
3) RotJ - Not as good as the other 2 but still great.
aaaand no other star wars films exist in my world. sorry, they were just comercialistic crap, raping the image of star wars in the name of big cash.
and dont get me started on continuity.
The other project I have on at the mo is a pro-shop x-wing I managed to get off ebay, i’ve ditched the original electrical gubbins and I’m going to fit it with my own lighting and fiber optics. I’m in the process of ‘accurising’ the fuselage at the minute, it’s a lot of work.
im with hammerhand on this one, the newer 3 never existed - camp droids and dodgy gungans, roger, roger!!! oh dear - and lucas had better do a damn good job on the sw tv series coming soon
1) ESB - the battle for hoth was great
2) rotj - despite the anoying ewoks, the space battles were awesome - go wedge!!!, 2 ds runs
3) anh - the film that started it all, awesome film but i love the big battles
Personally, I think the original trilogy is better than the prequels, but in a different way. I think ANH, RotJ, TESB. A lot of Empire is too slow for me, considering it’s supposed to be the middle of the story at any rate. I was surprised that everyone else thought it was the best. Admittedly, it has it’s moments and has grown on me, but I still prefer the other two. As for overall, it’s as follows:
ANH. It started it all. Need more be said?
RotJ. Great battles, the completion of all.
TPM. Removing the much disliked Jar Jar and Anakin’s "yippee"ing, it’s good. Not to mention DUEL OF THE FATES…
AotC/TESB. They are both here, but for different reasons. Basically, AotC is more interesting to the eye as a wholistic view and doesn’t deserve 5th, whereas TESB has awesome moments and doesn’t deserve to be 5th.
RotS. Had a good lightsabre battle here and there, but the acting was poor, the ease of the dispatch of the jedi council was moronic and a padawan killed more clones that almost all of them together.
At least it was clone troopers dispatching Jedi (bear mind all of the most powerful ones were away). The direct desendants (the storm troopers) had no excuses against the midget hairballs on Endor.
Pyro I would guess there are some people out there that don’t know it as ANH.
It wasn’t originally called A New Hope. It was just Star Wars for two (might have been four) years. Besides, the whole “most powerful ones were away thing”? I’m not buying it. You SEE the jedi council get shot up. Not likely, IMO.
I’d go in the order that most people put them (ESB,ANH,ROTJ) but only for one reason. The Fett. Boba Fett must be the coolest character in film. Just one look gives me shivers. Now I’d say that AOTC is the worse not only because are the action bits the worse out of all the films but they insult the Fetts by making Boba look like a pussy and then giving Jango such a terrible death.
It wasn't originally called A New Hope. It was just Star Wars for two (might have been four) years. Besides, the whole "most powerful ones were away thing"? I'm not buying it. You SEE the jedi council get shot up. Not likely, IMO.
Hashut's Blessing
1) Sure it was. Watch the scroll of at the begining. Clearly says Star Wars: Episode IV: A�New Hope. When the movie was first shown it puzzled many people as to why it was part IV.
2) Sure could happen. Look what happened to the greatest knights and masters in AOTC. No one can dodge everything all at once. Lastly the temple scene masssacre is plausable. Look how many clone troopers were marching into it with all of the best Jedi scattered throughout the galaxy. Plus they had proto-vader, said to be the strongest in the force that anyone had ever seen. Had to account for something. Hence my avatar ;)
That was only added when they rereleased the film when the ESB came out. Or maybe it was RotJ. Lucas changes his mind so much about those sorts of things, he now denies that there were going to be 9 films despite him saying it on record 20+ years ago.
2) Seems feasible that many Jedi would be killed, but I bet that more survived than just Yoda and Kenobi. Most of the jedi we see in the films are the best of the best, not plain run of the mill that makes up the majority.