Ranking the Star Wars films — Page 2

John Doom said:

TV’s Frink said:

I honestly think you have to watch them from start to end as movies to truly understand how much of a failure they are.

You know, now that I think about it, there’s something I didn’t take into consideration: that the acting is of course different in the Italian versions (the ones I watched), because they were dubbed. As far as I understand, one of the main things the PT did wrong was the acting, but this problem is completely nonexistent in our versions because our dubbing was directed by professionals, at the point that the infamous “sand” line has been slightly changed and improved in Italian, making it kind of a beautiful and romantic thing to say. So maybe that’s why I consider the PT slightly better than you do.

Interesting! I definitely had not considered that…although dubbing would only be an incremental improvement.

FWIW, I posted this earlier today on FE, in response to someone who called ROTS a “great movie.”

My wife and I just watched ROTS last night. We watched L8wrtr’s version (there’s no way anyone in my house is allowed to watch the original). It’s not a good movie. There are some good bits, and some great ideas, but the execution is terrible. The dialogue is bad. Half the movie looks like a video game. The Jedi are absolute morons (my wife complained about this endlessly). Yoda jumps around with a lightsaber like he’s got a lit firecracker in his ass. Ian is generally very good but in the final fight with Yoda he cackles the scenery (rather than chewing it) way past the point of insanity. Hayden is out-acted by the few sets they actually built. I could go on but I’m just getting more and more depressed as I type.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

Can somebody please explain why The Phantom Menace is better than the other two? I’m not even being sarcastic, I just want to hear your thoughts.

Speaking for myself - it looks like a movie, the other 2 prequels look like crappy video games.

moviefreakedmind said:

z. Clone Wars movie from the 2000s.

How did I ever forget this movie? I must go back to my original post and add it in post-haste!

I rank TPM above the other two because in the grand scheme of things it’s mostly harmless. It’s got some profoundly irritating characters, and it’s super boring, but it doesn’t screw up the fabric of Star Wars as much as the AOTC and ROTS. The droid factory on Geonosis is the event horizon for those films’ salvageability, as far as I’m concerned.

I have no problem believing Anakin found the parts from a broken down protocol droid lying around Watto’s digs and put it back together. I don’t think we were ever meant to think he machined the parts himself or anything like that. As for blowing up the ship, that was dumb, but the movie’s been hitting us over the head with how inept the forces of the Trade Federation are for two hours by that point, so it isn’t a huge leap. C-3PO’s barrage of one-liners spoken to no one, the sudden appearance of R2-D2’s rockets, and the notion that every single droid head is totally interchangeable coming in the span of five minutes are all much harder for me to swallow.

He looks like every other protocol droid. I think Anakin built him from a kit.

(redundant post is redundant)

joefavs said:

C-3PO’s barrage of one-liners spoken to no one, the sudden appearance of R2-D2’s rockets, and the notion that every single droid head is totally interchangeable coming in the span of five minutes are all much harder for me to swallow.

Don’t forget to include Threepio’s head magically being able to operate independant of a body when it was established in TESB that it couldn’t.

imperialscum said:

TV’s Frink said:

John Doom said:

Roughly this:
1 TESB
2 ANH
3 ROTJ
4 ROTS
5-7 TPM, AOTC and TFA (in release order)

Lunacy.

When was the last time you actually watched the PT? I watched them all over the past few weeks, including ROTS last night. We watched L8wrtr’s versions, so the worst of them is removed…and they’re still not good movies. I don’t have a problem if you didn’t like TFA, but equating them with the PT makes me wonder how well you remember the PT.

Will you already stop attacking people because they think TFA is shit?

The phrase “that’s my opinion” is pretty insufficient when TFA is superior to the PT in pretty much every way. The dialogue, the characters, the pacing, the acting, the special effects, the action etc. But the most important thing is that TFA actually felt like Star Wars while the PT didn’t most of the time. And I know TFA’s plot isn’t entirely original but a semi repackaged plot is better than a subpar one. Or in ROTS’ case a plot that was pretty good but that could have been exponentially better.

John Doom said:

joefavs said:

I have no problem believing Anakin found the parts from a broken down protocol droid lying around Watto’s digs and put it back together. I don’t think we were ever meant to think he machined the parts himself or anything like that.

Well, I’m fine with Anakin being able to assemble a droid. It’s the fact that C3PO and Anakin/Vader are somehow “relatives”, that they know each other. It always bothered me to no end since I was a kid 😄

joefavs said:
[…] C-3PO’s barrage of one-liners spoken to no one […]

Didn’t he speak like that on Bespin too, when he felt the presence of another R2 unit, though?

As much as I hate to admit it, someone pointed out to me recently that if you watch them in chronological order, Anakin building 3PO isn’t a problem at all. This kid makes a droid, and then it stays with his gang for the rest of the movies. It only seems stupid when you already know 3PO before you see TPM.

As for the ESB thing, there’s a difference between him thinking out loud (ESB) and doing schticky commentary about what’s happening in real time (AOTC).

imperialscum said:

Lord Haseo said:

The phrase “that’s my opinion” is pretty insufficient when TFA is superior to the PT in pretty much every way. The dialogue, the characters, the pacing, the acting, the special effects, the action etc. But the most important thing is that TFA actually felt like Star Wars while the PT didn’t most of the time.

stop pretending it is anything more than that.

I don’t really have a response to this because I can feel you conjuring up a storm of entitlement because I’m not kissing your feet because you happened to mutter the “O” word. Just know that an opinion such as that which most people would regard as unwarranted is worth less than nothing.

I liked TFA better than the PT for sure. I have to see it a 2nd time to decide whether I like it more than ROTJ.

Well, like, that’s just your opinion, man.