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Ranking the Star Wars films — Page 90

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 (Edited)

After watching R1 at home on bluray, I can refresh my ranking. I won’t put grades. I don’t like all SW but I don’t think I really hate any. I specify the version I find to be the best to watch, but a “theatrical ranking” and a “fanedit ranking” would be the same.

  1. A New Hope
    [NewGuy’s Semi-Despecialized version with my corrected audio track]
    Just perfection.

  2. The Empire Strikes Back
    [Bluray version with corrected audio track]
    Almost as perfect as ANH.

  3. Return of the Jedi
    [Q2’s Semi-Despecialized version]
    A very few lame parts overwhelmed by a great many things.

    3.5. Tarkovsky’s Clone Wars
    [the complete series]
    Tarkovsky’s dynamic style meets the prequel era, and it’s awesome.

  4. Revenge of the Sith
    [Hal9000’s Labyrinth of Evil v4.2]
    Impressive and visually stunning achievement which sadly failed what needed to be done right.

    4.5.1. The Clone Wars
    [not all, a selection of the best episodes along with Smudger9’s edits]
    The Anakin I wanted to see in the movies. The birth of a very good SW character (Ahsoka).

    4.5.2. Rebels
    A handful of episodes are very great, especially those which link the PT era with the OT era.
    Good tvseries. Could have been better with another lead.

  5. The Phantom Menace
    [Hal9000’s Cloak of Deception]
    Mediocre and childish opening for a saga that has some redeeming qualities.

  6. The Attack of the Clones
    [Hal9000’s The approaching storm]
    A (almost) complete failure filled with fascinating ideas and a strong overall story (The Clone Wars begin, that’s a big deal). But something really went wrong during shooting and editing.

  7. The Force Awakens
    [still don’t know what version will be the best: Hal9000’s restructed template with a few more changes such as DigMod’s Heir to the Force for example]
    A somehow decent movie (albeit it looks very cheap) but the lack of substance doesn’t sustain interest after the quite fun first act. The way the Force is used in this movie is very problematic. Don’t know if Episode VIII will fix it. Could have been far better.

  8. Rogue One
    [theatrical, maybe Battle of Scarif project could do the trick]
    Visually it’s fabulous. The music is also high Giacchino’s quality. It doesn’t look cheap like Episode VII, and some ideas (even if not done right) have a great potential. But there is a feeling of total emptiness about it. It feels… liveless… and often falls in the ridiculous dimension (space Zatoichi dodging laser blasts as if he was in a ZAZ movie). Boring characters, boring storytelling, action scenes with no involvement… A little bit of all of that. The fact is I don’t care for the characters. Everything was there for a masterpiece and in the end it’s just a huge disappointment. The retcon about the weakness of the death star implemented voluntarily is the worst idea of the movie, and maybe the worst thing in the entire saga.

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 (Edited)

Weird formatting.

EDIT: Damn, it was fixed just as I posted this.

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Why would someone who isn’t a troll give a movie a 1/10 ranking and then go and buy it on Blu-ray?

Oh.

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TV’s Frink said:

Why would someone who isn’t a troll give a movie a 1/10 ranking and then go and buy it on Blu-ray?

Oh.

?

(you’re getting old Frink, get some rest)

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Yes, Frink, get some rest. It shouldn’t take you longer than instantly to recognize Mala’s troll status.

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The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
A New Hope (1977)
Rogue One (2016)
The Force Awakens (2015)
Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Attack of the Clones (2002)
The Phantom Menace (1999)

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The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
A New Hope (1977)
The Force Awakens (2015)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Rogue One (2016)
The Phantom Menace (1999)
Attack of the Clones (2002)
Revenge of the Sith (2005)

“People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians”

“In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.” --George Lucas on March 3, 1988

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Star Wars (1977)
Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Return Of the Jedi (1983)
Star Wars : The Force Awakens (2015)
Rouge One : A Star Wars Story (2016)
The Phantom Meance (1999)
Revenge Of The Sith (2005)
Attack of The Clones (2002)

Hippa to the hoppa and ya just don’t stopa

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Amano said:

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
A New Hope (1977)
The Force Awakens (2015)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Rogue One (2016)
The Phantom Menace (1999)
Attack of the Clones (2002)
Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Yep.

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Look at you guys, ranking Rogue One with the main movies and not just counting it as an EU movie mostly to avoid comparing it with TFA and choosing which one you really like more.

.

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suspiciouscoffee said:

Look at you guys, ranking Rogue One with the main movies and not just counting it as an EU movie mostly to avoid comparing it with TFA and choosing which one you really like more.

Rogue One is better than most of the saga movies (including TFA) so it might as well be ranked with them.

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 (Edited)

I find it interesting that various people place RO and TFA in opposite places in their ranking. Some put RO between the OT and PT, some put it below the PT. Some put TFA between the OT and PT and some put it below the PT. Few (except it seems on this page) place both between or both below. It seems to fall into line with whether the poster finds some redeeming quality in the PT or not. Those who do tend to put RO over the PT and TFA below it. Those who hate everything about the PT tend to put TFA over the PT. I’m sure that is not true of everyone, but a growing number seem to fall into one of those two groups.

For me Star Wars was always about the Rebellion vs. the Empire. I think that is why I love RO and Star Wars Rebels. That is what I have wanted more of all these years. TFA went backward and didn’t do it well. The PT are flawed. I think part of that is the story that Lucas had in mind. His notes to Alan Dean Foster back in 1976 for the original novel bear out that the PT was always going to be political as the collapse of a great Republic would have to have that as a component of the story. I have found it interesting since the PT finished to read the description of Palpatine as an ineffectual puppet controlled by others because that is exactly what Palpatine’s public persona is. We got his alter ego in Darth Sideous in ROTJ and the dual nature in the PT. That is the part of the story I love. The rest of the characters are pawns in Sideous’s game… and none of them realize it until too late. But all that depth that characterized the OT and to a lesser extent the PT is missing in TFA. I can see where the characters and settings could win over many, but the story is the weakest of all the stories to this point.

Lucas and Abrams have different strenghts and weaknesses and to me, Lucas’s work even in the PT is superior to Abrams work in TFA. I can see why others would see it the opposite. But those same strengths that Lucas had that came out in the OT are there in RO. If it has weaknesses, they are similar to Lucas’s and quite different from Abrams’. So this difference of opinion makes a lot of sense because it is two different view of the what made the OT great and the PT bad.

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yotsuya said:
Few (except it seems on this page) place both between or both below.

I put TFA and R1 together, both below the OOT, and above the prequels. TFA is better than R1 at times, but it’s also immeasurably more awful at other times. R1 is just kind of monotonously mediocre throughout.

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yotsuya said:

Few (except it seems on this page) place both between or both below.

Except for the previous page…or many other pages…

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I think some of it depends on demographics. Most Star Wars fans I know are college graduates who were born in the mid to late 70s or early 80s. Pretty much all of us rate Rogue One as either the 2nd or 3rd best SW film.

I’m guessing some younger fans might like TFA more because the characterizations in TFA are more in keeping with modern films… whereas Rogue One has more subtle (and IMO realistic) characterizations and you actually have to pay a bit of attention to fully get the characters. TFA characters are much more larger than life types. Neither preference is necessarily wrong.

Rogue One is also pretty squarely aimed at adults (although my 7 year old really liked it FWIW) whereas TFA is aimed more at family audiences.

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I just ran across this (in fact I haven’t watched it) so I’m not making any judgements about what it says.

http://www.avclub.com/article/time-has-come-pit-rogue-one-and-force-awakens-agai-254577

Star Wars movies are so mythic and overexposed it’s hard to find a nice, quiet, sober critical analysis of them—away from the hubbub of their release spectacles or the weight of the vast lore bearing down on them. Lessons From The Screenplay attempts to do just that in a new video, applying classic screenwriting principles to Rogue One and The Force Awakens in order to determine what works and what doesn’t in the franchise’s latest installments. The answer is: a little bit of both.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIQa7sH5_Y

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TV’s Frink said:

I just ran across this (in fact I haven’t watched it) so I’m not making any judgements about what it says.

http://www.avclub.com/article/time-has-come-pit-rogue-one-and-force-awakens-agai-254577

Star Wars movies are so mythic and overexposed it’s hard to find a nice, quiet, sober critical analysis of them—away from the hubbub of their release spectacles or the weight of the vast lore bearing down on them. Lessons From The Screenplay attempts to do just that in a new video, applying classic screenwriting principles to Rogue One and The Force Awakens in order to determine what works and what doesn’t in the franchise’s latest installments. The answer is: a little bit of both.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIQa7sH5_Y

Good analysis of the female leads, but quite misses the mark by not exploring the other main characters. Some of the failings of one character are made up for by the well done aspects of others. And he falls for the lie that telling is always bad. Telling is sometimes more expedient for story telling when you want to cram a lot into a short space. He also puts all his eggs into the characters and fails to address the plot of the two movies. A very good assessment of Jyn and Rey, but not a very good overall assessment of the two films.

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yotsuya said:

TV’s Frink said:

I just ran across this (in fact I haven’t watched it) so I’m not making any judgements about what it says.

http://www.avclub.com/article/time-has-come-pit-rogue-one-and-force-awakens-agai-254577

Star Wars movies are so mythic and overexposed it’s hard to find a nice, quiet, sober critical analysis of them—away from the hubbub of their release spectacles or the weight of the vast lore bearing down on them. Lessons From The Screenplay attempts to do just that in a new video, applying classic screenwriting principles to Rogue One and The Force Awakens in order to determine what works and what doesn’t in the franchise’s latest installments. The answer is: a little bit of both.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIQa7sH5_Y

Good analysis of the female leads, but quite misses the mark by not exploring the other main characters. Some of the failings of one character are made up for by the well done aspects of others. And he falls for the lie that telling is always bad. Telling is sometimes more expedient for story telling when you want to cram a lot into a short space. He also puts all his eggs into the characters and fails to address the plot of the two movies. A very good assessment of Jyn and Rey, but not a very good overall assessment of the two films.

He also ignores the fact that Jyn later becomes active and Rey passive.

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yotsuya said:

For me Star Wars was always about the Rebellion vs. the Empire.

True dat!

Unlurking for this very special 5/4, here’s one old SW fan’s ranking:

  1. Star Wars

If G-Lu had a heart attack and died in '77 and no sequels were ever made after the first film, I think SW would still be considered a classic today. A fun crowd pleasing popcorn adventure film with some actual ideas percolating just underneath the surface.

  1. The Empire Strikes Back

Essential viewing. A very, VERY close second edged out only by being a darker, more mature sequel to the original self contained film. Best puppet acting performance in history.

  1. Return of the Jedi

Almost as good as the first two but just not quite there due to some shaky, half baked concepts and execution (Death Star II, return to Tatooine, semi-exotic California planetscapes, Lando and Han both get to live?!). I’m ok with the Ewoks but I think this one really loses a lot from the lack of wisdom and insght Gary Kurtz would have provided as one of Lucas’ main creative partners to bounce story ideas off of and veto his worst impulses–a no-man role obviously sorely missing in the prequels.

Big space here…

  1. Rogue One

From here on out none of the following movies are in the same league as the OT. RO is more how I sort of imagined the prequels could have gone–a return to the used, run down SW universe featuring brand new characters, albeit in stories not necessarily so tied to OT continuity. I don’t love it like I do the OT, but I don’t actively loathe it either. For me it’s the best of the post Jedi flicks so far, and I wish the story of Anakin’s downfall, if it HAD to be told at all, was told in a similar one and done standalone film rather than stretched out over a pointless trilogy.

4.5. The Star Wars Holiday Special

Although I have a few non-theatrical SW titles in my collection (Ewok movies, Droids/Ewoks cartoons, Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars shorts) I don’t really consider them a part of the theatrical saga canon and don’t really rewatch them very often. However I feel like the Holiday Special needs to be included if only for the fact that it was released during the golden years of SW ('77-'83), features the original cast and a Boba Fett cartoon, and is something I try to watch annually around Life Day each year. Misguided for sure and obviously a product of its time, but damn if I don’t love this thing, unsubtitled wookiee dialogue, virtual reality softcore porn, and all. IMO, really not the worst SW spin off ever, and a harbinger of how the quality of SW could have nose dived twenty years earlier than it actually did if Empire Strikes Back wasn’t such a god damn masterpiece.

  1. The Phantom Menace

Ouch, you really can’t go home again. The beginning of undead zombie Star Wars or SWINO as far as I’m concerned. Should have only been bankrolled by and with a story by Lucas and directed by someone else with a little more hunger and piss and vinegar in 'em. The “best” of the three prequels but still all unnecessary back story better left untold. An absolute waste of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, and CPY shits on the real Yoda, but still the least offensive to OT characters/plot–except for demystifying the Force of course.

  1. The Force Awakens

Arguably a better made reboot/sequel than all three prequels but still not really meant for me or my post 18-35 year old age demographic I think. Still nice seeing some old familiar faces again, though probably should have been made 30 years ago if OT characters were to be included. New characters mildly interesting so far, though plot a bit of a reheated souffle. Basically, meh…fair to middling entry IMO, though in light of recent political events in the US, possesses the timely theme that old evils never truly disappear, they just rebrand. My ranking for this one may change depending on if and how VIII and IX either stick the landing or screw the pooch.

  1. Revenge of the Sith

The whole damn point of the entire prequel trilogy, but after the first two episodes I couldn’t really find the energy to give a shit too much anymore. Could have been brilliant (and has a few flashes here and there) but due to the shaky foundations of TPM, the tragedy of 'lil orphan Ani ended up mostly wasted potential. Again the whole turn to the dark side and lava fight was probably better left untold. And again shits on Yoda. I really like The Blackened Mantle 3 in 1 subtitled cut myself if I ever feel the need to revisit the PT, though I rarely do.

  1. Attack of the Clones

The worst. Unnecessary filler to pad out an unnecessary trilogy that actually makes me hate OT characters Obi-Wan, Boba Fett, C-3PO, R2-D2, the Emperor… and myself for wasting my life watching and obsessing over this shit. Once again, Yoda is shat upon–he really never should have appeared in these films at all.

Still after all the CGI disappointment and greenscreen abuse, like a battered and bruised junkie spouse I remain a SW fan and look forward with (a new) hope to The Last Jedi.

Hovercraft out. May the Fourth be with you all!

Snip, Snap, Snorum…Hey, Kak, Kalorum!

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