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What's everybody's favorite Original Trilogy movie - Star Wars, Empire, or Jedi?

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Empire, but i love ROTJ very much so, its a close second.

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Star Wars.
I was awestruck as a boy and that feeling is still there whenever I watch it. It’s only every 10 - 15 years these days, but it still feels like 1977 every time.

For the record, I’ve never seen any version other than the 1977 version so I don’t have the visual or emotional conflict that some members may have. The film - the adventure - has remained clean for me all these years.

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Star Wars is a great adventure film, and does a great job introducing the viewer to a new universe. Empire is a great installment in an adventure serial, and builds on the former. Normally that distinction alone would put me in the Star Wars camp, but boy do I like Empire. The split narrative was risky but it works great (weird, now it’s reminding me of Godfather II in that respect). Empire all the way, the story development and action are top notch.

Jedi? Well, it ends the story in a more-or-less adequate way, so that’s something I suppose. I’ll admit it took guts to bring a moneymaking series like Star Wars to a close, even if it was in the form of an action figure sales vehicle. Well, it was gutsy for a while at least 😉

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Empire. All Jedi has was a bunch of muppets.

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Star Wars for me.
A perfect adventure for young people to enjoy and be mesmerized by.
At the time I saw it, many years ago, there was nothing like it, not on the same scale anyway.

I love the other 2 movies as well, but Star Wars just edges them out, it is hard to beat good memories from younger days: with even still good memories watching years later too!

R4

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THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK:

The best direction of the three.

The actors are more comfortable and confident in their roles.

More ambitious and polished SFX.

The introduction of new and interesting characters.

Only suffers from being a middle chapter.

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Slavicuss said:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK:

The best direction of the three.
The actors are more comfortable and confident in their roles.
More ambitious and polished SFX.
The introduction of new and interesting characters.

I would agree wholeheartedly with all these and add the following (all IMHO):

  • the best soundtrack of the three films
  • darker tone (less of a children’s film, making it even more appealing later in life)
  • more atmospheric

Only suffers from being a middle chapter.

One could argue that being a middle chapter has its advantages, too. The film doesn’t need to devote too much time before “getting going” since the main characters are already known. And I often find the middle of a story the most satisfying: the plot twists and turns, leaving you wondering quite how matters will be resolved. The anticipation of the ending can be better than the actual ending. I’ve always loved the final scene of Empire: a time of loss, reprieve, and yet also of hope.

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Star Wars, the trench run is a masterclass in editing, while it shows the most technical cracks of the three it only reinforces just how amazing it can be, I fall in love with it more every time.

“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” - DV

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Star Wars, because it’s the first SW Movie that i watched.

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Star Wars (1977): A timeless classic, still have many fond memories watching it on the big screen for the first time. Excellent and leisurely worldbuilding combined with an fair abundance of well directed action and space battles and introductions to a great range of charming characters make it an classic feel good movie for me. 5/5

The Empire Strikes Back (1980): A great sequel that I love as well. Better performances, a more solid direction and the darker tone and raised stakes make this an classic example of how to do a sequel properly, However for all it’s greatness, I don’t enjoy it as much as the original. Still a classic though. 4.5/5

Return Of The Jedi (1983): Now time to get the cliche answer of it’s the weakest of the three out the way first. Yes, the Ewoks are a rather iffy substitute for the original plan for Wookies. Yes, the tone feels a little inconsistent and seems to lay it on thick with the lighthearted, more kiddie orientated feel. Yes, its sags a bit in the middle and it generally feels like this is where Star Wars felt more like it becoming more based around merchandise sales. And despite all these flaws, I still rather enjoy it. Mark Hamill’s on top of his game here and the confrontation between him, Vader and the Emperor is well realized, the ending is marvelous and for me remains where the series ended. Weakest of the trilogy but still a mostly solid film. 3.5/5

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I’ve always loved The Empire Strikes Back the best even when I watched the trilogy for the first time as a kid.

I saw the first movie on TV back around 1997 without really knowing it was a trilogy. This was around the time of the SE theatrical release in January '97. I think WPIX 11 was taking advantage of the new SE version by playing the original version on a weeknight. I’d already seen some pop cultural references to Star Wars so I was a bit disappointed by what I saw. I was confused by the Episode 4 crawl. Was I missing Episodes 1-3? It was kind of long but also didn’t really go anywhere, and I’d thought I’d seen stills from scenes that wasn’t in it. I thought Darth Vader was supposed to have a bigger role. And wasn’t there supposed to be more lightsaber stuff? And to be honest, it felt a little stuffy and slow-paced for an 8-year-old kid in 1997.

I didn’t get to the see the other two until later that year. By this point, I must’ve seen the commercials for the other two movies so I convinced my parents to buy me that gold Special Edition VHS set in August. I loved The Empire Strikes Back. It was more like what I was expecting from the first film. It was more adventurous, more planets and spaceships, there was the fun and snappy dialogue and pacing, a nice and clean aesthetic, all the Force spirituality/mythology stuff with Yoda, Darth Vader being a badass, and a cool lightsaber fight at the end. And it’s the only one I thought Luke seemed like a traditional hero.

Return of the Jedi was fine, but I really didn’t like all the icky Jabba’s palace creatures. I had a strange aversion to slimey creatures and makeup effects at this time (I think I somehow saw Phantom of the Paradise on TV when I was really young and was freaked out by the makeup). And adding some erotic slave girl Leia stuff was perhaps a bit weird for me (now aged 9). Equally aroused and disgusted at the same time. Otherwise, Ewoks were cute. I didn’t like the Palpatine makeup. He reminded my too much of the witch from Snow White, who always scared me as a kid. I didn’t like Luke in this. The bad haircut, black outfit, and emo attitude didn’t work for me. But the space battle and final Luke vs Vader fight were cool.

Oh, and I remember really liking the CGI in the special editions. Really refreshed these old movies and made it feel new and and appealing for kids my age. Lol.

I still feel much the same way. I’m not as opposed the makeup and creature effects. I love the first movie now, much more than I did the first time around. Empire is still the best. I’m mostly bored with ROTJ now. Sail barge, the space battle and the Luke/Vader/Palpatine confrontation are great. But everything else is pretty dull and the other actors/characters are sleepwalking through it. ROTJ also looks so bland visually. Nowadays, I don’t mind the CGI changes so much. Some of them are really needless and I wish they’d at least re-do the terrible 1997 graphics.

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Empire.

I love the atypical story structure. It starts up very calmly with a sense of security, followed by the discovery of the rebel base and by the exciting Battle of Hoth. After that the story splits into two very contrasting parts and then perfectly switches between the two; the fast-paced thrilling chase for Millennium Falcon, and the calm training on Dagobah. Finally, it converges into the tense finale at Cloud City with the shocking ending. I think this kind of storyline was quite revolutionary for a mainstream film at the time and this aspect is often overlooked when it comes to Empire. I believe this is one of the best cases of Lucas’ great story-telling ability.

I also love the fact that the storyline invests a lot of time in Empire and its secondary characters. I have always liked the characterisation of imperial officers (Piett, Veers and Ozzel) and the attention given to the imperial fleet and its ships. When I was a kid I was a WW2 naval history enthusiast, therefore Empire was naturally my favourite.

Above all, the acting and actor direction is in my opinion somewhat better than in Star Wars and Jedi.

If I had to pick a close-second, it would be Jedi. Maybe because it wraps up the Empire story really well. But in the end, all three are excellent films, forming a great trilogy.

真実

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The 8th episode is very good! Yes, no doubt, I agree that the stupid line of love between Rose and Finn was generally useless, but otherwise everything is just fine.
And how are lightsaber battles ??? Delight! I looked at it just was afraid to blink! All this acrobatics and simplicity of the previous trilogies are suppressed by the epic and realism of these fights, for me personally. Kylo is a terrific character, the best in SW, I really want to believe that in the end he will straighten his brain 😃 I am very sorry for him if they open the poor man …
And for me, this trilogy remains the best and SW will never die. The eighth episode is not like any previous one, and it’s great!

https://gothicy.com/

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Robby24 said:

The 8th episode is very good! Yes, no doubt, I agree that the stupid line of love between Rose and Finn was generally useless, but otherwise everything is just fine.
And how are lightsaber battles ??? Delight! I looked at it just was afraid to blink! All this acrobatics and simplicity of the previous trilogies are suppressed by the epic and realism of these fights, for me personally. Kylo is a terrific character, the best in SW, I really want to believe that in the end he will straighten his brain 😃 I am very sorry for him if they open the poor man …
And for me, this trilogy remains the best and SW will never die. The eighth episode is not like any previous one, and it’s great!

I think you may be in the wrong thread mate 😃

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… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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Star Wars is my favourite - first film I saw in a cinema.

In those days it was common for cinemas to scrimp on the cost of projector bulbs, so they would often project the image at half brightness. A cinema image should be bright enough to read a newspaper by, according to Stanley Kubrick, but I cannot remember seeing any bright projections until THX auditoriums appeared in the UK in the the mid-90s.

Watching Empire was not a pleasant experience on the big screen, the action between Hoth and Bespin was too dark. You really had to have the Force with you if you needed a toilet break.

I watched ROTJ more often than the other two films on VHS, for the shallow reason of enjoying the superior effects. These days I would say Empire has the best direction and acting, and is the deepest on a philosophical level, but Star Wars had an impact like nothing else.

I had the action figures of Han, Leia, Luke (and maybe the droids) before seeing the film. It didn’t spoil a thing because nobody I knew had seen it. I also read the novelisation of Empire and the Marvel paperback adaptation of ROTJ before seeing them, but again it didn’t spoil a thing.

“If it ain’t workin’, eat sugar.”

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Empire has always been my favourite. I first saw the first two movies as a double bill, and after being thrilled by Star Wars, I was gobsmacked that it could get even better in The Empire Strikes Back. Interesting that the changes to Empire from 1997 are the fewest and least egregious in my opinion. In fact I can think of only a handful that aren’t quite good, although completely unnecessary.