CatBus said:

I was 7 when Empire came out, and while it was certainly a cool movie I liked a lot, it had a lot of stuff that was hard for a kid to process. Down ending, moral ambiguity, not to mention the sexual tension. Star Wars and Jedi were much more satisfying for kids--the bad guys got beaten and there was a big KABOOM to prove it.

I liked Star Wars better until I had time to grow up and have a better understanding of Empire. Empire is certainly the least kid-friendly of the movies, and when a large chunk of your fans are kids, that means it's not going to be as popular at first. But there's no doubt in my mind it's the best of the movies.

That's funny. I always preferred Empire as a kid, but if you ask me now, I rate the original ever-so-slightly higher.