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Ranking the Star Wars films

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I’m not sure if this is a thread already or not, but whatever. Here is my rankings:

  1. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  2. A New Hope (1977)
  3. The Last Jedi (2017)
  4. The Force Awakens (2015)
  5. Revenge of the Sith (2005)
  6. Attack of the Clones (2002)
  7. Return of the Jedi (1983)
  8. Solo (2018)
  9. Rogue One (2016)
  10. The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
  11. The Phantom Menace (1999)
  12. The Clone Wars (2008)

Not enough people read the EU.

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What the hell kind of ranking system is 7-13? Also, a lot of folks have done complete rankings in the “Rate TFA” thread. But meh, what the hell, I’ll do it.

  1. The Empire Strikes Back
  2. Star Wars/A New Hope
  3. The Force Awakens
  4. Return of the Jedi
  5. The Phantom Menace
  6. Revenge of the Sith
  7. Attack of the Clones

Of course, I haven’t lived with TFA nearly long enough to be sure about its placement yet, but (as I’ve said elsewhere) I think that for all its faults, its spark and vitality give it an edge over ROTJ. And ROTS and AOTC are so close that the distinction is pretty meaningless, except AOTC had the droid factory scene and subsequent 3PO/battle droid mashup debacle (which I consider to be the point when GL completely abandoned all pretense of even trying to make proper Star Wars movies), so it gets the bottom slot officially.

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Sorry, I wrote 7-1, but when I posted, it turned into 7-13. Even when I try to edit it, it says 7-1. Weird.

Not enough people read the EU.

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 (Edited)
  1. The Empire Strikes Back
  2. Star Wars
  3. Return of the Jedi
  4. Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
  5. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
  6. The Clone Wars
  7. The Phantom Menace
  8. The Star Wars Holiday Special
  9. Attack of the Clones
  10. Revenge of the Sith

As I haven’t yet seen TFA, it isn’t on this list. Once I do see it, I presume I will slot it in between ROTJ and the first Ewok movie or between the second Ewok movie and the Clone Wars movie; it all depends on how underwhelming I find it.

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  1. The Empire Strikes Back
  2. Star Wars
  3. Return of the Jedi
  4. The Force Awakens
  5. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
  6. The Star Wars Holiday Special
  7. Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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joefavs said:

  1. The Empire Strikes Back
  2. Star Wars/A New Hope
  3. The Force Awakens
  4. Return of the Jedi
  5. The Phantom Menace
  6. Revenge of the Sith
  7. Attack of the Clones

Of course, I haven’t lived with TFA nearly long enough to be sure about its placement yet, but (as I’ve said elsewhere) I think that for all its faults, its spark and vitality give it an edge over ROTJ. And ROTS and AOTC are so close that the distinction is pretty meaningless, except AOTC had the droid factory scene and subsequent 3PO/battle droid mashup debacle (which I consider to be the point when GL completely abandoned all pretense of even trying to make proper Star Wars movies), so it gets the bottom slot officially.

This.

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Whenever I try to rank Star Wars films, I just can’t seem to do it. I’ve seen them all in almost equal viewings. The only one I’ve avoided most of these years is TPM, and then obviously, I don’t have access to TFA for home viewing yet.

Yeah, PT will always be several degrees lower than the OT. Still, some days I might enjoy watching AotC and RotS since they were part of my childhood. Other days, I love throw myself into the atmospheric display of ESB, or enjoy the great tri-finale battle in RotJ, or see again how Luke began his journey in ANH.

If I had a ‘ranking’ system for Star Wars, I would put Episodes II-VII into a “I would rewatch these for fun” box and TPM gets put into a “Ehh, I wouldn’t actively seek to rewatch this” box.

The Rise of Failures

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  1. The Empire Strikes Back (obviously)
  2. Return of the Jedi (even though there are some problematic bits (i.e., Ewoks), the throne room scenes just put it a bit above ANH for me, but it’s very close)
  3. Star Wars (although some may call this “A New Hope”, it’ll always be “Star Wars” to me)
  4. The Force Awakens (at least there aren’t any over-the-top horrible bits, like Jar Jar)
  5. The Phantom Menace (Jar Jar may be the worst thing in a galaxy far, far away, but Duel of the Fates is the best thing in all of the prequels…by far; heck, Duel of the Fates is better than anything in the Force Awakens as well)
  6. Revenge of the Sith (meh)
  7. Attack of the Clones (I truly…deeply…love you!–No, wait a minute, I actually hate you…worse than sand even (I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, rough and irritating and it gets everywhere))…
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1.) The Empire Strikes Back
2.) Star Wars/A New Hope
3.) The Force Awakens
4.) Return of the Jedi
5.) Revenge of the Sith
6.) The Phantom Menace
7.) Attack of the Clones

The Force Awakens is still pretty new so its placement is shaky. Could end up being swapped with ROTJ.

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  1. The Empire Strikes Back and / or Star Wars
  2. Star Wars and / or The Empire Strikes Back (I can’t really decide)
  3. The Return of the Jedi
  4. The Force Awakens
  5. The Star Wars Holiday Special
  6. Caravan of Courage
  7. Battle For Endor
  8. The Phantom Menace
  9. The Attack of the Clones
  10. Clone Wars vol. 1 + Clone Wars vol. 2
  11. The Clone Wars (2008)
  12. Revenge of The Sith
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#1 The Empire Strikes Back
#2 Star Wars
#3 Return of the Jedi

#4 The Force Awakens

#5 Prequel #1
#6 Prequel #3
#7 Prequel #2

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1 - Star Wars: A New Hope
2 - The Empire Strikes Back
3 - Return of the Jedi
4 - The Force Awakens
5 - The Phantom Menace
6 - Revenge of the Sith
7 - Attack of the Clones

57 - Star Wars Holiday Special

z. Clone Wars movie from the 2000s.

The Person in Question

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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.

Not enough people read the EU.

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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.

I think it did less to crap on the OT characters then the two after it which more or less ruined the characters of Darth Vader, Yoda, and Boba Fett.

TPM didn’t have as many continuity errors with the OT either. I didn’t like that Obi-Wan was under another Jedi’s tutelage besides Yoda and I didn’t like being introduced to Anakin as a child. Although he was at least consistent with the character of Anakin being a good guy and wasn’t what we got with Hayden. It has the whole chosen one prophecy and the midichlorian explanation of the force which is stupid but probably wouldn’t have been as big of a deal if the movie was better.

Jar Jar is annoying but had he been less shrill and not been used for bathroom humor he could have worked. At least we were spared bad romance dialouge unless you count are you an angel as 9 year old Anakin making a move on Padme. Also no flying R2-D2. Even though Maul has almost no lines at least he isn’t as silly as someone like Grevious and him being more a mysterious character that doesn’t say much kind of works.

It feels like it is a better made film overall with more real sets and practical effects. None of the soap opera like couch shots of the other two. At least it had a puppet Yoda in the original even though it looked pretty bad.

It has the best lightsaber fight of the PT. It doesn’t have the OT grit where it seems the lightsabers themselves are dificult to wield and the feeling that the characters are actually trying to hit each other, but at least it is not as ridiculous as Yoda bouncing around like a racquet ball or the Obi-Wan Vader duel over the lava.

All of the prequels are pretty much at the same level to me and honestly I’d probably watch ROTS over any of them if given a choice, but TPM is also probably the least offensive in my mind.

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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.

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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?

真実

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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.

I assure you I highly dislike the PT, as both movies and part of the SW canon, but there are equally pros and cons in both the PT and TFA: I consider all of them mediocre, but each one of them for very different reasons.

The Original Trilogy’s Timeline Reconstruction: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Implied-starting-date-of-the-Empire-from-OT-dialogue/post/786201/#TopicPost786201

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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?

Subjective shit or objective shit?

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John Doom 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.

I assure you I highly dislike the PT, as both movies and part of the SW canon, but there are equally pros and cons in both the PT and TFA: I consider all of them mediocre, but each one of them for very different reasons.

Therein lies the problem. If you think TFA is mediocre, I disagree but I allow you that opinion. If you think the PT is only mediocre, I think that’s poor judgement or maybe just a failure to remember. Again, when was the last time you saw the PT?

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

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TV’s Frink said:

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?

Subjective shit or objective shit?

Subjective. Don’t worry, if it was objective then we would be attacking them together.

真実