I have a feeling this is going to be a blowout, but we’re all getting excited for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so why not. What is your favourite Star Wars movie?
Let’s be real here: it’s The Empire Strikes Back.
But, for fun, let’s rank them in the comments below.
Here are my rankings…
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. The Phantom Menace
6. Attack of the Clones
Comments
68 responses to “The Big Question: Favourite Star Wars Movie”
We all know the right answer is Empire, why is there a poll?
Ranked: 5, 4, 6, 3, 2, 1
This is the correct ranking.
Can confirm. Definitely the correct ranking prior to seeing 7.
Some days I’d put 3 above six, but otherwise this.
Indeed.
5,4,6,3,2
There is no 1
The poll should just offer Empire 6 times.
Ranking:
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Empire Strikes Back
4. Empire Strikes Back
5. Empire Strikes Back
6. Empire Strikes Back
7. The other ones.
But do you know why you believe Empire to be the better film? It’s because princess Leia has a sensible wardrobe, has a leadership role on hoth, and we get into some shocking reveal between Vader and skywalk that is spun as though Vader said it just to screw with Luke’s mental stability.
“all too easy.”
Honest people choose 6, people sensitive to what’s ‘cool’ and a slightly edgy answer while not being able to contort their morality to supporting the prequels will choose 5 (I did), hipsters and anyone under 30 will choose 1-3 based on what they saw first, and folks who saw it in the cinema on release will vote for 4.
Pretty much agree with Mark’s rankings. Watched them all on TV recently for the first time in years upon years, I think since EpIII came out quite possibly. Was surprised both by just how bad the prequels were, as well as how good the originals were.
I was surprised that my opinions on 1 and 2 had reversed. When 1 came out I enjoyed it (but I was much younger) and I didn’t enjoy 2 at all. Watched them again and while they both bored me I found myself rolling my eyes much more at 1 and that 2 had redeemed itself slightly.
A lot of that had to do with Jar Jar.
I enjoyed both the first ones a lot. What an idiot kid 😛
For me, II had gotten a lot worse since now I was paying more attention to what was actually going on. Anakin’s awful delivery of awful lines and generally just being an A-grade prat, that stupid CGI pear, that whole “oh and by the way Padme’s shirt gets
switched to a midriff-revealing topripped. Found it all just so bleh, and made me want those “what if [prequel movie] was actually good?” versions to come to life even harder. Surely we could have a reboot, they’re all the rage these days…Yeah don’t get me wrong I’m not saying 2 is “good” by any stretch, I just found myself giving less of a crap about it’s glaring errors because I didn’t have to deal with Jar Jar every 5 seconds. I was picking just as many holes in it but the overall bad taste in my mouth was lessened because of the sweet relief of not having “messa have no reason to be here!” around.
Tbh I never really got the hate for Jar Jar. And even watching it again now, I didn’t mind him so much 😛
This was before reading the whole “Darth Jar Jar” thing, too.
I guess what I dislike most about him is wider context, or lack thereof. He’s a comic relief character in a series of movies that doesn’t require or call for comic relief. If you remove him from the movie you lose exactly nothing and his role could easily be filled by other characters.
E.g. Instead of landing halfway across the planet, just come in at the Capital (remove the Gungan underwater bits), have Sebulba pick a fight with Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan, etc.
So what we’re left with is being forced to watch some substandard character (reminding me of the Elmo article that was on Kotaku recently) detracting from the overall narrative for no applicable reason. I can deal with Emo-Ani, there’s a narrative reason for him being emo.
Well C3PO and R2 are both comic relief. They’re just good comic relief
Excellent point, though I guess you can juxtapose 4-5-6 3PO with 1-2-3 3PO. I mean, in 2 3PO is just plain annoying (filing the Jar-Jar void) and has no real place or purpose. 4-5-6 they at least they serve as a MacGuffin to some extent.
Return of the Jedi. Ewoks are adorable!
So here’s where I get ostracised from the nerd circles: The “Battle For Endor” TV movie was actually the first Star Wars thing I ever saw when I was a tiny little Badger cub. I kind of loved it.
I didn’t see any of the real movies until much later, at which point the only childhood touch-point I had was BFE and an Ewok toy I’d been given at around the same time.
I like the Ewoks.
I saw Caravan of Courage at the cinema…
Mark’s rating mirrors mine exactly. I always thought The Phantom Menace was my least favorite until I rewatched Attack of the Clones.
It might, on the outside, appear like there’s no right or wrong answer to this question – but there is.
Actually, it looks exactly like there’s a right answer, and five wrong ones 😛
At this time of year it’s got to be the Christmas Special.
There’s really nothing quite like Carrie Fisher, probably coked out of her mind, trying to sing that Life Day song.
Why is this poll missing Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure? And Ewoks: The Battle For Endor?
Sure, they’re no Empire Strikes Back, but they’re both still better than the prequels.
I completely forgot about Caravan of Courage. Probably because the water scene scared me as a kid.
There’s also “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, which was released in theatres so should count (even if it was essentially a long pilot for the TV series).
I vote for……Caravan of Courage
For me so far as cannon movies go:
1) Empire
2) New Hope
3) Jedi
4) Sith
5) Clones
6) Phantom
Subject to change based upon Force Awakens tonight at midnight.
You know this is a really hard question for me to answer.
4 does a great job at setting up the story behind the series, which- despite the campiness of it all would have to be my favourite.
5 is great for introducing Yoda and setting up the vader/dark side of the force conclusions
6 disappointed me a little at the revelations and how open ended the story ends
3 had epic lightsaber battles but they made R2D2 more annoying with all the screaming. Anakins fall to the dark side was interesting and would have been far better if the entire cast had a better director to give the cast more emotion. Padmes pregnancy announcement was the most emotional scene in all 6 movies and barely a word was uttered. The introduction of mythos in the star wars universe with the Darth Palagius story was fantastic. No verbal dialogue from Jar Jar was also great.
1 was just so so. Yes Jar Jar was annoying, but if it weren’t for the rule of two- I would have totally believed him being a sith lord masquerading as an idiot. Young Anakin was annoying, the double bladed lightsaber battle was epic, as well as the music. The larger backdrops thanks to CGI was great for its time and captured my imagination. I kind of think bringing C-3PO and R2D2 was a bit annoying. Honestly how old are those bloody droids?
Episode 2 was at star wars’ weakest but I don’t think it was bad. It was kind of solo but didn’t offer me more like Episode 1 did.
So that would be my order and reasoning behind it all. The Prequels aren’t the abomination I put them down as after spending the last week watching them all again one movie per day.
AM I looking forward to 7? Kind of but I generally don’t like J. J. Abram’s work
I voted for Empire, but I’d also like to add a write-in vote for Caravan of Courage.
I’ll probably be crucified for this, but 3 is probably my second or third favorite. I have a lot of trouble with 1 these days because it just bores me, but my order would be, 5,6,3,4,2,1.
Sith had a lot going for it, I thought. Sure, Hayden Christensen isn’t the best actor, but considering the wretched dialog he was given, I don’t blame him completely. The Anakin/Obi Wan battle was just brilliant. Epic. Considering it’s potentially the most legendary battle in ep 1-6, (in terms of history, ramification, etc) I thought they did a great job
It’s just a shame Lucas sold it off before he could get around to doing the special editions of the prequel trilogy. Would have been interesting to see if it made the movies better or worse by replacing Hayden Christiansen with a CGI Hayden Christiansen.
Revenge of the Sith was good and underrated. It was much better than the other 2 prequels and better paced than episodes 4 and 5.
We watched episode 4 the other day and it is pretty slow for the first hour but they are setting up a lot of stuff. In Empire the Degobah scenes are a bit slow as well on repeat viewings
Typical. Always leave out The Clone Wars and Star Wars Holiday Special.
The special that must not be spoken of can not be allowed to continue existing. Hush now
Revenge of the Sith
Oh right:
3,6,5,2,4,1.
Go home Jimu, you’re drunk 😛
I wish.
I kind of have to agree sort of with Jimu.
Number 3 had crummy acting and crummy lines for sure, but it adds to the series with 2 epic fights going simultaneously, and it adds extra back story with the mythos of Darth Palagius. That 2 minute opera scene added more to the series than the CGI added entire new worlds in PM
I would not put it at number 1 though, never… That’s too generous in my eyes.
I put it as number 4,but I almost made it number 3 because ROTJ felt weaker in wrapping up a story that we know is far from wrapped up
Mmm, I’d still go:
5,6,4,1,3,2
I still think PM is much better than the other prequels, HOWEVER I plan to watch Revenge of the Sith for the first time since it came out in the cinema. So I may be less harsh after being reminded how shitty Attack of the Clones was last night. God it was bad 😛
Yeah i did my rex watch and kept as unbiased a mind as possible. Honestly in terms of what the movies add to the star wars universe 2 and 6 are the weakest movies, 4, 3,and 5 are the strongest and 1 is still so-so. I didn’t find jar jar amusing in the least bit, but I kind of feel that R2s persistent chirping and screaming in 2 and 3 to be notably annoying. In number 3 it felt like they were just tapping the “scream” button on R2s soundboard
@theaptpupil agreed with the R2 screeching. My ears were in a fair chunk of pain!
I still think 6 adds a fair bit to the story, mainly that Jabba represents a force outside of the empire, which means there could be many more, brings many new races in instead of just a shedload of humans, and despite them being a bit of a pain the Ewoks are kinda cute 😛 Blame me being young when I got lots of Ewok stuff as a kid!
But yes, 2 adds only small amounts and does a mess of that at best. Also establishes lightsabers are REALLY good at cutting stuff in half. That was about it though!
The prequels were fine for the most part, save for excessively silly bits like Jar Jar or the Padme/Anakin bit in II being entirely too long. The dialogue in III is horrendous though, absolutely horrendous; poor writing and poorer deliveries.
Empire
Also, this article needs a link to the Machete Order, especially for you Mark, you want to be introducing your kids to Star Wars in the correct order.
http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/
Get over the machete order. The correct order is 4,5,6. Done. 😛
Alright, you win.
Regardless of my own opinions, the Machete order is probably the best of a bad bunch. I still just hurt so badly from Ep II hahaha.
1. ROTJ – Colourful, vibrant. Endor was so different to what we saw before in the series. Had some of the best lines in the series. Big battles at the end. Admiral Ackbar. Easily my favourite.
2. ESB – Great middle part of the series. Bit dark. Good survival story. It was a bit weaker than the others because it doesnt finish. Its more a lead-in movie to ROTJ but still fantastic.
3. NH – Great start to the series. Dating a little bit due to the budget but still good. Not quite as memorable as the other 2 originals.
4. PM – Liam Neeson. Podrace. And the Gungan City was pretty creative and cool looking, even if the Gungans themselves suck. Double bladed lightsaber was the best. I was 12 when I saw it so it was excellent and I have fond memories of going to see it in the cinema with my family so I suppose that helps.
5. ROTS – Ties the prequels into the originals reasonably. Samuel L Jackson actually does something which is cool. Some really poor acting at times though. Its also a bit long. Really hated Anakins overall story arc as I think it was written really poorly. Opening sequence is really cool though.
6. AOTC – Easily worst entry in the series. This was all about Anakin and his idiotic storyline. Soap opera in movie form, which is not what Im watching Star Wars for. Christopher Lee was miscast as he was too old. Some of the CGI is absolute garbage and doesnt even hold up well now. I probably will only watch this again when I rewatch the whole series for continuity purposes
It always used to be empire but I find the dagobah stuff really hurts the pace for me these days,so it’s got to be a new hope for me
Empire is clearly the best, sure, but is it my favourite? Return of the Jedi is generally considered the weakest of the original trilogy but hell, the opening reintroducing Luke and the rebels’ infiltration of Jabba’s palace, the battle on the sail barge, the Endor speeder bike chase, and the epic final duel between Vader and Luke, and Vader’s ultimate redemption? Jedi is my favourite, and the standard I will probably wind up holding Force Awakens to, when I see it this weekend.
The next question that should be asked is: between Episode I and Episode II, which is worst?
FWIW it’s AotC.
Definitely Attack of the Clones, it’s borderline un-watchable and they ruin Boba Fett
Yep definitely attack of the clones. The CGI is dreadful and the green-screen is incredibly obvious a lot of times through the movie. I feel sorry for the actors involved considering how few props they had to work with.
I agree. One of the many things that irks me about AotC is its CGI quality. It was quite an evident downgrade to TPM. In TPM there are some small scenes where some characters looked a little rubbery, reduced texture fidelity or the lighting was a bit off (chalk it all up to late 90s computers), but overall the CGI in TPM looked plausibly photorealistic. There wasn’t even a hint of green-screenery. The CGI in RotS is a noticeable improvement over AotC, but it still didn’t quite convince me.
Another thing in favour of TPM is the duel of fates lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. It’s still miles better and way more intense than any of the lightsaber battles in AotC and RotS. The music is appropriately epic too.
Speaking of music, John William’s score in TPM is the best SW score of the prequel trilogy. The aforementioned Duel of Fates is one of the most iconic Star Wars scores.
Yeah I really felt the lack of a good soundtrack for Eps II & III, particularly in the opening scene of RotS. It felt so flat and prolonged to me! Ahh well. I am just happy that the comics for the prequels were pretty rid (especially the Darth Maul ones *drooool*) and we now get to have fun with characters that almost feel like old friends 😛
I know that Empire is the superior movie but my favourite has always been Return of the Jedi, I think it’s the fact that it concludes an amazing trilogy.
Order: 6, 5, 4, 3, 1, 2 (pod race >>> ruining Boba Fett and the stormtroopers)
As I have just watched all six means this is the only order and it must be obeyed and I will shout down anybody’s opinion that is different to mine as I am on the internet and that’s how it works I believe:
1. Empire (Dad?)
2. Jedi (Green is the new blue)
3. The first one (Dammit Porkins)
4. Revenge (I’m good. And now I’m bad, killing kids)
5. Darth Maul saves Xmas
6. WTF? Flying crickets and a scene from a 70’s Bond film. Just kill them.
🙂
Can’t wait.
Hahaha Darth Maul saves Xmas indeed. And your summary of Ep II is pretty spot on.
Pretty much the sentiment in here is Empire Strikes Back. And they’re right 😉 /thread
Phantom Menace! Bring back Jar Jar Binks!
… said no one ever
As a kid I loved 6 and 4 – but mostly 6. I begrudgingly watched 5 whenever it was on but didn’t like it because the bad guys got the upper hand. As an adult re-waching them all I finally understood why everyone praises 5. It’s not just the big things Empire does right – it’s everything.