1. ESB

Just watched it a few weeks ago and realized that there are no scenes I don't like except the wampa scene. Pure Gold.

2. ANH/ROTJ

ROTJ was the first movie I saw in a theater, but I still can't get past the boring as hell ewoks take Han prisoner section of the movie. ANH is great but now the jumping of new effects/old effects really needs to be fixed. They need to find a way to make the new shots blend in better with the new CG shots.

3. AOTC

I really enjoyed it but the love story did kill it. Hayden and Natalie looked like they were with their brother/sister. The ending half hour was fantastic.

4. TPM

I enjoy the movie, I don't even mind Jar Jar, but the slapsticky shit annoys me (i.e. stepping in poop, farting in the face, et al.) and the Yoda puppet is TERRIBLE. I think hokey CG would've been better than that atrocious piece of crap.


I agree with the others that ROTS may be near, if not at, the top. Hopefully Tony Montana will start a new thread after that.

Personally, if I was asked this question prior to the prequel trilogy I would have to agree with a lot of people and say The ESB would be at the top of my list. However, since we are days away from Episode 3 being released and seeing the fall of Anakin, I'd have to say that personally, I have a new respect for the ROTJ and Anakin's redemption. So I will go with:

1. ROTJ (Anakin redeemed, Doing my best to ignore Ewoks)
2. ESB (Fight between father and son - No movie will ever beat "I am your father" hands down.)
3. TPM (Sure Jar Jar got annoying but he wasn't in there for most die-hard fans, he was in there for the kiddies. And the duel at the end made it worth sitting through. Until then, we didn't know lightsabers could do that.)
4. ANH (I know it's the original but I can't help noticing how dated it looks, even compared to Eps. 5 and 6. But the space fight at the end still puts a smile on my face)
5. AOTC (A bit of a downer. From all the leaked pics showing Dooku with 2 lightsabers and what we thought was gonna be a longer duel... but it did it's job of setting up Anakin's eventual fall. And making Luke getting his hand chopped off more symbolic)

I get annoyed people say that the prequels are crappy after thought sequels to the original. They ALL have slow parts to them, and they are all flawed. But the main story they all make up is what keeps me watching. (And the prequel trilogy hasn't had the benefit of having a Harrison Ford driving the onscreen chemestry between everyone)

ESB > ANH > ROTJ > ROTS > AOTC > TPM

The PT had a great story to tell, it was just really badly plotted out and I believe the focus should never been on Anakin, rather the rise of the Empire. A lot of what was covered in AotC with the separatists should have been in TPM. I would have liked to see the love story plotted over the invasion of Naboo for EpII - Amidala to be killed, sent back to Naboo for protection where Anakin and her fall in love, then Naboo invaded and Anakin saving her and her people. RotS was starting to get back on track with the OT...but it needed to get rid of everything to do with General Grievous and reinsert the rebel scenes and the betrayl of Padme and Obi-Wan.

ANH is awesome...ESB is the best sequel in history. RotJ is basically the precursor for the PT...

1. ESB
2. ROTS
3. ROTJ
4. AOTC
5. TPM
6. ANH

ANH bores me to death now. I think I watched it too much, now it appears slow and irrelevant. Even TPM is more entertaining.

TPM has the flaws everybody's been aware of since 1999, so I won't tell them once more.

AOTC has great scenes (Kamino + Geonosis) but also the dumbest scenes ever witnessed in a SW (Tatooine and Naboo get the award).

ROTJ has great Special FX, the Final Duel is the most epic one in the whole saga, but ... Ewoks ... And this two-parts scheme (Jabba / Death Star) becomes boring with time, and the transition period on Endor is very awkward and pointless. I always skip either the Tatooines scenes or the Endor scenes, depending on the mood.

ROTS is great, although still flawed in its first half (bad rhytm, stupid dialogues) but the second part is flawless (from the Opera Scene).

ESB is the best, everybody knows it, just like everybody knows 2 + 2 = 4.

UPDATE

1] AOTC 10/10
2] TPM & ESB 9/10
3] ROTS & ANH 8/10
4] ROTJ 7/10

I'm actually kind of surprised about the rankings I set up. I figured ROTS would probably rank higher than it did, but the lack of a followthrough concerning the Sifo Dyas mystery from Episode II as well as not satisfactorily tying up the Vanishing Jedi subplot hurt the overall score. It works great as a film unto itself, but the issue is that it's *NOT* a film unto itself, it has to fit into a larger 6-film saga and it's debatable how well it does that in some places.

Some other guy wrote about how pure TPM is and I tend to agree. It's fun to watch Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan all but sleep walk through the battle droids and see a good, innocent kid win his freedom from slavery. Even Jar Jar does a lot to sell the innocence of the time period.

This is what gives the events of AOTC more weight, seeing those characters lose their innocence. By the time the credits rolled, Obi-Wan had had his illusions about the Jedi Order called into question and he must've been disturbed by his Master's Master giving in to the Dark Side and joining the enemy. Anakin was guilty of wholesale murder, 'nuff said. As for Padme, the democracy she loved so much had begun to crumble. It's a bittersweet moment at best, knowing that they love each other and also knowing that their wedding is probably the last completely happy moment they'll ever have together. And it's only happy for them because they refuse to acknowledge the war and the changes sweeping through the galaxy. And once the war has gotten into full swing, I imagine Jar Jar was wishing he'd kept his mouth shut.

ROTS does it even better. Yoda sees for himself the weaknesses and limitations of the Jedi Code. It seems like their policy about not making emotional attachments ought to work... except it doesn't.

Yoda learned that first hand in AOTC when he chose to save innocent lives at the expense of allowing evil to live another day. His first lesson came in the arena battle when he ordered the clonetroopers to rescue the survivors. While that was the humane decision to make, it would've been a lot more efficient to simply blow up the entire stadium with all the battle droids and Separatist leaders inside it. A lot of Jedi would've died, but it would've stopped the war in it's tracks. Likewise, Yoda chose to abandon his duel with Dooku and save Obi-Wan and Anakin rather than finishing Dooku off, whatever the cost.

ROTS expands on that even more. For an order sworn against emotional attachments, Obi-Wan speaks loud and clear how much his friendship with Anakin has come to mean to him. Yoda sees how his leadership of the Jedi Order is directly responsible for their demise. If he'd made even token efforts for Anakin, there's reason to believe Anakin would never have joined the Dark Side.

The failures and weaknesses of the Jedi are most chiefly Yoda's responsibility. I can't really blame him for choosing exile like he did. What else was left for him anymore? What confidence could he have possibly had in his leadership abilities by then?

Obi-Wan isn't much better off. Yoda's general policies about the Jedi Order form the big picture of the Jedi's failure, but Obi-Wan's fingerprints are all over Anakin's turn to evil. Never once do we see Obi-Wan explain the rationale behind Jedi directives. Never once do we see him treat Anakin like his brother. Never once does Obi-Wan sit Anakin down and explain why his loyalties should always remain with the ideal the Republic represents. These are lessons Qui-Gon would've made sure to impart. Obi-Wan, being a more withdrawn, reserved and aloof person, can't do the very thing he wants most- to help his friend in becoming a Jedi. Had Qui-Gon been Anakin's master, if Palpatine ever revealed himself as a Sith Lord to Anakin, Anakin would've killed him on the spot then and there, period.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I always kinda wondered why Yoda and Obi-Wan just sat on their butts for 20 years and made Luke do all the hard work. The PT answers that question in spades. The rise of the Empire is most chielfy their fault and they felt they'd done enough already in screwing up the situation.

1. ROTS
2. ESB
3. AOTC
4. ANH
5. TPM
6. ROTJ

1. TESB
2. ANH
3. ROTJ
4. TPM
5. ROTS
6. AOTC (I would omit this, but whatever)

1. AOTC
2. ROTS
3. TPM
4. ANH
5. TESB
6. ROTJ

1. TESB
2. ROTS
3. ANH
4. AOTC
5. TPM
6. ROTJ

I said:


After a year's reflection my revised list is as follows:

1. ESB - Still the best.
2. ROTS - Best final act of any movie or series of movies.
3. ANH - Fun all-around sci-fi movie. Alec Guiness puts this above ROTJ.
4. ROTJ - Ending has a lot of weight behind it after ROTS but ewoks, and poor effects compared to ESB, bring me down.
5. TPM - Just watched this the other day and I think the pacing is actually very good, stupid shit aside.
6. AOTC - Realized the only parts of this I liked is Kamino and from the point of when Anakin goes on the search for his mom.

These two make no sense together.


This makes no sense either.

anyone who didn't put ESB as #1 is seriously retarded.

and if anyone else besides my mom cares:

2 ANH
3 ROTJ
4 ROTS
5 TPM
6 AOTC

Eh, I'll bite.

1) ROTJ
2) ROTS
3) ANH
4) ESB
5) TPM
6) AOTC

It's a tough call between all of them. They're all great movies in their own way, some more so than others. Personally ROTJ has always been my personal fave. I grew up with that movie.

1. ROTS
2. ESB
3. ANH
4. TPM
5. ROTJ
6. AOTC

I really enjoyed reading your insight for this post. Good points.

ESB-father vs. son, asteroid chase,boba,cliffhanger ending. this one was the greatest sequel in film history.

ANH-it was the first one I saw in theatre. the then introduction of vader, the death star battle. this one started it all

ROTS-this was the prequel film that lives up to the OT, anakins fall, the birth of the rebellion,palpy unleased,order 66 not without its flaws but a solid lead into IV

ROTJ-anakins redemption, final space battle. great wrap-up to the series though I could do without the dance number and wesa free!

AOTC-clone wars, jango,jedi battles, dooku, speeder chase through downtown coruscant. limited by bad diologue and a butchered sound track

TPM-jedi in their prime, civillized era of the republic.shaky but entertaining start to saga,fantastic visuals at the cost of solid storyline, but it had young obi,qui gon and darth maul.I watched it again the other day and it does fit well into the larger story of the saga.

ROTJ
ESB
ANH/TPM
ROTS
AOTC

The middle ground is more-or-less equal, but both Jedi and Clones stand out. ROTJ, for me, was given its exclamation point by seeing Luke follow through on his promise of a complete-Jabba-whooping. It's not cinematically brilliant, it's fun. And, likewise, it was one scene in AOTC that killed it for me. Every time I see Dooku drop a pillar on Obi-Wan and Anakin, two things stand out: One, if size mattered, Yoda should have pushed them out of the way instead of stopping the pillar, and, two, "size matters not." A silly continuity error, but we all have our idiosyncrasies, and one of mine is apparently letting minor continuity problems shut down movies for me.