Cultural impact exists outside of a film and has no bearing on the quality of the film.


Empire. ROTJ is my personal fave, but that wasn't the question.

ESB is the best film in the series, but AotC is the most entertaining.

I gotta go with ANH here. It's the best of the lot. Pure entertainment, and a complete story in itself. I didn't like ESB that much. Mostly because I was around to see all these movies in the theater. A three year wait after a cliffhanger ending can foster some bitter memories in an eight year old.


ESB is better once you see ROTJ, but that three year gap killed my enthusiasm for it as a stand alone movie.

Liam Neeson was shocking in TPM. And there is no way that TPM is ANYTHING like ANH; not by a long shot.

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

1: ESB
2: ANH
3: AOTC
4: TPM
5: ROTJ

Although ESB & ANH flip flop depending on how I feel at the time. Same with TPM & ROTJ. But AOTC always stays the in the middle.

Anyone who was under the age of 10 in 1983 thought the Ewoks were totally the shit. Don't even try to deny it.

I watched ROTJ for the first time in over a year Sunday afternoon. And it's true, the last 30 minutes are the shit, small furry things or no. I mean Lando back on the Falcon, the Rebel in the Biker Scout disguise who's hardly seen, and of course the final duel, well... shit.


It's got what you need.

What the fuck have the put in the water out your way, T???

ROTJ is the most under-appreciated movie in the history of movies. It has the greatest scene in movie history that is better than the ESB "revelation".

I like RotJ the best. For me it delivers the best climax in cinema history!

This poll is seriously fucked! ?

1. Star Wars - 10/10
2. The Empire Strikes Back - 10/10
3. 3 way tie ROTJ, AOTC and TPM - 7/10

I'm with the ROTJ crowd. If there's a SW movie I can watch over and over, its ROTJ. I was 13 when it came out in theatres, and when Vader tossed Palps, everyone in the theatre cheered. The only time I've ever seen that kind of outburst in a theatre.


I love the catwalk scene, where Luke first reaches his father. I LOVE Vader's arrival on the DS2, he was just so badass there. I love the scenes with the Emperor and just fow friggin' evil he was. And of course...the duel in the throneroom. But my favorite is the unmasking scene, and the pyre. Being a chick and all, I still tear up. *snif*

My next favorites are a tie between ESB and AOTC. I think TPM is my least fave.

My new rankings:
1. AOTC, ESB
2. ROTJ, ANH, TPM.

I find it impossible to accuartely rank these movies, so I don't

Return of the Jedi: Mostly because it's the one OT film that I recall seeing most clearly in theater's. But secondly, it's a wonderfully acted, scripted, action-packed film. It's full of drama, tears, intense Vader moments. It's also as well, for me, the one SW film that I never get sick of watching.

Simple list.

1. The Empire Strikes Back (10/10)
2. Attack of the Clones (8/10)
3. A New Hope (8/10)
4. The Phantom Menace (7/10)
5. Return of the Jedi (7/10)

ESB 10/10
ANH 10/10
ROTJ 9/10
AOTC 8/10
TPM 7/10

Really tho, it's only the last part of ROTJ that gets a 9 up until that point I would probably rate AOTC & TPM above it.

1.AOTC 10/10

2.TPM 10/10

3.ANH/ESB 7.5/10

4.ROTJ 6/10

1. ESB 5/5.
2. ANH 5/5.
3. ROTJ 4/5.
4. TPM 4/5.
5. AOTC 4/5.

I think it has the potential of being the best. Let's hope the acting and dialogue id better than AOTCs.

I would say

1. ESB.
2. ROTJ & TPM
3. AOTC & ANH

3. not being bad as I think they are all great

Here is my list.

1. ROTJ first one I saw in the theater(that I remember at least)

2. TPM/AOTC I like them both equally. There are things I hate in Aotc and TPM but there are things that I absolutely love in both movies.

3. ESB - I usually take a nap when the Dagobah scene starts and wake up sometime in cloud city.
4. ANH - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just shows to go ya that there is no 'norm' when it comes to what impacts you emotionally. I'd have to say from a film making standpoint that TESB wins.

From a technical standpoint, AOTC, no question and it's almost as fun as ANH for pure watching pleasure. The elevator gag still cracks me up. None of the movies are perfect though, as there are things that I can still do without in each of them.

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

Empire Strikes Back - Deep plot and best character development.

A New Hope - A close tie with ESB.

Return of the Jedi - The most entertaining, despite muppets galore.

Revenge of the Sith? - A guess based on plot and insider opinions of the Prequels.

The Phantom Menace - Better editing would have helped, better plot even more.

Attack of the Clones - The first half is Star Wars gone TV, Yoda vs Dooku is cheesy and a bad decision.

nice.
interesting to see a few have rated ANH as last in the list.

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

ANH and ROTJ both have some really slow points. The pre-Mos Eisley scenes in ANH (except the Empire/Vader/Leia stuff) and Acts I & II of ROTJ. If each film had quicker pacing during those periods, I probably would've ranked them higher. However, all of the Palpatine/Vader/Luke scenes totally make up for the otherwise slow pace. And FYI, I've got no beef with the Ewoks.

That being said, none of the movies are perfect and all suffer minor pacing problems at times, so no big deal.

ROTJ
AOTC/TESB (tie)
TPM
ANH





I love the ROTJ Luke/Vader duel, probably the best one in all of the movies. I fall asleep during ANH.............BTW there's a huge gap between TPM and ANH.

I was five years old when I saw ROTJ in 1983. It became my favorite, and even with its weaknesses I still consider it to be the best because the climax was perfect. I cried when Yoda and Darth Vader died.

Empire Strikes Back would be my second-favorite. It has the best sabre duel because it's so damned scarey. You get the feeling that Luke is horribly outmatched by Vader, plus Vader begins toying with him.

Then there's the scene where Yoda retorts Luke's "I'm not afraid" line with, "Oh... you will be... You will be." It's a major accomplishment of cinematography when a muppet with the voice of Miss Piggy can creep you out with such a simple line.

Next I would say is Attack of the Clones. I can't help it, the last third of the movie was so cool.

Then.... A New Hope. I loved it when I was a kid, but it seems so out of place with the rest of the series. However, I respect it for changing movie making forever.

Last and certainly least is Phantom Menace. I'll never forgive George for the endlessly boring Pod Race scene, the mitichlorian emaculate conception for no apparent reason, Annakin saying "Whippee!" twice, accidentally destroying the Trade Federation Battle Cruiser, and casting an embryo to play the part of Annakin.

Máire

What's with all of these people rating ROTJ last? I thought I would never see the day....

Anyway, it's too hard for me to do this list, as I love all the movies. However, I can safely say that ROTJ is my favorite by far. Possibly the best climax of any movie ever. Simply brilliant.

ESB, bar none. Nothing will ever come close -- well, except maybe ROTS. And that's a pretty big IF. Lucas will have to nail each action piece, each tearful moment, each emotional beat perfectly for it to come close to surpassing the jewel that is ESB.

ESB was always my favorite, from when I first saw it in theaters during its re-release in 81, all the way to now. ESB is, for lack of a better word, the perfect movie, regardless of genre.

1)AOTC (Some reason i just like it due to like Anakins first steps to the Darkside
2)ESB(I like it as the hole story plot twists once Darth Vader says he is Lukes father)
3)ROTJ(The cool duel with Luke vs Vader)
4)ANH(Like most it)
5)TPM(it just didn't have too much what we first expected)

Star Wars is the best 10-10

ESB is the 2nd best, 9.5-10

ROTJ is 3rd, 7-10

TPM is 4th 5-10

AOTC is 5th, 3-10 terrible film, almost garbage.

1 - Empire Strikes Back
2 - Attack of the Clones
3 - A New Hope
4 - Return of the Jedi
5 - The Phantom Menace

Im one of those who wasnt around when the OT were in the theaters, so I always have to put:


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


I almost find the making of TPM on the DVD more fun to watch than the movie itself.

My major problem with TPM is that I can watch the movie all the way through just fine, cause I know Jar Jar is gonna be annoying every time, so I dont get disappointed anymore, like the first time. The Podrace scene is boring after awhile. We know how it will end, and its somewhat visually appealing, but its so damn long.

I have always said I buy the love story in AOTC so I guess that means I've done my best to make sure you can totally disregard this post.

1. The Empire Strikes Back (10/10)
2. A New Hope (9/10)
2. Return of the Jedi (9/10) - A tie as it varies a lot.
4. Attack of the Clones (5/10)
5. The Phantom Menace (4/10)

1. A New Hope

This is the ultimate pure STAR WARS experience for me. It's more abstract and bare bones then the later movies in a good way. It's also the only one that features the original Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi as one of the main characters.
Almost every scene is classic.

2. Return of the Jedi - the "final" DVD version

While some of the Jedi sail barge action looks disturbingly cheap (poor editing mostly + Mark Hamill's stunts) and too many matte paintings have written "Fake!" all over them, the mood created by the other parts of the movie, the characters of Vader and the Emperor and the whole story make for an incridibile climax comparable only to very few other hero's journey type stories. That said, that horrible Yub-Yub song and Sebestian Shaw's over the top cheerful ghost in the final scene were diminishing the impact of the finale greatly. Thankfuly Lucas got rid of those.

3. The Empire Strikes Back/ The Phantom Menace

Both are perfect in their own way and I'm not sure if I can sincerly say, that I enjoy watching them less then ANH and ROTJ, it's just that they miss this kind of things that would made them as exceptional.

4. Attack of the Clones

It is messy, overlong, many action scenes felt very unreal or lacked emotional impact or both. The slow pace of the first half is very different then anywhere in the other episodes. Overall it's a bit dissapointing for a STAR WARS movie. But nevertheless it still makes a lot of interesting points and has some good true Star Wars style scenes too. And the story is constantly good, it's just the execution of all the complicated plot threads that could have been better thought up.

Empire Strikes Back
Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Return of the Jedi
Star Wars

From what I've seen and heard, RotS might rank up pretty high up in my list, possibly even first place.

Brilliant statement there.

Actually, I though they were the most convincing thing in the whole damn movie. Now Christopher Lee in the duel, that was in no way convincing.

ESB by a fair margin.

The irony is it wasn't directed by GL himself but by a close friend of his (from memory his old Uni professor?).

IMO ROTS is GL's attempt to direct a movie that equals, if not surpasses ESB in merit. Again IMO ESB and ROTS are in the saga the two darkest chapters. Which is most likely why the die hard fans like like them (or may like them) the most, as they go against the nice sugar coated image of a nice ending to a Hollywood movie.

1. ROTJ (sentimental childhood memories)
2. ESB (best saber fight)
3. ANH (classic)
4. TPM (go kenobi)
5. AOTC (kenobi, you can do better than that)

The main thing i learned from star wars is that women will ruin you, and the only thing that will fix it is some good father-son time.

1. ANH
2. ESB
3. RotJ
4. TPM
5. AotC

They are in order of being made, but that's just a coincidence. I think that AotC falls far short of the rest, even TPM. Why ANH before ESB? ESB is a superior film in a lot of ways, but for me, the Luke and Obi-Wan interactions on Tatooine are the highlight of the trilogy.

ANH is easily the best-written story of the lot. In fact, its one of the best films in the last 30 years.

All films (outside of comedies) need to have conflict. That conflict is compelling if ALL competing sides are written to look competant and capable. Surprisingly, that seems VERY hard to do for most modern scriptwriters. Too often, plot resolution is achieved by making the "bad guys" look like morons. That isn't compelling. That is sloppy writing. Anyone can write a scene where the villain is defeated because he trips over his own two feet. The difficulty is in maintaing everyone's credibility AND resolving the plot.

The guidelines to writing a good story are:

1. Are my obstacles WORTHY of my hero's quest?
2. Are my obstacles WORTHY of my hero's quest?
3. Are my obstacles WORTHY of my hero's quest?

4. All competing forces need to CREDIBLE, COMPETANT, and maybe even DANGEROUS and RUTHLESS (unless its a comedy of course).

5. Are my obstacles WORTHY of my hero's quest?

If a film can meet these requirements, odds are its a great film.

ANH meets these requirements with flying colors. The Empire captures Leia. The Stormtroopers successfuly track down the droids first to the Jawas (who they SLAUGHTER) and then to Owen and Beru. They then proceed to kill Luke's family. If there was any second thoughts in Luke's mind about leaving Tattooine, he's a fugitive now anyway.

The Empire DESTROYS the PLANET of Alderaan (including Bail Organa who was on it at the time) - just to prove a point. Leia gets to watch helplessly. They capture the Falcon. Vader KILLS Kenobi, last of the Jedi. Luke gets to watch his mentor get cut in half in front of him after losing his family. The Empire homes in on the Falcon to find the rebel base. In the final battle, Vader shoots down and KILLS Biggs, Luke boyhood friend.

EVERYTHING in Luke's life is being destroyed and all he has left is his finger on a button to fire a photon torpedo. Vader is about to toast him, too until a surprise change of heart by Solo who jumps off the fence and chooses sides. Luke saves the day by destoying the Death Star at the LAST SECOND with a skillfull shot. Whew.

You will be hard-pressed to find a film that made the obstacles so daunting.

ALL sides were made to look COMPETENT and CAPABLE. THIS is storytelling. Luke won, but look at the friggin COST! Everything Luke has ever known has been destroyed to just set the Empire back a little. But he did it.

By comparison, the other Star Wars films are not as good. ESB is good in its own right but the Empire just doesn't do nearly as much damage.

The ROTJ, the obstacles begin to get UNWORTHY, as the Stormtroopers are beaten by Ewoks. Remember that, while the common belief today is that stormtroopers have no credibility, in ANH they were very credible. They just lost that credibility over time.

In TPM, the Villains are extremely UNWORTHY. That's why it sucks. The Trade Federation accomplishes nothing. Sidious is just some mysterious, seemingly inept hologram. Maul is killed in his first major battle, although he did kill Qui-Gonn Jinn. The battle droids are used as punchlines - at one point Jar Jar Binks attempts to pick up some kind of opaque explosive device, trips over his own two feet and accidentally lobs it into a pack of battle driods, wiping them all out. That's horrible writing.

In AOTC, the villains still seem UNWORTHY. Zam is so incompetent that s/he fails to kill any heroes, is captured, and apparently is going to divulge some secrets until Jango Fett has to kill her. The cloners are made to look like idiots when Obi-Wan dupes them into giving him a guided tour. That's horrible. Fett has to flee Camino. Anakin has two obstacles to his personal quest to become a jedi - his love of Padme and the death of his mother. I do feel these are WORTHY obstacles and I did like those aspects of this film. The Tusken Raiders are UNWORTHY as padawan Anakin wipes them out. The entire arena scene is pretty silly, with even Senator Amidala able to fight off a fericious cat-like beast. Fett is rather unceremoniously offered up as lightsaber practice for Mace Windu. I suppose Mace needed something to do but it didn't help build up the credibility of Jango Fett. And then of course we get to the first battle of the Clone War. Many jedi are killed by battle droids, but in the end the separatists are defeated. Count Dooku defeats Obi-Wan and Anakin in battle. He's shown to be a WORTHY obstacle and he ends his duel with Yoda to make sure the plans are delivered to Sidious.

So that is why ANH stands head and shoulders above the rest. I'm unsure what to expect from ROTS. Lucas has definitely been getting better at making the obstacles tougher with AOTC. We'll have to see.

My ranking:

ESB
ANH
RotJ
TPM
AotC

I expect RotS to either come in #3 or #4 based on what I know about it now, but we shall see.

ESB and ANH are very close. ANH gets props for being a stand alone story... which was a necessity at the time. I find myself wondering how ANH would have been different if Lucas had a guarantee of strong budgets for all three movies ahead of time, but I guess we'll never know. ESB wins but only just barely.

RotJ is close to being the best, if a few things had been handled differently... and it was my favorite when I was younger.

Between TPM and AotC... Well so far I don't think either is as good as the OT. I actually find TPM growing on me more over time, despite the Jar Jar annoyances.

Basically with TPM I came full circle. When I first saw it I loved it. As time went on I noticed more of the flaws and my appreciation for it sunk. About the time AotC came out I looked down on TPM... More recently I've come to accept both the good and the bad and while I could do without quite so much Jar Jar I find I do enjoy watching it for the most part.

AotC is on that same journey, but has not quite come full circle yet. I started off loving it - as with TPM and as with TPM got more objective as I got more familiar with it... but unlike TPM it has yet to charm me back. Maybe it will, maybe it won't... but at this point I rate it the lowest of the 5.

news.enquirer.com: Another poll same question.

Results will be included in ROTS review.

ESB
ANH
AOTC
TPM
ROTJ

It changes daily, its tough putting ROTJ on the bottom, I spose its interchangable with TPM. I'm not disappointed in the two, the two are just the weakest made films of the saga, I think.

AOTC is the most underrated. Three years later, paticularly w ROTS reviews coming out, there is a prevailing notion that AOTC was a bad movie. Its not. It's actually a very well made movie. It's not going to win an Oscar or anything, but in terms of construction, structure, characterization, etc., its very sound. Its only slip up was not including the family scenes and thus making Padme's interest in the romance w Anakin seem kind of arbitrary. But otherwise, its up there w ANH and ESB in terms of quality of filmmaking. And I don't know wtf people are talking about when they complain about Hayden, I thought he did a good job 90% of the time.

Intelligent points, but I think you're simplifying it too much. There's a lot more to storytelling than just that, and the PT and OT are very different stories.

But I agree with your point about obstacles, altho I disagree that AOTC dismissed them in the arena scene. Mace kicks Fetts ass so quick b/c Mace is more competent, b/c he is the Jedi, and at this point in time, the Jedi are the most powerful. As a result of this prevailing notion in the PT, there is admittedly less chance for excitement. It's like Bond movies. The good guy is a much bigger badass than the bad guy. You know they are going to come out on top. That is how the PT had to be made, and it has its pluses and minuses. It's cool to see Obi and Qui treat the battle droids like another day at the office in TPM, but it does lack suspense and excitement of saying Han going up against troopers with equal chance of killing one another.

Yes there is more to storytelling than just making sure the obstacles are worthy of your heroes quest. But if I were to make a scale, worthy obstacles would FAR exceed everything else. Dialogue and acting skill are important, but no where NEAR as important as this.

The Bond movies are trash.

As far as Mace vs Jango, I think it would have been more interesting for Mace to have some personal attachment. Then have Jango destroy it forever. Now let's see how Mace handles this. Let's explore Mace's character. Does he strike down Jango in anger? Does he set his lightsaber down like Luke in ROTJ? How tortured would he be between visiting the dark side and letting Jango live? That would be far more interesting than the rather weak scene we got.