I admit… I’m watching Star Wars for the 18,074 time on Spike TV right now. If I had to rank them in order of preference, I would rank them from best to worst:
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode IV: A New Hope
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
So what’s your favorite?
How about adding a vote for people who never saw a Star Wars movie?
That’s pretty much how I would rank them, except I would rank Episode III before Episode I.
Episode V was such a change from anything we’d ever seen in terms of special effects that it has to be number 1. I remember sitting in the theater in 1977 and seeing the opening scene with the Star Destroyer filling the screen and going “Whoa!” It was unbelievable. A quantum leap at the time.
I voted for Episode VI, but the six-year-old son likes Episode I the most. I wonder if it’s a generational preference that most of your readers’ favorites would be among Episodes IV through VI.
I’d switch III with I, and II with VI. But I agree with your top two.
Empire was by far, IMO, the best because it had a decent script. That is Lucas’ failing. Epi’s 1,2 &3;could have been great if he’d have used a decent screen writer. The dialogue was bush league at best. It was more like a campy 60’s beach movie. I did, however, like the lightsabre duels much better. Spec fx have really come far.
Episode one never existed in my Star Wars cannon, mainly because of Jar Jar, and young Anikin’s overdue bitchslap. New Hope was clearly the best, thought I was a fan of the Empire so V is pretty badass
I rank them IV, V, VI, III, VII, VIII, IX, The Clone Wars, II, The Star Wars Christmas Special, I.
I still consider IV and V to be the best. The only purpose I,II and III serve are to fill in the “hows” of what we know happens:
• Palpatine becomes the Emperor
• Anakin becomes Darth Vader
• Luke and Leia are born, their mother dies
• Obi-Wan watches over Luke
• Leia becomes a Princess of Alderan (sic)
• The Jedi are wiped out, except apparently for Obi-Wan and Yoda
• How Obi-Wan ended up with the lightsaber of Luke’s father
In other words, the first three episodes added little to the story itself except some really cool f/x. On the other hand, the lightsaber duel at the end of III had me looking at my watch.
I just realized that I spent 15 minutes composing this post. How do I get that time back?