Veknoid_Outcast said: I cannot focus at work today, so I decided to compose a list of the Star Wars movies. Because that's what I do when I'm bored I recently rewatched all seven mainline movies, and the spin-off Rogue One. Here are my thoughts.
8) Episode II: Attack of the Clones 7) Episode I: The Phantom Menace 6) Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 5) Rogue One 4) Episode VI: Return of the Jedi 3) Episode VII: The Force Awakens 2) Episode IV: A New Hope 1) Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
That's my list! What's yours? |
Normally I wouldn't have read another "rank Star Wars", but then I saw it was you and was very curious haha
I can report that the trend of us seeming to share most opinions is mostly intact. List below:
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Force Awakens
6. Rogue One
7. Phantom Menace
8. Attack of the Clones
While unsurprisingly the top two are the same, I'd have bumped Revenge of the Sith up to #4 as it (to me) seems to be the closest to a traditional Star Wars movie of the prequels while being fairly original and epic.
Something recently occured to me and I've since liked to ask people this question: "If the first two prequel movies didn't exist and Revenge of the Sith was a stand alone, would you think more favorably of it?"
I think it being linked to the other two has tainted it to an extent in all of our minds. While it's certainly not a great movie, the music was wonderful (as always), the visuals amazing, the story was actually interesting, the plot was almost entirely character-focused (finally), and it was mostly well acted (I never much cared for Jackson as Windu but he was ok here, and Hayden honestly did a great job for once during his fall to the dark side). Otherwise, it did the ongoing Skywalker saga justice, actually got me emotionally invested at times (seeing Obi Wan and Padme's heartbreak was legitimately painful), and was really its own unique movie within the franchise, not recycling much for the most part (no murder spheres to explode? Wtf?)
In my opinion, the first two films in the prequel trilogy almost feel unnecessary to the story; all we really needed was Revenge of the Sith, and I think it would have been better received if it was the first and last of Star Wars we saw at the time. It's no original trilogy classic, but it was enjoyable on its own.
Otherwise, I think the Return of the Jedi's reputation suffered a tad unfairly over the years as it spent so much time sitting beside two all time classics as the "third" Star Wars movie that didn't quite live up to the crazy standards of the first two. While the second death star certainly seemed a bit lazy, I'm rather glad for it as the third film provided what was easily the best and most exciting space battle I've seen up until the recent Rogue One. While it can seem a bit oddly paced, the settings, scenes, and characters were just so incredibly iconic and inventive (Jabba who up until then was a cut scene of a fat dude, his palace where we really see just how much Luke has matured, the Gamorans, the Rancor, the Saarlac pit, Admiral Akbar, Lando's redemption, the battle of endor and space battle of endor, the awesome speeder bike scene and so forth) that, unlike most of the other films, a huge amount of Star War's identity would be lost were this film to vanish.
Besides that, one of film's greatest villains (Darth Vader) finally received some character development, and I can honestly say it was handled more smoothly and convincing via nothing more than head tilting and a few sentences than the entirety of the prequel trilogy lol... Aside from that, it has my favorite lightsabre fight at the end of the film, where the sheer emotional weight and importance of the moment and realistic steps and strikes set to that epic-as-always John Williams music still give me chills and impress me far more than any cgi sommersaults could.
It's certainly a little cheesier than the previous two and merchandising was obviously a high priority, but as far as capping off two all time classics goes Return of the Jedi was wonderful. While there may be parts that adults have trouble taking seriously it really just had that campiness that most of the best, fun movies of the 80's (such as the Indiana Jones films) had, and I suspect most people don't even realize how many of their favorite characters, species, visuals, vehicles, settings, scenes and so forth from Star Wars either originated or were highlighted in Return of the Jedi. For me, it is easily #3.
To quickly comment on the other changes, Force Awakens definitely captured the atmosphere and feel of Star Wars, but I can honestly say I've seen remakes that borrowed less from the film it was recreating than this "sequel" borrowed from past films. I honestly don't remember an original moment or scene in that movie. Thankfully, I love the cast and their characters, the visuals were amazing, and while all of the events were basically carbon copies of scenes from past Star Wars movies, the trajectory of this story certainly has potential. Besides, by having essentially plagiarized every scene imaginable from the past Star Wars films I think it basically requires that they do something new in the next one, right? :D
Finally, Rogue One was, if I'm honest, mostly a boring film. They never really fleshed out any of the characters, the characters themselves were generally bland and rarely (if ever) showed any emotional investment in the moment, and quite a few bizarrely weird things happened that made next to no sense (mind-reading octopus? It makes people go insane, except that apparently it doesn't?). What made the movie for me (and apparently for most), then, were the many fun references to past Star Wars characters, and the incredible battle scenes that are easily the best in the franchise. Cap that off with us finally getting to see film's most badass villain being the unstoppable badass we all KNEW he was but hadn't actually yet SEEN was amazing; seriously, I'd see the movie just for that last Darth Vader seen. So yes, it's a forgettable cast of characters and a forgettable story, but those battles and the Vader scene bumped it up from disappointment to worth watching; I just think I may employ the scene skip button on occasion in future watchings lol
Still though, we seem to have pretty similar opinions.