Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[steel_breeze]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Interesting approach as I've never seen anyone rank by halves before. I happen to agree with a lot of your rankings listed. I would only create a category IV to stuff Rogue One (I know, not part of the Episodes).

Yeah, I wouldn't include ROGUE ONE in these rankings any more than I'd include an episode of REBELS... which I really enjoy, but it ain't "The Saga".

[KID_Q]

1. Empire (This is also where it would rank over any movie ever)
2. Star Wars
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Force Awakens
5. Revenge of The Sith
6. Rogue One
7. Attack of the Clones
8. Phantom Menace
9. The Clone Wars (Animated Movie)
10. Holiday Special
11. Battle for Endor
12. Caravan of Courage

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by ahossein79

Oh so you are saying that critics who are paid to give a OPINION makes something objectively good or bad?!??! That makes no sense to me. You are confusing a concensus with a objective reality at the end of the day even if something is a majority opinion it is still a opinion. It is all subjective. If you are looking for objectiveity and facts than math and science is more your thing because something that cant be proved with facts or data is just a opinion. And it is not just you just pleae read some of the reviews on rotten tomatoes I hate when people just look at the dam score, I would say about 2/3 of critics are idiots who cant write for shit, have no idea what kind of movie they are reviewing and they sound like teenage girls writing a message to their friend on tinder.

I'm really not confusing anything for anything. I don't need RT to know that Rogue One isn't terrible by any definition but figured common sense might prevail here. You want to be a total artistic relativist and spit on film critics along the way, go ahead. Rogue One is not a hill I'm prepared to die on.

[NL197]

Empire
Rogue One
Star Wars (haven't watched "A New Hope" in years if you get my meaning)
Force Awakens
Jedi

I don't count the prequels. I don't watch them at all. Not in at least 8 years.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by steel_breeze

Ooooooh, we're all doing the "ranking" thing again? Love it; can never resist.

My ranking is by HALF movie, since I'm a crazy person and the STAR WARS saga is fairly schizophrenic...

Category I: UNTOUCHABLY PERFECT
1--STAR WARS (second half)
2--STAR WARS (first half)
3--EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (first half)
4--RETURN OF THE JEDI (second half)
5--EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (second half)

Category II: FLAWED BUT REALLY EXCELLENT
6--ATTACK OF THE CLONES (second half)
7--PHANTOM MENACE (second half)
8--FORCE AWAKENS (first half)
9--REVENGE OF THE SITH (first half)
10--FORCE AWAKENS (second half)

Category III: TOUGH FOR ME TO GET THROUGH
11--REVENGE OF THE SITH (second half)
12--RETURN OF THE JEDI (first half)
13--ATTACK OF THE CLONES (first half)
14--PHANTOM MENACE (first half)

Interesting way of critiquing them. I'll just focus on the OT and break them down into three acts each since I think that works a bit better :

1 SW 3rd (Death Star assault is a technical marvel and the throne room scene shows that Lucas had real talent at one point; the music in both might be Williams's best ever)

2 SW 1st (mostly thinking about the stuff on Tatooine; iconic cinematography/music/characters: this is the stretch that probably ensured that SW would be important)

3 ROTJ 3rd (Death Star II battle is impressive but redundant; the really good stuff is between the Emperor, Vader and Luke and then the funeral pyre on the forest moon; I am a traitor and far prefer the SE music but draw the line at the Vader's 'NOOOOO!' and the Christensen as the Force ghost, those two moments being why I've never watched the SE blu-rays)

4 ESB whole movie (I'm cheating but I can't spit this one up; it's uniformly excellent from start to finish but suffers a bit from being the middle film and thus having no clear beginning or end; the Yoda scenes and his theme are best with the the Han/Leia love affair a close second)

5 ROTJ 1st (Jabba's Palace is the last bit of pure SW fun in the OT; I have no complaints with how it's handled but kind of wish it was released as a standalone so the rest of ROTJ could have more time to breath; then again, Lucas probably would have just given us more damned Ewoks if given the opportunity)

6 SW 2nd (I've always felt the middle section of the original dragged but it probably doesn't help that it's sandwiched by the spectacular first and third acts; still, this is the only part of the OT that feels like a dated seventies sci-fi film to me)

7 ROTJ 2nd (unrelentingly disappointing, almost as bad as the prequels; characterization is off and the actors seem bored, second Death Star is lazy, Ewoks are a horrible misstep; the only thing I like here is the speeder chase and even that makes no sense)

[brettxwt]

EMPIRE
STAR WARS
JEDI

MENACE

The rest don't matter to me. TPM is the only enjoyable Prequel/Post-OT movie in my eyes. Clones, Sith, Force Awakens, and Rogue One don't exist

[steel_breeze]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

Interesting way of critiquing them. I'll just focus on the OT and break them down into three acts each since I think that works a bit better :

I dig it. Despite the inherent 3-act structure of movies in general, I find the STAR WARS flicks divide quite nicely into halves. In fact, they're so "dense" story-wise, my wife and I almost "need" to take intermissions in each and every one of them at the half-way point, just to re-set our overloaded brains. We've found we noticeably enjoy the 2nd halves more when we've taken a breather!

PHANTOM MENACE: 1st half is all about the heroes fleeing to Tatooine and finding/learning about Anakin. 2nd half picks up post-pod-race and all about the politics on Coruscant and the return to Naboo.

ATTACK OF THE CLONES: 1st half is all about the mystery: who bombed Padme's ship?? 2nd half begins as Padme and Anakin arrive at the Lars homestead, after Obi-Wan has landed on Geonosis, and is all about the events slip-sliding our heroes into the Clone Wars.

REVENGE OF THE SITH: 1st half is a rip-roaring tour of the Clone Wars in all their glory. 2nd half begins right after Obi-wan kills Grievous, and is all about Anakin becoming Darth Vader.

A NEW HOPE: 1st half introduces our individual characters as they come together from separate threads; 2nd half begins right after Luke's training on the Falcon, and is all about the Death Star action.

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: 1st half is the Rebels in disarray; being driven from Hoth; 2nd half begins immediately after the Falcon escapes the space slug, and is all about Cloud City and Luke's Jedi training.

RETURN OF THE JEDI: 1st half is all Jabba, Yoda, and the Rebel Alliance. 2nd half begins the moment Wicket shows up and throws us full bore into the Battle of Endor.

THE FORCE AWAKENS: 1st half introduces our individual characters as they come together from separate threads (sound familiar, lol?); 1st half ends after Rey's encounter with the lightsaber, after she flees into the woods. 2nd half begins with the Starkiller Base, and becomes all about that.

Sooo... it all divides quite nicely into 14 extremely satisfying halves!

[bobbyh64]

I think my favorite half is the first half of Star Wars. I love all the character development and scenes with Luke and Ben, especially in Ben’s hut when he tells Luke about his father and the Force. And I love the part where Luke looks at the binary sunset. The music during that scene is my absolute favorite out of all the music in the entire series.

[Nicolawicz]

Originally Posted by steel_breeze

ATTACK OF THE CLONES: 1st half is all about the mystery: who bombed Padme's ship?? 2nd half begins as Padme and Anakin arrive at the Lars homestead, after Obi-Wan has landed on Geonosis, and is all about the events slip-sliding our heroes into the Clone Wars.

Is that what that thing is about?

[Bobbyjoe766]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

I think my favorite half is the first half of Star Wars. I love all the character development and scenes with Luke and Ben, especially in Ben’s hut when he tells Luke about his father and the Force. And I love the part where Luke looks at the binary sunset. The music during that scene is my absolute favorite out of all the music in the entire series.

The binary sunset is my favourite moment from the original film, too.

Glad that image was chosen for the original 1970's KENNER Luke Skywalker action figure card. Classic packaging for a classic toy line.

[darkness2918]

Empire Strikes Back
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones
Phantom Menace
A New Hope
Rogue One
Return of the Jedi
The Force Awakens

I love the prequels & watch them more often then I do any other SW films.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Phantom Menace
Force Awakens

You've finally gone nutter.

[svenge]

ESB
ANH
RotJ
TFA
Rogue One
↓
↓
↓
↓
Ewoks: Caravan of Courage
Ewoks: Battle for Endor
↓
↓
↓
↓
RotS
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
Star Wars Holiday Special
↓
↓
↓
↓
Getting kicked in the genitalia repeatedly while receiving electric shocks
↓
AotC/TPM

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

You've finally gone nutter.

Thank you. I may rag on the prequels plenty and often but I enjoy TPM far more than TFA and I won't pretend otherwise. I watched TFA again the other day and, again, it still leaves me cold. It gets off to a great start but when they reach Maz's castle it all starts to fall apart, I still don't understand why Finn (in scenes that were obvious reshot) is now so utterly desperate to get away from these guys, despite having dodged plenty of flak alongside them up until then. He's so goofy and likeable but he seems to turn into a completely different character, only to turn right back again into the old Finn once the Empire First Order attacks the castle. I just don't get it, it seems so forced.

And as Rey becomes more powerful - for no apparent reason other than "tune in next time to find out!" - I find myself drifting further and further away from her. By the time we get to what should be this climactic goose-bump inducing showdown with Ben I find myself not giving a shit, and as that classic SW theme strikes up it just doesn't feel like it's been earned by either the character or the film at large. The score really is Williams Wallpaper™ too, Rey's theme is beautiful but that just makes the blandness of the rest of it stand out even more, as do those reprises of original themes.

I don't "hate" TFA, before the usual predictable comments come from the usual predictable poster, but it just doesn't excite, thrill or ultimately involve me in its story or characters, save for the villains who are far more interesting. Some would argue this was true of Vader in the originals but it's more than that, you still had Luke to project upon, Leia to lust after and Han to swoon over. I get none of that from the new characters however, and although I'm warming to old Han he gets killed off so that avenue's been closed down permanently anyway.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Which scene is worse?

Poe: Hey, what's your name?
FN-2187: FN-2187!
Poe: [confused] F - what?
FN-2187: That's the only name they ever gave me.
Poe: Well, I ain't using it. F-N, huh? Finn. I'm gonna call you Finn. Is that all right?
Finn: Finn... Yeah! I like that! I like that!
Poe: I'm Poe. Poe Dameron.
Finn: Good to meet you, Poe!
Poe: Good to meet you, too, Finn!

Anakin Skywalker: Are you an angel?
Queen Amidala: What?
Anakin Skywalker: An angel. I've heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the moon of Iego, I think.
Queen Amidala: You're a funny little boy. How do you know so much?
Anakin Skywalker: I listen to all the traders and star pilots who came through here. I'm a pilot, you know, and someday I'm going to fly away from this place.
Queen Amidala: You're a pilot?
Anakin Skywalker: Mmhm. All my life.
Queen Amidala: How long have you been here?
Anakin Skywalker: Since I was very little, three, I think. My Mom and I were sold to Gardola the Hutt, but he lost us betting on the pod races.
Queen Amidala: You're a slave?
Anakin Skywalker: I'm a person and my name is Anakin.

[buck135]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

Which scene is worse?

The latter. Much, much worse.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

Which scene is worse?

Neither has particularly cringey dialogue IMO (there are far worse exchanges to be found in the PT however) but it's the acting in the respective scenes that makes the difference. Whatever else can be said about TFA and Rogue One, the acting is first rate. Lucas OTOH became notorious for being an awful actor's director thanks to the PT.

Lloyd is very bad in the scene you put up there, and in most of his scenes for that matter, but I can understand that since he was just a child actor and not a very talented one at that. But it really is incredible that Lucas managed to make great actors like Portman and Neeson look like amateurs. McGregor managed to acquit himself well however, as did McDiarmid. I can only think that some actors are better equipped at doing all the work by themselves with no assistance from the director.

[severe conservative]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

Or maybe you shouldn’t post on here if you get offended so easily.

Not offended. But it is really odd that you seem so surprised that I would put Revenge of the Sith before The Empire Strikes Back. I can understand people getting surprised that I put AOTC at third, but ROTS is near the top of many people's lists. Many times ahead of ROTJ, and yes, many people put it equal or ahead of ANH. There was at least one elite critic who said it was equal to ANH and several critics said it was equal to EMPIRE and some even said it might be the best SW.

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by severe conservative

Not offended. But it is really odd that you seem so surprised that I would put Revenge of the Sith before The Empire Strikes Back. I can understand people getting surprised that I put AOTC at third, but ROTS is near the top of many people's lists. Many times ahead of ROTJ, and yes, many people put it equal or ahead of ANH. There was at least one elite critic who said it was equal to ANH and several critics said it was equal to EMPIRE and some even said it might be the best SW.

Yes, I am surprised that someone would put any of the prequels above ANH or Empire. Guess I’m out of the loop.

[severe conservative]

Originally Posted by JimSmith

Then see it! Do it now!

Watching The Force Awakens was one of the worst theater experiences of my life. I have better things to do with my time and money. When Im not even able to enjoy my popcorn, that is a big problem.