Piling on the bandwagon: 4-5-6, then stop. Anything else is child-abuse.
4, 5, 6, then the Knights of the Old Republic games.
I’m put in mind of Jon Stewart’s interview with George Lucas. “My son’s favorite movie is Phantom Menace. And I’ve tried to explain to him…no it’s not!”
Do you have a link to that? I’d like to see him say that to his face.
Clone Wars Cartoons, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Seriously, I think that’s the way I’d do it.
The Cartoons fill out the clone wars back story without having to sit through the terrible episodes 1 and 2. Three was actually a pretty decent movie, except for the last three minutes with the painful “Noooo!” bit and their attempt to forshadow everything in episode 4. So turn it off when Obi-Won turns his back on Anikan.
Actually, now that I think about it, if you turn off episode three at that point, you also preserve the Leia/Luke siblings reveal, since I don’t think its revealed that Padme had twins till the last bit of that movie.
Spoil it please.
Be aware that if you don’t manage to convince us you will probably be banned from the SDMB. If you try to justify the existence of Jar Jar Binks your license for internet will be revoked and your puppy crucified.
4-5 then stop unless 6 is re-released with all the teddy bears bursting into flames at the end.
What sort of cruel person would start with 1?
I’d go 4 -5 - 6, and the maybe even order pizza and have it arrive while most of the Endor parts are going on and then be focused again for the showdown with Emperor.
Also, no dancing.
I think everybody knows that Vader is Luke’s father by now even without ever seeing the movies. You’d have to live in a hole in Mongolia not to. I’d suggest 4,5,3 and 6. Don’t bother with 1 and 2.
Ewoks weren’t as bad as Jar-Jar. Ewoks are cute and cool to the single-digit-age demographic, and I think most of us probably liked them at one time, before we outgrew them. Jar-Jar, though, is just stupid, no matter who you are.
Which is not to say that Episode 6 wouldn’t have been even better with Wookies. That just goes without saying. It’s just that there are degrees of bad.
I thought 3 was OK the first time, but has gotten dramatically worse with each revisit (a much steeper decline than 6).
But I also think 2 is the worst (which is really saying something, given the very existence of 1).
I really don’t get the hatred of the ewoks. When I get time, I’m going to write a thread in praise of their primitive forest guerrilla tactics.
Yet another 456123 recommendation. And I agree with the Narnia books going in the order of creation for the same reason.
I’m with you, I liked the Ewoks and the whole battle of Endor thing. Never got the hate.
RE: the idea that you should stop after 4-5-6, I’d treat them as if you were introducing someone to 2001/2010. There is a moral imperative to see 2001, preferably with the best theater experience possible. But do you need to see 2010? Well, kind of. It’s related, and seeing it is practically inevitable. But you can just get around to seeing it as opposed to making time to see it.
Just 4
As an aside, my daughter (age 7) loves Star Wars and has seen episodes 4/5/6. Anyway, she was Princess Leia for Halloween (complete with the buns) and went to a Star Wars event at the Air & Space Museum – and someone dressed as Darth Vader asked if she knew that he was her farther!
Luckily, she’s seen the reveal in episode 5, but what a spoiler that would have been for her. What a tool.
This.
Well kinda.
**
It does depend on the age of the Star Wars virgin. ** FYI I’m 27.
It does depend on what movies they have seen.
For example, I saw The Matrix, before I saw Scanners.
On the one hand it was pain to sit through a frankly slower movie. [A lot of movies back then were slower, not in terms of running time, in terms of plot.]
OTOH, It was something else to see
The entire Payphone teleporting bit
in Scanners. I can’t watch The Matrix the same way ever again. And I am glad I didn’t go into Matrix knowing that they stole that scene.
What the viewer brings to the movie should be taken into account.
…
**
If they are, WAG, 20 or older, 4,5,6,1,2,3. The Originals will need no explanation. Other than the fact that 1,2,3 were prequels.
If they are 19 or younger, they will not be able to appreciate 4,5,6, first. It will be, excuse the pun, Alien to them. **
They are used to a different set of movie vocabulary than 456 can offer.
My Mom raved about Gone with the Wind. It wooshed me as to why it was a “great” film. [That movie was Slow, in both senses.]