Guy Who Paid Me to Watch The Phantom Menace, on Attack of The Clones:
*“No, trust me, really; it isn’t * nearly *as bad as the last one was…” *
Fool me once, shame on you…
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Return of the Jedi: I don’t know, I just remember this one the most fondly.
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Empire Strikes Back
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A New Hope
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The Clone Wars Series: The jedi were way too powerful, but it was head and shoulders above anything in the prequels. Also, you have no idea why anyone is actually afraid of General Greivous in ROTS if you haven’t seen this.
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Revenge of the Sith: It’s not use comparing the plots from here on out. Just rank them in order of descending action.
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Attack of the Clones: Er… there were lightsaber fights. Those are cool, right?
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The Phantom Menace
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The amount of action I actually got after convincing a girl to go see The Phantom Menace with me.
I just re-watched the Boba Fett cartoon from the Christmas special, and have to revise my list. Judging only the cartoon part, and not the live-action parts of the Christmas special, the Boba Fett cartoon is easily better than Phantom Menace or Attack o/t/ Clones. Seriously, watch the 1978 cartoon and judge it against ep’s 1 and 2, only nine minutes long and it’s better than both.
I actually remember liking Phantom Menace after seeing it once in the theater. I walked out of the midnight screening of it and said to my friend, “It was pretty good, eh?” He said, “I see nor reason to say it is not as good as thre original three.”
We were totally brainwashed and idiotic.
Apparently Star Wars fans can’t read. The OP asked you to rate the films, not rank them, and he even gave an example, which only two of the subsequent 40 posters followed. (And even ArchiveGuy and Blake didn’t provide the dual then/now ratings that UB asked for.
Here are my ratings, the way the OP requested:
Star Wars: 10/8
The Empire Strikes Back: 7/7
Return of the Jedi: 6/6 (demerits for the stupid ewoks)
Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace: 0/0
Star Wars, Episode 2: Attack of the Clones: 0/0
Star Wars, Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith: 1/1
As you can see, I liked the original trilogy pretty well. I was in line on opening day in 1977 for Star Wars, and thought it was the greatest film ever. When the later ones came out I didn’t feel they quite lived up to the original.
On the other hand, for my money, the prequel trilogy was complete and utter dreck, and if not the worst films ever made, certainly the most overhyped really, really bad films ever.
It’s been years since I’ve seen ESB or ROTJ. I might actually like them better now than I did originally. But I despise George Lucas so much that I will never buy the DVDs of even the ones I liked, especially since he’s butchered them.
Go ahead, let the hate begin.
A very good point, although I actually can read to an extent. I admit that I’d actually puzzled over how to rate the movies, couldn’t quite come up with a system I felt confident in, but felt interested enough to try to contribute something nonetheless. I guess I just assumed that Unintentionally Blank was actually reading the results of this thread and enjoying it, and since they hadn’t seen fit to comment on the absence of ratings, they probably found the responses acceptable anyway and didn’t feel the need to gratuitously insult everyone over it. Thanks for stepping up to the plate to speak on their behalf, commasense.
In order of preference
The Empire Strikes Back A
Reasons this is the strongest: George Lucas had collaborators (Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan) in the writing who weren’t simple yes men, and the end
result is the only one in the series that consistently has credible emotional
complexity throughout - the archetypes of Star Wars have been fleshed out into real people. Also notable as the only one of the originals where none of the tweaks of the Special editions were mistakes, and at least in one case an improvement: the ice cavern.
**Star Wars ** A
Certainly doesn’t have the depth or darkness of ESB, but its refreshing pulp simplicity always gets to me, and my favorite film-wonk things about the SW films were always the wipes used for transition.
Return of the Jedi A- (original version)/B+ (“Special” edition)
The demotion of the “Special” edition is due entirely to the “Jedi Rocks” sequence, which in hindsight should have been a red flag to everyone that The Phantom Menace was going to be a huge disappointment. Otherwise, it’s the weakest of the original for the Ewoks, but not for the reasons people usually cite. It’s just that between the forest speeder chase scene and the attack on the shield, I can barely remember anything that happens on Endor (C-3PO levitates a little, I think). But the last 40 minutes is the finest final act in the series: as frantic back-and-forth action takes place on and above Endor; Luke and the Emperor duel in a battle for Darth Vader’s soul.
Revenge of the Sith A-
The reason this is the best of the prequel trilogy: 1) the story structure is pretty much near unscrewupable, 2) the acting is easily the strongest in the prequel trilogy, with Ian McDiarmid giving the best performance in a Star Wars film since Alec Guiness, and 3) there’s none of the too-specific cultural riffs (such as the diner in AotC or the announcers in TPM) that clash with the basic feel of Star Wars.
Attack of the Clones C+
Last 40 minutes is terrific all-out action, but otherwise soporific. Hayden Christensen can be a good actor (see Shattered Glass for proof), but turning Anakin into a whiny brat was a huge mistake.
The Phantom Menace C-
Some decent action sequences (the final lightsaber duel, most of the pod race) but otherwise putrid: the stupid, stupid midichlorian rationalization of something that did not need rationalization, one of the worst child performances in recent history, and He Who Shall Not Be Named.
The change in ratings didn’t bug me much. While it’d be interesting to see how you’d rate Sith to When Harry Met Sally, I think the discussion of the movies within the series is relevant.
I think it’s popular to say you hate Jar Jar, the Podrace, and Dennis the Mennace as Annikin (that’s funny!).
Think how easy it is to point at something and say ‘This Sucks’, vs looking at ANYTHING in your life and saying it’s a ‘10 out of 10 bestest ever.’
Maybe I have an overdeveloped ‘Suspension of Disbelief’ gland, but I didn’t think the movies were all as bad as that, especially when given enough time for the hype around them to settle down a little. Taken as Entertainment, I didn’t mind the time spent watching them, and Liked the whole story. I’d rate the Whole Tamale at about an 8 out of 10. Not as good as the Lord of the Rings, but a helluva lot better than Ishtar.
Gotta give props. This made me laugh out loud.
From best to worst:
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Empire strikes back. The battle of Hoth, more characterization then any of the others, Darth Vader isn’t acting like a little bitch.
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A New Hope. Good, exciting movie, but not as good as Empire for various reasons. Among them, Darth Vader is a whiney little bitch. Tarkin’s the real badass in the movie.
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Revenge of the Sith. Good action sequences(The battle at the beginning kicked ass), some fairly good scenes. Unfortunatly, the dialogue is stilted and painful(“Maybe feelings are feelings because we can’t help feeling them”).
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Return of the Jedi. The Jabbas Palace thing is really not my favorite part of the movie, and the Ewoks beating the stormtroopers is just stupid(Okay, let’s try pitting the US army in 2005 vs. random stone age tribe. Three guesses to pick the winner). Basically, the only reason the Empire loses the Battle of Endor is because they apparently have Micheal “Heck of a Job” Brown running the ground war.
But the Battle of Endor in Space almost makes up for the ground portion.
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Attack of the Clones. Okay, the romance sucks, and there are several video game sequneces(the factory, the end of the speeder chase) and the movie ripped off gladiator. However, The political stuff wasn’t bad, and Jar Jar was less annoying. The battle scenes were good too.
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Phantom Menace. Pretty much a loss no matter how you look at it, really. It’s hard to think of anything good about this film.