It all makes sense. The overreactions, the pile on hate of TLJ, the getting salty that this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. This ranking of Star Wars films proves it.
Some of you are crazy. Of course some of you think @Penny_Dreadful or I are crazy, when we clearly are the only sane ones.
Heh. I’m just marveling at the various reactions.
Me: I finally get it. I finally see why you guys like Star Wars so much after watching The Last Jedi.
Most of the people in this thread: TLJ is the worst science fiction movie ever made.
I can understand how people might have different preferences relating to most of the movies, particularly when people are exposed to different movies first depending on their age, etc.
I personally tend to rank movies with a few very memorable scenes (as well as wretched ones) higher than movies that have less egregious lows but no truly fantastic scenes - for that reason I’m kinder to Attack of the Clones than some people are because I really enjoy the Christopher Lee and Jango Fett/Clone scenes, despite cringing badly at the romance scenes and Hayden/Natalie in general. Revenge of the Sith is never as bad (except maybe the Nooooo scene) but it’s consistently crappy so it’s near the bottom of the franchise for me.
That all said, I really just don’t understand how anyone could not rank Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back as the #1 and #2 movies in the franchise (in whichever order you prefer, although I’d pick Empire as the best) – they are both so far better than every other movie in the franchise that it’s difficult to rationalize how anyone could not recognize that.
The Special Edition versions are probably to blame in part, because the Special Edition version of Star Wars is a hell of a lot worse than the original version, and has much more in common with Return of the Jedi or the prequels when viewed through that distorted lens, which anyone younger than 35 is probably encumbered by these days since they likely didn’t have the chance to see the non-special edition or would be too young to appreciate its differences. Otherwise it’s just ridiculous to not pick Empire/Star Wars or Star Wars/Empire as the top 2 movies in the franchise.
Fact: no movie in this thread is worse than Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared Syn.
In retrospect, I cannot for the life of me figure out why we (that is to say, me and mine; I didn’t pay the movie corners of the internet nearly as much attention back then and can’t speak to skepticism that may have reigned in other corners) weren’t a lot more skeptical of Phantom Menace pre-release because of how the Special Editions turned out.
Yeah I was surprised that everyone hated Attack of the Clones so much. I forgot about the romance, which was pretty bad in Revenge of the Sith too. It’s also less boring than Phantom Menance, though Liam Neeson and Duel of the Fates were really nice there.
Luke whines a lot in the first movie, like hit the fast forward button kind whine. Maybe when there were only three choices it had to be in the top three, but there are more now. Nostalgia only gets you so far, and while it credits as starting it all… that doesn’t automatically give it a top spot.
And posts like this one prove that subjective opinions can just flat-out be wrong. None of the other films created characters to match the original movie, or had the interaction of these characters with each other (by Return it was saccharine-sweet and thus flat). Only Empire’s “I love you/I know” comes close.
You can disagree with me without being insulting about it. Luke whines a lot in the first movie, like a heck of lot. I don’t enjoy that first movie as much as some of the other movies. That’s just, you know, a fact. Nothing wrong about it. There are fans out there that do not put the top three movies in the top three spots, and you know what. That. Is. Okay.
I wonder if “Literature Hacking” is a thing that exist.
Like, can somebody that is good with words get a keyboard and write a text that by creating context and reconning everything that happens in a movie, turn a bad movie into a good movie. The words written by this literature hacker would be like a exoesqueleton the movie could use to be active in the world… without it, is a lame movie, a spaz movie, a dumb pop movie, but with this extra, it can be something else.
lol:
https://twitter.com/rianjohnson/status/954398041598918656
https://twitter.com/rianjohnson/status/954398249346936833
To me, the extended universe (specifically Tie Fighter and the two Kotor RPG) made the original trilogy bearable. I didn’t grow up watching those movies, so I have no special attachment to them. Only because I like those three extended universe games, I then asked what kind of movie inspired such awesome games. Then and only then I went back to the OT and the prequels. Even then they were kind of meh but because they were the source of inspiration I just kind of tolerate them.
Then TFA delivered a creatively bankrupt “new beginning” (more like a new beginning to earn Disney bucket loads of money with minimum creative risk). I prefer them taking more creative risk like TLJ than otherwise.
It has more to do with lucidity than nostalgia. Recognizing Godfather 1 and 2 as better than Godfather 3 has nothing to do with nostalgia. None of the other movies in the franchise are even comparable in quality.
Damn Special Editions have warped the lens
And there is nothing wrong with that. I enjoy a lot of Godzilla movies (much) more than most Spielberg movies, but that’s completely different than claiming the Godzilla movies are actually better movies.
The top three movies in Star Wars for everyone are not necessarily the first three, and that is subjective. To me, the other one is a better movie.
I think the first two movies were the best. They introduce characters we get to know and love and they flesh those characters out. My kids saw the originals on video years ago and have now seen 1-8 and their favorites are the originals. I think you tend to stay with that which you first fall in love with.
Yea, Luke is whiney. But we see him develop.
I could never get past love plot in the prequels. It just never made any sense.
What perhaps surprises me most about the last 3 movies (7-8 and Rogue One) is how varied the opinions are. Some people hate Rogue One, others seem to love it. Same with 7-8. I actually really enjoyed 7 and Rogue One. I do have some problems with 8 but I think the problems are more story driven than character driven.
For me, Rogue One is one of the only movies in the series that actually shows the cost of war. Star Wars does a lot of things well, a lot of things great even, but outside the heroes, it just didn’t really sell it. Star wars blows up planets like Star Trek does the Enterprise, and you never really feel it. You have a rebel that flat out murders someone in that movie and you know what, the good guys sometimes have to do bad things, that’s real. Not cutesy Han sort of bad things but real bad things. And suddenly lines that felt kind of thrown or too light in the other movies were strengthened. For me, Rogue One made the other movies better, so it gets a lot of credit from me, and it’s not the popcorn kind of credit.
I understand that’s not the case for everyone.
I certainly agree, since they’re not my 3 favorites either.
1 - Empire
2 - New Hope
3 - Return of the Jedi
4 - Rogue One
5 - Force Awakens
6 - 8 The prequels
9 - Last Jedi
Mind, this isn’t a list of which are better, but which I enjoyed more. The prequels, I left the movie a bit ashamed, TLJ, I was feeling like I’d just lost something I had a significant emotional investment in.
Counterpoint, this scene in Return of the Jedi, one minute into the clip, (which incidentally is why I think the Ewoks work really well in that movie and are much more than comic relief and the reason why I rate Return higher that New Hope and Empire, movies which also have no ending or even third act).
This scene stayed with me as a little kid.