Rank the Star Wars films (old)

[Whill]

From 1980 to 2005, I would never rank the individual Star Wars films or even choose a single favorite one. I saw them as one big story with multiple chapters, and I enjoy all the chapters, each one a piece of the puzzle.

An important criterion for ranking each episode with respect to each other is each film's ability to stand alone, and for me an important consideration for that is the dramatic value of the film's climax. It seems that the original Star Wars set the bar for the other films in many ways. I feel it is safe to say that deep down inside, ANH was always my favorite. I just didn't consciously compare individual films to each other much then for fear of that getting in the way of enjoying each part of the story with respect to the saga as a whole.

Not oblivious to the weak climax of AotC, from the moment Dooku got decapitated in my second viewing of RotS I started to consider that AotC may be my least favorite film. Believing the Star Wars saga story was done with RotS, I began to formulate a ranking. It was a very difficult process for me in 05 or 06, and it was especially difficult to place the two new films into it. But even with the Disney films, my two 'benchmarks' remain unchanged (ANH fave, AotC least fave). It should come as no surprise that Star Wars is my favorite film series and A New Hope is my favorite movie of all movies, not just Star Wars.

I'm sure my ranking will be atypical if not unique. Here are my rankings right now:

1. A New Hope
2. The Force Awakens
3. Rogue One
4. The Phantom Menace
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. Return of the Jedi
7. The Empire Strikes Back
8. Attack of the Clones

Since we have poll technology, I thought I would also attach a poll to this charting our choices at the top of our rankings. After voting, please reply by sharing your entire ranking. For those of you that don't love every movie, I'm confident that this thread won't turn into a bash-fest.

EDIT: I added The Last Jedi to poll, and I removed "live-action theatrical" from the thread title in accordance with the Forum Posting Guideline regarding Default “films”.

This thread is closed now. See this post for a summary of the posted rankings in this thread, and see the new Rank the Star Wars films thread.
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[Dustflier]

My ranking is as follows:
1. A New Hope
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Rogue One
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Force Awakens
7. Attack of the Clones
8. The Phantom Menace

ANH and ESB occasionally swap places in my ranking. I feel that Rogue One accurately captures the visceral feel of those two films, while bridging the gap between the prequels and OT.

RotJ slows down too much with the Ewoks and doesn't feel as crisply edited, though I love the throne room scenes.

RotS is ultimately too much flash with too little substance. The quick, simple duel between Vader and Obi-Wan in ANH was superior in nearly every way to their gratuitously long battle, here.

The Force Awakens keeps too many secrets to be fully appreciated, at least at this point, I believe. I'm curious to see how my opinion changes when the ST is finished.

AotC is a mix of cringy romance and incredibly pulpy Buck Rogers-style action adventure from Obi-Wan's subplot. I prefer it so much over the plot carnage that was TPM.
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[Sutehp]

My ranking is as follows:
1. Rogue One
2. The Force Awakens
3. A New Hope
4. Empire Strikes Back
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Revenge of the Sith
7. The Phantom Menace
8. Attack of the Clones

Rogue One didn't have anything to do with the Skywalker Saga, but it feels very relevant in this day and age about resisting authoritarianism, to say nothing of the fact that it's a gritty war movie where the heroes have to sacrifice everything to gain victory. After two trilogies of seeing the main characters cheat death, this is a refreshing change of pace and also shows the true horrors of war where the good guys die despite all their bravery.

TFA I like because it reminds us of the dangers of complacency. Just because the bad guys are out of sight and out of mind doesn't mean that they've given up. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, as they say. Maz Kanata even lampshades this when she says that the entire galaxy will have to rise up to defeat the First Order.

For a long time, ANH was only second to TESB in my mind before RO and TFA came out. But now, with RO out and completing ANH's story, RO makes ANH even better than it was. Because of RO, ANH now comes ahead of TESB in my opinion.

TESB: "No. I am your father." 'Nuff said.

RotJ: As all of us D6 SWRPG fans know, the fate of the galaxy hinged on Han Solo failing a sneak roll. If he had managed to take out those scouts quietly, Leia wouldn't have ridden off with Luke to chase the escaping scouts. If she and Luke hadn't fought those escaping scouts, she wouldn't have been shot off her bike and been found by Wicket. If she hadn't been found by Wicket, the Rebels wouldn't have met the Ewoks. And without the Ewoks rescuing the Rebels after they got captured by the Empire, the shield wouldn't have been destroyed and the Rebellion would have been crushed. For Want of a Nail, indeed.

RotS: Finally seeing how Anakin Skywalker fell to become Darth Vader. Epic lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. Seeing Yoda (the Big Good) finally fight the Big Bad...and lose because it's not his destiny to defeat the Big Bad. We were waiting 28 years for this story.

TPM: Three words: Double-bladed lightsaber. That is all.

Attack of the Clones: To this day, I still fast forward through the (so-called) romance scenes. George, not even the epic battle scenes in this movie make up for your crappy attempt at writing romance. You are a film-making pioneer and will deservedly be remembered for that, but please don't ever write anything romance-related again.

And that sums up my personal ranking of the Star Wars live-action movies.
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Just repurchased the X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim games. I forgot how much I missed them.

[Whill]

[Falconer]

Star Wars
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.
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Empire
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.
.
.
.
Jedi
Force Awakens
Battle for Endor
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.
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.
.
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miscellany of unrankable popcorn flicks (Holiday Special, Ewok Adventure, Prequel Tetralogy)

[MrNexx]

1. A New Hope
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Rogue One
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Force Awakens

----Threshold of Awesome----

6. Revenge of the Sith
7/8. The Phantom Menace/Attack of the Clones.

My first three have kind of a fluid order, partially dependent on a rewatch of Rogue One. Rogue One suffers a little bit because it relies on us knowing the world and what's happening and going to happen as a result of this mission... it builds its own drama and story, but I don't think it can be easily divorced from its predecessing sequels in the minds of modern viewers. I do agree, Rogue One really enhances a New Hope, and while I think ESB is one of the best movies, I'm not so sure it stands on its own without ANH... it benefits from being able to push a lot of initial character development onto ANH, and just get into storytelling. ANH, OTOH, stands fine without Rogue One or ESB.

Jedi winds up above TFA because it is the ending of stories, while TFA currently has too many threads hanging about it... too many unanswered questions. I also think, rewatching it, that TFA cleaves a bit too closely to story beats from ANH... it's not a clone, but there's too many places where it's a mirror. Jedi, especially once you accept the Ewoks (though I agree with the above that they represent the story slowing down for a bit), wraps up the story nicely, without cutting out the possibility of sequels (and I'd love to see some stories set between Jedi and TFA, and think they make an obvious place for "Rogue Two" to take place).

For the bottom three? I've seen all of Attack of the Clones maybe once, and it felt a little stronger than TPM, but still lackluster. Revenge of the Sith was... meh. Not has horrible as TPM, but very, very, meh.
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[griff]

I have to put Return of the Jedi first. The space battle was the bed in all of the movies with the new one in Rogue is just as good but the tie goes to the runner. Janna was a great addition to the story. I do like the ewoks even before I saw Cracked Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder "the ewoks are more terrifying then you remember" YouTube it.

Rogue one was great mostly for greatly expanding the universe than any other movie. Great story and great action.

1 return of the Jedi
2 rogue one
3 the empire strikes back
4 a new hope
5 the battle for endor
6 the force awakens
7 the phantom menace
8 the ewok adventure
9 attack of the clones
10 the revenge of the Sith.

Remember this is based on opinion not quality and content.
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[Error]

1. ESB
2. ANH
3. RotS
4. TPM
5. R1
6. TFA
7. RotJ
8. TCW movie

1,204. Attack of the Clones

FYI:
The OP is missing the TCW movie, which was a theatrical release.
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[MrNexx]

[Error]

[Whill]

[RyanDarkstar]

1. ESB - Character development, Battle of Hoth, Cloud City, Lando!
2. ANH - 1st movie I ever saw @ 4 years old; still great all these years later.
3. TFA - Loved all of the new characters and banter; though a retread, lots of fun.
4. RotJ - Redemption of Vader, Battle of Endor.
5. R1 - Return of the Classic Era, Vader!
6. TPM - Could have been great if used original treatment.
7. TCW - Better than Attack of the Clones.
8. RotS - Obi-wan, Lightsaber dance, Clone battles.
9. AotC - Battle of Geonosis, Obi-wan.
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[RedKnight]

1: Rogue One
2: Attack of the Clones (Battle of Geonosis)
3: A New Hope
4: The Empire strikes Back
5: Return of the Jedi
6: Revenge of the Sith
7: Phantom Menace
8: The Force Awakens

Attack of the clones is number 2 purely because of the awesome that is the battle of the Geonosis (Around the survivors a perimeter create 'what?' 'sorry i had to cough, create a perimeter around the survivors'). as to TPM being above TFW.......i like Naboo and the gungans.

[Whill]

I just love seeing all this diversity among fans! In the inter-film period of 2006-2014, it seems these rankings tended to be fairly predictable putting TESB at top and TPM at the bottom. I was always the odd man out. Here it seems we are all over the place. I love it.

[Sutehp]