Does anyone feel this is the best Star Wars film by far?
Honestly, I don't think any of the others come close. This is the best one and it's far, far away from the others.
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I wouldn't say by far, but it is the best one, I think. I'd rank Empire just a tick underneath it, and Return of the Jedi a couple notches below that. The first trilogy are a pretty tight grouping for me. I know a lot of people rip on Jedi because of the stuffed animal toy commercials, but for every silly Ewok scene there's something like the throne room confrontation between Luke and the two Sith, waging combat for the salvation of Vader's soul (or Luke's damnation) and that's just great.
shareI've always loved the space scenes in the original trilogy best. I'll take the Death Star scenes, X wing fight scenes and pretty much anything with Darth Vader. I think that's why I love the first one so much because most of the film does that. I never did like creature and desert scenes.
shareWell, Empire comes close, very close perhaps, but I'll give the nod to this one.
shareYes, definitely.
I know most people would say Empire is the best, but I've always felt the original was by far more elegant in its storytelling, as it does leave the door open for possible sequels, but at the same time, can be seen as a complete story on its own, whereas Empire would make no narrative sense if there'd been no RotJ.
I don't understand the love that Empire gets. The story is so disjointed. And for the most part, I find it extremely slow. The first film feels like there's a beginning, a middle and an end and the story stays with the rescue mission. The other two films in the original trilogy felt like they were trying to expand the universe but at times, it doesn't even feel like it's the same universe.
shareFor me the look of The Empire Strikes Back was a breath of fresh air after A New Hope. Empire was clean and uncluttered, it looked beautiful by comparison. A New Hope looked cluttered, chaotic and cheap.
For me it's Return of the Jedi. However I might be biased since that was the first one I saw, and my introduction to Star Wars
1. Return of the Jedi
2. Empire Strikes back
3. Star Wars: A new Hope
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Phantom Menace
6. Attack of the clones
7. Rise of Skywalker
8. Force Awakens
9. Last Jedi
I prefer the first one because Mark's plastic surgery takes me out of the sequels.
What I liked about the original trilogy is that they each had different atmospheres.
Star Wars: sand.
Empire: snow.
Return: lush green landscape.
I saw the original trilogy recently for the first time after many, many years and Mark Hamill's face in Jedi was even worse than I remember. He looks like a Bond villain.
shareI like them all equally. The original trilogy are all a 10/10 to me. I hate the 2000s prequels and the new sequels. Though Rogue One and Solo were enjoyable. I admit though I never wanted sequels to the OT. As far as I'm concerned at the end of Return of the Jedi, everyone lived happily ever after. Never really got into any of the many sequel novels or comics.
shareI don't even acknowledge the prequels. To me, Darth Vader's origin is a mystery to me.
shareYeah. I hate how Lucas did it in the prequels with the whole, "Jedis are forbidden to love" bullcrap.
shareI didn't like that either. There was so much he put into the prequels that made the mythology seem worse. This is why I even object to the defence of the prequels that the "world-building was good". Nope; I disagree.
To each his or her own, of course, but for me, I'll stick with IV, V, and VI, and just forget about I, II, III, VII, VIII, IX, and the spinoff films.
It's a popular tactic prequel fans use to try and make the movies sounds good. They know they can't really argue the story, acting, or effects are good, so they come up with "world-building" crap.
shareMy theory is that everybody has nostalgia for the first Star Wars they were exposed to. The theory will be tested in ten years when we see what ST fans are like. It'll also be interesting to see if sequel fans like the PT and OT as well, or if they only like the ST.
The reason I think many PT fans like the "world-building" is because they grew up on those films and they were part of the fans' imagination ignition sequencing. So, while we look at the prequels' world-building and roll our eyes or sigh deeply, they just remember the thousand stories in their minds that took place on Mustafar and Naboo.
You're not wrong that a healthy chunk of prequel fans are 20-year olds who grew up on bad movies. They might even be the majority. But they're definitely not the only ones. I've seen and talked/argued with MANY older prequel fans over the years. I call them Lucas Loyalists. Here, IMDB, Facebook, Twitter - they are definitely out there.
I've definitely seen a ton of "Reylo" fans - who appear to be warped teenagers who defend murderers (Ren) - and little girls who love Rey. Of course there are exceptions like myself who like them.
The older ones, I think, are almost people who are taking such a vehement anti-Disney stance that they're insisting Lucas was god.
Of course, some people probably just like the movies, hard as that is to believe. More power to 'em; far be it from me to dictate other people's favourite films. I just disagree is all.
The sequels were pretty disappointing overall, but I did like Kylo Ren as a character. He was well-played by Adam Driver, so he was watchable. I liked Finn, too, but I've always enjoyed coward-heroes. I felt bad for Daisy Ridley, saddled with such a nothing character. I never hated Rey, but she is kinda bland.
That's exactly what they are. I have ZERO tolerance for the anti-Disney crowd. Besides the fact that it's massive hypocrisy - Lucasfilm has been a money-making machines for decades - they have a long history of success. There's no validity to the anti-Disney argument when you blindly supported Lucasfilm for years.
You used to be able to be able to discuss the franchise - even if you disagreed on the prequels - before this type came along. Did it for many years on IMDB. Now it's just Lucas nutters vs everyone else. You can't even talk about the new movies. Ask a question? Conversation is instantly sidetracked into some rant about
I genuinely like TFA a lot. It's very entertaining. I like Rey, but her level of interest definitely drops after this one. I would say the same for Finn, but he really wasn't any good in this either, it's just the the movie is funny and enjoyable, so he blends in.
The Rise of Skywalker definitely feels thrown together, but I blame that on Johnson. He killed the villain in the 2nd movie of a trilogy and apparently Ben just HAD To turn, so they had to come up with SOMETHING. Can't have a movie without an antagonist. I do find it entertaining for the most part.
I like Kylo Ren too. I hated that they redeemed him and made him a love interest, but his performance is really good.
I think the fanbase is becoming increasingly factionalized (is that a word?). It's not just PT, OT, ST, either, but there are people who are making it political. Okay, so, pop culture trends started it by jamming the marketing of the new films up by bragging about how woke they are, but still, fans could have just rolled their eyes and watched the movies for what they were. But some people insist you have to like them because they're progressive. Others insist you can't like them because they're too woke. I know people who love The Last Jedi for its ballsy approach to canon and they respect that. I politely disagree with them, but everybody who likes the new films aren't doing so because they're woke.
There were quite a few nutters pre-Disney, too, but I think that it was a much more in-step fanbase. Generally, we liked the OT and didn't care for the prequels.
I liked TFA, too, but with some reservations. It felt a little too committee-built (x-wings - check; don't mention midi-chlorians - check; "gritty" lightsabre fights - check; all demographics represented by main cast - check) for one thing. For another, I thought that the handling of the "between years" was foolishly-done (you can't have Luke give up and Han and Leia divorce between films; you want to seriously alter the lore? show it, don't tell it), particularly given the question marks I have around the rise of the First Order. How did that happen under the New Republic's watch? Those are my biggest two complaints.
I know Rey is a bit one-note, she is definitely a Mary Sue, but I didn't really care, either. Daisy Ridley did a good job and her chemistry with the others was good, so I didn't really care. Finn was wasted by the second two films. He got sidelined.
I think the biggest problems with all three films was honestly - weirdly, ironically - pandering to fans. Disney was trying to mechanically build something fans would love, so they let JJ Abrams do his "action/mystery box" thing (popular, even if it is bad writing), and then they just took everything we'd been saying we hated about the prequels for years and made sure it was nowhere near the film. They also rolled out the nostalgia carpet ala their live-action remakes of their cartoons. They pandered. At first, it worked. TFA opened to rave reviews. The "minority report" came in later, complaints that it was too formulaic.
"Okay," said Disney, and Rian Johnson's mantra and guiding star became, "Subvert expectations". Fans hated that. So, what does Rise of Skywalker do? Panders. It retcons half of The Last Jedi to the point of making each of those three films have their own bumble-plots, and they got Abrams back to make it fun again.
The result? It never came together. The problem is that fans of any film don't usually know what they want. What they want is a great story and characters. That's why we really didn't care for the Prequels: the story is flat and bland, the characters are cardboard people designed to react to pingpong balls that will be CGI robots and aliens later. But most people can't articulate the missing elements of story structure or character arcs that made those movies not work, so they said, "Too much CGI," and so Disney spat out, "Okay... we used lots of practical effects on set".
Disney's problem was that pandering to fans will never make a great story. They saw $$$ and forgot that before getting up and making a movie, you have to have sat down and fallen in love with a story you needed to tell.
Star Wars is, to me, Luke Skywalker's story, and that's why the OT works for me and why the other films don't. They told Anakin's and Rey's stories without asking, "Do we really care?"