The Best and the Worst of the Star Wars Saga

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In 1977, a legend was born. It was a simple story set a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It was also predicted to be a flop, with less than 40 theaters agreeing to show it and 20th Century Fox threatening them with the rights to screen another movie that ended up grossing less than 10% of what the legendary film did. When it was released, the movie made waves that last even now. Star Wars was a critical and commercial success, earning a nomination for Best Picture. The cultural legacy that the epic space opera has been huge, with games like The Force Unleashed and Lego Star Wars, parodies such as Space Balls, tons of expanded universe novels, and much more, including an infamously bad holiday special. With the release of the new Star Wars movie (and many more to come in the next few years), there are currently 7 Star Wars movies. So, it’s a timely move to rate them.

Original Trilogy

3. The Empire Strikes Back

Overview: This is the weakest of the original trilogy, but retains the charm and fun of these movies. It’s not a bad film by any means; it’s just my least favorite. It contains one of the most iconic lines in cinema history, and provides the introduction of another really cool character named Boba Fett. It’s still well-written and well acted, but I like it the least out of all the original trilogy. Also, incest.

High Points/Standout Scenes: Looking at the romance between Han and Leia, it’s a little awkward because we really begin in media res. While they did argue during A New Hope, the bickering here is written in a way that brings it to the front. The place where Luke meets “Vader” is an interesting bit of false foreshadowing, but I never really got the feeling that Luke would actually turn to the dark side; so far, his actions have never demonstrated the moral shakiness that Anakin went through.

2. Return of The Jedi

Overview: The Return of The Jedi is a great way to finish the original trilogy, leaving the expanded universe open to leave the rest of the story to be told. We finally see the emperor die and that Leia is force-sensitive.

High Points/Standout Scenes: Slave Leia, for obvious reasons. Wait, no, sorry. The best scenes in the movie are the Ewok scenes and the final battle with Vader and The Emperor. I like the Ewok scenes because a) they’re adorable little teddy bears and b) the sight of them kicking the Empire’s butts with primitive technology is really awesome. The fight with Vader and the Emperor is an emotional high, but also is interesting because of this reason: Vader and the Emperor want to kill each other and make Luke their apprentice.

1. A New Hope

Overview: The original is probably the best one of all. It’s the most well acted, it’s the one with the best writing, and it’s the best story, emphasizing the themes of transplanting the fantasy archetypes to a space opera setting. This is the one that was nominated for Best Picture, and won 6 other Academy Awards.

High Points/Standout Scenes: The scene in the cantina is a standout because it really sets up the universe that we have been given to watch via the diversity of the background. There are a wide range of aliens, most of which do have names that were established later. There are Duros, Ithorians, Devaronians, Bith, Aqualish, and many other background worldbuilding is done here. The other high point of the movie is, of course, the iconic opening crawl. These may exposit the entire backstory of the movie by violating the rule of “show, don’t tell” via text, but it also sucks you in with the John Williams score in the background that makes that disappear from your mind as you’re watching it. It’s sudden burst onto the screen also help magnify its impact.

Prequel Trilogy

3. Attack of the Clones

Overview: Attack of the Clones is dull, mainly because of the romance of Padme and Anakin has too much screen time. They have no chemistry; Hayden Christensen’s acting and the weak writing doesn’t help. It does continue the prequel trilogy’s impressive fight choreography; as in The Phantom Menace, the lightsaber fights are much more fluid and stylish than they were in the original trilogy.

High Points/Standout Scenes: The chase through Coruscant is an interesting one because the analogues to a normally choreographed car chase can be clearly spotted through the entirety of the scene. But the CGI makes it boring because it’s not real. A real bright spot is the scene on Kamino, which provides an interesting sneak preview of the manipulations that Sidious has been doing for a long time.

2. The Phantom Menace

Overview: This one is better than Attack of the Clones, but worse than Revenge of the Sith. This film introduces the massive amounts of CGI that you will immediately notice all the way throughout the trilogy. Some of it is good; others…not so much. The battle droids are made of CGI, the Gungans are made of CGI, and many, many, many other things are completely computer-generated. The fact remains that the writing is far weaker than compared to the earlier movies due to the constraints of the fact that we know what’s going to happen.

High Points/Standout Scenes: Jar Jar Binks is quite possibly one of the most annoying characters to ever hit the screen. Now that that’s out of the way, the best part of this movie is the fight with Darth Maul. This scene introduces the phenomenal “Duel of the Fates”, which is quite possibly one of John William’s best scores. It’s big, it’s epic, it awesome. There’s also the scene of podracing, which is a tension-filled scene that keeps you on your toes despite all the CGI, helped by the fact that you want a character who’s a jerk to lose.

1. Revenge of the Sith

Overview: The wrap-up of the prequel trilogy is stronger than its predecessors by a long shot. The most interesting character of the entire prequel trilogy is Palpatine because of the fact that as the Sith Lord Sidious he’s the master of all the unfolding events, and he receives a good treatment here. His manipulations finally pay off with the elimination of all the Jedi under Order 66. Hayden Christensen’s acting is much better suited here and the dialogue is much better.

High Points/Standout Scenes: The scene in Utapau introduces one of the coolest characters to come out of Star Wars: General Grievous. This guy is awesome because he’s a cyborg wielding four lightsabers. But the real treat of the movie is the duel on Mustafar between Anakin and Obi-Wan. While the lava is flowing around them, the impressively choreographed lightsaber duel lights up the screen while in the background “Duel of the Fates” appears. The aftermath also spawned one heck of an internet meme. Afterwards, it leaves the ends tied up for the events of A New Hope to begin.

So, that’s my list of the favorite Star Wars movies. If you disagree, go ahead and say so. But this is my opinion on the best Star Wars movies. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has already come out as this article is being published. I hear it’s really good; Richard Roeper’s gave it four stars. Personally, I originally would not have seen it at all due to a lot of the Expanded Universe being retconned into an alternate universe called “Star Wars Legends”, which means the entirety of the Dark Forces Saga video games were wiped out, as well as the Legacy of the Force book series that I really liked. But now that I’ve been tasked with writing something in time for the new Star Wars, it would be kind of stupid to not do so. I’ll see you at the theater.