A New Hope vs Empire Strikes Back

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Time to pit these two movies against each other. Like Kirk vs Spock to the death in some contrived internet forum debate. Which installment in the overall landscape of Star Wars movies is better?

[Winter]

Time to pit these two movies against each other. Like Kirk vs Spock to the death in some contrived internet forum debate. Which installment in the overall landscape of Star Wars movies is better?

For me I say their about equal, both are great just different and I find myself switching between the two rather often. I will say that I think Empire is the overall stronger film from a purely non bias view point, better paced, better action scenes and the more personal story will always have a great impact than the more grand story.

On a side note this is my general ranking of all main trilogy Star Wars films plus the Thrawn Trilogy cause why not.

S Tiers

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Heir of the Empire
The Last Command

A Tiers

Revenge of the Sith
Return of the Jedi
Dark Force Rising

B Tiers

The Phantom Menace
The Force Awakens

C Tiers

Attack of the Clones

F Tiers

The Last Jedi
Rise of Skywalker

[stryke]

New Hope for me. The reason why I've never counted myself as a Star Wars fan despite liking a bunch of Star Wars stuff is that I just don't think much of Empire Strikes Back. It's fine, good even, but it never wowed me. Hell, It's about the same level of Return of the Jedi, and that's just not a Star Wars fan opinion.

I'd also say that even with the sequels, and with some of those being pretty bad, Attack of the Clones is still the worst of the worst.

Okay that's not counting the Clone Wars extended first episode got a theatrical release with Stinky the Hutt and introduced Ahsoka. Genuinely wild that she became such a beloved character after a start like that.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I liked Return of the Jedi growing up, but Clerks gave me a matured bias towards heavily considering the nuance that goes into Empire Strikes Back's narrative structure. For that matter I've learned to appreciate New Hope on a filmmaking scale, but always found it kind of lacking in overall flow of narrative. Now in terms of approach to story construction and watching SF Debris production videos on it, I really appreciate A New Hope, though admittedly I can't help feeling like it is like Pulp Fiction but just in order.

Overall though I feel like A New Hope is the proverbial egg to Empire's Chicken.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Time to pit these two movies against each other. Like Kirk vs Spock to the death in some contrived internet forum debate. Which installment in the overall landscape of Star Wars movies is better?

For me I say their about equal, both are great just different and I find myself switching between the two rather often. I will say that I think Empire is the overall stronger film from a purely non bias view point, better paced, better action scenes and the more personal story will always have a great impact than the more grand story.

On a side note this is my general ranking of all main trilogy Star Wars films plus the Thrawn Trilogy cause why not.

S Tiers

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Heir of the Empire
The Last Command

A Tiers

Revenge of the Sith
Return of the Jedi
Dark Force Rising

B Tiers

The Phantom Menace
The Force Awakens

C Tiers

Attack of the Clones

F Tiers

The Last Jedi
Rise of Skywalker

I'm thinking bump aNH and Jedi down a peg

[Riedquat]

I'm thinking bump aNH and Jedi down a peg

Jedi's redeeming feature, not enough to counteract the Ewoks though, is the space battle, which is arguably the best in the series (it's a coin toss between that and Scarif for me).

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I'm thinking bump aNH and Jedi down a peg

Jedi's redeeming feature, not enough to counteract the Ewoks though, is the space battle, which is arguably the best in the series (it's a coin toss between that and Scarif for me).

It's remarkable how they structured such a theater of battle with the prime characters are doing things on the moon or in the deathstar. I feel like the final battle though would have more impact with more main characters than just Lando though.

[McAvoy]

I liked Return of the Jedi growing up, but Clerks gave me a matured bias towards heavily considering the nuance that goes into Empire Strikes Back's narrative structure. For that matter I've learned to appreciate New Hope on a filmmaking scale, but always found it kind of lacking in overall flow of narrative. Now in terms of approach to story construction and watching SF Debris production videos on it, I really appreciate A New Hope, though admittedly I can't help feeling like it is like Pulp Fiction but just in order.

Overall though I feel like A New Hope is the proverbial egg to Empire's Chicken.

I was a fan of Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back as a kid. Simple reason is when I was a I reacted the lightsaber battles with my younger brother. As a kid I thought the second Vader fight was the better one compared to the first. I wasn't even into the space battles at the time.

As an adult, I view things differently. Empire is the best, next to New Hope and then Return of the Jedi.

Likewise when the prequels came out, I didn't like Phantom of the Menace and thought Attack of the Clones was better. Now, Phantom of the Menace is better than Attack of the Clones IMO. Revenge of the Sith is the best of the three.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Likewise when the prequels came out, I didn't like Phantom of the Menace and thought Attack of the Clones was better. Now, Phantom of the Menace is better than Attack of the Clones IMO. Revenge of the Sith is the best of the three.

Question: George Lucas is both writing and directing the movies, so what combination I ask is rendering Phantom Menace a redeemed film?

[stryke]

Question: George Lucas is both writing and directing the movies, so what combination I ask is rendering Phantom Menace a redeemed film?

I've honestly always liked Phantom Menace. Even back in the day I thought that some of the criticism was overly harsh, and having rewatched all three of the prequels I stand by that.

It's such a wildly inconsistent film. There's a lot of it that's straight 1* material, and then there's stuff like Duel of the Fates and the wonderful sounds that pod racers make as they corner that's legit excellent 5*, and on the whole it averages out to a film that I like more than I dislike.

Attack of the Clones though is just utterly wretched.