It’s no secret that I practically worship the ground George Lucas walks on. Probably the greatest moment of my life was when I finally got to visit Skywalker ranch… it was my pilgrimage to Mecca. But man oh man… even I have to admit that old George boy has said and done some crazy ass things in the last number of years… and what just came out of his mouth about Empire Strikes Back may be the worst. He claims Empire is the WORST of the Star Wars movies.
Our friends over at Cinematical give us this:
“George Lucas, giving the award to Sid Ganis, who was the in-house publicist on Star Wars: Episode Five – The Empire Strikes Back, said, ‘Sid is the reason why The Empire Strikes Back is always written about as the best of the films, when it actually was the worst one.'”
I’m… I’m uh… just stunned for words.
Now I should mention that I’m not one of the people who thinks Empire is the best of the Star Wars films. I think it’s Return of the Jedi personally. But to say Empire is the worst of the bunch… especially when you take the 3 new films into consideration… is just… well… IN-FUCKING-SANE! Has this man totally fallen off his rocker?!?!
Anyway, for no real reason here is my list of best to worst Star Wars films:
1) Return of the Jedi
2) A New Hope
3) Empire Strikes Back
4) Revenge of the Sith
5) Attack of the Clones
6) The Phantom Menace
Feel free to discuss.
UPDATE – Apparently Cinematical has misquoted the Lucas thing, and George was only joking when he said that. Still, it’s a great topic to discuss
Let me first start off with the fact that I LOVE all of the Star Wars: best series ever. I was horribly sad to walk out of Revenge of The Sith knowing that I’d never see a new one ever again. But nonetheless, I loved them all.
Here is my order (best to … I can’t really call it “worst”):
1. Return of the Jedi
2. Revenge of the Sith
3. A New Hope
4. The Empire Strikes Back
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menace
First, Return of the Jedi. I don’t care what anyone says, it is the best. I mean, it’s the conclusion, the end, the final chapter, (awesome ending I might add), and everything in it. The only flaw is the huge chunk of movie taken up by Ewok and Jabba scene, which annoyed me. The second, is definitely Sith. It’s hard to determine which is better, because have such truly amazing endings. Sith although, is very dark,and Jedi isn’t quite as dark, but still pretty twisted. Sith was the movie of all 6 though that left me at the end and in the scene with Anakin and the Storm Troopers, banging my head against the wall, screaming at my TV, and hating the world for a few days. So, I put Sith in second.
Next, you have A New Hope, which was the first (ever made) of the Star Wars series (I could say trilogy but here I am referring to all 6). This was the opening, the major one that everyone loved, and left Star Wars fans craving more. This was probably the best movie George Lucas could have made to introduce Star Wars. I put it as third, only because it hasn’t followed through well as Wolfmarauder put it.
We then are faced with Empire Strikes back. Everyone will hate me for placing it as number four, but I had to, only as process of elimination. Yes, it has most of the famous Star Wars moments, yes, Luke finds out Vader is his father and fights him. If we are judging by storytelling and plot, Empire is number one no question. I in this list, am judging by experience during and after watching it.
Last, we have Clones and Phantom. They were both kind of poor-plotted-special-effects-packed-filler movies, to fill the beginning. I still loved Darth Maul, and hated them killing him at the end. I loved Darth Maul AND Qui-Gon Jin, so Phantom Menace as you can imagine, was diffucult to watch the end. Clones was not a bad movie, but didn’t have nearly the same effect on your emotions as 4, 5, and 6 did. Phantom didn’t either. So they are interchangable on my list at the bottom.
In the words of Kenon, I am a heretic, and I admit it. Not only for putting Sith as 2, but also putting Empire as 4. A lot of people are going to want them switched, which is understandable. I however, think in MY OPINION ONLY, they are where they should be. If you read all this, a genuine thanks goes out to you.
I am just listening to the last audio edition with this topic and I must side with Douglas and Bruxy. I watched ‘Revenge Of The Sith’ for the first (and last) time only a couple weeks ago. A friend bugged me since it came out to watch it and I continually refused until now. I was in a good mood, I suppose.
That movie was so horrible. I can’t really remember the previous two pieces of trash that were in the new trilogy but this was so wretched, it made me laugh out loud a few times. The dialogue was stupid, the action was lame, the plot was so far from consistent that I was amazed someone let this be associated with Star Wars. An absolute piece of shit. I don’t know how any of you enjoyed it. And anyone who says it is good is just wrong. I know, it’s your opinion. But you’re wrong. [Read with intended sarcastic tone.] Keep spreading the word, Doug and Brux.
1. Star Wars
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menace
Jedi the best? With those soul-sucking merchandising Ewoks. The second half of Jedi is when the franchise first took a turn for the worst. But I am hartened that a planet sized space-station exploding in low orbit around Endor, should be enough to shift the orbit of the planet and wipe out the little suckers.
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Star Wars
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menace
I enjoy your blog but you’re really of the mark listing RotJ at #1. Was it the first Star Wars film you saw as a child? Please tell me that nostalgia played a huge part in your choice!
Fine … Lucas is kidding.
But then is John?? That list of his not only sucks, but is DISTURBING as well.
My list:
1. A New Hope, Empire, Jedi
what are these other films you guys keep mentioning..the phantom what??the attack of the who?? revenge of the wha???
what are these films?
Well since everyone else is doing it ill do one too.
1)Empire Strikes Back
2)A New Hope
3)Return of the Jedi
4)Revenge of the Sith
5)Attack of the Clones
6)The Phantom Menace
I love them all no matter how many fans the Prequels pissed off, I enjoyed the films an the story behind the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.
I agree with Ray.
A New Hope is the only film I love.
1)empire strikes back
2)new hope
3)attack of the clones
4)revenge of the sith
5)return of the jedi
6)phantom menace
Battlestar Galactica just got a fourth season john.
13 episodes….they say it is likely top be its last as ratings have not been great but shit….it was looking shakey that it would come back at all so this is good news….
Empire as always been my favorite, even as a kid. A New Hope was a thrill then Empire blew that out of the water and Jedi I liked, but it didn’t top Empire for me. My list is the same as many…
Empire
A New Hope
Return
Revenge
Attack
Phantom ….This one has 3 strikes 1. Jake Llyod 2. Jar Jar 3. After a HUGE marketing campaign using Darth Maul I was completely disappointed that they killed him off in the end.
Quote: Yeah but Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like… fuckin’… Shaft. End Quote
star wars is like religion…we all have our favorite verse or chapter…the beauty of it is we can take whatever we like about them and make our own universe making it better in our minds…and then we can do something fucked up in the name of it
There should be no list…they are all created equally…overall the story is great and that is all that matters
we must keep a united front against star trek fans and also stay in touch with other star wars fans because girls hate every one of you
Oh and you should still call the podcast:
Belly Buttons and Assholes on Entertainment and Cinema
Alfie,
I completely agree with your assesment of Lucas and the untouched originals scenario. I can just see Lucas now, “You wanted ’em untouched, well here they are jack-asses. Just like you said you wanted them”. I, too, thought that was fucking hilarious when all the fanboys started bitching about them and backpedalling about what they meant by “untouched”. That was the highlight of my year, i gotta tell ya. I love the special editions. Whatever portions I dont like, I can just fast forward through. I love the added creatures, broader shots, and bigger explosions. Actually, the only thing that I dont like is the extended band sequences, but i just fast forward through them. Greedo shooting first or at the same time doesnt bother me at all.
And obviously Lucas was just making a joke at his friends expense. Some people just grab a bone and run with it.
About the order…
#1: Empire Strikes Back
#2: Return of the Jedi
#3: A New Hope
#4: Revenge of the Sith
#5: Attach of the Clones
#^: Phantom Menace
As for 1 thru 3, what can I say? I like the conclusion of the original trilogy better than the way it began. Actually, the same goes for the prequel trilogy.
I think Empire is the best of the SW films, the original is #2. I never really liked Jedi.
P.S. As far as I’m concerned, Phantom, Attack, and Sith don’t even exist. They are blocked from my mind as the worst of the bunch. They aren’t even films, just special effect filled spectacles…lousy story telling, bad acting and just plain horrible filmmaking just do them in. If Lucas, who I consider a great filmmaker, can’t hit his marks as a director…well that’s huge blow for any project.
I’d still rather remember all the backstory Lucas gave us back in the day when SW was still so huge in the world culture, as as the real prequels.
1) A New Hope
2) Empire Strikes Back
3) Revenge of the Sith
4) Return of the Jedi
5) Attack of the Clones
6) The Phantom Menace
Obviously a joke. But I wouldnt be surprised if Lucas knew it would cause a stir among Star Wars fans; he knows thats most fans’ favorite, and is probably a little annoyed by that since thats one he didnt direct.
With the way George has been acting of late I can understand how people might misconstrue his comments. It was a joke, but taken out of context people might take it serioursly as some people have done.
As far as I’m concerned, A New Hope (One of the top films of all time) and Empire are the best of the bunch. I can live with Jedi, but the ewoks do me in…I mean I was young when I first saw jedi, but even I knew they were kind of cheesy! They were originally meant to be wookies and they should have stayed wookies!! The ewoks were the beginning of Lucas dumming down the franchise. He was beginning to make kiddie fair and even though I was a kid I wanted adult real serious fantasy…
If you want to talk franchise, LOTR is the best I’ve seen consistently thru and thru…and this is coming from a serious Star Wars fan!
AOTC is one of the most inept films period.
A totally unbelievable love story; along with the worst character assassination in Padme from planet ruler to love starved Jedi ornament who falls for a self confessed mass murderer; to the ultimate in soulessness in movie history; an epic battle where an army of robots clash against an army of clones.
Could a more unemotionally involved action sequence ever be filmed? I doubt it.
At least the Sonic the HedgeHog Yoda fight scenes were funny! Oops. I forgot. Those were meant to be serious moments.
Then there is the next Indy movie. I have a bad feeling about this.
It was a damn joke. I wish bloggers would do a little research instead of just going with whatever they find on Digg.
As a kid Return was always my favourite but when I watched the original trilogy again recently, I didn’t like it anywhere near as much. The additions they made to it for the special editions didn’t help either – they completely butcher the menace of the Sarlacc pit sequence by needlessly turning it a flower-like creature and don’t even mention the band in Jabba’s palace…
Anyway, for what it’s worth, my list:
1. A New Hope
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. The Phantom Menace
6. Attack of the Clones
Here’s my list:
1. A New Hope
2. A New Hope
3. A New Hope
4. A New Hope
5. A New Hope
6. A New Hope
The first, best and only Star Wars film you need
I agree with Calvin on this one. I prefer Empire over Jedi, but I don’t detest jedi. I thought Jedi was a lot more fun to watch, but was more or less two movies in one. It was basically luke and and friends kicking ass on Tatooine and then there is the rest of the movie. I felt that Empire was just the more important of the two. The stroy was stronger, it was directed better, and overall just a more enjoyable film tome at least.
What insane words to say. But here are my top Star Wars movies.
1. A New Hope
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Revenge Of The Sith
4. Return of The Jedi
5. Attack of The Clones
6. Phantom Menace
Wow, I can’t believe every single movie website is talking about this.
As others have said, it was a JOKE.
*Best to worst*
1) Empire Strikes Back
2) Return of the Jedi
3) A New Hope
4) Revenge of the Sith
5) The Ewok Adventure
6) Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones (both films gave me a very potent and deadly case of diarrhea)
I want to see some Star Wars films not based within the Skywalker legacy. Just a sequence of Star Wars films not inter-connecting with one another.
Yeah, I like Empire the best too. It was the first movie I saw where at the end the bad guys win, and it was AWESOME. I agree with alot of the posts about the order too.
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Phantom Menace
6. Attack of the Clones
The prequels missed the mark for me except for Revenge. But I still think that The Phantom Menace could have been completely eliminated and used as flashbacks, Revenge should have been lengthened and split in two.
Basically, I wanted to see the Jedi Purge carried out over a longer period of time and not all in one fell swoop. Vader should have hunted down and killed the Jedi one by one, not just massacre some kids and have the clones do the rest.
I meant Revenge of the Sith, sorry…
Forgot to put my list (not that it really matters, but anyway…);
1- Empire (everything about this movie rules)
2- Return of the Jedi
3- A New Hope
4- Phantom Menace (Jar Jar annoyed me, but it was a fun ride, and the menage-a-trois with Darth Maul is the best fight scene in all 6 films)
5- Attack of the Clones (horrible film)
6- Revenge of the Jedi (even worse than Attack, an absolutely putrid piece of shit)
i agree with the guys earlier….people think lucas is this humourless guy but he has a very sly dry wit…..]
this “claim” he made was definitely a lucas type joke….
no doubt about it…he loves driving the fanboys crazy…..
I realised this last year when he finally released the theatrical versions of the originals on dvd…
fans for years yelled and screamed “fuck you lucas release the original versions untouched exactly as they were back in the day greedo shooting first…no cg….no touch ups..none of that special edition crap”
so lucas does….he gives them exactly what they wanted…..he gives them a completely untouched transfer of the originals and what do the fan boys do…..complain still….”hey its only in 2 channel stereo…..the transfer isn’t good enough couldn’t you clean them up a bit….do a new sound mix….. boo!!”
“but you wanted them untouched..you wanted the originals so here they are”
I thought that whole thing was hilarious….and you can’t tell me he didn’t know what he was doing….he loves fucking with fanboys….
anyway why would he release a definitive version…this years marks the 30 year anniversary of Star Wars and you can’t tell me there won’t be a super deluxe 10 disc box set coming out this year..surely
people, lucas was just joking.
and whats with trying to convince john that other star wars movies are better than empire…it’s HIS FAVORITE MOVIE
people take star wars to that next level, i understand it’s probably the number one pop culture experience , but seriously folks…
Uhmm John,
George Lucas was making a joke!!!!
Even people at the event have said that he was joking.
1. Empire
2. A New Hope
3. Revenge
4. Return
5. Phantom
6. Attack
“de-balled HAn Solo”
That is fucking gold
A much as there are amazing scenes in all the original trilogy personally I covet the battle of Hoth. It scared the crap out of me as a child (AT-ATs are the devils transport) and now I get chills everytime they fire the big fuck off Ion cannon.
‘Stand by Ion control’
‘Ah – our first catch of the day’
*Star destroyer gets the energy equivallent of being kicked in the nuts*
‘The first transport is away . . .’
‘YAAAAAAAAAY’
MAGIC ! ! !
Campea, I love you, but you must be high if you’re ranking Jedi above Empire. That chronic you’re smoking must be the good STRONG shit if you’re ranking a flick with teddy bears and a de-balled Han Solo above Empire. You MUST be high.
My list is exactly the same as Kneon’s.
Empire is by far the best. Makes me cry every time. One of my top two favorite films of all time (the other being Apocalypse Now).
A New Hope hasn’t aged well, but it is still highly entertaining.
Revenge is the most emotionally powerful since Empire, added bonus. Also the most visually beautiful one, making up for the standard Lucas lack of writing.
Return has maybe three good scenes, all in the last half of the film. The entire Jabba sequence is useless to the overall story, and is merely added in to resolve a minor plot detail… and it takes one third of the movie?! As for the Ewoks, fuzzy creatures on a conceptual level aren’t so bad… but the way they were used was horrible.
Clones has two qualities that boast it over Phantom: one is that it was actually a necessary story to tell, and the other was the entire last 30 minutes. One of the most technically amazing sequences ever created.
Phantom. The only scene in this movie I enjoy is the Podrace, and even that is disrupted by annoying whiny Jake Lloyd and the stupid sportscaster alien. The rest op the movie is pure garbage. Bad acting all around, including poor lost Liam Neeson, poorly paced, glaringly bad editing, and of course, my biggest gripe, it was entirely unnecessary to make. 2 and 3 were important stories – 1 wasn’t.
Oh yeah, I forgot to warn you, John. If you didn’t know, (though I imagine you did) the Empire vs Return arguement of which is better is a very heated debate. I take things evenly, but some people apparently love one and hate the other too much to take things peacably. You might have just stepped on a moviefan-landmine. Maybe throw this discussion on to the AE tonight. I’d lovoe to hear doug go off on either side of the issue, whether he agrees with you and I or not.
of course george is going to pick the ones he had the most work into. but empire was the best by far followed by new hope, jedi, and the latest three in oppisite order of release. i can see the arguement of which is best, but to say it is the worst is just retarded
Yeah, I think Lucas was kidding. He knows where Empire stands with most people, and is making light of it.
Disagree with Jedi being #1. The first half and the climax were good, but the whole Endor/Ewok scene just drags. Believe it or not, at one point Jedi was as vilified by fandom as Phantom Menace is today.
Personally, I’d rank them…
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menance
Yes, I liked Sith more than Jedi. I’m a heretic, and I admit to it.
All I would do with that list is move Empire and Revenge of the Sith to #1 and 2 respectively, and keep the rest of the list the same.
It’s time, John.
It’s time to rip Cinematical a new butthole.
At the very least, Lucas may have been alluding to “Empire” as being the film in which ‘has no beginning, middle, or and end’ as he said in the AC on Empire. Therefore, it is the weakest of all three OT films, so says the commentary. This could be what Lucas meant.
But it seems the real truth is, this was a mild in joke between Lucas and Ganis, taken way out of context by Cinematical, who seems to be jumping the shark a bit in the past week or so.
And…by the way… with the exception of the Jabba palace band, the ‘new’ version of ‘Jedi’ is indeed, the best of the lot.
Just me sayin i liked the phantom menace but then again i was a kid when i watched it (and last watched it i believe)
Ok, I guess links can’t be posted, so here it is again: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i1bca43ffb402e1d76d149e407777a784
I wonder if it has to do with the fact that Empire feels the least like a George Lucas a film. I know Lucas was a bit hands-off for Return of the Jedi, but the Ewoks and Jabba sequence clearly show his hand,as do the prequels adn the original. Empire is dark, I would say much darker than Revenge of the Sith, which apparently is as dark as Lucas wants to go. Empire also moves slower with a story and plot HIGHLY dependant on good acting, which Lucas apparently feels is not important in the Star Wars movies. So, maybe Lucas feels its the worse because it is the least like his style of storytelling.
I would say that Empire is my least favorite of the original trilogy with Return being my favorite Star Wars and A New Hope coming in second.
Wow, this one little comment of his has really been blown out of proportion. At first I believed it as well, until I went straight to the source.
It’s called a JOKE, people. He was presenting an award to someone he’s worked with. Of course he’s going to give him a little teasing.
Here is the original article:
Here is a quote from that original article:
“It’s testament to his skills that (‘The Empire Strikes Back’) is considered the best ‘Star Wars’ film, even though it was the worst,” Lucas joshed.
See that? It said, “Lucas JOSHED”. That means that he was kidding.
i think he was joking.
“It’s testament to his skills that (‘The Empire Strikes Back’) is considered the best ‘Star Wars’ film, even though it was the worst,” Lucas joshed.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i1bca43ffb402e1d76d149e407777a784
John, please change this list!!!! “Return of the Jedi” is EMBARRASSING!! The Ewoks need not be mentioned. How about the HORRIBLE acting on the part of Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford?? PAINFUL to watch, especially the terrible scene in the Ewok village between Luke, Han, and Leia. And let’s not forget the atrocious final scene between Han and Leia after the second Death Star blows up: “You love him … (pregnant pause) … don’t ya?” UGH!!!!
The plot is recycled crap – I mean, Lucas could come up with nothing else with which to climax this film???
OMG you must apologize!!!! I thought you were a movie fan!!!
Im nearly of the same mind when it comes to the Star Wars movies. The only difference is that I fall into that “Empire is the best” category as it is the most storytelling part of the series.
A New Hope gets the ball rolling (again – depending on your chronological experience) Empire tells the story and makes the rest matter, and Jedi is the action packed climax. Everyone gets their comeuppance, you get to cheer on the good guys, and there is action.
Ive always been story driven. Its just how I am built. I even liked Superman Returns and the Hulk because although I love the blow-uppy action flash, its really the story that matters to me.
I agree with your list, John
There’s no question that Empire is the best of the bunch. Of course, egomaniacal George didn’t have as much of a hand in that one (or Jedi) as the others. So, of course, he thinks that.
I completely agree with the order you put down, John.
To be honest, the first few times I had ever heard anyone say that Empire was the best, I was shocked. I thought they were being sarcastic. I can understand now what their point of view is, and personally, I think all three are so good that there’s room for that kind of variance. But I still agree with the list you used.
P.S. Where have all the Audio Editions gone?
I hail from the Empire is the best camp, Phantom is the worst