Of the 6 Star Wars films now made, which one is your favorite and why ?

(You'll be seeing this a lot)

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

has depth of character underneath all the action (which is memorable), foreshadowing in the plot that pays off, excellent performances, and an earth-shattering franchise-CREATING revelation that is emasculated by the prequels (if watched first). Not to mention the 2 best Star Wars themes (Imperial March/Vader's Theme and The Asteroid Field). Also has the best script of the lot (at least once the actors and director were done with it) and, yes, the best direction. It should be held up as an example of collaborative film-making (a Democracy, if you will) rather than creator-owned and operated like the prequels (an Empire, so to speak).

As an adult I can appreciate Empire more for the fact that it's a superior film and better quality filmmaking, but Star Wars: A New Hope will always be that movie for me that started it all. I saw it countless times in the theater and was completely blown away by it.

It had:
- one of the best opening scenes with the ships
- some of the most interesting characters and costumes I'd ever scene
- one of the most recognizable scores, especially the main theme and cantina song
- spectacular assult on the Death Star

Empire and Star Wars are my two favorites and receive equal love for different reasons.

Empire is still the best. with ANH a close second.

I agree that Empire is the better film over all, but the original Star Wars will always be my favorite. Partly it's the nostalgia of how I first felt seeing it (at the Drive In!). But it also has something that none of the other films have: a real sense of comraderie. It's the only one where all of the heroes are together for most of the movie and the way they play off of each other always puts a smile on my face. Also, there's not a wasted shot in the whole thing, nothing is there just for the sake of seeing a special effect (like the space slug in Empire), everything serves the story. And I personally feel that the lack of budget/time/studio support forced Lucas and everyone to be more creative...they just have a better energy in ANH than in any of the others.

But that's just my opinion. Keep in mind that I enjoy them all for various reasons, though, given the chance, I'd love to edit TPM/AOTC down to about an hour total, and Jedi down to about 45 min!

Return of The Jedi - while I think that Empire and Sith are actually better movies Jedi was the first star wars film I saw in the theatre, I also had an LP album of the whole movie (think of watchng the entire movie with your eyes closed, same thing) that I pretty much wore out. I remember almost line for line now. It will always be my favourite even though I know it wasn't the best out of the series.

CARAVAN OF COURAGE!

Why can't we post an allcaps message? It's not like we're spamming, I just want to put a movie title down.

Like most others, ESB is my adult fave, but ANH is the kid in me's fave.

I still find it fascinating that ANH, the hype between it and ESB, and the majority of ESB were enough to make Vader's revelation the most shocking thing in movie history. To make it such a cult phenomenon. To make it so powerful. Wow.

Obviously, most people are going to say Empire, which is geek common wisdom, but I've always disagreed. Empire has almost no plot going for it; it doesn't set up anything which it then resolves. Everything is setup for the next movie.

Star Wars (I insist on calling it that because that's what it was called when I saw it) is still my favorite. Even outside of my fanboy nostalgia for it, it has a lot going for it. It's one of those rare films in which the genre elements are handled so perfectly that even its flaws (like, say, wooden dialogue, a weakness that runs throughout the series) contribute to the atmosphere. It's a perfect piece of cinematic alchemy that people will still be watching in another 25 years. And whenever I've had a rotten week, or I'm feeling down, it's one of the very few movies in my collection that ALWAYS works to bring me back up. That opening shot of the Star Destroyer just increases my heart rate every single time.

Empire is the best without question, it used to be my favorate but over the years i have grown to Love ANH more.

Empire Strikes Back obviousy.

Revenge of the Sith just took a close third or second next to Empire Strikes Back.

But the one thing that Sith has going for it is that it brought out the geek in me again. It wasn't as tight as the original trilogy, but it had so many moments I had been waiting to see that it has made me happy to be a nerd again.

Like most people on this thread, I'll acknowledge that The Empire Strikes Back is best film in the series. But I have to go with the original Star Wars as my favorite. Sorry folks, but it will always be Star Wars for me. There was no "Episode IV - A New Hope" when I first saw it, so that's how I remember it. Seeing that movie for the first time brought out a reaction in me that I can still recall vividly to this day. A feeling that I haven't experienced since at any movie (and it's not because it was one of my first date movies either).

I think a lot has to do with the fact that I was old enough at the time to really appreciate how revolutionary Star Wars was both visually and aurally. It wasn't just a "that's cool" kind of reaction. For me, it was a "How the fuck did they do that?!" sense of wonder and amazement. It's impossible for younger moviegoers to fully appreciate this feeling because the visual effects bar has been set so high for so long that they can't remember when images like that didn't exist. (This is something that we can also partially thank Lucas for, regardless of what you think of his writing/directing ability.) But when Star Wars came out, the absolute gold standard was still 2001, A Space Odyssey with it's beautiful but slow (and often static) space scenes. In comparison, seeing Star Wars was like being on acid for the first time. It's hard to believe that the year before Star Wars came out, Logan's Run won the best special effects Oscar.

When I talk to younger Star Wars fans about the original film there's never the same gleam in their eyes that I see in my contemporaries. I compare it to growing up in my home state of Hawaii. As much as I love Hawaii and everything it has to offer, I will never be able to appreciate it in the same way that the average tourist experiences on their first visit. It' not that I don't see or appreciate the beauty. It's the sense of discovering it for the very first time that I don't have.

Saw ROTS again yesterday (6-4-05). Decided to wait a couple weeks after opening night to let it sink in before seeing it again. Let me just say that I easily enjoyed it as much as I did opening night, and am of the beliefe that, in time, it will become #2 or a very close third behing TESB and ANH in popularity. Even the things I had an issue with, which were very minor, didn't bother me the second time around. Things like thinking of a name for Leia so quickly without even knowing she was going to have twins. But maybe she did know and wanted to make it a surprise. Bothers me no more. Will need to see it again, but right now the movie just feels right.

It's not uncommon for people who don't know what their baby's sex will be to pick out boy and girl names beforehand. In Padme's case, it just happened that she was able to use both. At least that's how I saw it.