Poll
0%
0%
32%
12%
40%
8%
8%
The Force Awakens.
Why do I think so? Quite simply, it was fun to watch. The PT movies are dull and boring (mainly due to the cast having as much feeling as blocks of wood and the silly, lifeless duels). The OT movies are okay but I don't really care about any of the characters that much.
TFA however had characters I loved, especially Rey and Finn. Plus it had great action and some good humour. It was just a joy to watch.
Clearly ESB- from ANH's solid enjoyable base, ESB turned the whole thing into a gripping character drama as well, and turned the 'good guys beat bad guys' theme on its head. Which ROTJ ruined a bit.
Poor ANH always does badly on lists like this- but it does much better if the films are ranked. It's rarely anyone's favourite but it's very often second or third.
It's also waaaay too early to judge TFA. Some of what people do not like about it- like it's very safe structure- may be judged far more kindly if the later films diverge from that. The opposite will happen if the other films are safe as well; TFA will take the blame.
Whenever this gets brought up in a real life conversation, and ANH gets ranked last of the OT (or last in general, the philistines), the naysayer's explanation always seems to revolve around the saber duel. Or Luke being whiny.
Yeah he's a bit whiny, and yeah the duel's not visually impressive, but... what else? Not alot of people ever seem to have anything else on their mind when they rank ANH. The f*cking duels, they keep taking top priority. It's a shame.
It is indeed.
Luke's whininess is not a problem to me. A bit of cheese is part of SW. And Luke was basically a child in ANH. And if you compare that to how Luke is in ROTJ, it's quite a beautiful character development.
And the lightsaber battle was superb at the time. It rocked the world. They invented something there that was taken to extreme ballet in the PT. But everyone knew what a lightsaber was after that fight.