Cthulhu's Librarian said:
Since you asked what was my favorite SW film, not the best of the SW films, I have to vote for the original
Star Wars. While Empire may have been a better film, I'll never forget going to see
Star Wars a couple days after my 5th birthday. My Mom and Grandmother took me and a friend to see it as an extra birthday present for me, and it changed my life. Sure, I was only 5, but the effects of that film are with me to this day. I became an immediate fanatic, and everything was "Star Wars" this and "Star Wars" that. We didn't have alot of money growing up, so going to the movies was a special treat. Somehow my parents took me to see SW 3 or 4 times, and I managed to get quite a few SW toys as well. And now I'm sitting at work 27 years later, responding to a question about which is my favorite film. Yeah, I think that SW turned me into a geek.
You just described my life
Seriously, the movie had a profound effect on the things I was into. After Star Wars, I grew to love science fiction and science in general. Years later, I got into computers as a result, and now work in a software engineering field.
As far as the movies, though, ESB is my choice, just slightly beating out ANH.
I echo everything above said about it 100%, but there are a couple notes I'd like to make that really set it apart.
The character dialogue, the bantering and bickering, was much more intense and funny (though only *slightly* more than ANH, IMO). Han truly got to shine as the lovable rogue, and that really goes a long way... one reason why I think that Phantom didnt do well is that there *wasnt* one of those, and in AotC, it's almost as if Kenobi is taking on a little bit of that role with his wry wit, mild disrespect for authority, and slightly shady background dealings. The other characters just seemed more complex, there was more emotion riding throughout whether it be fear, new love, relief, etc.
Also, in ESB, the protagonists truly *sufferred*. Not just that garden-variety suffering, but that deep, dark suffering that leaves lasting marks. Not just physically either, but mentally and emotionally as well. Even the droids got kicked around a good bit. Every time they barely escape a near-hopeless death trap or a ray of hope managed to almost break through the clouds, something else would step in and crush them under the grinding heel of futility. But they always fought back, always extended whatever hand they could for even a razor-thin glimmer of hope knowing full well that someone could easily *snikt* cut it off. I think there is something very endearing about watching the plucky little guy scrapping against the big dark evil giant, even when odds make resistance an exercise in absolute futility (Han/Leia/Lando) or indescribable stupidity (Luke).
The ending left more of a feeling of relief than one of any sense of accomplishment. It was good just to be alive at the end of that one.
Or, like my GM likes to say when we complain after taking a serious licking, "sometimes survival is it's own reward".
Production qualities and better writing aside, those are 2 additional elements that are either missing or stressed much less in the other films, and ESB set the bar so high with it the others always feel like it is missing or incomplete to me.
Well, all that and the *only* cute thing in ESB dances half-naked for a few seconds and then is devoured by one of the nastiest beasties in all three films. I could have taken Jar-Jar a lot better had something suitibly masticated and/or devoured him. Heck, at least *some* of the ewoks got blown up, even if it was nowhere near enough
.
