Before seeing your list I had thought; 1) Empire, 2) Star Wars and 3) Everything else.

Having looked at that list though I think I'd agree with it, but I would have to swap Clones and The Phantom Menace around. The Phantom Menace, lightsaber duel aside, is utter, utter toss.

Nothing could be worse than midichlorians, trade route taxations, Jar Jar Binks, that endless podcar race and, of course, Jake "I'm a person and my name is Anakin" Lloyd.

I would rank them differently, and base the list on entertainment value primarily - with acting, dialogue, et cetera being secondary considerations. With that in mind, I would order them:

1) Return of the Jedi
2) Revenge of the Sith
3) Empire Strikes Back
4) Attack of the Clones
5) The Phantom Menace
6) A New Hope

I would probably rank them the exact same as your son... there is just something about Empire Strikes Back that puts it over A New Hope that I can't put my finger on...

I'm perfectly willing to admit to being blinded by rage, but I still need some justification for putting any of I-II-III over any of IV-V-VI.

I agree with Rob's rankings, The Phantom Menace definitely bottom. If Attack of the Clones lost some of the romance it would have been a lot better.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm 39 and I grew up on the original trilogy. That being said...

1) Revenge of the Sith (yes, that's right, even better than Empire)
2) Empire Strikes Back
3) A New Hope
4) Attack of the Clones (yes, that's right, better than Jedi)
5) Return of the Jedi
6) Phantom Menace

I think Jedi and Phantom achieve an almost equal level of general crappiness. And yet I still find both eminently watchable, which is crazy.

Will's rankings make sense to me. Jedi and Sith are pretty much in a dead heat. Sith has better fights and an overall darker mood. Jedi is more fun, it's got a cool lightsaber, Leia's bikini, "It's a TRAP!" Palpetine's great performance... but stops DEAD the instant the Ewoks show up on screen and doesn't really recover until the three-way battle sequence begins. And the whole "Leia is my sister" thing really comes out of nowhere.

On the other hand, Sith has a few acting hiccups and the idiocy of Padme dying of a broken heart. (I'm with Robot Chicken's "Dr. Ball." - "What's your degree in? poetry? Let's not use the billions of dollars of medical technology in this room!") I think the more consistant tone and stronger visual style (say what you will about the CG, Lucas's scene compositions are WAY ahead of Marquand's in Jedi.) But... I can still rewatch Sith and feel very entertained.

Menace and Clones are a different sort of dead heat, and I could probably go either way on those depending on the mood. When I rewatch both, I tend to skip to the fights.

Phantom Menace demerits - Jar Jar, pod race, Young Anakin. Two of those three are impossible to ignore and making Anakin so young really hobbles later storytelling. (It ruins Attack of the Clones.)

Clones demerits - Bad performance from Hayden of a badly written character. Badly conceived and performed romance between Anakin and Padme. (Which would be less of an issue had Lucas made Anakin older in ep one and had less time elapse between the two.) A "mystery" that never makes sense, and some dogy CG.

On the other hand, there's Christopher Lee's presence, Natalie Portman looks beautiful, and - sue me - I like Yoda with a lightsaber. But that's not enough to overcome all the stuff this second chapter gets stuck with in order to make the third chapter possible.

Can we all agree that Palpetine is probably the best reason to revisit the prequels?

Yes, Palpatine is the only reason to watch these trainwrecks. When I see how they desparately tried to fit in all the crappy stuff that has accumulated over time through comicbooks and spin-offs (e.g. the Wookies, Mediclorians, poor Sam Jackson) it makes me cringe.
And come on, you can't really put one of I - III on top of your list because they all lack one major thing - Han Solo!

So here is my list:
1) Empire Strikes Back
2) Return Of The Jedi (Yes, I like the Ewoks - I was 10 when I watched this the first time, and they are a thousand times better than the Wookies in Sith)
3) A New Hope

(here lie great expanses of wasteland)

4) Revenge Of The Sith
5) Attack Of The Clones
6) The Phantom Menace

1) A New Hope
2) Empire Strikes Back
3) Return of the Jedi

4,232) Revenge of the Sith
4,233) Attack of the Clones
4,234) The Phantom Menace

1) Empire Strikes Back
2) A New Hope
3) Return of the Jedi (although intro of Ewoks signals the beginning of the end)

A void filled with the Force-choked hearts of a Galaxy's worth of shattered fanboys...

4) Sith (Not as crap)
5) Clones (crap)
6) Menace (utter shite)

Unlike eps IV-VI, repeat viewings of I-III only lead to increased anger and disappointment at how such a great opportunity was so horribly botched.

The original trilogy is the heart and soul of the Star Wars saga. Though I am left wondering what would have happened if Lucas had not cut the Wookies down to size to become those "teddy bears with attitude."

1) A New Hope
2) The Empire Strikes Back
3) Return of the Jedi

As for the rest I am in total agreement with The Feral Kid.

I don't get this with ranking them. Sorry.

I feel that either you like the concept or you don't.

And if you like the concept then maybe you prefer the new vs the old or the other way around.

But if you sit down to have a Star War week, do you really watch them by rank? Don't you watch them all in order from 1 to 6?

There are things I don't like and do like in all six movies, but since I can't pick out one and say "hey, this one is the best, you don't need to see the rest" then I feel the ranking is kind of week tool.

Then I can just as much do my own edit and pick my favorite scenes from all six movies and have my own compact Star Wars.

@Désirée: Just to be clear, my son did watch all six SW movies in order from 1-6. The rankings are based on me asking him how he rated them based on the experiencing of watching them all back to back.

I think anyone who thinks the original trilogy is significantly better than the prequel trilogy... hasn't watched the original trilogy with an objective eye.

Try it. With the possible exception of Empire (although it does have a giant, glaring plot hole) all the prequel trilogy flaws are there on full display. Terrible dialogue, ragged pacing, cutesy gags, cheese up the wazoo. Especially in "Jedi", which is easily as bad as "Phantom". Does nobody remember that Chewbacca uses a freaking TARZAN SCREAM when he swings on a vine in "Jedi"? Nothing in the prequels is that cheesy, not even JarJar.

And yet I watch them. All of them. With great affection.

I agree with James's order. One of the things that made Menace utter shite (in addition to everything else listed in this forum) was that horrible catapult-light blob battle at the end. But it was the whole medichlorean thing that first tipped me off that Lucas's prequels were coming from a different mindset than the originals. I mean, he explained the Force. The Force! The very thing that made the mystery and magic of Star Wars so special the first time around... and he had to go an explain it away in some trumped up New Age psuedo-science??? (Maybe all this time living in Marin hasn't been that good for him as an artist!)

4
5
6

I only acknowledge the existence of 1, 2 and 3 through the Red Letter Media reviews.

Empire, while easily the greatest plotless movie ever made, I would not rank above the original '77 film, which is pretty much perfect.

All the films have flaws. And although the craftsmanship, storytelling and emotional impact of Empire is in many respects superior to its antecedent, Star Wars (to hell with this "A New Hope" crap) will always have a unassailable place in my heart as THE BEST.

Each does have its memorable moments. If I consider the number of unforgettable scenes and instances of pure cinematic magic (and I don't mean with regard to just special effects) here's where they net out:

1. Star Wars
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi/Attack of the Clones (tie)
4. Revenge of the Sith/Phantom Menace (tie)

Jedi's shortcomings (the opening Tatooine prologue, the Ewok nonsense) are partially overcome by the space battle and what is arguably the best sequence in the entire corpus: the final duel between Luke and Vader.

As for the bottom, Sith is a laden-filled, predictable, plodding horrible mess, and the hardest for me to sit through in its entirety. It takes the worst of Episodes I and II and turns it up to an unbearable level of intensity:

Dumb battle droids are made even dumber. An already anemic love story is bled utterly dry. Emotional immaturity of our "hero" reaches such a peak as to make him turn on a dime toward the Dark Side. Artoo squirts out frikkin OIL that ignites and burns up battle droids. And the Jedi, already not quite the sharpest tools in the Galaxy by this point, win the Darwin Award, hands-down.

But it does have McDiarmid. And does not have Jar-Jar.

I agree with you on this. I love the Star Wars saga, but the complaints about the prequels are in the OT.

1) The Empire Strikes Back - The darkest of the original trilogy. Best character interaction. Down sides were the weakest beginning of the six movies and a weak sub plot due to George Lucas destroying the Death Star in episode four and not having much for them to do until the other was finished in episode six. Not much to complain about other than the normal cheesy scripting. 2) Revenge of the Sith – Very dark, Palpatine, best opening scene and lightsaber duels in the six movies, a good scene between Hayden and Natalie (the scene where he is in the Jedi Temple and she is in her apartment) and seeing Vader burn was a great move by George. Down sides were continuity issues like Luke and Leia's birth; if she had been born first, I would not have a problem with that. Natalie's wooden acting and cheesy dialogue. (in all honesty, I think it's not so much the acting as it was George Lucas writing cornball stuff and forcing them to be more dramatic than necessary. The one scene he let Hayden and Ewan do alone, in the Jedi Temple after Anakin was put on the Council was by far the best scene Hayden did in the series, because he wasn't whiny or overly dramatic like George wanted him to be throughout the others.) And Anakin's turn happened a bit too quickly for my taste. 3) A New Hope – Overall a fun lighthearted movie. Best structure in the entire saga. Down sides are Harrison Ford (he tries way too hard to be suave, and ends up coming off sleazy) and crazy cheesed up dialogue. Chewabacca howling is headache inducing. The fights are insipid. Mark whines and moans through the trilogy as much as Hayden whines and grunts through the prequels. 4) Attack of the Clones – I actually rank it higher that Return of the Jedi, kiddies, yes. It has better pacing than Revenge Of The Sith, The Phantom Menace, and Return Of The Jedi. The love story could have been cute, but it was overdone, and yet still underwhelming. Hayden was bad, but after seeing the commentary where George Lucas wanted the scenes operatic and forlorn, I gave Hayden a pass. George wanted him to act like a boy who didn't know how to act around a girl, but really liked, and I think for what he wanted, Hayden did well. Down sides were the whining; Lucas wanted to establish she was the older and more mature of the two, but could have made Anakin not like he should have been in the first movie. He's 20 years old, for God's sake! Darth Tyrannus; why get a guy almost as old as you for your apprentice? Come on, I didn't buy that. I didn't understand why a bounty hunter hired a bounty hunter to do what he, a bounty hunter, could have done himself. The Geneosis bit was better than the Ewoks, which moved it up a notch. In all honesty, I skip more in Return of the Jedi than I do Attack of the Clones. 5) Return of the Jedi – Great emotional conflict between Luke and Vader, and the best battle in the original trilogy. Speed racer chase was fun. Vader's redemption is sweet. Down side was the Ewoks (lame off the Richter scale) their battle was uninspiring, the weak space battle, and the toggling of these two weak as tissue paper battles with the one that was interesting. The pacing was off and rushed. The ending was corny except Luke seeing his mentors. The sister angle seemed thrown in at the last hour. The fact that killing Vader would send Luke to the Dark Side, but Yoda says he had to kill Vader is preposterous. Harrison Ford's acting is horrible in this film. HORRIBLE. (Don't get how all the SW stans don't notice that) Not to mention everyone else looks tired and bored. Cheese factor out the wazoo (Chewbacca swings on a vine and lets out a freaking Tarzan scream. That was the WORST moment in Star Wars history. Ever. They couldn't come up with something better than that?) and that creature that Luke fights in the pit looked extremely archaic even for 40 years ago. 6) The Phantom Menace – Plus sides were a fun pod race and in all candor was better than the speed chase in Return of the Jedi, Naboo and Gungan City (the planet and city), Liam Neeson, who somehow did not manage to get sucked into the oblivion of bad scripting, and a fun lightsaber battle. Down sides are, once again, trying to mix a great battle in the middle of two extremely weak battles, Jar Jar and his wonky character (no more irritating than Chewbacca), and Natalie's stiff, bland acting. I know the Trade taxation crap had to be established, but it was an extremely tedious storyline which made the movie drag. The midichlorian part gave exposition to the Force which wasn't really needed, as it seemed to be explained in Empire, but Lucas wanted a biological explanation, and took away the mystique of the Force. But the worst part was Gungan people, Watto, and the Trade Federation, all of whom could have been taken more seriously if they have a unique language and not knockoffs of Jamaican, Italian, Jewish, and Asian accents, which sank it to the bottom.