Final update.
Since Star Wars movies are grouped as trilogies,3 choices offered.

New Hope and Empire tied for first, in my book.

Empire will always be my favorite movie.

New Hope. Nothing can replace the experience of Star Wars for the first time.

I don't expect this to even be close. The first 2 will absolutely wipe the floor with the rest of them. Not that there haven't been moments in most of the rest of them, and some were even really good, but Star Wars and Empire were damn near perfect.

And oh, I was 5 in 1977, that also played into it in a major way.

Empire Strikes Back is number one. The Last Jedi is the second best SW movie. I wasn't crazy about the Poe part of the story, and will probably skip over it on the Blu-ray/DVD; was indifferent to the Finn & Rose part. Didn't hate it but didn't love it either. What made it so high in my rankings was the Force plot and the Rey and Kylo scenes. The entire film It was a total deconstruction of the entire Mythos of the franchise's lore and all the expectations of it coming out.

Almost everything fans had speculated was flat out wrong; Rey being Luke's daughter (even though TFA made it clear she wasn't); Snoke being the big baddie of the trilogy; Kylo Ren becoming more evil and powerful; Luke being an all powerful and flawless Jedi who never buggered up. The movie itself said it "this isn't going to go the way you expect it too."

The "serving the internet" aspects had the opposite effect on me.
It appeared that they didn't have answers for the questions from TFA, so they got rid of them.

Star Wars ... or A New Hope if you insist.

I would vote for Star Wars, but it's not on the list.

This is like asking if Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite movies.

Never heard of it.

Empire and ANH, easily. Rogue One is my 3rd favorite.

A New Hope = The Empire Strikes Back
Rogue One = The Last Jedi
The Return of the Jedi
The Force Awakens
Revenge of the Sith
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones

Star Wars. The original was the most real and relatable: a search for one's purpose and internal nature prompted by the catalyst of tragedy.

For me, it has to be The Empire Strikes Back.

The first one blew my mind as a kid, but I was just that little bit older when Empire appeared and the whole thing with Yoda and Luke's Jedi training had a lasting effect on me (I must've been nine going on ten when I saw it). The ideas presented were very powerful ones to me at the time, and the whole thing with Luke risking everything to help his friends, even though he knew he was walking into a trap, was (I hate to use this word) 'resonant'. It just hit me really hard, in a good way, and the cliffhanger ending - which I know is a failing according to many - was perfect in my eyes. It set the whole movie up as the second act of something we'd see the conclusion of, and even if I was less than thrilled with ROTJ when I finally saw it (it was completely awesome until just after they'd rescued Han from Jabba), the set up was so great. I walked out of that movie feeling like I'd seen something momentous and profound (even if it was just a muppet in a backpack and a yeti with ram's horns, it all seemed impressive to me at that age).

All the little details with Threepio getting blown up and repaired by Chewbacca and Cloud City and Lando being tricked into tricking them and then helping them escape and the pseudo-mystical 'do or do not, there is no try' stuff - it just had a lasting effect on me in a way no other movie ever did. It's still my favourite one of these movies and even if they make a hundred more, because of how old I was when I saw it and because of the memories of how it affected me at that impressionable age, it always will be. It actually made me change my way of thinking about life, which is ridiculous but true. The only other things that ever did that were comics, and Empire was the first movie to strike that same chord in me. It was epic and grandiose but also somehow down to Earth and immediate. It's just this weird masterpiece, and I love it.

'Empire' is better written, but 'Hope' is a better movie.

Objectively, you're correct - in terms of the effect it had on me personally, I had to choose Empire. I didn't know anything about directing, writing or acting when I was nine, but that movie, for all the reasons I described, had a profound influence on me. The original movie is the more rip-roaring movie matinee adventure serial that Lucas had originally been going for. It succeeds in that regard more than Empire does.

Top 3!

Caravan of Courage
Battle for Endor
The Phantom Menace

I'm going to go with this. If it was more self-contained, Empire would be way better, but as it is, I think it's slightly worse because of the open ending. And while it's not absolutely perfect (compare to Raiders or Jaws), Star Wars came closest.

On first viewing, I think both The Last Jedi and Rogue One are better than the Force Awakens - and certainly everything else - I'm not really sure of the order between those 3. A couple of things about Rogue One really pulled me out of the movie, but Last Jedi is too obviously the middle act of a play. I need to watch them again. I also expect this trilogy is going to get judged in hindsight based on the next movie's end to this arc.

For what it was, The Force Awakens was really good, but a little too derivative of the first one, and too focused on expanding the universe, instead of simply getting on with the new story. But I still think it's better than Jedi.

The more time that passes for me, the worse Revenge gets - Anakin's fall is just too fast and too steep. If it wasn't for Jar Jar being in Phantom Menace, it might have fallen that far. And of course, AoTC is almost unwatchable for me, and certainly cringe-worthy when I do see it.

I am also aware that childhood nostalgia really colours my approval of the first two movies.

ftfy

Christmas Special > Phantom Menace

How so? Just curious.

For me, the "Battle of the Fates" score and Darth Maul were worth the price of admission alone, despite the rest of the movie being "meh".

I wonder if Disney will ever remake these since they're regarded as such a let-down. I think you could use the exact same over-arching plot and just execute it with better scripting, a better Anakin, no Jar Jar, and more Star Warsy design work and it would be great.

Also, you don't kill Darth Maul and replace General Grievous with him in Episode III.

Killing Darth Maul was a major goof.

As much as the Prequels are bashed there is a lot of depth in them. Like Hanzo wrote a lot of the execution was misdirected. One of the more brilliant bits of foreshadowing was how Palpatine's apprentices were mirrors of what Anakin would become: Darth Maul was a destructive force of nature fueled by anger and hate; Darth Tyranus was a fallen Jedi who betrayed the order to attain more power; and General grievous was a monster who was more machine than man.

BTW, Bishop -- a couple books you might be interested in.



https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786471816/?tag=imwan-20




https://www.amazon.com/dp/194295204X/?tag=imwan-20