We had some extra time here at The Crispy Noodle headquarters to calculate the data to establish this definitive ranking of the Star Wars movies. Do you agree with our final rankings?
How did we come up with this? Each movie was ranked equally through these three channels:
* Our Fans’ Rankings — We made a post on our social media channels for our Crispy Noodle fans to send us their lists of the Star Wars movies. We averaged all of these lists together to come up with this special Fan Ranking.* The Crispy Noodle Ranking — This is the average of the Star Wars lists from Rich, Mike, and Mike’s Mom (who’s also a huge Star Wars fan).* Tomatometer Critical Ranking — The average ranking of film critics’ reviews of every Star Wars movie.
With each one of these elements weighed equally, here are the final results:
“You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life.”
It’s universal. Everyone loves The Empire Strikes Back, and with good reason. It’s the gold standard for movie sequels — Empire takes the elements of its predecessor and expands the Star Wars lore and its characters just right; it’s not overly conservative but not changing things up for the sake of change itself. The Empire Strikes Back is not just a catchy title, it’s the theme of this movie — the good guys aren’t always going to get away with the victory. For a science fiction movie, Empire Strikes Back feels real: Luke’s journey to discover who he actually is in this universe, a trusty ship that can’t get its captain out of danger, and a repressed romance blooming into something real (and a romance that actually works in Star Wars? Wow!). Recently, a viral movement was to name “5 Perfect Movies” in a social media post — as a result, The Empire Strikes Back started trending on its own, with people tweeting about how fantastic the movie is. It’s the perfect second act in a trilogy and deserves its rightful place at the top.
“She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.”
I found that quote funny, because that’s probably what 20th Century Fox thought. Remember, the original Star Wars movie was thought to be way too out there for general audiences and that it would end up being a big waste of money. Think about it: a bunch of broken robots, a tall guy in a hairy bigfoot costume, weird laser swords? That doesn’t sound like science fiction, right? Was this really going to work? Well, it emphatically did, as Star Wars, later renamed “A New Hope”, is the OG that kicks off the film franchise. The characters are what really sell this movie. George Lucas hits the big three perfectly: Luke is the young, bright-eyed optimist that gets thrust into the galactic big battle, Han is the perfect anti-hero foil to him, and Leia is the Princess that may need help, but she can hold her own ground. Everyone wanted to be one of these characters after seeing the film; so, it makes sense that its captivated audiences wanted to see it over and over again. In my opinion, this is the essence of The Star Wars. Need we say more?
“A magical power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light? Crazy thing is, it’s true. The Force, the Jedi — all of it. It’s all true.”
So yes, I personally disagree with this ranking; The Force Awakens is not this high on my list. I take full ownership of trying to sink this entry on the list, yet it seems I have failed. However, I do see the appeal. The Force Awakens is the reboot that the Star Wars franchise needed for a new generation. In order to do so, it echoes (I would say directly goes to the Xerox mach...
