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Rate the Star Wars Scores


BLUMENKOHL

Rate the Star Wars scores!   

72 members have voted

  1. 1. Star Wars (1977)

    • 5/5
      58
    • 4/5
      13
    • 3/5
      1
    • 2/5
      0
    • 1/5
      0
  2. 2. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

    • 5/5
      67
    • 4/5
      5
    • 3/5
      0
    • 2/5
      0
    • 1/5
      0
  3. 3. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

    • 5/5
      39
    • 4/5
      27
    • 3/5
      6
    • 2/5
      0
    • 1/5
      0
  4. 4. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)

    • 5/5
      41
    • 4/5
      22
    • 3/5
      7
    • 2/5
      1
    • 1/5
      1
  5. 5. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002)

    • 5/5
      14
    • 4/5
      22
    • 3/5
      29
    • 2/5
      5
    • 1/5
      2
  6. 6. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

    • 5/5
      26
    • 4/5
      21
    • 3/5
      21
    • 2/5
      2
    • 1/5
      2
  7. 7. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

    • 5/5
      34
    • 4/5
      25
    • 3/5
      9
    • 2/5
      2
    • 1/5
      2


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1 hour ago, BloodBoal said:

Why can't I give AOTC 0/5?

 

What about it makes you hate that score so much? I'm genuinely curious.

 

Would love to hear from others who constantly trash AotC as well.

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I guess there's a bit of a difference between ranking the scores in general and against each other as Star Wars scores.  AOTC is a complex piece of writing with many great passages and works the best it can in such a garbage movie.  However, I don't think it stands up to the others in the series as a Star Wars score.

 

These scores are in relationship to each other, otherwise they're all 5s if you compare them to movie scores in general.

 

The Empire Strikes Back:  5

Star Wars:  5

The Force Awakens:  5

The Return of the Jedi:  5

The Phantom Menace:  5

Revenge of the Sith:  4

Attack of the Clones:  3

 

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43 minutes ago, Taikomochi said:

I could understand some disappointment with AOTC, but it's pretty ridiculous to say it is totally without merit.

 

Yeah, I'm really stuck at 'can't seperate my opinion of the film from the score', but BB begs to differ... Some elaboration on why he despises this particular score so much would definately clarify things.....

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Well considering it's a fantastic score the only reason can be is that you haven't yet unraveled its subtleties because 0/5 is a statement rather than a belief.

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4 hours ago, Drax said:

Six people are ruining the Star Wars rating. I'm sick of seeing ESB constantly at the top.

 

I didn't vote because they're all 5 star scores for me. All the same, Empire is my favorite, it (IMO) deserves to be at the top and you can suck it! :P

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Star Wars - 5

The Empire Strikes Back - 5

Return of the Jedi - 5

The Phantom Menace - 5

Attack of the Clones - 4

Revenge of the Sith - 4.5 (wasn't an option so I voted 4)

The Force Awakens - 5

 

Compared to most other film music out there, they should all get 5s. For me, Attack of the Clones has a beautiful theme but a lot of the other music isn't as good as the rest of the franchise. While Revenge of the Sith has some great music but doesn't have any unifying theme that makes it stand apart from the rest of the franchise. Battle of the Heroes doesn't show up until the end of the score so it's not a theme for the movie as a whole. The only theme used throughout is the Force Theme but because that is used in every movie, it doesn't give Sith it's own musical identity.

 

Still, all of John Williams's Star Wars scores are light-years ahead of most film music out there! It's a shame none of the prequels got him an Oscar nomination because he deserved it regardless of the quality of those movies.

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Star Wars - 5

Empire - 5

Jedi - 5

Phantom - 5

Clones - 3

Sith - 4

Force - 4

 

Clones infuriates me with its annoying, melodramatic love theme and the fact that I can't separate it from the turd it was written for. But it has some great tracks like The Arena and I don't mind the Chase Through Coruscant.

 

TFA is nice but I can't five by five everything or that top rating becomes diluted from overuse.

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8 hours ago, steb74 said:

Well considering it's a fantastic score the only reason can be is that you haven't yet unraveled its subtleties because 0/5 is a statement rather than a belief.

 

So basically, since you love it, then it necessarily means it's a fantastic score and everyone who doesn't love it simply hasn't "unraveled its subtleties"?

 

Fanboys... :rolleyes:

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SW and TESB are both 5/5. No question there.

 

TPM, ROTJ and ROTS are 3/5. Jedi is the most overrated score of JW's career. Great highlights, much less impressive as a whole. It's all unfocused and tired, far cry from its superior two siblings. And new principal themes, with one exception, never have much impact on the whole story. TPM, again, has amazing highlights and loooooooots of boring aimless filler. ROTS is more consistent, but not much of an identity of its own. Feels like a collection of random cues, tied together only by ever-awesome Force theme.

 

TFA and AOTC are 4/5. Although, the former is much superior. Why rate AOTC this highly, you ask? I just feel it has the strongest arc of all prequels, and most distinctive setpieces. All of which, I agree, sometimes doesn't sound like SW. But then, none of the prequel scores really do. But then, ATS is the single best theme in this trilogy and it tries to do the film's job completely on its own. TFA finally brings back SW to my stereo, after 35 years of absence (I'm not that old but you get the idea).

 

Obviously, I rate those scores in relation to each other. As compared to other stuff out there, it would have been different.

 

Karol

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I hardly ever listened to RotJ before getting the OST. The '97 SE was too long and sounds like shit and I'd have to change discs to get Lapti Nek on the '93 Anthology.

 

The '83 album is the perfect presentation of the score.

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My instinct is to rate all as 5. If we're rating on a scale that would include all film scores, that's what it'd be.

 

If we're just scaling it to all Williams scores, things get trickier. The first two are my favorites...I know that much. But how do Jedi, the prequels, and TFA fit in? I honestly don't know how to rate them. Jedi and TPM probably rank over the others, but they all have their own strengths.

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17 hours ago, Drax said:

I hardly ever listened to RotJ before getting the OST. The '97 SE was too long and sounds like shit and I'd have to change discs to get Lapti Nek on the '93 Anthology.

 

The '83 album is the perfect presentation of the score.

 

The Battles of Endor are awesome though! 

 

But they do sound like shit. Why is that? I've always wondered.

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Star Wars is the best.

ESB is overrated on this board but still a great score. 

Return of the Jedi is very good.

The Phantom Menace exceeds the film dramatically.

Attack of the Clones is John's worst score. It's garbage like the film. It's best virtue is that one great moment in the end.

Revenge of the Shit is not any kind of redemption. Only the Star Wars music makes it listenable.

The Force Awakens is brilliant in more ways than I can count. 

I hope John lives to score 8 and 9.

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On 27/12/2015 at 6:31 AM, DominicCobb said:

 

The Battles of Endor are awesome though! 

 

But they do sound like shit. Why is that? I've always wondered.

 

Firstly, the Superstructure Chase sequence had to be recorded away from Abbey Road Studios, in Olympic Sound Studios, which was smaller and obviously didn't offer the same recording possibilities (on the album it's in the track labelled as "The Battle of Endor III - Medley", and it starts at the beginning but I'm not sure how long it goes on for, perhaps the whole thing. Either way the lower sound quality compared to the rest of the album is definitely perceptible). You can also hear some flubs from the orchestra (e.g. the trumpet at ~0:49 playing F# instead of E).

 

Also note that ROTJ was the first SW score to be recorded in Abbey Road (the previous ones were recorded in Anvil Recording Studios). Although the mic setup was largely the same you can definitely hear a difference between ESB and ROTJ.

 

I don't know about The Battles of Endor, though, listening to it now I feel like it sounds less crisp than, say, Sail Barge Assault (alternate). I can only guess that they ran into some difficulties at Abbey Road, or they also recorded this at Olympic, I dunno. Or Drax maybe right; someone spilt coffee and they're too embarrased to admit it.

 

But yeah, the battle music from ROTJ is perhaps my favourite Star Wars music ever.

 

Source

 

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1. Revenge of the Sith (6/5) - My all-time favorite film score.

2. Return of the Jedi (5/5) - I can't even imagine what it would have been like to hear "A Jedi's Fury" and "The Emperor's Death" for the first time in theaters.  Just amazing stuff.

3. The Empire Strikes Back (5/5) - In my opinion, no individual moment reaches the same heights as ROTS or ROTJ, but it's probably the strongest score all the way through.

4. The Phantom Menace (5/5) - What a shitty movie.  Great score though.

5.  Star Wars (4/5) - It's hard to compare to the other scores because it's written in an entirely different idiom.  Star Wars really belongs to an older class of film scores, and doesn't quite grab me as much, but it's still quite excellent.

6.  The Force Awakens (4/5) - Probably closer to Star Wars than any of the others; apart from a couple of standout cues it seems rather nondescript, if impeccably written.

7.  Attack of the Clones (3/5) - The first half really drags, but "Confrontation with Dooku and Finale" might well be the best cue of the entire saga, and certainly the best finale.

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On 12/24/2015 at 8:37 AM, Lhokne Mulb said:

Updated Running Average and Rankings (12 votes):

 


1. ESB		5.00
2. TPM 		4.83
3. SW		4.75
3. TFA		4.75
4. ROTJ		4.67
5. ROTS		4.17
6. AOTC 	3.83

 


Doesn't really matter, since STAR WARS was number ONE on AFI's Greatest Soundtracks of ALL TIME!

Concept is key here-

THE IMPERIAL MARCH alone does NOT a soundtrack make!

CANTINA BAND  was a "single" BEFORE!

 

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On December 28, 2015 at 4:07 PM, loert423 said:

 

Firstly, the Superstructure Chase sequence had to be recorded away from Abbey Road Studios, in Olympic Sound Studios, which was smaller and obviously didn't offer the same recording possibilities (on the album it's in the track labelled as "The Battle of Endor III - Medley", and it starts at the beginning but I'm not sure how long it goes on for, perhaps the whole thing. Either way the lower sound quality compared to the rest of the album is definitely perceptible). You can also hear some flubs from the orchestra (e.g. the trumpet at ~0:49 playing F# instead of E).

 

Also note that ROTJ was the first SW score to be recorded in Abbey Road (the previous ones were recorded in Anvil Recording Studios). Although the mic setup was largely the same you can definitely hear a difference between ESB and ROTJ.

 

I don't know about The Battles of Endor, though, listening to it now I feel like it sounds less crisp than, say, Sail Barge Assault (alternate). I can only guess that they ran into some difficulties at Abbey Road, or they also recorded this at Olympic, I dunno. Or Drax maybe right; someone spilt coffee and they're too embarrased to admit it.

 

But yeah, the battle music from ROTJ is perhaps my favourite Star Wars music ever.

 

Source

 

 

I actually just read recently that it might have been a problem with the mastering on the SE CDs specifically. Obviously to the recording affects it to some extent (that trumpet flub has always bothered me) but when I compare "The Battle of Endor I" to "Into the Trap" and "First Ewok Battle - Fight with the Fighters," it's obvious it's a problem with the SE release. 

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  • 3 years later...

STAR WARS (5)

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (5)

RETURN OF THE JEDI (4)

THE PHANTOM MENACE (4.5)

ATTACK OF THE CLONES (3.5)

REVENGE OF THE SITH (4)

THE FORCE AWAKENS (4.5)

Also:

THE LAST JEDI (4.5)

 

And not really fair in comparison:

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2)

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (4)

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