What The Best Order To Watch The Star Wars Movies?

There have actually been arguments over how to watch the Star Wars movies, meaning, in what order do you watch them?  Do you start with the Original Trilogy, then watch the prequels, or watch them in the order of their chapters (i.e. Episode I, Episode II, etc.)?  Here's my opinion on the subject, which means it's the correct way to watch them!

You have to start with Star Wars: A New Hope.  There's no other way around it.  First of all, it introduces you to "a galaxy far, far away" and to the characters in it that made the franchise so well loved.  Another reason to start here is because of it's special effects.  Back in late 1977, when the movie first came out, movie special effects were still in their infancy, so when you watch the movie you get more of a story than "in your face" CGI, which is what the prequels did.  The spaceships were models, and the sets were actual physical sets, and it gave the movie a more "real" feeling.  This technique is something that JJ Abrams decided to go back to with The Force Awakens.

The next movie you need to watch is The Empire Strikes Back, arguably the best movie out of the Original Trilogy.  This movie was an important one in movie history because it was the first time that a movie left people wondering if Darth Vader really was Luke's father, without giving us the answer.  No other movie had ever left a question like that lingering in the minds of it's fans, making us wait until the next movie came out to find the answer.  Every movie up until that point always neatly summed everything up before the closing credits rolled.  Three years later, we got the answer when Return of the Jedi was released.

This movie was the perfect ending to trilogy.  It answered all of our questions (with the exception of why the movies were Chapters IV, V, and VI, and not I, II, and III) and gave us an epic conclusion to the series.  It seemed that at the end of the movie, everyone was going to live happily ever after.  Of course, that doesn't happen in real life, which is one reason everyone is excited to see the original characters come back for The Force Awakens.

Next, you have to watch the prequels in their proper order, starting with Episode I.  You have to watch these movies after watching the Original Trilogy because if you don't, then the whole question of whether or not Darth Vader is Luke's father won't leave any sort of impact on you because you'll already know the answer.  It works better to not know, and then to find out why things turned out the way they did for Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, and what turned him over to the Dark Side of the Force.

So that's the proper way to watch all of the Star Wars movies.  You're welcome to disagree with me on this, but just know that you'll be wrong.  I'm heading out to see The Force Awakens tonight at 7, in 3D!  I'll let you know what I think of the movie in tomorrows post, and I'll try to make it spoiler-free...but no promises!