 For almost 40 years, Star Wars has been captivating audiences both young and old. Today, I'm feuding three of the movies that started new chapters in the Star Wars saga to see which generation did it best. It's A New Hope vs. The Phantom Menace vs. The Force Awakens on movie feuds. A New Hope introduced us to some of the most recognizable characters in film history. Relatively unknown television actor Mark Hamill fronts the picture as our hero in the making Luke Skywalker. He's a bit on the whiny side, which is understandable. I mean, really, who'd want to be cleaning up some dirty old droids when you could be taking a riveting ride over to Tashi Station to pick up some power converters? I sympathize. On his adventure, he will come across a string of fantastic and memorable characters who will continue to be part of the saga for the next couple films. Harrison Ford is Han Solo as a fan favorite for sure with his Devil May Care attitude and pension vergating himself into trouble. Then there's Chewbacca, R2-D2, C3-PL, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and many more. Each of these cast members brings a different flavor to the picture. Why it's so puzzling, why the writer, director, midichlorian creator George Lucas forgot all of that when he made episode one? Qui-Gon Jinn played by Liam Neeson is interesting but never given a proper chance to grow. Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala, aka Padme, is about as interesting as a plank of driftwood. I don't blame the actress as I've seen her put out great performances elsewhere. The real pain of this prequel comes from Jake Lloyd and Jar Jar Binks. I understand having a lot of comic relief to lighten the mood, but holy hell, Lucas. Jar Jar is constantly stumbling, making stupid noises and just plain being a dipshit. Then there's Jake Lloyd, whose acting performance is better suited for something like Full House. The highlight of the entire prequel lineup comes from our young Obi-Wan. He's a bit of a rebel, but mainly he's likable, something I can't say about the rest of the sorry bunch. Then we have episode seven, The Force Awakens, bringing back fan favorites along with adding a new lineup of heroes. A female Jedi named Rey is fantastic and a rapport with washed out Stormtrooper Finn is on point. Oscar Isaac also does a terrific job in the smaller role he's given as a pilot named Poe. Bottom line, all the new cast members are great, especially the charming robot BB-8. Will he be the unsung hero R2-D2 was and still appears to be? Only time will tell. The villains are an interesting bunch indeed. You have Darth Vader, choking people out and just being an all-around dick. Then there's the silent but deadly Darth Maul, a guy who should have been around for all three films. Such wasted potential, I'll never understand. Then there's Kylo Ren, who I think is probably the weakest so far. He's going to have some more films to expand his role, but right now he just comes off as kind of a whiny little bitch. He's got that Anakin in him, which I don't really care for. The first half he's really strong, but then there's a lot of like light saber hissy fits going on. I don't want it. Obi-Wan is holding me back. It's not that bad, but I mean, it could be interesting if we see him start to train and harness the dark side and get rid of that, but right now it's just kind of, it's not threatening. He definitely has that menacing voice down though. At least the Stormtroopers get a bit of personality this time around. In fact, a couple of my favorite moments come from these guys. One that really stands out is when the Stormtrooper yells out, Trader! And then he busts out that electric baton thing that can block a light saber. He's spinning it around and shit. It's just awesome. And the Stormtroopers are definitely tougher adversaries than those pathetic B-1 battle droids. You picking up what I'm throwing down? Just nodding and give me a Roger Roger if you do. A new hope is the tale of a young Jedi in training, hoping to bring balance to the world around him. He learns the force by his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi. He travels the stars of the ragtag group of individuals set out to stop the evils of the dark side. The final destination? A newly built floating weapon in space known simply as the Death Star. It's in the name. This is a tale of hope, of heroism, of courage and a small amount of incest to keep you coming back, to keep you interested. The Force Awakens knows this. It acknowledges this. It doesn't even bother reinventing the wheel. In fact, I think it uses the exact same wheel, hooks it in. It uses the same doors too and window and hood and it makes up the whole car. Is this metaphor lost on you yet? Because it's lost on me. This time around our young Jedi is a female who's also orphaned on a shitty desert planet. She plunders old broken down ship scrap for food. Just as R2-D2 leads Luke on his journey, BB8 finds Rey. Neither intentional, but both crucial to the plot outline. Rey will then come into contact with the band of brothers she will learn to trust, care for, possibly love? We'll find out in Chapter 8. Hell, some of these people are the same ones her father. I'm sorry Luke Skywalker fought with. This ends with an exciting ship battle to take down a larger threat. But what could possibly be more threatening than a Death Star you ask? A second Death Star, but since that was already done in Return of the Jedi, a Death Planet. There's a lot more parallels to the original trilogy, some ideas lifted from Empire as well, but I'm gonna leave it here. As much as I don't like the prequel films, at least they attempted to be different in terms of story structure. That's as far as my praise reaches. The Phantom Menace decided we needed to start this epic fantasy sci-fi tale with an unlikable shithead who can't be bothered with nuance. I'm of course referring to Jar Jar Binks, but Annie sucks pretty hard too. The plot of Episode 1 almost has no reason to exist. It focuses on tax trading or some nonsense I can't be bothered with. There are some battles that are not particularly good until the end, one of which features a young Darth Vader piloting a plane accidentally setting the cruise control to some mothership station where he also accidentally kills a whole bunch of droids and blows the whole goddamn thing up. The whole movie is all about happenstance, coincidental nonsense, googly gook, other dumb words I'm gonna use to describe this thing. There's one battle where Jar Jar dinks, slips, trips, does something, he kills a bunch of droids by rolling some blue balls down a hill which explode. Is there a technical term for those blue balls? I'm just gonna call them blue balls. I basically just watched the Duel of Fates battle at the end via YouTube and walk away. Can we get Darth Maul back somehow in Episode 8 or 9? I don't even care what dumb ass excuse they have to use, just get him back. Clone him from a piece of pubic care he left. I don't know, just get him in the next movie. I'm not sure what's worse in this department, having very aged practical effects or having slightly aged cartoonish effects. A new hope is almost 40 years old and time has not been kind. It's still very watchable, but when you compare it to its new shiny version, there's just no win. I mentioned cartoonish effects, so let me get back to Episode 1. When everything is fake, nothing seems real. It's the Nicki Minaj effect. I mean, it's nice to look at kind of, but it's also very weird and obtuse. You lose connection with the impact of what's going on. I'm not worried baby Anakin is gonna get hurt during his pod racing scene because I can tell he's just chilling in front of a green screen the whole time. It still looks and especially sounds cool, but the emotions don't even get skin deep. There is a heavy amount of polish and silliness in this thing which makes the transition to a new hope very jarring. The Force Awakens nails the tone, giving everything a little bit of grit, muting things just enough to stay somewhat close to the original's appearance. It's very pleasing on the eyes. I'm pretty positive there's a heavy amount of CGI in the Force Awakens as well. I don't believe for a second that they built a full two scale working model of a Millennium Falcon flew it through the innards of a Star Destroyer. I mean, it would be cool if they did. I wouldn't put it past Disney, but I don't think so. It's just that it's done so seamlessly. It all looks real as real as that can look and it transitions nicely from Return of the Jedi. The action is intense as hell too. J.J. Abrams and his team filmed the lightsaber battles in a very organic way that I wasn't entirely sure was choreographed. As great as the Darth Maul fight was, there was definitely a level of fake window dressing taking place. That's really a nice term for all the prequels. It's very nice window dressing. There's definitely something to be said about the superficial pretty looking girl. She doesn't have a lot going on upstairs, but she's very nice to look at from a distance. That sound creepy? Yeah, like, that sounded creepy. That's alright. Fortunately a new hope has a ton going on, so the less than stellar effects can coast by on story and characters alone. The music is fantastic across the board with the weakest of the bunch for me being in Episode 7. John Williams still gives us a very well done score, but it doesn't have that breakout hit the other movies have. I never was really hit with that booming orchestrational number like I was when Luke looked upon the remains of his relatives home on Tatooine. Nor did it give me that sense of rush that Phantom Menace did when the duel of fates kicked in. I guess the final minutes of the film definitely had that, but it still didn't stand out like those other movies did. A new hope takes the music here. I waited in line for the Phantom Menace for ten hours. Ten hours! Needless to say I was very led down with the final product. It's just an overabundance of CGI orgyed all over the screen. So it might be nice for some, but for me I needed more. And here we are now on the cusp of 2016. And a brand spanking new Star Wars franchise has birthed out of the vaginal canal of Disney. I know. I know. Poetry in motion. I couldn't be much happier with the results. Does it have the same level of creativity the original does? No. It builds upon that same foundation. Does it have the level of scope the prequels do? Not yet and I'm not sure it ever needs to. The Force Awakens is the winner here for me personally. The Phantom Menace is dead last. Dead in the corner somewhere with Jar Jar Binks' severed penis. Yes, the story is not as good, but the effects are top notch. The music still delivers. And there is a promise for more potential down the road. I think it sets a better stage for more to come. I want to hear from you now. Put a comment below. Let me know what you think, what your pick is for the best of these three. And remember, this is more than just reviews. This is Movie Feuds. Thanks for watching. That's a wrap for the year. That's a wrap.