8 movies 8 spots

Hmmm. I think it is something like the following for me:

1) Battle of Scarif
2) Battle of Endor
3) Battle of Coruscant (mainly for the background shots)
4) Attack on Starkiller Base
5) Battle of Yavin (this and 4 are almost tied, but there were more shots of TIEs exploding in TFA)
6) Battle of Naboo
7) Asteroid Field
8) Obi-Wan VS Jango (Can we really consider these last two to be battles?)

1-Scarif: It was just epic, I can't not put it here, it's what I always wanted in a space battle ("This is gold leader, we are starting our attack run on the shield gate"!!)

2-Coruscant: It was massive, there were ships blowing, the glow of Coruscant underneath only made the background better, deserves its place

3-Endor: The only true screen appearance of the full rebel fleet after they had more fighters, love it

4-Yavin: A classic, also first taste ever of dogfight, it's amazing

5-Battle of Naboo- Not as good as the above, but I love the ground battle, so bias on my space one, also, the N-1 blowing up everything is well done

6-Obi-Wan vs. Jango- Sneaky 1v1 with lots of explosions, amazing, but the scale of the above gives it 6th place

7-Asteroid field: Was good, but not the main focus, so not as much of a fight for me

8-Starkiller... A bit disappointing, I think Takodana was better with the starfighters, hope VIII has an epic one

Id include the battle of Poe Dameron taking his **** out on the force awakens. That moment of T70's flying low right in time was epic. Music helped though.

4 hours ago, Visovics said:

5-Battle of Naboo- Not as good as the above, but I love the ground battle, so bias on my space one, also, the N-1 blowing up everything is well done

I've always loved the Battle of Naboo, and the way you phrased that got me thinking... I think Battle for Naboo may be the best orchestrated battle in any Star Wars movie, because it perfectly balances all four fields of battle - ground assault, strike team, duel and space combat. Endor is the only other that hits all four, but I love the way that Naboo progresses, with different aspects of the battle being added in sequence as they get closer to their goal.

Yeah... yeah... it's still Episode I. But the battle itself was really well done.

2 hours ago, xerpo said:

Music helped though.

John Williams is the man.

1) Battle of Coruscant. it had everything-dogfights, missiles, capital ships trading serious blows!

2) Battle of Scariff: it has everything, imperials flooding space with TIEs, brave rebels (pilots & hammerhead) showing their ingenuity to take down those star destroyers, imperial might showing up and being competent afterwards. just a roller coaster of feelings.

3-5. draw: Yavin, Endor, Asteroid Field. for the most part, the old trilogy didnt have proper V/FX to showcase truly epic space battles, and is guilty of overtly hollywood trope usage, i.e. focusing on heroes(=pilots) rather than the whole picture. its ok just to focus, but it *felt* like they didnt even show the bigger picture. I guarantee you if it wasnt the comics and Rpg material to fill in the blanks, we would knoww next to zero about what happened between fleets. thats how simplistic they were. however, it has its alibi in WHEN it was made, and the whole setup is spectacular. but for me, to like a space battle scene i gotta feel like i'm watching a war movie and not a space opera. otherwise, its just inconsequential background.

6. battle of Naboo: very bad space battle scene. just pew pew, little thought behind it.

7. Obi Wan vs Jango: small fries. 1v1 isnt even a real dogfight imho. (Its like comparing a duel to a war; i LOVE martial arts, even competed internationaly once, but i wouldnt call a 1v1 between martial artists a "ground battle"). same here. to call something an actual BATTLE, it has to be of a scale that gives individual skill SECONDARY importance compared to teamwork and tactics. 1v1 doesnt have that. ergo, imho not space battle, not even dogfight. at least it is very well choreographed.

8. Battle of Starkiller Base. sorry, imho this is too nonsensical to take seriously. a bombing mission without dedicated bombers, and its climax is worse than attack on titan's "everyone go for pizza, Levi will solo everything". battle of naboo is almost the same, i just think 6-8 are so bad. 1-2 are excellent, 3-5 are "ok", 6-8 FOR ME are terribad.

The Battle of Attolon from the Rebels season 3 finale could be on that list. It's got multiple ISDs and Interdictors attacking a patchwork Rebel fleet/base. Features Grabd Admiral Thrawn and an actual Imperial win which is nice.

1. Endor
2. Scarif
3. Yavin
4. Naboo
5. Coruscant
6. Atollon
7. Starkiller
8. Asteroids
9. Jango v Kenobi

25 minutes ago, shmitty said:

The Battle of Attolon from the Rebels season 3 finale could be on that list. It's got multiple ISDs and Interdictors attacking a patchwork Rebel fleet/base. Features Grabd Admiral Thrawn and an actual Imperial win which is nice.

1. Endor
2. Scarif
3. Yavin
4. Naboo
5. Coruscant
6. Atollon
7. Starkiller
8. Asteroids
9. Jango v Kenobi

I think only the movies were considered, but I agree, it was EPIC

28 minutes ago, shmitty said:

The Battle of Attolon from the Rebels season 3 finale could be on that list. It's got multiple ISDs and Interdictors attacking a patchwork Rebel fleet/base. Features Grabd Admiral Thrawn and an actual Imperial win which is nice.

It is also probably the easiest battle to translate into Armada! The only admiral we're missing is Thrawn (maybe Tarkin can be used as a proxy). It'd lend itself well to a 2v2 match (with the Rebels being able to take a Quasar).

6 hours ago, xerpo said:

Id include the battle of Poe Dameron taking his **** out on the force awakens. That moment of T70's flying low right in time was epic. Music helped though.

Yeah those xwings coming over the water was instantly one of my favorite star wars moments

Enfor was incredible until that stupid scene with the A-Wing sinking the executor. I could buy it if they sold it better but they didn't and popping the shield balls doesn't count towards taking down a ship the size of manhattan. No amount of canon explanation will make that less frustrating. So...

1 - Battle of Coruscant

2 - Battle of Scariff

3 - Battle of Yavin

4 - Battle of Endor (if not for the above mentioned part this would be my number one because the rest is truly brilliant)

5 - Raid on Eadu (not space battle but still involved space capable fighters engaging in a quick exciting way.)

6 - Battle over Naboo

7 - Battle of Starkiller Base.

If I could the Battle of Attolon would be placed pretty high and so probably will the battle of Jakku once Battlefront II is out.

Battlefront II looks like it may give us a whole slew of new battles to look forward to as well.

33 minutes ago, Madaghmire said:

Yeah those xwings coming over the water was instantly one of my favorite star wars moments

I loved when that scene started. But I hated it by the end. "Oh, so Poe is just going to kill everything. Well that will make it simple..." Seriously, he destroys like 10 TIE fighters in about 15 seconds. There isn't much drama in that. At Yavin you actually are excited each time they kill a tie, with Poe you don't even both keeping count.

And Starkiller base...

"Hey let's destroy Death Star III like we did Death Star I!"

"Wait, and we are really just going to send 3 people to do an absolutely critical task to the mission with no back up?"

"Yeah, it should fine."

I'd say:

1. Endor

2. Scarif

3. Yavin

4. Coruscant

5. Asteroid (mostly for music)

6. Naboo

7. Star Killer Base

8. Kenobi v. Jango (but the Sound FX were excellent.)

1.

2.

After those two, whatever.

13 minutes ago, Tiberius the Killer said:

I loved when that scene started. But I hated it by the end. "Oh, so Poe is just going to kill everything. Well that will make it simple..." Seriously, he destroys like 10 TIE fighters in about 15 seconds. There isn't much drama in that. At Yavin you actually are excited each time they kill a tie, with Poe you don't even both keeping count.

And Starkiller base...

"Hey let's destroy Death Star III like we did Death Star I!"

"Wait, and we are really just going to send 3 people to do an absolutely critical task to the mission with no back up?"

"Yeah, it should fine."

I'd say:

1. Endor

2. Scarif

3. Yavin

4. Coruscant

5. Asteroid (mostly for music)

6. Naboo

7. Star Killer Base

8. Kenobi v. Jango (but the Sound FX were excellent.)

Poe killing everything was awesome tho.

14 minutes ago, Madaghmire said:

Poe killing everything was awesome tho.

Well... I can't argue with that kind of logic.

But I am expecting when he comes out that he have 10 blue dice and does 3 auto damage to anything within range two of him, if they want to be true to the films at least.

1 hour ago, Madaghmire said:

Poe killing everything was awesome tho.

It really was.

I'm hoping it plays out to him getting his butt kicked in the next movie because he's overly cocky, same with Rey and the others.

Was it really that awesome though? Can you really say there was any drama? It was an autowin. There wasn't even cool interesting tactics, it was just "oh he is a god among mortals" and "I do e-brake slides with my x-wing."

If we are comparing it to WW2 aviation, (which of course it's loosely based on) I'm not sure an ace ever got 10 kills in one fight, (specifically 10 other fighters). Especially since after all, you were an ace after 5 kills!

I remember being glued to screen the first time I watched the battle of Yavin. Every kill mattered. Or at the battle of Scarif, when again, every kill mattered. I was bored with Poe's shenanigans. Luke and Kenobi (who have the help of force sensitivity no less) get in situations where it looks dicey or they are in danger in dogfights. I don't think Poe ever does.

If it was awesome, it was awesome in the way that Transformers 2 is awesome. Which is not the best kind of awesome.

Im a stick in the mud (-_-) Poe Killing everything was really boring to me. I felt no stakes. He was just too flawless. He killed something like 9 ties in one fly by AND picked of single storm troopers on the ground in the same swoop. When Kylo was flying away in his shuttle, I was counting ties escorting him and thinking.. ok, that's one pass for Poe..

Endor - Great stakes, good flow of plot. I could follow the action well and I felt the shifts of the battles.

Yavin - Only second because of the FX were just not as good as Endor. But same deal as above. The battle had a story that I could ride along with. It had tension and a back and forth flow that was fun to follow along with.

Scarif - This has great FX, but the story just isn't as good as the above. But it did have a story at least, a back and forth in the fighting. Some tension.

Coruscant - I have to say this could be nearly last for me.. sure the FX were great. But we weren't a part of any of it. It quickly turned into Anakin fighting with robots on his ship.. and then it was quickly and indoor fight on Duku's ship. We had no idea how big each force was.. who was winning. It was just lots of stuff and explosions. No story.

2 hours ago, Tiberius the Killer said:

Was it really that awesome though? Can you really say there was any drama? It was an autowin. There wasn't even cool interesting tactics, it was just "oh he is a god among mortals" and "I do e-brake slides with my x-wing."

If we are comparing it to WW2 aviation, (which of course it's loosely based on) I'm not sure an ace ever got 10 kills in one fight, (specifically 10 other fighters). Especially since after all, you were an ace after 5 kills!

I remember being glued to screen the first time I watched the battle of Yavin. Every kill mattered. Or at the battle of Scarif, when again, every kill mattered. I was bored with Poe's shenanigans. Luke and Kenobi (who have the help of force sensitivity no less) get in situations where it looks dicey or they are in danger in dogfights. I don't think Poe ever does.

If it was awesome, it was awesome in the way that Transformers 2 is awesome. Which is not the best kind of awesome.

Well its all about that, you've been told all along the first compasses of the movie that he is the best pilot in the resistance, literally the best. So you start thinking why is he that good, and it's not not like other films that you will keep wondering about it forever, you actually get to see him in action, and get convinced by yourself. That scene was his scene thats obvious, there was no one relevant but standard pilots in those TIE's.

That does not make it less awesome.

It does. Its like watching a kung fu movie , all of the characters being realistic humans and one is a super saiyan that blows up planets with a punch. His fights are TOO EASY to be awesome. He doesnt win because his personality etc is badass; he wins because he won the superpower lottery and the whole thing is unfair.

8) Battle of Scarif. Like the whole movie this battle was a huge ripoff and a shameless repetition of ANH. I not for a minute felt that I didn't see this a million times before, minus the focus on the characters, building up tension and the great musical themes. it just wanted to be a bigger Death Star battle but it was just terrible with nothing to bring up as a positive thing...

7) Jango vs Obi-Wan. Ok, I get it. Obi-Wan hates to fly and Jango is an excellent pilot. But still, this cat-mouse fight is just stupid. Obi-Wan should have felt the trap in the Force and he should have more than adequate reflexes to outmaneuver Jango. Especillay with this Delta having better maneuverability than the Slave-I.

6) Battle of Naboo. While this battle looked great when it came out, it doesn't hold up. Granted it has great themes and some great scenes too, but it's just annoying sometimes. Jar-Jar's clumsiness (even though I consider him not annoying but extremely funny due the hilarious Hungarian translation) is annoying, the Battle of Theed makes no sense, I have no idea how Amidala thought that his N-1s have the slightest chance against gazillions of droid fighters... It just doesn't work that much.

5) The Asteroid Battle. Mostly for the music, which is gorgeous but this is also the first time we saw in a movie why it is dangerous to go into a heavy density debris field. It also shows the cruelness of Darth Vader when he sends frikkin' ISDs into the asteroid field to find the Falcon because he thinks it is the key to find Luke! ISDS when TIEs are slapped flat in every minute!

4) Battle of Coruscant. This battle would have been hands down the best if it could have been in its full glory in the movie. It consists almost one quarter of the book and in it Obi-Wan and Anakin first jump into the fray only to realize that Palpatin was kidnapped, then they start to search for the Invisible hand and only after about 20-30 minutes of playtime were they supposed to land on it! Still, great music themes (I love how it begins!) and CGI-orgy all over the place, tons of small details (did you notice the Venator docking with the Lucrehulk to launch a marine attack to capture it?). Great battle.

3) Battle of Scarif. As much as a letdown the movie was for me, the battle at the end was fantastic. The only reason it couldn't make #1 because it focused on too many characters and therefore it was a ton of action scenes rather than an environment to build up to the climactic end. It was great and I love watching it time and again (and skip all the painfully stupid dialogues of the movie), but not the best.

2) Battle of Endor. This battle did right what the Battle of Scarif could not: build up the tension to the last minute while it was focusing on three struggles simultaneously. Granted it had only three fronts to focus on but it gave enough room to emotions, struggle, heroism and the feel of being defeated at the same time. And John Williams made an excellent job with this. The flett coming out of hyperspace theme is one of my favorite of the Star Wars theme. It masterfully shows how eager and enthusiastic the Rebel fleet is and how the attack turns into a desperation within seconds. And he uses the same tunes for both! Similarly the throne room duel is one with full of emotions: Defeat, desperation, hatred and the horrifying realization of what it is leading to.

1) Battle of Yavin. It was shown in the most detail, not just flashes. It built up the tension for 15 glorious minutes, combined with some of the best themes from John Williams, this is still the ultimate space battle for me. The best thing in it that you have a few seconds to bond with many of the characters. Dutch, Porkins and the others, you learn to love them only to feel sorry to loose them. And it was made even better with the digitally enhanced version - and even better than that with Adywan's Remastered!

23 minutes ago, Norell said:

8) Battle of Starkiller Base. Like the whole movie this battle was a huge ripoff and a shameless repetition of ANH. I not for a minute felt that I didn't see this a million times before, minus the focus on the characters, building up tension and the great musical themes. it just wanted to be a bigger Death Star battle but it was just terrible with nothing to bring up as a positive thing...

FTFY. Man that threw me off at first.

19 hours ago, homedrone said:

Coruscant - I have to say this could be nearly last for me.. sure the FX were great. But we weren't a part of any of it. It quickly turned into Anakin fighting with robots on his ship.. and then it was quickly and indoor fight on Duku's ship. We had no idea how big each force was.. who was winning. It was just lots of stuff and explosions. No story.

That's totally fair but did did there need to be that much of a story? I always hear this complaint about the battle but its entire purpose thematically is to show us visually how large scale and ferocious the Clone Wars was.

Endor - The ebb and flow, the emotional high, the many intricate parts, the sheer scale of the forces. And the fate of the galaxy hanging directly in the balance. The ultimate screen battle in SW.

Scarif - A mini-Endor, with glorious 2016 VFX. Big delicious capital ship action. Armada brought to life. I probably peed myself a little.

Yavin - Wow the music. Excitement and speed, and big somersaulting dogfights. What it lacks in fleet action it makes up for in sheer Star Wars style.

Atollon - Cool, actual naval maneuvering in Star Wars. Thrawn is proud. Loses a few points for the incomprehensible timeline of the evacuation and round trip to Mandalore, as well as the weirdness of the jetpacking. But I can ignore those parts.

Starkiller Base, tied with Takodana - That laser fire really got my attention. The way the ships scream around and burn up is awesome.

Coruscant - Had a few shots of turbolaser broadsides (and that one CIS ship getting obliterated) that were cool, but "This is where the fun begins" dialogue and was hard to tell what the fleets were doing without any wide shots.

Asteroids in Empire - They were fun, and the music was great. I should probably appreciate the influence that this sequence had on later sci-fi action, but on its own it doesn't jump out at me today. The main characters are protected by a hefty amount of plot armor and do an awful lot of barrel rolling and whatnot using basically a handful of knobs and like two levers on the Falcon dashboard. Considering that it's located within the best Star Wars movie, it's pretty much the baseline level of cool for the whole film runtime, and it's not one of the standouts like Hoth or the Cloud City duel or Dagobah.

Jango vs Obi Wan - Cool sound effects. I just don't consider it that much of a battle. Just a bit of random pew pew that ended up having no effect on anything whatsoever. I guess we wanted one space battle per movie and this is the only one for Episode II.

Naboo - I guess I only remember the horrible Anakin dialogue and nothing much memorable. The bubble shield seemed cool in 1999. The N1 ships were merely okay, and not my favorite. Nothing from Episode I is very good except for the Darth Maul duel.

If Obi Wan vs Jango is on the list, my write-in favorite is Rey and Finn vs TIEs. Seriously one of my favorite action sequences in all of Star Wars.