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So, I've been re-watching the original Star Wars trilogy, and the question popped into my head: what is the best space combat scene in the Star Wars series? It can be anything from a small skirmish with fighters to a large scale assault with dozens of cruisers etc. Anything from episodes 1-6.

What say you, SDN?

I really liked the fighting over Coruscant. It had its cheesy moments, but if I want realism I don't watch Star Wars.

The opening battle for a New Hope. While I liked the spectacle from Revenge of the Sith it didn't feel like a battle fought between people (which is one of those subtle themes of the prequels, war is between two faceless machines.) The final battle over the second Death Star felt better because of the chatter between Calrissian and Ackbar, so that despite the so so quality of the visual's it was far more tense and emotional.

Yet the best shall remain the first, because it is Star Wars to me. The the hopeless battle against a faceless machine really sets the tone for the whole series, while the emotions it draws up for even those old jaded viewers is priceless. The spectacle of Revenge of the Sith tarnishes on repeat viewing, knowing that it is but eye candy feed to the masses to keep them happy while the tragedy plays itself out before the audience. And the limits of the visuals are empty in Return of the Jedi compared to this carefully crafted scene.

Battle of Endor. It has scale, less cheesiness than the Battle of Coruscant despite older special effects, and is just awesome, for the most part.

Endor, no contest. The epic conclusion of the entire trilogy as every plot threat comes to a breaking point. Luke's duel with his father, the epic space battle, and yes, even the oft-maligned silliness on the Endor moon are all woven together to create one of the finest end-chapters in all of science fiction.

Endor is and shall always remain the best sci-fi battle ever IMHO.

The Battle of Coruscant. It had thousands of ships, enough energy being exchanged to power human civilization for millenia - just what I want from my space opera.

Battle of Endor, still have the fan edit I saw on youtube awhile back before it got yanked. Dozens of fights going on in the background, capital ship engagements and the second Death Star run in this insane mass of pipes and tight corridors to reveal the massive internal core which proves an old adage about the finite giving a much better impression of infinity than infinity does itself.

Note, my choice is going off film battles only, as stipulated in the OP. If I could include EU battles there are a couple battles from the Thrawn Trilogy of which I am quite fond, and there is also the Battle of Coruscant as depicted in the Clone Wars shorts.

The Millennium Falcon's escape from the Star Destroyers in The Empire Strikes Back and the following chase.

Pure movie magic.

Havok wrote:The Millennium Falcon's escape from the Star Destroyers in The Empire Strikes Back and the following chase.

Pure movie magic.

Seconded. The other battles remind me of galley warfare with exhausted rowers and near totally ignore the fact that space has three unlimited dimensions. Also the music.

I agree, the music in that scene is incredible.

I'm still inclined to vote for the Battle of Endor though. I like big battles, I like capital ships, and Coruscant looses because of the cheesy banter and goofy droids.

For me it's a tie between the asteroid field chase and the battle of endor. I love both of them equally and they were each thrilling.

May I choose three?. If so, the chase of Leia's corvette by Vader's ISD in ANH, the battle over the Death Star in the same movie, and the Battle of Endor in ROTJ.

Remembering the battle of Coruscant in ROTS, I wonder how epic would be the last two (especially the Battle of Endor) made with CGI and not with physical models.

U-95 wrote:Remembering the battle of Coruscant in ROTS, I wonder how epic would be the last two (especially the Battle of Endor) made with CGI and not with physical models.

Pretty fucking huge, I'd guess, Endor in particular.

Can't help but wonder how much better the Battle of Coruscant would have been if we'd been given a bigger view of it, rather than almost completely focusing on Anakin and Obi-Wan...

For that reason, I'd nominate Endor. Ignoring the concurrent 'saber duel and land battle (because we're talking space battles here), we get to see far more from the point of view of both fighters and capships throughout the battle, as we follow Ackbar and Lando.

Endor easily. The actual battle of Coruscant might as well as not happened for all the importance it had, Anakin and Obi turn up, fly past some fighters get chased by some missiles then land, the battle is just background noise to mask the silliness of the buzz droids. Good eye candy though but we simply don’t see the battle in a way that has a real impact on the characters or plot, they might as well have just turned up and then landed on the Invisible Hand.

I wonder how epic would be the last two (especially the Battle of Endor) made with CGI and not with physical models

It was quite epic without it and we likely would not have had the range of rebel ships with a reliance on CGI, hence the solo ship design Republic fleet. Also I never really got a fully epic view of the battle of Coruscant anyway, we never get the far out view that would imply the thousands of ships that apparently took place off screen. One other point is we never get any characters that are onboard the participating ships like we did with Ackbar, Lando and Piett, instead we get faceless CGI ships exploding at random and a clone pilot that we are introduced to seconds before he dies.

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The battle of Javin. A bunch of small star fighters taking on the death star and wining. A hero returning in the last moment to save the day. What more can you need.

Darth Tanner wrote:Endor easily. The actual battle of Coruscant might as well as not happened for all the importance it had, Anakin and Obi turn up, fly past some fighters get chased by some missiles then land, the battle is just background noise to mask the silliness of the buzz droids. Good eye candy though but we simply don’t see the battle in a way that has a real impact on the characters or plot, they might as well have just turned up and then landed on the Invisible Hand.

I wonder how epic would be the last two (especially the Battle of Endor) made with CGI and not with physical models

It was quite epic without it and we likely would not have had the range of rebel ships with a reliance on CGI, hence the solo ship design Republic fleet. Also I never really got a fully epic view of the battle of Coruscant anyway, we never get the far out view that would imply the thousands of ships that apparently took place off screen. One other point is we never get any characters that are onboard the participating ships like we did with Ackbar, Lando and Piett, instead we get faceless CGI ships exploding at random and a clone pilot that we are introduced to seconds before he dies.

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Your last point is quite true; however, a CGI showing the full extent of the fleets -Imperial and Rebel- closing for battle would be great. We'd get a good idea of the strength of both sides.

I disagree. CGI gets dated very fast and for some reason, did not look as realistic as the models in the original trilogy.

Stofsk wrote:For me it's a tie between the asteroid field chase and the battle of endor. I love both of them equally and they were each thrilling.

Seconded. For me a battle implies both parties shooting at each other, and Han was just on the run in ESB, but the tense evacuation of Hoth and subsequent Imperial pursuit in three dimensions of space was one of the finest points of the series.

I wish we got to see some B-Wings taking out capital ships in the Endor fight, but I love the visual of the Nebulon B and Star Destroyer plugging away at each other in the middle of the fighters at point blank range--this was far better than the CGI battle of capital ships at Coruscant. It's nice to see admirals actually directing both sides, too.

Thanas wrote:I disagree. CGI gets dated very fast and for some reason, did not look as realistic as the models in the original trilogy.

I agree. One of the remarkable things about the OT is how damn good those old models still look.

Darth Tanner wrote:Endor easily. The actual battle of Coruscant might as well as not happened for all the importance it had, Anakin and Obi turn up, fly past some fighters get chased by some missiles then land, the battle is just background noise to mask the silliness of the buzz droids. Good eye candy though but we simply don’t see the battle in a way that has a real impact on the characters or plot, they might as well have just turned up and then landed on the Invisible Hand.

Well, there was that one brief exchange between Invisible Hand and a Venator, for example. Wish we'd gotten some more of that.

I'll go with the Battle of Endor as well. While I love the chase sequence in ESB, not sure it's a 'battle' and I love love love the Mon Cal ships going all 'point blank' on the Star Destroyers.

Agh... it seems I'm thinking CGI is better than actually is. Those old models used in the original SW trilogy were really well done.

As a side note, you commented the exhange of fire between a Rebel Nebulon-B and an Imperial ship. Wasn't that ship the Executor and not an ordinary ISD?.

My favorite battle is the Battle of Endor, but my favorite "space battle moment" has to be the opening to the battle over Coruscant. I love everything about it, including the drums, the visuals, and the way Anakin and Obi-Wan suddenly dive their ships and are right in the thick of it.

U-95 wrote:Agh... it seems I'm thinking CGI is better than actually is. Those old models used in the original SW trilogy were really well done.

As a side note, you commented the exhange of fire between a Rebel Nebulon-B and an Imperial ship. Wasn't that ship the Executor and not an ordinary ISD?.

Indeed, the Neb-B was broadsiding the trench of the Executor.

There is still a 'weight' that models have, as well as detail, that CGI still just haven't managed to capture.