Ranking All the Star Wars Movies

The Star Wars franchise is probably the biggest and most important franchise in my cinematic life.  I grew up watching these films and every time a new one comes out I get excited.  Even though the franchise isn’t perfect, I still love it.  In honor of STAR WARS DAY, here is my ranking of the franchise.

 

May the Fourth Be With You!

 

 

 

11 – EPISODE II – ATTACK OF THE CLONES (George Lucas, 2002)

• I remember seeing it in theaters when I was 14, well before I understood what a good and bad movie was, and I knew this movie was bad.  This movie is incredibly boring and lifeless.  It is all about politics and midichlorians and just everything we don’t want in a Star Wars movie.  It is a long, boring slog of a film and introduced us to Hayden Christen as Anakin Skywalker, which I think we all know how that turned out.

 

 

10 – EPISODE IX – THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (JJ Abrams, 2019)

• One could make a great argument that The Rise of Skywalker is the worst Star Wars movie, and it almost landed there for me.  After the divisive The Last Jedi (more on that later), rather than continue the story that writer/director Rian Johnson placed in the trilogy, the people in-charge decided to bring back director JJ Abrams and redact everything about The Last Jedi and made the most fan-service film I have ever seen.  The result is a disaster.  There is no heart, no excitement, and just utter disappointment.  It leaves a bad taste in your mouth after Episode VII and VIII were so good and so strong.  The Rise of Skywalker is a disappointing end to the saga.

 

 

9 – SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (Ron Howard, 2018)

• Han Solo is one of the most popular characters in the Star Wars cannon.  Giving Solo his own movie sounded like it could have been cool as we could have seen Solo be more of an anti-hero smuggler than the hero he had become.  But with director changes, reshoots, and rumors of acting challenges, Solo ends up being a real dud with a stale plot, unnecessary surprises and twists, an extremely dark look, and too many fan service moments.  Alden Ehrenreich does his best as Solo, but unfortunately, everything else around the film doesn’t support him enough to make his performance stand out.

 

 

8 – EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH  (George Lucas, 2005)

• Revenge of the Sith isn’t necessarily a bad movie like Attack of the Clones.  It starts off well, with the exciting Battle of Coruscant, and ends in spectacular fashion as we finally see the highly anticipated fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan.  However, in-between these two excellent scenes is another 100 minutes of the same thing we saw in the first two prequels.  A boring story, terrible effects, and stilted acting, led by the once again awful Hayden Christensen.  Again, not a terrible movie, but still not a good one.

 

 

7 – EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE (George Lucas, 1999)

• The Phantom Menace was one of the most hyped movies in cinematic history.  The original trilogy is timeless and now we were getting prequels by the same creators and with better technology.  The result?  I would say mixed.  Over time, I have grown to appreciate this one more.  It is far from a perfect film and has many flaws, but there is a decent amount of good stuff here as well.  Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor were pretty solid as Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi, the pod races were fun, and the final lightsaber battle between Jinn, Kenobi, and Darth Maul is the best in the franchise and features one of the best pieces of music John Williams has ever produced in “Duel of the Fates”.  Though it failed to hit our expectations, this is still pretty good.

 

 

6 – ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (Gareth Edwards, 2016)

• Rogue One was the first Star Wars film to deviate from the Skywalker storyline and be it’s own movie, which is a rather risky move considering the fanbase that came from all the Skywalker movies.  Taking place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the film looks at the team of misfits who stole the Death Star plans for the Rebellion, so it doesn’t stray away too far from the classic storyline, but is its own unique film.  It felt like a science fiction heist film, with a lot of mystery, action, and a stellar cast.  It also features the single greatest Darth Vader scene ever on film.  Rogue One is still relatively new in the Star Wars cannon, but needs to recognized for its excellence.

 

 

5 – EPISODE VI – RETURN OF THE JEDI (Richard Marquand, 1983)

• The original trilogy are all damn near perfect films, so I have to really nitpick when it comes to ranking these.  I absolutely love Return of the Jedi.  I thought it was a perfect ending to a legendary trilogy.  It combined the dark tone of The Empire Strikes Back and the more fun tone of A New Hope seamlessly.  It finished off the arc of every character perfectly.  It didn’t seem rushed and nobody was neglected.  The only really problem with this movie  is the Ewoks, who are fun, but are a little too cute for the series.  Regardless, Return of the Jedi is a great film and one of the best endings to any trilogy.

 

 

4 – EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS (JJ Abrams, 2015)

• After being wildly disappointed with the prequels, The Force Awakens had a lot of hype around, yet a lot of hesitation too.  It had been 32 years since we had a great Star Wars movie and it was up to JJ Abrams to deliver on this one.  Abrams succeeded in every way possible.  The Force Awakens is a great movie for everyone.  It is a movie that brings old fans back because it goes back to the franchise’s roots and it is perfect for new fans as it introduces them a new franchise while easing them into the older films.  With a stellar cast of old and new characters, thrilling action, and tons of emotion, The Force Awakens launched the new trilogy perfectly.

 

 

3 – EPISODE VIII – THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson, 2017)

• The most divisive film in the Star Wars cannon, The Last Jedi is both loved and hated across the board.  For this critic, The Last Jedi is bordering on masterpiece and nearly matches the greatness of the first two films.  Writer/director Rian Johnson took the Star Wars legend and aimed to expand it to worlds beyond what we knew.  He gave us deeper character development as well as the best looking and overall best made film in the entire saga.  This is a movie that only gets better with more viewings and joined the ranks as a Star Wars classic.

 

 

2 – EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE (George Lucas, 1977)

• This was in a close battle for the top spot, but in the end, A New Hope ended up as the runner up.  This is a science fiction classic.  The world that George Lucas brought us into is something that we had never seen on screen before.  We are introduced to unique and legendary characters and iconic scenes all within a classic story.  The special effects were mind-blowing for the time and still hold up today.  This is a landmark film in cinematic history and one for the time capsule.

 

 

1 – EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK  (Irvin Kershner, 1980)

• There are many reason why The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film of all-time.  Like every great sequel, the movie is bigger, in both story and scale.  We get new planets, new characters, like Yoda and Boba Fett, more action, and the story hits a new height and progressing the already established characters.  The film is the darkest in the series and ends on such a downer, you wonder how the Rebel Alliance is going to come back from everything that happened.  And most importantly, it has one the greatest plot twists in history cinema that takes the franchise a whole new route.  The Empire Strikes Back is a masterpiece and could be argued as the greatest sequel of all-time.

 

 

 

 

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