There really is nothing like Star Wars, a film franchise with incredibly voracious fans (myself included) and endless debate. I have been a diehard Star Wars fan since I was 6 years old, have seen all of the films on the big screen, read dozens and dozens of books and comics, and it has been a massive part of my life and the lives of millions of others. While it means the world to so many of us, the franchise has seen its ups and downs, but it truly is a hallmark of Hollywood that delivers excitement, laughs and fun at nearly every turn.
So here is your definitive ranking of the 12 released Star Wars movies. I’m sure everyone will calmly agree to this list, right?
12. STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
Alright, let’s get this out of the way because I know Star Wars fans are insufferable and someone, somewhere is going to ask why this “movie” didn’t make the list if it’s missing. Let’s get one thing straight–Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not a “movie”, it is a 90-minute pilot for the animated series. It’s not good by any stretch and it fumbles the introduction of one of the franchise’s more interesting characters, Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice. It makes her loud, obnoxious and just plain disrespectful to the saga’s main focus, Anakin Skywalker.
It’s worth mentioning that the quality of The Clone Wars has next to nothing to do with the quality of the animated series that it started. The series takes the pieces set up by the film and moves them through 7 seasons of fantastic battles, great humor, and character development that, in retrospect, does a great deal of service to the Star Wars prequels. This “movie”, though? Not so much.
11. STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
When JJ Abrams started the Star Wars sequels with The Force Awakens, no one knew that he would be returning to helm the final installment to not just that trilogy, but the finale of the entire saga.
Reception to the sequels themselves leading up to Episode IX could be fairly categorized as “mixed” with loud voices on both ends of the spectrum both loving and hating the continuation of the saga and sharing frustration with the films either being too familiar (in the case of The Force Awakens) or too different (in the case of The Last Jedi).
So a lot was riding on The Rise of Skywalker to stick the landing, not just to make a statement on these three films as a whole, but to close out the saga in a way worthy of the franchise.
Unfortunately, Abrams opted to deliver a film that focused more on the past of Star Wars rather than finding ways to expand it in meaningful ways. Everything in The Rise of Skywalker is focused on the past–referencing past films, retconning past films, cameos from faces from Star Wars past, and a final scene that is still head-scratchingly odd in its desperation to deliver one last jolt of nostalgia.
All of this focus on the past has no meaning for the characters and they hardly develop throughout (outside of Rey and Kylo). These blatant references to Star Wars’ past only hold meaning for the audience and Abrams himself; thus the story ends up suffering and the saga concludes with a frustratingly flat finale.
10. STAR WARS: EPISODE II — ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Last year, this was the worst Star Wars movie, but thanks to The Rise of Skywalker, it moved up a spot. I still love it, but it’s just not good. After George Lucas’s fumbled re-entry into the Star Wars universe with The Phantom Menace, the pressure was on to stick the landing on the second go-around. But instead of doing so, Clones introduces us to an increasingly baffling love affair between Padawan Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christiansen) and Queen-turned-Senator, Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman).
The film does feature some exciting elements, though.
The film starts the beginning of the Clone Wars as the Jedi Knights, accompanied by the first wave of clone soldiers drops in to take on the Separatists.
But the real highlight of Clones is the detective story that follows Obi-Wan traveling the galaxy in order to hunt down the bounty hunter hired to assassinate Senator Amidala, only to discover the secret cloning facility on Kamino and the hidden droid factory on Geonosis. If only this were enough to carry the film.
9. STAR WARS: EPISODE I — THE PHANTOM MENACE
Where Attack of the Clones and The Rise of Skywalker are just plain bad, the crime committed by The Phantom Menace is honestly….that it’s just boring.
Menace had the insurmountable task of taking the biggest franchise of all time and starting it at the very beginning. But the film takes a story about the Galactic Civil War, that started off with a high-speed chase through space and brings us back with…trade negotiations.
Menace plods along at a snail’s pace, introduces the annoying Jar-Jar Binks (who I actually love) and gives us a young Anakin that’s…less than stellar.
But even with its flaws, The Phantom Menace boasts arguably the best sequence of the entire prequel trilogy. The epic lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon Jin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul is incredibly exciting and features one of the best musical pieces in all of Star Wars, John Williams’ epic Duel of the Fates. The fight choreography is exciting, Maul is genuinely menacing and the final 10 minutes of the film sets up the rest of the trilogy in more ways than one. But an exciting final 20 minutes isn’t enough to make up for a largely uneventful runtime.
8. STAR WARS: EPISODE III — REVENGE OF THE SITH
Revenge of the Sith is the climactic finale to George Lucas’s prequel trilogy. Setting up the status quo of the original films, Revenge chronicles the reveal of Chancellor Palpatine as the Sith Lord, the end of the Clone War, the decimation of the Jedi Order, the fall of Anakin Skywalker and the subsequent rise of Darth Vader.
Revenge crams a lot in its runtime and it moves pretty quickly. There’s a lot of story to cover, meaning that much of it doesn’t quite get the attention that it deserves. But the moments where Revenge really shines are at its quietest, particularly at the opera house with Palpatine’s telling of the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
But Anakin killing children in order to speed up his fall and quickly make him the enemy is annoying and manipulative, and Anakin’s lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan is…theatrical at best, campy at its worst–your mileage may vary.
Despite its flaws, Revenge of the Sith is definitely the high point of the prequels…for what that’s worth.
7. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
Solo isn’t the best Star Wars movie, but it is an incredibly fun one that simultaneously struggles and benefits from how lean it is. Solo introduces us to a young Han Solo, played by Alden Ehrenreich, who starts out as a sewer rat and ends up becoming the skilled pilot that we meet at the beginning of A New Hope. Alden does an excellent job of taking just enough influence from Harrison Ford’s version of the character while infusing enough of his own spin to make this iteration of the character his own, but it’s Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian that steals the show in literally every scene he inhabits.
But Solo feels forced. Let’s be honest–it’s not the movie any of us really wanted to see. Sure we love Han Solo, but we love Ford’s Han Solo. While Alden’s turn on the character is fun, it doesn’t quite match up and the script pushes Han through literally every highlight of his life in order to say, “Hey! Here’s Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon! Hey! Here’s Lando! Hey! Here’s that Kessel Run! Hey! He shoots first!” It’s fun, it’s digestible, but it’s kind of the red-headed stepchild of the Star Wars film canon.
6. ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
With all of the original Star Wars trilogy’s focus on Han, Luke, and Leia, it can be easy sometimes to forget about all those that gave their lives for the cause of the Rebellion. From the opening crawl of the first Star Wars movie, we learn about the first victory scored by the Rebels. Rogue One takes us to the boots on the ground to learn about how this first victory was won, and how the Rebels came into possession of the Death Star plans in A New Hope.
While it’s refreshing to have a Star Wars movie that doesn’t focus nearly at all on the Force, the Jedi or the Sith, Rogue One struggles to offer up fully developed characters, despite its stellar casting. Rogue One’s diverse cast includes some great characters, but they don’t get the time to develop or change much. The film’s final act is its highlight and the Battle of Scarif is one of the saga’s best battle sequences. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing that hallway scene for the first time.
5. RETURN OF THE JEDI
When I was young, Return of the Jedi was my favorite Star Wars movie.
It had my favorite space battle, my favorite planet (Endor), and my favorite creatures–the Ewoks. It’s crazy to think about now, but Return of the Jedi was doing a lot of course-correcting after audiences kind of initially balked at The Empire Strikes Back.
Return of the Jedi comes back from the dark and dreary ending of Empire and says, “Don’t worry, everyone. Star Wars isn’t dark, Star Wars is still fun.” Heck, it even physically goes back to basics by taking us back to Tatooine! But in doing so, Return actually ends up doing very little to advance any characters after all the growth that Empire instilled.
(Sound familiar?)
Nearly every character in Return of the Jedi ends the film pretty much the same way that they entered it, with the exception of Luke and Vader. The Battle of Endor on both the ground and in space is fun; if only something for everyone to do while we focus on the real highlight of the film–the goings-on of the Emperor’s throne room.
Everything in that room is high-stakes with a killer performance from Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor and some excellent work on the score from John Williams. But despite playing much of the film safe, Return of the Jedi is a fun and exciting conclusion to Lucas’s original trilogy.
4. STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
While The Phantom Menace had the task of bringing us back to a galaxy far, far away, it had the advantage of saying “hey, don’t you want to see the story of Darth Vader?” and it was directed by the guy that started it all.
Perhaps even more difficult is to bring Star Wars to its new home at Disney and deliver a satisfying film that feels like a Star Wars movie and win over longtime fans and new fans alike. The Force Awakens does that in spades, even if it feels derivative at times.
The Force Awakens introduces new, interesting characters in a familiar galaxy and brings us back into a galaxy in turmoil. Director JJ Abrams brings his signature puzzle box style of filmmaking to The Force Awakens and we’ve spent the last 4 years asking about Rey’s parentage, where Maz Kanata got that lightsaber, who Snoke is and why is Kylo Ren so dang cool?!
Again, the film is a blast until the second act when it starts to get somewhat derivative of A New Hope, but it hits all the right notes and successfully ushers in the Star Wars revival under Disney.
3. A NEW HOPE
It’s hard to beat the original.
A New Hope (or Star Wars) was the world’s introduction to the galaxy far, far away and ushered in the age of Star Wars.
As previously mentioned, its cultural significance cannot be understated. Lucas’s first Star Wars film is original, fun and exciting. It boasts an incredible cast of characters, a villain that is menacing from the first time he sets foot on screen and a final 20 minutes that no matter how many times you see it, you’re always holding your breath and just hoping that those proton torpedoes make it to the reactor in time.
A New Hope is often the first Star Wars movie that one sees and its ability to draw you in from the very first moments is a masterclass in establishing status quo–the rust bucket blockade runner fleeing from the massive, sleek Imperial Star Destroyer. A Rebellion under attack and on its last leg, with one last hope. Everything that Star Wars is owes itself to the vision and love put into A New Hope.
Thank the Maker that the movie is this amazing.
2. STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI
If JJ Abrams wanted to play it safe with The Force Awakens, writer/director Rian Johnson saw the opportunities set up by Abrams and decided to take some big swings with The Last Jedi.
Not only does The Last Jedi provide a superb follow-up to The Force Awakens, but it also takes Luke Skywalker from Jedi-in-hiding and elevates him over the course of the film to the legend that we expect him to be from the start. The movie cleverly subverts expectations and provides some of the most thrilling scenes in recent blockbuster memory.
The Last Jedi isn’t just great because it has some great lightsaber stuff, some great Force powers, and great character moments. It’s great because it expands the power of the Force, extends most of the mysteries that Abrams established in The Force Awakens, and tells a powerful story about failure, learning from that failure and getting back up again to do better.
The film takes its main characters Rey, Finn, and Poe, and puts each of them on the perfect trajectory for their individual growth by putting them in front of the biggest challenge possible.
Mark Hamill gives the performance of his career in Luke Skywalker and the film’s final act has some of the most emotional moments in all of Star Wars. Additionally, instead of painstakingly spending time on exposition to explain certain characters like Snoke and Phasma, Johnson expertly disposes of them in ways that fit the narrative but also benefit character development.
You might not agree, but it’s the second-best Star Wars movie to date.
1. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
If you love movies, you love The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a perfect movie, plain and simple.
It has everything that you could ever want in a movie, let alone a Star Wars movie. Action, adventure, romance, mystery, fantasy, and the biggest plot twist of all time to boot!
The Empire Strikes Back deftly navigates the potential for a sophomore slump and not only delivers a sequel worthy of the original Star Wars but a sequel that is, in fact, better than the original Star Wars.
Empire takes every element of the first film and expands it. Every character is pushed and forced to grow. Every player in the Galactic Civil War is bigger–the Rebellion is bigger, the Empire is bigger, the ships are bigger, the action is bigger and the stakes are bigger. Even the villains get bigger as now Vader is further revealed to be #2 to Emperor Palpatine. I
t takes enormous risks by removing Han Solo from the equation (his future was kind of in limbo at the time behind-the-scenes), introducing Yoda, a puppet as a key mystical figure, and makes the series’ villain the father of the protagonist (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!). It’s a perfect film that is incredibly daring, a ton of fun and as thrilling as it is suspenseful.
There’s a reason why every Star Wars movie is compared to Empire. It truly is a masterpiece.
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