My ranking thus far:
1. Rogue One: I love this movie. It was wholly unnecessary, and dialed back prior pre-Disney canon about how the rebels got the plans. But it was fantastically done. It added so much color and depth to the Star Wars universe. It wasn't perfect. But, man, if all the Star Wars films were this level of quality, I would have absolutely zero complaints.
2. The Force Awakens: It's probably controversial to rank it this highly, but I do. It took a lot of what was great about Star Wars in general, and brought it into this era in film making in a very satisfying way. Loved it. This is a VERY close second to Rogue One.
3. The Empire Strikes Back: Solid. It being ranked #3 is in no way a knock on anything. But the modern, fresh approach to the films in my #1 and #2 spots just make them slightly better to me.
4. Return of the Jedi: This film had some problems. But in the grand scheme of things, they are minor and easily overlooked. Such a grand ending to the original story.
5. Solo: I like this movie more than I thought I would or should. So much about it, and indeed the film as a whole, felt so "unnecessary." But at the same time, it was just fun all around and made you feel that you were seeing the type of Star Wars movie that Star Wars always felt like it was supposed to be about. That's a big win in and of itself.
6. A New Hope: If I'm being completely honest, me putting Solo in front of this one is probably more about me trying to make a statement in my own mind about the OT not being "untouchable" than it is about the actual relative quality of these two movies. But in any case, this is, overall, a very good movie. It suffers a bit in the pacing. But that's really the only issue with it (aside from some of the changes Lucas made in later editions), and that's not a major issue by any stretch.
7. The Last Jedi: Good movie. It would rank higher if not for the casino planet sub-plot being SUCH a distraction and feeling so mishandled. Other little issues also feel magnified because there are just so many of them. Overall, it's a good film with a good story to tell. It's just that there were a lot of distractions. And while I can explain most of them away and say, "Yeah, it's not really a big deal now that I think about it," the fact that I DO think about it and have to tell myself that knocks the film down a few pegs. But the whole slow chase "BSG '33' episode" was a really cool idea. And I (mostly) loved where they went with Luke's character, Rey potentially being more of a "nobody" than "amazing because she is a Skywalker so there," Snoke, and Kylo.
8. Revenge of the Sith: It's such a shame that most of the "problems" with this movie aren't problems that are actually IN this movie, but are residual problems created by the two films that preceded it. It had a lot of good things, and is overall fairly enjoyable. But, as I said, it is unfortunately mired in some issues that I find hard to completely overlook as a fan. To me, for the PT as a whole, it's best to just take what I enjoy from them and not dwell on the negatives too much.
9. The Phantom Menace: I didn't dislike the movie at the time it came out. But I think its "problems" are magnified when places in context of the entire PT. There was a lot about it that was pretty good and pretty fun. But it just got too silly and too offtrack.
10. Attack of the Clones: Some REALLY cool moments. But so much about Anakin himself, the relationship between Anakin and Padme, and the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan made a lot of fans, myself included, feel like Lucas messed up the character of Anakin/Vader and was making him a much different character than the one we actually got and were promised in the OT. And that, unfortunately, taints a lot of fans' views of the entire SW franchise. Add to that the fact things like the droid factory sequence feeling like a parody and a combination of a video game and cartoon aimed solely at VERY young kids. For those reasons, this film ranks at the bottom.
The 10 films thus far being in the books, I have to comment for just a second on a theme I referenced a couple of times above. These films are, for obvious reasons, interconnected. What happens in one provides context and color to the others. That being said, it would not surprise me if what ends up happening in Ep. IX might potentially change the rankings of some of the other films.
Topic: Star Wars Discussion Thread v. Rise of Skywalker / Mandalorian (merged) (Read 256811 times)