Star Wars Films Ranked
Now that I’ve seen Solo, it’s time to rank all of the Star Wars films:
1. The Empire Strikes Back
A+ (100)
Empire and Raiders of the Lost Ark are my two favorite movies of all time from a pop-culture perspective. From a critical perspective, A Clockwork Orange and The Godfather are my top two favorites.
2. Star Wars
A (95)
Great movie, but not quite the GOAT some think it is.
3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
B+ (87)
Easily the best of the Disney Star Wars era. It’s held back slightly by the fact you know the main characters are going to die.
4. Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
B+ (87)
The story George Lucas wanted to tell with the prequels but put out two crappy movies before it to get to it.
5. Return of the Jedi
B (85)
If it weren’t for the Ewoks, Jedi would score higher.
6. Episode VII – The Force Awakens
B- (80)
An acceptable setup (albeit barely) for what were surely going to be better movies to come from Disney.
7. Solo: A Star Wars Story
C (75)
An unnecessary story that would have served Disney better if they had made it prior to Rogue One or released it several years after The Rise of Skywalker.
8. Episode I – The Phantom Menace
C- (70)
An exceedingly mediocre beginning to the George Lucas prequels.
9. Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
F (50)
The movie that purposely killed the Star Wars franchise.
10. Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
F (50)
The movie that tried to revive the dead franchise by brutally beating its dead corpse.
11. Episode II – Attack of the Clones
F (50)
The only movie so boring and bad that I’ve ever fallen asleep in.
Going through the list, there are several things to note:
1. I find the original trilogy overall to clearly be the best. This shouldn’t be surprising and many probably feel this way.
2. I find the prequels to be a mixed bag, but overall bad thanks to Attack of the Clones being so miserable.
3. The Disney trilogy indeed killed the franchise and in fact, it dragged the entire Star Wars grade with it. Averaging it all out, the Star Wars movies get an overall numerical score of 75, or a C. Had Disney made Episodes VIII and IX solid B movies (85), the final score would be an 82, or a B-. This score (82) also happens to be the average score of the six movies prior to Disney taking over the franchise.
4. The breaking point for movies that I would enjoy seeing again (the rewatchability factor) occurs between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Jedi and up I would enjoy watching again. The Force Awakens and down I would not. This further solidifies Disney as having killed the franchise because there’s only one of Disney’s five movies that I would watch again.
5. I would rather watch the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special and the 1984 and 1985 made-for-TV Ewok films again than watch The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, or Attack of the Clones again. Those movies were that bad.
Fun fact: In the mid-2000s, I was on a customer site working on their computer systems, which all had Star Wars character names. I was working on a server named Chewbacca. I made the comment to my POC that they are obviously big Star Wars fans. He asked me which movie I liked better – Star Wars or Empire? I answered Empire. He gasped and said, “Oh, you’re one of those people.”
