Saga The Definitive Thread to Rank All Star Wars Films (in terms of Your Favorite), TPM to TROS

Each Tier in order as follows..

(Loved)
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Revenge of the Sith
A New Hope
Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones

(Liked)
Rogue One
Force Awakens
Mandalorian
Clone Wars
Rebels

(Disliked)
Solo
Last Jedi
Rise of Skywalker
Ewoks

 

ANH
ESB
ROTJ
SOLO
ROTS
TPM
AOTC
RO
TROS
TLJ
TFA

 

ROTJ- The heart of the saga, culmination of two arcs- Luke's that began at the start of the OT with his ascension to becoming a true Jedi, as well as the Rebellion's fight against the Empire, and Anakin's arc that began in the PT. It used to be lower, but I've come to appreciate the more childish elements such as the Ewoks- I was just thinking about how great a scene the Shuttle Tydirium sequence is, even if it is understated. The duel between Luke and Vader my favorite scene in any film.

ANH- It's not the best paced in comparison to other films, but it gives me a great feeling watching it that's unique to this film. I think the fresh dynamics between Luke, Han, and Leia make the film rank as high as it does for me, even though technically it's not the most impressive. It's a great movie in a vacuum as well - I enjoy the classic hero's journey that Luke experiences, meeting his mentor, his friends, and the cause that he will devote himself to, wanting to escape the mundane- it stands for the escapism that a lot of fans see Star Wars as. I love watching the transition from Tatooine to the Death Star to the final battle unfold.

ROTS- This one was my favorite a while ago, and I'd say it's about tied with ANH for second place. It's probably the most visually and technically appealing, and it has the most engaging action scenes. It's obviously the most tragic, and I love watching the culmination of the Emperor's plans unfold, including his manipulation of Anakin. Anakin tries to resist the pull of the darkness, but once he takes it a step too far, he has to justify to himself what he is doing, realizing there is no turning back. My one gripe is that I wish Padme didn't die of a broken heart, or at least had one action scene. Otherwise, the movie does its characters great- Anakin and Obi-Wan in particular. I especially appreciate how it retains a light-hearted tone at the beginning before descending into darkness along with Anakin- but the ending note suggests that the darkness is not permanent.

TPM- This is probably interchangeable with TESB, but it has strongly grown on me over the years. I always loved its innocent charm, and the older I get, the more I find Jar Jar Binks a relatable character. I find young Anakin charming, and I especially enjoy his interactions with Qui-Gon and Padme (no, I do not think it is creepy- he has a childlike crush that will grow into a real romantic attraction, and Padme has yet to see him in that way at all), and I find Shmi's scenes heartbreakingly sweet. I also have to single out the battle scenes for praise, and the worldbuilding. This film gave the best scope of the galaxy, giving the viewer the understanding that Outer Rim and Republic worlds live very separate existences.

TESB- This was once my top film, and it was in my top 3 for years. The reason why I put this slightly lower than before is because it doesn't have the same charm or consistent pacing as most other episodes. It is still a very compelling watch, and I am invested in both Luke's story and Han, Leia and the others' throughout. Vader is at his best as a villain in this film, and I think that the Cloud City duel is my second favorite in the saga. The pace does slow down in the middle, but Yoda's teachings make up for the lack of action during the second act- and again, Vader is great.

AOTC- I still love this film, but I do have to put something at the bottom. Geonosis is probably my favorite ground battle and the arena and clone vs Separatist sequences are phenomenal. I also have to single out the shift to much darker territory with Anakin, Shmi and the Tuskens. The innocence of TPM is a bygone era already, and we know that worse is to come. I'm a little less invested in the Naboo scenes, but I think that the writing of Anakin and Padme's interactions makes sense considering their characters- the one miss for me is "sorry, mi'lady."

Solo- Han is obviously not the man we know in the OT, and people don't change overnight= but I love seeing his more innocent, optimistic side here. This would be an even better story outside the existing scope of the Star Wars saga, but I am engaged in the criminal underworld that this movie introduces. It left me wanting to see more of Crimson Dawn, Qi'ra, and Han's interactions with that world- not to mention Lando. I think that

Spoiler: political

L3 is a perfect middle finger to the bigots of the world

, and I don't think that Lando was attracted to her in a different way than Han was to Chewie. Admittedly, I have not seen this film since 2019.

RO- I have to single out the Battle of Scariff for praise, and I think the movie does a good job at showing the scope of control that the Empire has over the galaxy. Jyn, Cassian, and Saw Guerrera were great characters in particular, but the existence of a wide ensemble does the character dynamics a slight disservice. K2-SO grew on me after I wasn't initially impressed by him. Yes, I also enjoyed the Vader scenes a good deal, and I appreciated that we got to see peak Imperial Vader. I just felt like compared to Solo, this movie is less compelling due to the lesser character arcs and dynamics.


TROS- This film, I actually dislike. It does have redeeming qualities, it is visually appealing, and the action scenes are mostly entertaining. I would have loved the dynamic between Rey, Finn, and Poe in another context, but Rey's interactions with Luke in the previous film and with Kylo here and in TLJ drag down my investment in her character. Kylo's redemption left me cold because of the damage that he singlehandedly did to the legacy of the OT's story.

TFA- This movie was very high on my list for a good while, and it took much longer for the excitement to wear off than for TLJ. I still have to praise the dynamics between the new leads, especially Rey and Finn. In hindsight, I rank it below TROS because it is less visually appealing, while also not having the story beats that make up for it. I would have been okay with the OT aesthetics if more had been done with the story that this movie set up.

TLJ- This was the first Star Wars movie that I wasn't blown away by, but it took a while for the dislike to set in. I would have liked Rose a lot in another story, and I feel bad that she got shunted aside, much like Finn. If TFA was the first entry in a series, I would like it a lot, but I would consider this movie a bad sequel. Finn, Rose and Poe's arc for the long second act of the film is bad writing, in my opinion- Holdo's existence and initial role seems to cause drama in a way that doesn't forward the story. By contrast, Rey, Luke and Kylo's arcs do forward the plot, but I still really don't like what was done with Luke's character. I also don't like how Rey blamed him for "creating Kylo" when Kylo had chosen to do a lot of evil. I could go on a longer tangent with my problems with Kylo's character, but the Rey-Kylo dynamic still makes me angry. A positive that I will mention is the air battle over Crait when Rey and Chewie arrive in the Falcon.



Bonus: I found Caravan of Courage to be very charming in the style of an old Disney movie or live-action musical- maybe a Rankin-Bass holiday special. It's very contained, but I enjoyed the exploits of Mace and Cindee and their adventures.

 

My updated ranking:

1) Revenge of the Sith
2) A New Hope
3) Attack of the Clones
4) Rogue One
5) The Phantom Menace
6) Return of the Jedi
7) The Empire Strikes Back
8) Solo
9) The Force Awakens
10) The Last Jedi
11) The Rise of Skywalker

I greatly re-evaluated A New Hope. I rewatched it a few days ago, and I must say it's much better than I remembered. The same goes for The Empire Strikes Back, but in the opposite direction. I rewatched it a few days ago and I found it extremely boring, much more than I remembered. I didn't include the 2008 TCW movie because I consider it as part of the TV show.
As for the TV shows, this is my ranking:

1) Clone Wars (2003)
2) The Clone Wars (2008)
3) Rebels
4) The Mandalorian
5) The Book of Boba Fett
6) Kenobi

I haven't watch the other TV shows, and really don't plan to do it.

 

1. The Phantom Menace
2. Return of the Jedi
   
3. The Last Jedi
   
4. The Force Awakens
5. Attack of the Clones
6. A New Hope
7. Empire Strikes Back
8. Rogue One
9. The Mandalorian
   
10. Revenge of the Sith
    
11. Obi-wan Kenobi
12. Solo
    
13. Book of Boba Fett
14. The Rise of Skywalker
15. Rebels
16. Clone Wars
17. Resistance
    
18. Bad Batch

 

1. A New Hope
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Last Jedi
4. The Force Awakens
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Solo
7. Rogue One
8. Revenge of the Sith
9. The Phantom Menace
10. Attack of the Clones
11. The Rise of Skywalker

*Based on my 2022 rewatch.

 

this is based

 

its good

 

lol yeah your awesome

 

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Solo and Rogue One but I think my ranking goes like this…

The Empire Strikes Back
A New Hope
The Force Awakens
Revenge of the Sith
Solo
Return of the Jedi
Attack of the Clones
The Last Jedi
Rogue One
The Phantom Menace
The Rise of Skywalker

 

This is my personal ranking of the main movies:

1. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
2. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
3. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
4. Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
5. Episode IV: A New Hope
6 Rouge One: A Star Wars Story
7. Episode VII: The Force Awakens
8. Episode II: Attack of the Clones
9. Episode I: The Phantom Menace
10. Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
11. Solo: A Star Wars Story

Generally the only ones i can find serious issues with are from Episode II below.

The only one i actively dislike is Solo, the rest i actually enjoy even the more flawed ones.

 

1. The Phantom Menace
2. The Force Awakens
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Attack of the Clones
5. Rogue One
   
6. The Last Jedi
7. Empire
8. A New Hope
9. Solo
10. Revenge of the Sith
11. The Mandalorian
12. The Rise of Skywalker
    —(will never watch again)—
13. Obi-wan Kenobi
14. Book of Boba Fett
15. Rebels
16. Clone Wars
17. Resistance
18. Bad Batch

 

Solo, TPM, and TFA are always a bit in flux for me, but the rest is pretty constant.

1. A New Hope
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. The Last Jedi
5. Rogue One
6. Solo
7. The Phantom Menace
8. The Force Awakens
9. The Rise of Skywalker
10. Revenge of the Sith
11. Attack of the Clones

 

Interesting to see one rank Revenge of the Sith so low these days, most people praise it like it's a shakesperean masterpiece or something (even i have it as number 3 lol).

 

It's definitely not an opinion I've seen many share, even people who dislike the prequels tend to rate it the best of them. It's also the source of my earliest memories of SW, but I find it really doesn't hold up at all.

 

1. TESB
2. ROTS
3. ANH
4. TLJ
5. AOTC
6. ROTJ
7. TPM
8. TFA
9. TROS

 

1. The phantom menace!
2. Revenge of the sith
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Attack of the clones
5. Empire strikes back
Tied or interchangeable with
6. A new hope
7. The rise of skywalker
8. Rogue One
9. The last Jedi
10. Solo
11. Blank tv>holiday special>>the audiobook version>the actual movie the force awakens.

 

The Lego Star Wars stuff

 

I've noticed I've never posted anything here nor my ranking of the films, probably because I've lost interest in Star Wars during the past few years, but I'll give it a try. Take note that I'll only rank those that I've watched, and I haven't watched Solo after TLJ since I've stopped caring about the franchise after that in 2017.

1) The Empire Strikes Back: No doubt, still a masterpiece.

2) Revenge of the Sith: the first Star Wars movie I've watched and my official entry to the saga back in 2005. I wanted to watch all the other Star Wars movie after that. It is the corner stone of the saga linking two different eras of the Star Wars universe.

3) A New Hope: I've watched this movie in the middle of the pandemic, when I was at the worst mood and feeling depressed with the lockdown: it light me up, making me feel better, even if this movie is now 45 years old and may not age well with today's audience. My wife, who's not a movie fan to begin with, didn't really liked it and found it to be too "old school" according to her...

4) Return of the Jedi: The perfect conclusion to the saga that George Lucas has established, completing the circle between the prequel era and the original trilogy era.

5) Rogue One: A great action Star Wars movie. After watching The Force Awakens, it made my standards higher towards any Star Wars related content that Disney would release from there, which may have impacted the way I felt after watching The Last Jedi one year later. I've watched this movie last year again for fun.

6) Attack of the Clones: I was really disappointed and somehow hated this movie the first time I watched it 15 years ago. But after watching it again in 2015 before The Force Awakens' release I somehow found that there was something beautiful that Lucas tried to do. I've written a review of this movie on this forum 7 years ago explaining my new feelings towards this movie.

7) The Phantom Menace: I can understand the criticisms towards this movie, but I would never understand the hatred and the vile comments from 20 years ago. The first time I've watched it, I found it to be a decent (even if kind of boring at some moments) entry to the saga. And I felt that there was a lot of work and creativity behind it.

8) The Force Awakens: I ranked this movie higher before, but after watching the other 2 ST movies, I put it lower. I felt that there was a lot of potential for new story arcs and the new characters that we've been introduced to. I also felt that, just immediately concluding and placing this movie in the context of the saga and story arc that Lucas has built for 30 years was maybe a rush. I was ready to wait and look forward to The Last Jedi after that so that many of the questions and theories that fans had after TFA would be answered later on.

9) The Last Jedi: I was confused after watching this movie and I'm still a bit confused about it. I still don't know what to say and think about it other that I've become indifferent towards the Star Wars franchise after that. Many people on forums and videos had different theories and explanations towards the controversy and the division this movie had created, and I don't really buy to any side of the divide. My own explanation, which makes more sense, is that Disney and Lucasfilm didn't have any plans for the story arc of the ST after rejecting Lucas' story treatments and just decided to go along as they were making the movies, which is a very bad starting point when you do sequels to an already established saga. And Rian Johnson just wanted to do a movie to troll and have fun, like a little child being given a hammer in a porcelain store just to have fun. It was clear for me from that point that there was no planning at all for the ST. That's all I can say. I've watched this movie only once and that's all...

9) The Rise of Skywalker: What can say? The only thing that came to my mind after the movie was: "Meh... It was satisfying..." and that was all. As TLJ, I've watched this movie only once and was done with it... I went to have a drink with my friends in a bar near the movie theater and we've never talk about the movie or Star Wars again...

 

Currently:

1. TESB
2. ANH
3. TLJ
4. ROTS
5. ROTJ
6. AOTC
7. TPM
8. TROS
9. TFA

 

1. Return of the Jedi
It was always my favourite as a kid. It contains some of the most intense emotional highs of series. It's a stunning conclusion to the saga. Everything comes together and pays off in this film.

2. Revenge of the Sith
This was the film which made me a Star Wars fan. Even with the clunky dialogue, it's an extremely dramatic masterpiece of cinema. It's so good it elevates the rest of the saga.

3. The Empire Strikes Back
It contains much of what we love about Star Wars. From Boba Fett to Yoda, it's a darker and more mature sequel to its predecessor. The Vader reveal was etched into our brains for a reason. Empire is worthy of its acclaim.

4. A New Hope
An amazing beginning for the saga. Action, thrills and suspense galore! I can see why this was such a big hit. Even with the mediocre lightsaber choreography, A New Hope is an unmissable classic.

5. The Phantom Menace
A charming film in every respect. Even though I can see why some might not like Jar Jar or the political dialogue, it builds establishes key plot threads and introduces us to a more innocent Anakin Skywalker.

6. Rogue One
A gritty and intense spectacle! Although the CGI Tarkin is distracting, Rogue One is an excellent companion piece to ANH.

7. Attack of the Clones
Although its romance scenes leave a lot to be desired and there's a few poorly explained plot threads (e.g. Sifo Dias), Attack of the Clones is an entertaining and action-packed film.

8. Solo
It has pacing issues and some questionable casting decisions. I also can't help but feel it would have been better off as a TV series. But it's an entertaining and enjoyable film which deserves a follow-up.

9. Ewoks: Caravan of Courage
Although it ers closer to fairytale than traditional Star Wars films, it's a very cute a whimsical film. The limited budget and child actors unquestionably hold the film back, but it has some appeal.

10. Ewoks: Battle for Endor
It contains more thrills and intense action than its predecessor, but some of the magic was lost. The Towani family were killed rather unceremoniously. I feel it undermines the previous film.

11. The Clone Wars (2008 film)
A rather formulaic introduction to the beloved animated series. The animation hasn't aged well at all. It was essentially three TCW episodes stitched together. It should not have been released as a theatrical film.

12. The Force Awakens
A rather uninspired soft reboot of A New Hope. I wasn't particularly fond of a lot of the creative decisions in this film. But The Force Awakens definitely deserve some credit for being the most coherent of the sequels. And the concept of a defffecting stormtrooper was very fresh.

13. The Rise of Skywalker
A nonsensical film which undermines key motifs of George's films (e.g. Anakin's prophecy). It's a very poorly written and terribly paced film. But it deserves some credit for being the most creative of the sequels.

14. The Last Jedi
Boring, cynical and preachy dreck. I hated The Last Jedi's handling of key characters and its bloated political commentary. Although it's technically more coherent than The Rise of Skywalker, it's a boring and uninspired slog.

 

1. The Phantom Menace
2. Return of the Jedi
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. A New Hope
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Empire Strikes Back
7. Rogue One
8. Solo
9. The Last Jedi
10. The Rise of Skywalker
11. The Force Awakens

I noticed on my most recent watchthrough of the Lucas saga, which I did in the "Ring Theory" order (I, VI, II, V, III, IV), that I loved the PT and the OT pretty much equally. Before, I had switched between liking one trilogy over the other, but now they are perfectly intertwined. Out of the Disney movies, Rogue One and Solo feel more like "real" Star Wars than the sequel trilogy. They have scenes that perfectly capture the feel of Lucas' Star Wars (Battle of Scarif, the Kessel run).