Saga Least favorite Star Wars film and Why (Revised)

This thread continues off from the original created by myself and later revised by @Bazinga'd and has been mod-approved to reopen. Feel free to discuss which Star Wars film is your least favorite and why.

Remember to focus the discussion on why the particular film you chose is your least favorite and avoid going into bashing territory. I decided to have this thread focus specifically on the Saga films, however I'll edit the poll if there is enough demand.

 

The Rise of Skywalker - scrambled egg movie. The movie was like a bad omelet.

 

The Rise of Skywalker just felt so stale and dull to me. I didn't care about the majority of the characters, the plot felt messy and poorly thought out, and the return of Palpatine felt like a desperate attempt to garner fan interest through nostalgia rather than something that was well planned and earned. Ultimately, I just couldn't really get into this movie when I watched it and just felt like I was obligated to see the end of this series I'd been following for most of my life. It may not be the worst SW movie from a critical point of view, but it's definitely the one I have the least interest in going back to watch again.

 

AOTC, by far. Which sucks, because it starts off my favorite era of Star Wars. Still, I absolutely hate Anakin/Padme stuff, and that is like 60% of that movie.

 

The Rise of Skywalker. I watched every SW movie on a loop when they came out for home viewing but I've seen TROS twice, including once on the big screen.

The editing is awful. It's a compost heap of a structure that leads to a pretty boring 'epic' space battle. That's not to say I hate it as there's a lot in it that I do like (the main cast is excellent), but my fingers are crossed for a director's cut that makes it flow more.

It only further amplifies the problem that arises when an entire saga isn't mapped out properly but just added to like modules. Disney rushed the sequels out, handing them to directors with conflicting visions, when they could have been so much more.

 

The Last Jedi. Inconsistent and/or downright baffling characterization and narrative focus, a muddled plot that never reaches any interesting conclusion for me, no standout action sequences. Oh, and DJ is the most annoying character in the series for me.

 

Hey, @anakinfansince1983. Do you think you could pin these new threads and replace the old ones?

 

Tough call between all the sequels. I think TLJ is the worst even as it’s own movie.

On the other hand,TROS has the kiss, so I’ll go with that one.

TROS made both Lucas trilogies pointless.

 

The Phantom Menace. As much as I dislike the Anakin/Padme stuff in AotC, I can at least rationalize their social ineptitude. She's been raised since childhood to be a politician, he's been raised since childhood to be a warrior monk. It's not shocking to me that they're painfully (literally and figuratively) bad at flirting.

With TPM, I just don't think the movie has an interesting enough driving plotline. We're meant to believe that the stakes of the film are life/death for the people of Naboo, but that's difficult to reconcile without actually seeing any of them. Naboo might as well be unpopulated save for the characters we spend time with, as gorgeous a locale as it is. The logic behind the film's 2nd act is sketchy at best, and I just genuinely find Jar Jar to be unbearably insufferable. Every time I watch the film, I wind up super invested in what's going on with Anakin, Padme, and Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan during the intercut finale, and then Jar Jar shows up to flail around and make ridiculous noises, and it completely sucks me out of the film.

 

Toss up between TFA and TROS. I will go with TROS tho.

TFA is just a remake of a better film with worse characters. The Starkiller Base finale is one of the worst moments of the saga, the lack of character development, the bland planets, and its biggest sin is how it revels in its anti-PT self, made obvious with the "we will make you forget those prequels and redeem SW" marketing. That being said, it still works as a movie.

TROS, on the other hand, is some of the worst pacing I've seen in a movie in years. The plot is all over the place, and it's barely interesting. Rey killing Palpatine is so hollow and unearned. This is the first SW film that I was actively waiting to end. I groaned at the kiss, rolled my eyes at the "Rey Skywalker" moment, and didn't even get a physical cameo from Anakin, which would have been the only saving grace in my eyes.

 

AotC. I don't like any of the characters since Qui-gon died, the "plot" meanders from one loose thread to another and doesn't tie them together even in the sequel, and the action scenes are nonsense. There's nothing in there that I want to see. Or hear.

 

TLJ by far.

The most irritating things were changing Luke Skywalker's character, as well as using the hyperspace travel as a weapon towards another spaceship was absurd. Because of that we've seen all those retcons and the wasting of time in TRoS, I believe TRoS is bad also because of TLJ. It was like a domino effect in the Sequels Trilogy after a terrible Star Wars movie (it's not a bad movie, it's a terrible Star Wars movie). We also know that Rian Johnson changed the original scenario for TLJ, so that's also why TRoS should've changed according to TLJ.

 

The Rise of Skywalker. It was easily the single most infuriating movie experience I've had in my entire life. I've never felt like a film or director was trying to flip me off before, but JJ accomplished the impossible where it felt like JJ was sticking his middle finger through the screen at me - this one did it! I used to think I'd never dislike a Star Wars film more than The Force Awakens (due to the rehash and anti-prequel aspect), but that was before I saw this film.

It single-handedly ruined the plot of Episodes I-VI (the REAL saga) by invalidating the prophecy of the Chosen One and bringing the Sith back. It took Anakin's achievements and gave them all to REY. Who had zero training in the ways of the Force by an actual Jedi (Leia doesn't count, it was made very clear in JJ's OTHER film she did not continue that path, you can't have it both ways). The film itself is just one long endless action scene that tries to copy the "pulling the strings" angle of Palpatine that the PT and the OT both did miles better.

And then to make Rey a PALPATINE? Are you serious?! This was never about the Palpatines, it was about the Skywalkers - the overall story is Anakin's (he didn't even appear in TROS), and the ST's was supposed to be about the grandkids according to George himself.

I will never see this movie again. Thank goodness for The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian or I'd be a very bitter Star Wars fan right now, because I had never been more insulted by a movie in my entire life!

I hope Disney has learned their lesson. LISTEN TO GEORGE LUCAS! Don't vomit all over us with corporate-filtered Star Wars.

 

The Last Jedi

An ugly movie in both visuals and morals, that goes against all the themes that made Star Wars so timeless and interesting to me. It reduces any potentially interesting setups from TFA into literal nothings. It apes ESB and ROTJ to an insane amount without ever changing it up to fit the new character dynamics, leaving it hollow and degrading certain characters. It has some atrocious 'action', such as the black and grey ships against pure black background you can barely see that is the space chase. It has complete deus ex machinas out of nowhere.

TROS has weird eclectic pacing and no weight to it, and is an awful climax to the series, for sure, but was always gonna be hobbled by having to follow up the OT retread that TLJ doubled down on (I'm slightly warmer on TFA than I once was, there are a few nice designs and character beats, and the pacing and structure are competent, besides the big plot resets and lazy design).

 

The Last Jedi

I don't hate any Star Wars film and find value in each, including this one.

But ultimately I find the film to be the least fun and enjoyable of the bunch, not really helped by the fact that nearly all the characters are incredibly unlikable to me, with Finn and BB-8 being the exceptions.

 

hmmm,

out of the nine films listed I'd say the one I watch the least would be The Empire Strikes Back.

I don't hate it, I wouldn't even say I dislike it, but it's the one that's a chug to get through for me.

 

Solo. It's just a pointless movie with an awful, awful lead actor. It simply doesn't need to exist.

But as for the main saga - TFA. It's pretty much the exact opposite of what I want from Star Wars - shallow, no world building, all action constantly, no new ideas. Not to mention what it meant for the franchise as a whole in terms of setting in motion uninteresting and narrow plots. **** that film. TLJ and TROS never stood a chance following it.

 

TLJ, if only because it's fundamentally a nihilist film

 

AotC is easily my least favorite, and probably always will be.

It barely holds together as a story. There’s this whole mystery regarding Sidious and the clones, and the clues are basically handed to the Jedi. The answers are staring them right in the face, and yet they don’t acknowledge any of it at all. The movie just “fizzles out.” I get that “the dark side is clouding their vision,” but I can only stretch my own imagination so far to make that feel believable to me.

Furthermore, the movie needs the Clone Wars to fix its own plot holes. If it weren’t for the show, then eliminating AotC’s existence practically makes RotS into a better film (cause then things like Anakin and Padme’s romance and the twist with the clones would suddenly become a lot more believable). As bad as some of the other movies may be, I can’t even say THAT about any of them. Only this one!

 

TROS because the plot is nonsensical and it resolves the saga in the dumbest way possible. Rey beats Palpatine because of the magical power of two lightsabers. Anakin's sacrifice is cheapened. Palpatine acts like a fool and is nowhere near the menacing villain he was. Rey is now a Palpatine because apparently JJ thinks force lightning is genetic.