The odds were stacked against a little movie called Star Wars back in 1977. All the box office experts expected it to bomb. Fox struggled to get theaters to even screen it at first. But like the plucky Rebel Alliance taking on the mighty Galactic Empire, Star Wars defied those insurmountable odds and became a cultural phenomenon overnight. It went on to top 1975’s Jaws as the highest-grossing movie ever made.
Since then, George Lucas has completed the original trilogy, added a prequel trilogy, and sold his company to Disney, who made a sequel trilogy and a couple of spin-offs. All in all, there are a lot of Star Wars movies – with a lot more on the way – and they’ve varied in quality over the years.
12 Star Wars: The Clone Wars (18%)
The animated series The Clone Wars, which filled in the gap between Episodes II and III in which Anakin and Obi-Wan became battle-hardened military leaders in the titular conflict, kicked off its ultimately seven-season run with a theatrically released feature film that acted as a mega-sized pilot episode.
While the TV show it spawned ended up becoming one of the greatest works in the Star Wars canon from its third season onward, the movie was a bitter disappointment.
11 Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (51%)
Everything about Colin Trevorrow’s unproduced version of Episode IX that’s come to light in the months since The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters sounds better than what J.J. Abrams delivered in what was supposed to be the conclusion to the entire Skywalker saga.
Instead of trying to explain some of the mysteries he set up in The Force Awakens, Abrams instead used The Rise of Skywalker to set up new mysteries: Palpatine’s resurrection, Snoke clones, a Sith dagger, Jannah’s identity, Finn wants to tell Rey something throughout the whole movie – the list goes on, and nothing is concluded.
10 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (52%)
The fan backlash to the Star Wars sequel trilogy was nothing compared to the vicious tirade of outrage levied at George Lucas when he dared to show Darth Vader as a nine-year-old podracer in The Phantom Menace.
Lucas was criticized for many of his creative decisions in the first prequel movie – namely the conception of Jar Jar Binks – but as much as adult O.T. fans hated it, kids loved it. The movie has been turned into a cult classic by millennial prequel fans.
9 Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones (65%)
Anakin’s Jedi training is in full swing in Attack of the Clones, which sees Obi-Wan investigating a cloning operation to create an army for the Republic on Kamino.
There are some elements of the movie that don’t work at all, like the romantic dialogue and the fact that every single clone is computer-generated, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had with Yoda in action, Ewan McGregor’s performance as Kenobi, and the third-act gladiatorial showdown.
8 Solo: A Star Wars Story (69%)
Disney got cold feet about Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Guardians of the Galaxy-inspired take on the Han Solo origin movie in the middle of shooting, so the studio fired them and replaced them with Ron Howard, who darkened all the color-grading beyond comprehension and delivered a relatively uninspired, but serviceable blockbuster.
While the space western riffs are fun and Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian is spot-on, Solo can’t escape the fact that it’s one movie layered over a completely different movie.
7 Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith (80%)
Widely regarded to be the best of the Star Wars prequels, Revenge of the Sith gave the trilogy a massively satisfying finale that wrapped up most of the prequels’ own story threads while deftly setting the stage for the original trilogy.
From the dazzling opening set-piece over Coruscant to the explosive Mustafar-set finale, Revenge of the Sith is blockbuster cinema at its finest.
6 Return Of The Jedi (82%)
George Lucas established the trilogy as the usual model for Hollywood franchises with his initial trio of Star Wars movies. One of the many trends he set was threequels being notoriously difficult to pull off.
While Return of the Jedi was controversial for its Ewoks and veneration of a ruthless tyrant, it’s an immensely gratifying conclusion to the story of the Skywalkers.
5 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (84%)
The first glimmer of hope for the Disney era of Star Wars – the first sign of a light at the end of the tunnel that eventually led to The Mandalorian – was Rogue One, one of two movies the Mouse House made to cover up a plot hole in the original movie.
Although the overall structure of the movie suffered from Disney’s extensive reshoots, Rogue One really shines when it leans into the fan service, like the space battles or the Vader hallway scene.
4 Star Wars: The Last Jedi (90%)
Critics were pretty unanimous in praising Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi as a new benchmark for the Star Wars saga. The fan base was another story. Star Wars fans are more or less split down the middle about Episode VIII (or, at least, the most vocal Redditors are), with some calling it a masterpiece and others calling for it to be scrubbed from existence.
It’s a beautifully made movie with eye-popping visuals and it has some great moments, like Luke Skywalker’s final sacrifice. But there’s also a lot of not-so-great stuff in this movie, like Luke being a milk-swilling old grump for most of the runtime and Leia flying through space like Mary Poppins and Luke and Kylo Ren starring in the Skywalker edition of Making a Murderer.
3 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (92%)
Back in 2015, Star Wars fans were so excited to see a new movie set in their favorite galaxy far, far away that The Force Awakens was instantly praised by critics and fans alike just for having space battles and lightsaber duels and Carrie Fisher and the Millennium Falcon and all the other things people love about Star Wars.
When the nostalgia Kool-Aid wore off, many of those fans came to realize that J.J. Abrams’ reboot brought nothing new to the table and was just a pale imitation of Lucas’ original masterpiece.
2 Star Wars (92%)
When George Lucas came to 20th Century Fox executives with his passion project – a weird little space movie harking back to a forgotten genre – they expected the movie to crash and burn at the box office. But of course, Lucas’ film was an instant cultural phenomenon. Audiences were lining up around the block to watch this movie over and over again.
The original 1977 Star Wars movie is a timeless masterpiece that will be enjoyed by generations to come. It’s pure escapism: a fairy tale in space by way of a Vietnam War allegory.
1 The Empire Strikes Back (94%)
It’s hardly surprising that The Empire Strikes Back is ranked as the best Star Wars movie on Rotten Tomatoes, because it’s ranked as such by most metrics. A prime example of a sequel that’s even better than the first one, The Empire Strikes Back continued the journeys of Luke, Leia, and Han with a darker tone than its predecessor.
From its tightly structured story to its breathtaking action scenes to its quieter character moments, everything in The Empire Strikes Back is just perfect.
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