Rate the Star Wars Movies

Shasarak said:

For me the problem with Solo was never the actor, the problem was the story.

Although I did cheer when L3-37 was killed so there are good points in every movie.

Click to expand...

She was my favorite part. I should have had on my list of what I expect ; droids steal the show. I thought the story was fun. Like Rogue One it was a departure from the save damsel story of the original. In the end I'll probably like all of the movies for one simple reason, they all took place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Good or bad, they give life to that world.

I should mention that, like The Force Awakens, I find The Last Jedi very much a movie of two halves - but in this case the two halves are more intertwined.

I enjoyed everything about the Rey / Luke / Kylo storyline, and the first half of the Finn / Rose storyline. I disliked most of the Rose / Finn storyline after the casino planet.

And I loathed the Poe / Resistance fleet storyline as an unending sequence of ludicrously bad tactical decisions on both sides, dragged down by the terrible lazily literalist execution of what is usually one of Star Wars's strengths - the "space combat = WW2 naval / air combat" trope.

I do love the final scene of the movie. The seemingly ordinary stable boy unconsciously reaching out with the Force to pick up the broom, then play-fighting with it as an imaginary lightsaber while contemplating Rose's Resistance ring is about the most perfect possible encapsulation of Star Wars's message of hope, optimism and heroes rising from humble origins.

MarkB said:

I do love the final scene of the movie. The seemingly ordinary stable boy unconsciously reaching out with the Force to pick up the broom, then play-fighting with it as an imaginary lightsaber while contemplating Rose's Resistance ring is about the most perfect possible encapsulation of Star Wars's message of hope, optimism and heroes rising from humble origins.

Click to expand...

And visualising our childhoods? Am I the only one to pretend to use the Force or use a broom handle as a lightsaber? What you said may be why I keep going back no matter how bad the movie seems.

Best to worst:
1) Empire Strikes Back
2) Star Wars (A New Hope)
3) Return of the Jedi
4) Rogue One

*dropoff*
5) The Last Jedi
6) The Force Awakens

*dropoff*
7) Revenge of the Sith
8) Solo

*MASSIVE dropoff*
9) The Phantom Menace

*Drop this down a volcano*
10) Attack of the Clones

Best to worst...

Star Wars (the original)
The Empire Strikes Back (this is probably the better film, but can't beat nostalgia)
Return of the Jedi

Rogue One (again, this is probably a better film than RotJ, but nostalgia...)
The Force Awakens (this impressed me a great deal the first time, but becomes less good every time I watch it)
Solo
The Last Jedi (this didn't particularly impress me the first time, and becomes less good every time I watch it)

The Phantom Menace
Revenge of the Sith (admittedly, this is much better if you skip half an hour in the middle. And mute the dialogue. Or watch a better film instead.)
Attack of the Clones

Aeson said:

Solo was ok. I enjoyed it also. I think so many said no one else can play this character, then proceeded to stick their fingers in theirs and yell nah nah nah. When the movie came out they folded their arms and held their breath. Just like Anakin folks had an idea what young Han would be like. When it didn't appear to live up to those expectations they threw tantrums. Was Han what we hoped for? No, but I think he was close. He would be different due to life experiences, but also just because they couldn't use a young Ford clone to play the part. It was fun and funny.

Click to expand...

No I'm fine with someone else playing the role. I mean, if we want more films featuring certain characters someone new has to do it.... It's the equivalent of the art changing throughout Batman comics over the years. Some I've loved, some I hate, some (shrugs).
I just didn't much like the guy they picked for the job this time. Or the movie he was trying to do it in.

I rewatched Solo last night, and I really enjoyed it. It adds so much colour to the lived-in galaxy (of the original trilogy, not the prequels, which are just a bit too shiny). So I'm ranking Solo up there with the original trilogy and Rogue One.

In my mind I also replace the Ewoks from Jedi with Wookies. That makes for a much more awesome movie.

Best to worst, starting with the best:

The Empire Strikes Back - I think most people will agree here.
Star Wars (AKA a New Hope) - Still holds up pretty good.
Return of the Jedi - The weakest of the three, but still a really good movie. I don't hate the Ewoks that much.

The middleground:

The Force Awakens - This movie is surprisingly good, but would have been better if the next director would have actually followed up on JJ's plot threads, instead of throwing them aside. But we'll get to the Last Jedi in a moment. TFA has an amazing opening act and gets the tone of Star Wars right.

Solo a Star Wars story - It's a pity that this movie suffered from The Last Jedi's poor reception. It's a lot of fun from start to finish and has a pretty solid script. It is surprising it is as good as it is, given the production issues.

The Last Jedi - I had very mixed feelings about this movie, which have only dipped more and more into the negative after seeing it. The movie has one fight that is really good, and does some cool new stuff with the Force that is really interesting. It also thinks that having no plot resolution is a good twist, is completely tonedeaf when it comes to inserting its humor, and sets up a big end battle, only to then not have it happen. Oh, and there's also a whole lot of meandering at a casino planet that serves no purpose to the plot.

Revenge of the Sith - It has a great opening act, and that's about it. There is just so much cringe in this film. For many this movie may be a guilty pleasure. But it's not a good movie at all. It is the moldy candle on top of the turd-cake.

The bottom of the barrel:

Rogue One - An incoherent tonedeaf mess, sufficated by fanservice, and with no likable characters (or characters at all). Its worst crime is that there are no stakes... like, at all. Also, Darthvader is just thrown in because... Vader, and they manage to get his character wrong. But he has a lava castle now! Because who wouldn't want to live on top of lava, after having such fond memories of it?

The Phantom Menace - The real menace here are an annoying kid actor, and Jar Jar. Also known under its working title: How to suck the magic out of a mythology. This movie had many people in denial afterwards. Perhaps it was just a rough start, and the next film would course correct?

The Clone Wars - It helps if your lead is likeable. Also, George Lucas can't do romantic scenes to save his life, apparently. This movie's diabolical dialogue about sand will be parodied till the end of time. It also erased any hope that this trilogy would course correct.

Seems a lot of people agree that Attack of the Clones is the worst. So much so that they keep calling it The Clone Wars instead!

Morrus said:

Seems a lot of people agree that Attack of the Clones is the worst. So much so that they keep calling it The Clone Wars instead!

Click to expand...

Derp to many clones. We have Attack of the clones, The Clone Wars, Clone Wars, and The Clone Wars (animated).

Apparently the big problem with The Last Jedi was there was no overall plan for episodes VII-IX so the director was allowed to more or less do whatever he wanted and IMHO did a poor job on following up on some of the plot hooks of the TFA. There was a lot of speculation about Snoke for example, but nope they Boba Fett'ed him. TFA was really good, not exactly original though.

And they killed off Luke to early (should have been episode IX if at all), and now with Carrie's death all of the OT main characters/actors are dead.

And theres still some lingering bad will online over burning the old legends stuff and then reintroducing it but worse (Thrawn for example). I got a buzz at the theatre from Rogue One/TFA and after TLJ it kinda felt like 1999 again with TPM. RotS is no masterpiece but I left happy although AotC set a low bar to beat. I think expectations have a bit to do with it.

Star Wars was great and they followed up with Empire. TFA was good and we got that.