Ranking the Star Wars Saga

For the longest time I enjoyed the original 1977 film the most of all the films, even preferring it to Empire. But recently as I watched the movies I've come to admire Empire a lot more now. I really liked how it went for its own tone and themes. The first Star Wars was a great tip of the hat to the old sci-fi/adventure serials like Flash Gordon. Empire however feels very much like its own movie. I can see why it held a lot more appeal for so long.

My rankings:

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

Mine rankings:

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

1. Empire
2. Hope
3. Jedi
4. Sith
5. Clones
6. Phantom

1. Return of the Jedi
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. A New Hope
4. The Phantom Menace
5. Attack of the Clones
6. Revenge of the Sith

Though I have a strong feeling Episode VII will skyrocket to the top spot once it's released.

Empire
Hope
Jedi
Sith
Menace
Clones

My rankings tend to ruffle a few feathers:

1 - ESB
2 - RotS
3 - RotJ
4 - AotC / ANH
5 - ANH / AotC (Depends on the day with these 2)
6 - TPM

Empire is without a doubt one of the BEST sequels if not the VERY BEST ever made.  Star Wars was good, but Empire was just amazing!

Return of the Jedi
A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
The Phantom Menace
Caravan of Courage
Battle for Endor
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones

After everything that has happened…

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
STAR WARS
THE LAST JEDI
RETURN OF THE JEDI
THE FORCE AWAKENS
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
REVENGE OF THE SITH
THE PHANTOM MENACE
ATTACK OF THE CLONES

Of course I’m going off memory. I haven’t tried watching any of these since 2019. Maybe TROS will go down a step or two, but it’ll never go any higher.

EMPIRE
STAR WARS
RETURN OF THE JEDI

EMPIRE
STAR WARS
RETURN
LAST JEDI
ROGUE ONE
FORCE AWAKENS
SOLO
REVENGE
RISE
CLONES
MENACE

Star Wars
The S2 Mandalorian episode with Bill Burr
The final 4 episodes of Clone Wars
The Babu Frik Scene from Rise of the Skywalker

I used to have LAST JEDI above ROTJ, but it ultimately not leading anywhere thanks to RISE has diminished it a little for me.

Mine...

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Star Wars
3. The Last Jedi
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Force Awakens
7. Solo
8. Rogue One
9. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
10. The Phantom Menace
11. Attack of the Clones
12. The Ewok Adventure
13. The Rise of Skywalker
14. The Clone Wars
15. The Star Wars Holiday Special

I suppose this is a requirement for any movie board!

My ranking, films only:

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

This thread needs more LAST JEDI dissidents, so here I am.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
A NEW HOPE
RETURN OF THE JEDI
ROGUE ONE
THE FORCE AWAKENS
SOLO
REVENGE OF THE SITH
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
THE LAST JEDI
THE PHANTOM MENACE
ATTACK OF THE CLONES

I'm surprised where I ended up putting REVENGE OF THE SITH.

Last night the online watchalong group I'm in finished up its epic 9-day marathon of the Skywalker saga, and maybe it was the company or the atmosphere, but I actually bumped all the prequels up a half a star; yes there are problems, but there's still enough Star Wars-y goodness in them that I can't bring myself to entirely hate them.

And my ranking order did change watching all of them in a row like that:

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

This was my first time watching Rise since it was in theaters, and seeing it squander what Last Jedi set up without the two year break between them really pissed me off a lot more than on my initial viewing.  It's really the inverse of Return of the Jedi; whereas there the great is so great it totally overwhelms the not so good, in Rise, the bad just steamrolls over what small pleasures there are.

EDIT: Threw in Rogue and Solo too.

I can understand thinking that TROS is a really bad movie.

I cannot understand thinking that AOTC is better.

I like Obi-Wan's Noir Wars. His two fights with Jango are cool. The Harryhausen homage is cool. The end sequence is great. Yes, the romance scenes are groanworthy, but at least the film isn't deliberately undoing every single thing presented in the film that came before it.

Even if the rest of the movie were great (it isn't), "I am your grandfather" alone would relegate TROS to the bottom of the heap forever.

For me the overriding factor is enjoyment. TROS for all its faults is entertaining, whereas AOTC is altogether just a bore. I get a lot more out of the scene with Adam Driver and Harrison Ford alone than anything from AOTC. If the latter had half of the charisma and energy, I might feel differently.

#1. ANH
#2. ESB
#3. ROTJ
#12. TPM
#47. ROTS
#93. AOTC
#1638. Coke Zero
#BANISHED TO THE OUTER DARKNESS. TFA
#WHO EVEN CARES BLEARGH. Everything else

I am an outlier among SW fans in that I find AOTC oddly watchable, and best of the prequels. It somehow sits in a middle position of being close enough to actual story you want to see from the PT, unlike TPM which feels completely tangential to the actual events that matter, without raising the hackles that ROTS does by fumbling the execution of all the stuff that really matters. So it can be kind of bad, but in a lower stakes way that still comes up just shy of becoming annoying for total irrelevance.

Fuck it, why not.

1.  Empire
2.  The Last Jedi
3.  A New Hope
4.  Rogue One
5.  Return of the Jedi
6.  The Force Awakens
7.  Revenge of the Sith
8.  Phantom Menace
9. Solo
10. Attack of the Clones
11. Dyad, Where's My Wayfinder?