In honor of May the 4th, I thought we would rank the live action Star Wars films. This will just be looking at the live action films, and will not include the TV series or the infamous Holiday Special. Don’t forget to check out our article about the Lego X-Wing by clicking here.
The Star Wars films have covered a time period of 46 years, appealing to millions of people of different generations. It is no surprise that it has become such a strong hold in our entertainment and even has a day dedicated to it. As a kid, I remember seeing Star Wars for the first time and was just completely enthralled with the universe and of course the Kenner toys! Over the course of 46 years, we have had 11 films released theatrically (12 if you count the limited international theatrical release of The Ewok Adventure, but we wont). Before we get into the ranking of the films, lets just lay out the 11 films in release order:
- Episode IV – A New Hope – Released May 25, 1977
- Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back – Released May 21, 1980
- Episode VI – Return of the Jedi – Released May 25, 1983
- Episode I – The Phantom Menace – Released May 19, 1999
- Episode II – Attack of the Clones – Released May 16, 2002
- Episode III – Revenge of the Sith – Released May 19, 2005
- Episode VII – The Force Awakens – Released December 18, 2015
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Released December 16, 2016
- Episode VIII – The Last Jedi – Released December 15, 2017
- Solo: A Star Wars Story – Released May 25, 2018
- Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker – Released December 20, 2019
Let’s get into the ranking. These are in order from 11 to 1 and are my choices, your opinion may differ.
11. Solo: A Star Wars Story – This one holds the record of being the first Star War film to bomb at the box office, and I can see why. The film has a great cast including the Amazing Woody Harrelson, but something about the film just feels forced to me. It almost seemed like the film was kind of an afterthought in the world of Disney. In a pirate story type of mold, we get to see how Han gets the Millennium Falcon and the infamous Kessel Run (which was mediocre at best) but there is nothing memorable about the film. In my view it solidly cements it self at the bottom of the heap.
10. Episode II – Attack of the Clones – This one was bad in pretty much every aspect. There was tons of low spots in it, the love story was too much for a Star Wars film and the only part of the film that really gets a rise is when Yoda pulls out his lightsaber to fight Count Dooku, but the short duration of the battle was a let down.
9. Episode I – The Phantom Menace – Jar Jar Binks….. Nuff’ said… This one changed a lot about the Star Wars films. It brought us the introduction to a young Vader, Midichlorians, podracing, politics and JAR JAR BINKS. This one felt very disjointed and inconsistent, the high spot was the battle between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul.
8. Episode III – Revenge of the Sith – This one is the best of the prequel trilogy but is not great. It has the classic memeness of Vader yelling Nooooooooooo, but does have some really cool fights such as Yoda vs. Palpatine and Vader and Obi-Wan on Mustafar. The film does right some of the wrongs of the production choices of the first two prequel films, but still has some choices to make up for.
7. Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker – He we get the last entry of the sequel trilogy. This film had a lot to say yet seemed like it said nothing at all. This had all the trappings to be a battle for the soul of Kylo Ren/Ben Solo but it almost seemed to be glossed over and poof he was good. The pacing of the film and Rey constantly ditching her friends to risk her life and put them in danger just seemed off. It was just a middle of the road, unmemorable film in the Star Wars universe.
6. Episode VIII – The Last Jedi – Our turning point film is The last Jedi. This movie was a pretty solid entry with some questionable things included. This has the Luke and Yoda feels from Dagobah with Rey and Luke training on Ahch-To. We get to learn about the destruction of the new Jedi order that Luke was building, we get a little taste of Yoda talking to Luke as a force ghost. We also get a bad ass scene of Holdo using her ship Kamikaze style by ramming the first order lightspeed style. We also see Rey and Kylo Ren tag team the Praetorian Guard and kill Snoke. A solid showing in this film.
5. Episode VII – The Force Awakens – I battled between this one being at 5 or swapped with The last Jedi. This one edges out the Last Jedi because of the nostalgia and feels that it has towards the original Star Wars. This one introduces us to our new cast of characters and brings back our favorites from the original trilogy. The only knock on this one is that it is almost a carbon copy of the original, but it pulls it off well enough to reinvigorate the fan base and kick off the sequel trilogy very well.
4. Episode VI – Return of the Jedi – There are some really great things to say about this film and also some things that make it not as good as the other 3 films on this list. The Jabba the Hutt sequence and escape is absolutely amazing. Boba Fett being swallowed by the big asshole I mean Sarlacc pit in the sand was the start of a legend for the character. We also get the Ewoks….. They are the original Jar Jar Binks of the Star Wars world. Even as a kid, I was 5 when this came out and saw it in theaters, I didn’t understand why the Ewoks were there as they didn’t fit in with the rest of the characters. We get the tease of Luke going to the Dark Side and he is much darker in this film. We also get Vader reverting back to good as he kills the Emperor and dies. Without the space teddy bears, this could have cracked the top three.
3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Starting off our top three of Star Wars films with the Bronze is Rogue One. This is a fantastic film (I wish they left in some of the stuff from the commercials and trailers) overall. It really pieced together the Death Star and the start of the original with Vader chasing Leia. It had a dark and gritty feel of a spy film with the action and fighting mixed in. Donnie Yen’s force “sensitive” character was great and Ben Mendelsohn was a great big bad opposite Felicity Jones and Diego Luna. Let’s not forget that bad ass Darth Vader scene at the end slicing and dicing through the ship to retrieve the plans. Just a solid flick top to bottom.
2. Episode IV – A New Hope -Realistically this could have been placed at number 1 and not scoffed at. This was the film that started it all, the story of a young boy who yearns for more and ends up rescuing a princess from the big bad guys. The story was easy to follow in this one and is really a story narrated by the droids which is a really cool point of view. The remarkable advancements in special effects and miniatures that were used looking back at it now makes you feel a sense of amazement that it looks as good as it does to this day. As a kid this film was just something so amazing that it drew me into the Star Wars world.
- Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back – This is the rare exception where the sequel is better than the original. This film just ups everything from the first one from the minute the film starts. The sets are more dynamic, the situations are amazing and it has a real cinematic vibe to it. Luke gets his Tauntaun blanket, we learn that Darth Vader is his father and the epic training with Yoda on Dagobah. In the world of Star Wars, this is the perfect film and it will be hard to beat. The ending of the film leaves our heroes tattered and on the run with a bleak outlook.
What do you think of our list of the Star Wars Films? Let us know you order by commenting below or hitting us up on our Twitter account by clicking here. As always stay tuned to Culture Splat for more content!
