There are many ongoing disagreements. Since I am one of the few who actually like the Prequels I get a lot of flack for it. But that is fine. I actually think all 9 theatrical Star Wars films are very good. The OT is outstanding, the PT is adequate, Clone Wars was very good, TFA is less adequate than the PT and Rogue One is nearly as outstanding as the OT. I watch a lot of movies and my opinions do not always fall in line with others. I’m used to it. I happen to enjoy Frink. He reminds me of this disagreeable co-worker I have.
I keep coming back to this topic because they are releasing new movies and because I’m interested in other opinions. I may not agree with them, but sometimes others can give you fresh insight and make you question if your previously held opinion is valid. Try as he might, Frink has yet to successfully make me question my enjoyment of the PT. Mainly because I see in the PT a different style of film and I can appreciate that style. It reminds me more of old hollywood where the OT reminds me of the 50’s science ficiton and samurai films. If I were a teacher grading these films, each of the OT gets an A+, Rogue One is right there with them, but I haven’t decided what kind of A (A+, A, A-). Clone Wars is a solid B, the PT are C and TFA is D (so much right but some key fails - a good effort).
And I have something to compare it to as well. I am first and foremost a Star Wars fan, but in the 80’s, when Star Wars was just 3 films and 4 books (no new movies, books, or even an RPG), I became a big Star Trek fan. They had new movies throughout the decade and TNG started, plus a series of books (that I think still puts the Star Wars franchise to shame for volume). I can honesly say I like all 6 Star Trek films and I get a lot of flack for that. 1 and 5 are not often fan favorites and get greatly derided for their quality. But I look at both of them and instead of seeing inferior quality, I see two movies that are far more like the original series than the other 4 movies. Roddenberry gave us his unvarnished vision of Star Trek 3 times. The Cage, The Motion Picture (the story was titled In Thy Image), and Encounter at Farpoint. All three tend to be slow paced and lacking in some of the action, but they make up for it in thought provoking story. And the original series often ventured into mythology for story ideas and Shatner followed the same pattern when he came up with the story for The Final Frontier. What Star Trek V is is the single movie that is closest to the original series in tone and story style. Shatner’s vision was perhaps out of touch with the 80’s, but that movie fits very well along side Who Mourns for Adonis and Plato’s Stepchildren. Because of that, I like it. I rank it as the worst of the films, but that does not mean I don’t like it.
Tying that in to this conversation, while I think TFA is the most trouble ridden theatrical story we have seen, I still like it. I just think it is very inferior to the others. I probably like it more than many movies that I think are better done, but, like the prequels, it is Star Wars - a universe I love - so I automatically like it far more than any movie of similar quality. In fact, I probably consider it at a similar level to Star Trek V: the Final Frontier. Both have story issues that bring me out of the story if I think about them. But there is still a lot to like. The PT, to relate it to Star Trek, are more like Star Trek: The Motion Picture - not quite up to the same standard because the story goal was different. Now, Star Trek has hundreds of episodes so the quality of production and writing is all over the place, but nothing Star Wars has never sunk to the low that is the TOS episodes Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, Spock’s Brain, or Turnabout Intruder. I hate Turnabout Intruder so much that I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen it whereas the rest I could not begin to tell you.
So ranking is relative to each individual. This is a forum dedicated to the original trilogy and preserving the original version of it. I really consider the OT to be comprised of 7 movies. The original, unnumbered Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, and the special editions of each (I really can’t consider the different editions as different films because the home video tweaks don’t change that much compared to how altered the original SE are compared to the OUT). Similarly just because there are two opening crawls, two end credits, and four audio mixes, because there are no story edits, Star Wars and Episode IV: A New Hope always rank the same and might as well be the same movie - except that adding Episode IV: A New Hope forever altered it. One stands alone as an industry changing film and one is part of a Saga. That’s why I waste time rendering two different versions and why I keep plugging away at remastering the 1981 crawl/flyover. I guess you could say they are like twins with different birthdays and fingerprints.
Okay, this post is now too long. I hope I haven’t bored you.
One final point. I clearly remember what my ranking of the films was back in the 80’s. It was Star Wars, Jedi, Empire. I always put Empire last in those days. I did not come to appreciate the genius of the story (between Lucas, Leigh Brackett, Kasdan, and Kushner, they created a masterpiece that I think is one of the best films ever made) until the 90’s. And to put the SE of the OT in the mix, all I can say is I think the changes to TESB made it better, ANH teeters at about the same (the changes to Mos Eisley bring it down, but are countered by Jabba and Biggs - something I’d always wanted to see in the movie), and ROTJ falls (it just gets worse with each new edit).