- Star Wars — Weaker than Empire in terms of story and depth, but totally self-contained and so much fun. I can just throw this on when I need a comfort film. 5/5 (in Star Wars terms)
- The Empire Strikes Back — The strongest entry to date. In my world, definitely cinema’s strongest sequel. Expands the characters, sets up a big universe, introduces great new characters (especially Boba Fett) and locations, doesn’t take a dump on the romance, and has a whole new and deeper wonder to it than the first film. 5(.5?)/5
- Return of the Jedi — This is only so far up because of its place wrapping up the story of the OT. The duel between Luke, Vader, and the Emperor save the film. The rest of it is rehashed or phoned-in. Feels more like a contract film than the passion of Star Wars and Empire. 4/5
- Rogue One — Probably the best of the Post-Lucas Star Wars films. It’s nostalgic, it has a (mostly) tight, solid story that fits (mostly) flush with the universe of the OT that we all know backwards and forwards, and does a good job of expanding that universe without feeling too forced. Is it safe? Hell yes. Is it fan service? In many ways. Is that really such a bad thing? I don’t think so. I enjoy the hell out of this movie. If you don’t pump your fist when the X-Wings show up on Eadu, you may not have a pulse. 3.5/5
- The Force Awakens — I was really all for TFA when it dropped originally. I loved the characters even if the story was a rehash of a rehash, even having to relearn the state of the galaxy during the runtime, and even dealing with Abrams’ unsolved mysteries. But the more I thought about it, the more the issues outweighed the good. I was starting to come around on it again before the release of TLJ, but now it has been dragged down by TLJ not living up to the promise of TFA. 3.5/5
- The Last Jedi — I really wanted to be blown away by this movie. I tried to be blown away by it three times in theaters and more than a few times at home, but it just falls short of the mark. It lands among the Prequel Trilogy for me: good ideas, interesting characters, not taking the safe route, but not executed well. I wish they’d gone a bit safer. 3/5
- Revenge of the Sith — This is only as high as it is because of the potential of the basic story and the culmination of Anakin’s fall. It’s definitely the strongest of the PT, but it’s still weak. The quality gap between Jedi and Awakens is almost non-existant, the gap between Awakens and Sith is a good deal more than 12 parsecs. 3/5
- The Phantom Menace — I feel like this is the only PT film that has a Star Wars feel to it, because they used actual locations and props extensively. However, it’s also the only PT film that doesn’t really fit in the “Saga”. This is an Anthology film and nothing more. 2.5/5
- Attack of the Clones — This goes way down here because it’s frankly crap, especially when it should be one of the biggest and best films of the Saga. The Clone Wars we’ve heard so much about don’t start until the last quarter of the film, and then end in the next film. There was potential, and much like the entire PT, the basic story concepts are good but executed terribly. 2/5
The Holiday Special and the Clone Wars film I won’t count as The Holiday Special was TV-only, and the Clone Wars “film” was basically just two episodes of the show, one of which was one of the worst of the entire series and the other wasn’t particularly strong, there were arcs much more deserving of being in theaters than what was.
I still haven’t sat down and watched the Ewok films. I think that’s about it in terms of what’s out there.
I think this is my most recent post in here with an actual ranking so let’s amend The Last Jedi and Rogue One in there and update scores.