As I haven’t done it apparently, I shall jump on the pile too
The ones I like:
The rest:
Haven’t made a list in a while. First post here, perhaps it won’t be my last!
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Try.
Final Star Wars ranking after my 2023 annual Star Wars marathon
Yep, I came around on TLJ. TROS will forever suffer my wrath tho
Star Wars, Paleontology, Superhero, Godzilla fan. Darth Vader stan. 22. ADHD. College Student majoring in English Education.
My Star Wars Fan-Edits
Why put The Phantom Menace so low?
Why put The Phantom Menace so low?
Once the initial action-packed opening ended it became really boring. The movie throws away pretty much all potential it has for emotional investment, and only some individual scenes stick out (Liam Neeson hard carries). It doesn’t show any of the carnage caused by the trade federation, thus you don’t have any sympathy for Padme’s situation like you do Leia’s in ANH. Same problem with Anakin, no abuse is even hinted at. The mf literally goes “yippee” to his slave master. The only potential value that seeing Vader as a 9 year old could possibly offer is just thrown out the window. It’s just a fundamentally stupid concept making him that young, he either can’t do enough or anything he does is flat out ridiculous because, again, he’s 9. Obi-Wan has hardly anything to do. AOTC is the first prequel movie where Obi-Wan really feels like a character, in TPM he’s basically just Qui-Gon’s sidekick who bickers with him all the time. Even the relationship between the Gungans and the Naboo is squandered. Could’ve maybe actually explored why they hated each other and reconciling, as well as expounding upon whatever symbiotic relationship Obi-Wan was talking about, but nope. You can see that Lucas was trying to explore the themes of symbiotic relationships, that people need to work together in order to accomplish things, and as someone who takes a lot of interest in ecology, it’s an interesting concept, but it simply doesn’t come together.
I don’t like it for the same reason a lot of people who dislike the prequels like it the most of the 3: it’s irrelevancy to the larger story. I know many people hate AOTC more because it messes up Anakin, but not only does Obi-Wan still make it enjoyable for me, but trying and failing to tell Anakin’s story well is better then doing basically nothing at all.
Star Wars, Paleontology, Superhero, Godzilla fan. Darth Vader stan. 22. ADHD. College Student majoring in English Education.
My Star Wars Fan-Edits
It’s my personal opinion, but I don’t feel like we need to see Anakin or Padme get brutalized for me to sympathize with them. Slavery is wrong in and of itself. Even if their master treats them well, they still own them. As a slave, Anakin would never fulfill his potential or make a life of his own, he’d simply be Watto’s property.
Similarly, I don’t feel like I have to see mass murder for me to think that the Trade Federation invading and occupying a sovereign planet is wrong, either, or that Padme’s situation of having to deal with her planet taken by force isn’t dire without seeing it. There’s a couple scenes where they say the Trade Federation is trying to make the people of Naboo suffer to coerce her into making the invasion legal, and maybe it would have helped to show and not tell, but we do still see some of the effects of the occupation, so it’s not like they don’t show it at all.
I also sort of like how young they made kid Anakin. There are some scenes where I feel like it would do the movie well if he acted more mature. But I like kid Anakin’s innocence, and, I’m not sure how to articulate it, but this feeling of Anakin’s life being a blank canvas that I’m not sure would be there if his age was bumped up to being a teenager or older like a lot of people suggest, where he’s already well on his way to being a grown man. Or maybe this is all nostalgia, though. When I was a kid I loved kid Anakin.
I agree though that Obi-Wan’s kind of lame. The older drafts of the movie where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are combined into the same character sound really interesting, and I wish something like that was preserved. Either that, or Obi-Wan was the proactive character and Qui-Gon was another apprentice of his. It is what it is, though
My updated ranking with all the films:
“I know that all of you like to dream about space and are a little bit of envious of us. But you know what? We’re also envious of you. We are exploring space, but it’s only the beginning. Planets and unknown worlds are awaiting you. You will continue to storm the Universe.”
— Yuri Gagarin
Just found the thread and decided to throw my hat into the ring. I have not seen Rogue One or Solo because I had zero interest in them when they came out, and while I still have no interest in ever watching Solo, Andor made me want to watch Rogue One, but I’m gonna wait until season 2 is finished and watch it as a finale to Andor.
The movies that I hate
10 Clone Wars. Really bad opening episodes to the tv series edited into an awful movie.
9 Rise of Skywalker Really enjoyed it when it came out, but have realized it’s an empty husk of a movie filled with fanservice in an attempt to lure back fans who hated The Last Jedi
I feel lukewarm on these next two
8 Phantom Menace I have a general fondness for this movie and I like a lot of aspects to it, but most of it is just kind of slow and boring
7 Attack of the Clones, I like the movie, but it’s hampered by lots of poor acting and some really cringy moments
Every film from here on out is a legitimately great movie
6 Force Awakens is a great film and a really good reintroduction to Star Wars that unfortunately suffers from being too similar to A New Hope
5 A New Hope The one that started it all, I feel putting it at number 5 is really controversial, but I have some minor pacing issues that put it here
4 Revenge of the Sith I love the movie it finally delivers on everything that the prequel trilogy purported to be about and Anakin’s fall is handled really well. Still has some issues with poor dialogue and acting choices, but the final act is some of my favorite moments in Star Wars
3 Return of the Jedi A fantastic ending to the original trilogy, sure it has some minor issues, like Han not getting much to do, but it does a great job of ending everyone’s character arcs and is incredibly poignant and emotional
2 Last Jedi the only thing stopping this from being number one is the Canto High sequence is the least interesting part of the movie, mostly because of that awful chase scene on the Farthier’s
1 Empire Strikes Back One of the 5 favorite films ever.