So now that the Skywalker story is done. I am curious about how everyone ranks these movies. So, for this list lets just do the main story films. No spin-offs. (Rogue One would be way up there for me, but not a part of this ranking.)
My list is based mostly off how good the overall story is.
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Return of the Jedi
3. A New Hope
4. The Force Awakens
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Last Jedi
7. Attack of the Clones (I know most people think this is the worst)
8. Rise of Skywalker
9. Phantom Menace [Reply]
There’s a reason Tony Gilroy had to be brought in very late in the game to save it. It would have been a completely disjointed, unaffecting disaster had he not (which it basically was anyway). [Reply]
1. Star Wars (it was "Star Wars" when I saw it, fuck New Hope)
2. Rogue One
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Empire Strikes Back
5. Solo
6. The Force Awakens
7. Attack of the Clones
8. Revenge of the Sith
9. Phantom Menace
10. Last Jedi
Haven't seen the last one. No plans to, either.
A bit of an explanation on ranking Return above Empire - I saw these movies when I was a kid, and remember how they made me feel at the end. The end of Return was great, the end of Empire was confusing and depressing. So I do recognize that Empire is the superior film, and doesn't have fucking teddy bears :-) I still prefer Return. [Reply]
Making my wife watch them to get caught up to go see Rise of Skywalker, watched the prequels and Rogue One. Rogue One has been her favorite so far hands down, she wasn't asking tons of confused questions "So Midichlorians control the force then?" After watching it again for the first time in a few years, I still think it's excellent. The droid, the group of characters being brought together, them sacrificing everything to get those plans to Leia, if you want to subvert expectations, Rogue One is the way to do it, not the Last Jedi bullshit. [Reply]
There’s a reason Tony Gilroy had to be brought in very late in the game to save it. It would have been a completely disjointed, unaffecting disaster had he not (which it basically was anyway).
A lot of people root for Mizzou, doesn't make it right. [Reply]
1a. Empire Strikes Back
1b. Rogue One
2. Return of the Jedi
3. A New Hope
5-7. Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith (no particular order)
8. The Force Awakens - Major let down
9. The Last Jedi - Pure garbage
I'm pretty much starting down the path of ignoring the Disney movies and pretending they don't exist, and staying with the EU story line as actual Star Wars after Return of the Jedi.
Wife and I have watched nearly everything except 1 and 2 (I explained to her that watching those will lower her opinion of everything else), and still cannot get over how bad 3 is despite people trying to it's better than any one film from 4-9. Plan to see 9 soon, but there is no way it's worse than the PT with its garbage green screen sets, horrendous acting and writing, and just the dumb cringe inducing "things".