Star Wars is probably my favorite movie franchise of all time. The blending of genres, fun action, likable characters, and amazing score always keep me engaged during even the weakest films in the franchise. So, as of March 2021, this is a half-review, half-retrospective of my opinions on all of the Star Wars films.
A New Hope: This is my first Star Wars movie, and it's still one of my favorites. Its story is a simple but effective hero's journey that slowly introduces you to the unique and complex world of Star Wars, and it's packed with iconic scenes like the opening space battle, the Cantina, the escape from the Death Star, and the surprisingly tense finale. It's not as polished as most of the other Star Wars films, but there's a real sense of scrappiness to the whole production. I doubt most of the people working on A New Hope thought it would work out as well as it did, but they ended up making one of the most classic, iconic, and influential films in all of cinema.
5/5 Stars
The Empire Strikes Back: Empire Strikes Back is my favorite movie of all time, yet I always find it incredibly difficult to articulate why I love it so much. It feels like the perfect sequel, it gives us more of the characters and world we loved so much in the original and expands it. You may not realize it now given how long ago this movie aired, but it introduced so many beloved aspects of Star Wars. We got to see our first large-screen war of the franchise with the Battle Of Hoth, we were introduced to the bounty hunters, to Yoda, to the family ties that Star Wars is known for, and we got one of the gutsiest endings in a movie at the time. Empire Strikes Back may not be a perfect film, but it's packed with everything I love about movies, the special effects, the action, the character development, the plot twists, and it leaves me completely engrossed every time I watch it. And most important of all, it showed me things I have never seen before.
6/5 Stars
Return Of The Jedi: Return Of The Jedi has its issues, the overly long Jabba Palace sequence, the disjointed nature of the film, the overreliance on the Ewoks, but it's still an incredibly fun time. As an ending to the original Star Wars trilogy, it works pretty much perfectly, giving all of its characters a satisfying resolution and ending things on a bang. The Battle Of Endor is still one of the largest-scale battles in the series and it's still an absolute spectacle, and the climactic confrontation between Luke, Vader, and the emperor forms the emotional backbone of the whole film. I'm also a big fan of the Sarlacc pit sequence even if it is a bit on the goofy side, but hey, what is Star Wars if not goofy?
4/5 Stars
The Phantom Menace: Before I talk about the prequels, I just want to say that I loved this trilogy as a kid, and I still hold a lot of nostalgia for them today. They're all still fun watches, even with all of their flaws, and there's a lot of heart to these films that make them so appealing. But it's with all the love in my heart that I say that the prequels also aren't very good films. Oddly enough, I think The Phantom Menace aged the best out of all the prequel films despite it being the oldest. The CGI was blended with practical effects far better in this movie, the dialogue was alright at times, and some of the action scenes (Podrace, Darth Maul) were the best in the series. However, this is still a boring film to watch with a sluggish pacing, and some of its low points (Jar Jar, Young Anakin, Midichlorians) are the lowest points in the series as well. At its best, The Phantom Menace is amazing, but at its worst, it's really bad.
2/5 Stars
Attack Of The Clones: Even when I was a little kid, this was my least favorite Star Wars film, the romance subplot between Anakin and Padme was just so boring. This is the film where the prequels really started to dip in general quality for me, as the dialogue just became awful and hard to take seriously, the acting became incredibly stiff, and the overabundance of poorly-composited CGI made the film lose all of its stakes. It's a shame because there are some parts I do like, Obi Wan's fight with Jango Fett in Kamino and subsequent asteroid field chase was a lot of fun (not to mention that Seismic Charge is the most godly sound effect in all of cinema), and the Geonosian Arena fight was actually kinda tense at first. I just wish this movie had more of that fun stuff and less angst, poorly written, horribly acted romance scenes.
2/5 Stars
Revenge Of The Sith: The first forty-five minutes of this movie during the Battle of Coruscant is some of the best Star Wars content ever. The action (while CGI-riddled) is dumb fun, the banter between Obi Wan and Anakin is some of the best-written dialogue in the trilogy, and the pacing manages to be fast-paced and relentless without feeling rushed. However, the rest of the movie is far more indicative of the trilogy as a whole. Once again, the dialogue and acting is really bad here, and it feels worse given the darker subject matter. Sure a lot of these lines are funny and iconic, but it makes it hard to take the film seriously. You can tell that one of the movie's best scenes, Order 66, doesn't have any dialogue in it. Additionally, the action is poorly acted and is so cartoonish that it ends up losing its emotional impact (Obi Wan vs Anakin would've been great if it didn't turn into a video game halfway through). Scenes like Yoda going into exile or Palpatine slaughtering a bunch of Jedi should be intense and emotional, but they just feel goofy instead. There are some great scenes in this film, and I have a ton of nostalgia from when it used to be my favorite film in the series, but as time goes on, RoTS's flaws become more apparent. It's easily my favorite of the prequel trilogy films for its ideas alone, but good ideas can't save weak execution.
3/5 Stars
The Force Awakens: This movie had one major job and that was to make up for the failings of the prequel trilogy, and I'd say it pretty much succeeded. The Force Awakens, even with its fairly unoriginal plot, felt like a love letter to the franchise, almost like the Galaxy Quest of the Star Wars series. The characters both old and new were all super likable, the action was fun, the special effects were both practical and impressive, the dialogue actually felt somewhat natural, and the emotional beats were landed pretty much perfectly. This was the first Star Wars movie I watched in a theater (when it came out) and is still probably my favorite movie experience ever, and Han Solo's death probably hit me harder than any movie scene ever. I still absolutely adore this movie, even if it's not the most original.
5/5 Stars
Rogue One: Okay, let me start with the obvious stuff, Rogue One has one of the best final acts of any movie I've ever seen. The battle on Scarif is a massive spectacle that utilizes every single character and story element without feeling bloated or mind-numbing at all. The blend of CGI and practical effects is phenomenal, the gutsy ending where the main cast all dies is heartrending every time, and of course, that Darth Vader hallway scene is absolutely godly (though I'm not so sure about Disney's trending of recreating it nowadays). However, the first two acts are a bit on the weaker side due to the fact that I just don't care about a lot of the characters. Rogue One has six main characters and even more important side characters, so most of them aside from Jyn and Cassian don't get much fleshing out. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember most of their names even after seeing Rogue One multiple times. I also felt Donnie Yen was a bit wasted given how amazing his action scenes can be, just that's more of a nitpick. Rogue One is a fun movie with a strong ending, but if it wasn't for that phenomenally executed third act, it would easily be the most forgettable in the franchise.
4/5 Stars
The Last Jedi: I have an interesting relationship with this film. When I first watched it, I didn't know what to think, it just wasn't what I was expecting as a followup to The Force Awakens. I was disappointed in the lack of a major lightsaber fight, or Finn not sacrificing himself, or the fact that the casino storyline never led anywhere. I didn't hate the film, mind you, even then the visuals, character arcs, action scenes, acting, and score were all excellent. However, as time went on, and I would continue to rewatch The Last Jedi, I would end up finding more and more things to love about it. I realized that Luke not having a full-on violent fight with Kylo Ren was the point of the scene, I realized just how futile Finn's sacrifice would have been, I realized how the casino storyline perfectly fits with the theme of overcoming failure. Were there some poorly executed moments? Sure! But this is Star Wars, every single one of its movies have these dumb scenes, and it doesn't take away just how much The Last Jedi made me think. I was still thinking about this movie's themes years after it first released, and I still am now. Even if it's not perfect, The Last Jedi has since become part of my Top 3 films in the franchise. It's unpredictable, surprising, though-provoking, thrilling, and absolutely beautiful, and I wish there were more films like it that had the guts to take Star Wars in directions that we wouldn't expect it to go.
5/5 Stars
Solo: Solo is an alright film. The cast is great, and Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover did an amazing job playing Han and Lando, striking the perfect balance between capturing their character while doing something new with them. Honestly, I'd be more than happy if we got to see more Donald Glover as Lando, he was amazing! The action scenes were also pretty inventive and fun, like the train chase and the Kessel Run, and it was super refreshing how the final battle was so small-scale compared to the rest of the franchise. However, the story is honestly kinda dull. It's all about seeing Han Solo become the man he is in A New Hope, so when you put aside all of that novelty, it's really just an origin story with not much else. Add in the murky color grading and you get a film that feels dangerously close to an MCU film. It's not bad at all, especially given the production issues, but it also doesn't really stand out in anyway. It's also the only Disney Star Wars film I didn't see on opening night which makes it feel even less special.
3/5 Stars
The Rise Of Skywalker: I'm still incredibly split on this film because of just how much of a mess it is. On one hand, some of the plot directions are incredibly dumb (like everything about Palpatine) and the pacing is insanely rushed. On the other hand, TRoS is still fun as hell. Even with such a MacGuffin-centric plot, it's fun to see the main cast of the trilogy go on adventures together and exchange banter. Even with all of the fan service, the emotional moments like Han's "force ghost", C-3PO's sacrifice, the Jedi voices, and all of the ships showing up in the final battle hit me hard. Even with the rushed pacing, the score was still amazing, the action was insanely fun, and the visuals are stunning. Even if this movie's plot is a mess, I still can't hate it because it perfectly captures that dumb fun adventure that I love so much about Star Wars. I always wish we got a better ending, but I do know it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
3/5 Stars
Ranking:
- Empire Strikes Back
- The Last Jedi (tied with #3)
- A New Hope (tied with #2)
- The Force Awakens
- Return Of The Jedi
- Rogue One
- The Rise Of Skywalker
- Solo
- Revenge Of The Sith
- The Phantom Menace
- Attack Of The Clones
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