Solo A Star Wars Story: All the Star Wars movies ranked

Written by Kshitij Rawat | New Delhi | Published: May 22, 2018 8:41:48 am Star Wars franchise began with the original Star Wars in 1977. Related News

Solo: A Star Wars Story release is around the corner. It is debatable whether a Han Solo movie was needed, but it does make commercial sense to milk what is one of the most popular characters in American cinema. While most fans were sceptical of how Alden Ehrenreich would be in the role of a character made iconic by Harrison Ford, reviews indicate that he has done a fine job under enormous pressure.

Solo: A Star Wars Story would be the tenth live-action film in the Star Wars franchise, that began with 1977s Star Wars (now called A New Hope). Star Wars films have varied quite a bit in terms of quality. While we did have an absolute humdinger of a film that was The Empire Strikes Back, we also had duds like pretty much the entire prequel trilogy.

Here is the worst to best ranking for every one of those nine Star Wars films:

Episode I: The Phantom Menace: The actors were great, we were about to know the origins of Darth Vader, everything seemed nice, what could go wrong? Almost everything, actually. Maybe the novelty factor had worn off, but there was simply no redeeming factor in The Phantom Menace. It remains the biggest blemish on the franchise.

Episode II: Attack of the Clones: If there was something interesting about Attack of the Clones, it was the fact that the prequel trilogy was finally getting on track. Attack on the Clones was still a terrible film, though. Overlong, muddled, awful effects and a really badly done romance between Hayden Christensens Anakin Skywalker and Natalie Portmans Padmé Amidala (who is, in other cases, a great actor).

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: The first and only watchable film in the prequel trilogy. In spite of being almost as long as Episode II, The Revenge of the Sith felt taut and paid off the patience of the viewers who had been waiting to see how Anakin Skywalker actually turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader. The Revenge of the Sith had some great moments (Yoda vs Emperor Palpatine!) and made up for its not inconsiderable flaws.

A still from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: The weakest film in the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi concluded the story of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker (who had been aware of a particularly troubling thing about his parentage). Return of Jedi aspires to be as epic as The Empire Strikes Back, but ends up more like Revenge of the Sith.

Rogue One: Great cast, a compelling relatable heroine and great action, Rogue One is a very enjoyable film for every Star Wars fan and even those who are finding a door to enter this immersive world.

The Last Jedi: Rian Johnson cleverly turned the usual Star Wars tropes on their head and although many fans decried the straying away from the previous films, the truth is that franchise needed reinvention. It became another success in the franchise and ended its box office run at 1.3 billion.

The Force Awakens: The most successful Star Wars film to date, commercially speaking, The Force Awakens was basically A New Hope with a few adjustments. Kylo Ren, a talented apprentice like Anakin Skywalker, was seduced to the dark side by Supreme Leader Snoke and Emperor Palpatine, respectively. Newbie protagonist Rey reminded us of Luke Skywalker and so on. While the film lacked originality, The Force Awakens ultimately worked because it ticked all the right boxes. Doing everything right, if you please.

A still from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

A New Hope (originally Star Wars): The film that started it all, that kicked off the space-opera franchise. A New Hope gave us a protagonist, Luke Skywalker whose story still continues in the ongoing sequel trilogy. It gave us an immersive world (galaxy, to be precise) full of interesting characters, beings, exciting space battles and ruthless villains. 40 years after its release, A New Hope still remains *the* Star Wars film.

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The Empire Strikes Back: Not just the best Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back is also one of the best films of *any* kind ever. In the film, our collective minds were blown off by what is probably the biggest twist in cinema ever. Yes, I am talking about Darth Vaders “I am your father.” The Empire Strikes Back was an extraordinarily thought-provoking film too with gorgeous visuals that still make viewers wide-eyed with delight. This film is easily also one of the greatest sequels of all time alongside Star Treks The Wrath of Khan and Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight.

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