STAR WARS, RANKED (2018)

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BEWARE: HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

     2018 marks three years into the Disney Star Wars Renaissance, and like everything else in 2018, Star Wars is more divisive than ever. So in the spirit of compromise, for this year’s Star Wars ranking I’ve done some soul-searching and made a few (few) concessions/rearrangements apart from the addition of this year’s new arrival, Solo. As always, I’m going to just acknowledge the incredible mastery and widespread influence of John William’s score here, rather than include it in 8/10 of the entries below. It’s great, Star Wars is great, long live enthusiastic-yet-respectful fandoms.

CATEGORY ONE: DEEPLY FLAWED, STILL FUN

10. STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999)

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     The Phantom Menace has some things going for it, but it squanders most of its potential. Like the original trilogy, it has an ensemble of sorts, but unlike the original trilogy, there’s no clear, standout hero in The Phantom Menace. Maybe that’s why the movie has such trouble investing the audience in its action: we don’t have a well-rounded cast of characters to root for. Of course, The Phantom Menace also commits a few acts of treason against the Star Wars canon—introducing midi-chlorians and such. On the upside, it continues the Star Wars tradition of elaborate world-building, and it has noteworthy effects and set design. Plus pod-racing and Darth Maul, so.

9. STAR WARS: EPISODE II – ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)

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     Attack of the Clones does a pretty good job of introducing new places and people, which always makes for engaging storytelling. It also features stunning action sequences and an unprecedented number of lightsabers per square inch of frame. But at the end of the day, Attack of the Clones suffers from some really, really bad acting and a devastatingly incompetent love story subplot.

CATEGORY TWO: DEEPLY FUN, STILL FLAWED

8. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (2018)

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     Solo is very possibly the first ever Star Wars box office flop, and that isn’t all the marketing department’s fault. Solo is thematically and tonally confused, it commits a lot of typical prequel sins (explaining every offhand reference from every line of dialogue from the original trilogy, for instance), and it wastes a good deal of its potential (like when it kills off Thandie Newton, sigh). But Solo deserves more credit than it gets. It fills its runtime with a lot of gangster-y, heist-y fun, occupies a vibrant corner of the Star Wars universe, and has a breezy attitude that escapes most Star Wars movies.

7. ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016)

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     For the first “Star Wars story,” Disney left the Skywalkers (mostly) behind and opted for a standalone spin-off. Now, Jyn Erso’s story isn’t superbly fleshed out in Rogue One—and you can tell it’s been cut up in the editing room—but that doesn’t keep the movie from telling a satisfying, self-contained story. It takes a certain amount of courage to build a movie around a whole new cast of characters and then kill them all off, but Rogue One does precisely that. Along the way, it detours into some fun new locations, several tense action sequences, and a dash of fan service. Also Darth Vader.

6. STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)

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     Sure, Anakin’s downfall in Revenge of the Sith could have been a lot more convincing/compelling. Sure, there’s bad acting and a few dead ends. And yet Revenge of the Sith is still just so damn exciting. With this movie, Lucas pulls out all the stops: enormous stakes, raw emotion, and incredible—if a little indulgent—action. If for no other reason than that we get to see the entire saga come full circle, Revenge of the Sith represents the height of the prequel trilogy.

5. STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII- THE LAST JEDI (2018)

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     Fan critiques of The Last Jedi have been well catalogued, and many of them hold water: the movie is a bit slow, makes logical leaps, and doesn’t always incorporate its subplots seamlessly. But viewed as whole, The Last Jedi’s flaws aren’t nearly substantial enough to outweigh its strengths. The movie tells a meaningful story with a high degree of skill and craftsmanship, it dares to forge a new path for the franchise, and—very crucially—it develops Kylo Ren into the sequel trilogy’s best character.

4. STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015)

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     The Force Awakens captures the adventurous spirit that the Star Wars franchise possessed in its infancy, and that’s no small feat. J.J. Abrams gives the movie a great new cast of characters, and, for the first time in a while, some honest-to-goodness fantasy. Unfortunately, all this comes with a price, and in The Force Awakens, the price is originality; where the movie ought to have taken the franchise to new and exciting places, it hits the reset button instead.

3. STAR WARS: EPISODE VI – RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983)

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     Return of the Jedi may be the weakest of the original trilogy, but it brings the story to a worthy conclusion. As in A New Hope and Empire, there’s a good bit of detailed world-building and sci-fi wonder. Plus, Return of the Jedi introduces not one but two of the series’ most iconic villains. Then the movie tops it all off with a spellbinding, high-stakes action sequence, intercutting between a space battle, a skirmish on the ground, and a lightsaber duel for the ages. If it weren’t for those pesky Ewoks, it would be a near-perfect finale.

CATEGORY THREE: THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH [THESE TWO]

2. STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE (1977)

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     The original Star Wars film is a cinema classic, but what’s amazing today is how thrilling it still is some 40 years later. It doesn’t always have great dialogue, and the story—at least on paper—follows a fairly simple hero’s journey. Nevertheless, A New Hope constitutes a landmark intersection between astonishing imagination and unprecedented technical wizardry. It’s fantasy and escapism and pure delight.

1. STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)

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     The Empire Strikes Back is, in many ways, the perfect sequel. It gives you more of what you liked about the first film, and then it deepens and expands the story in meaningful ways. Like its predecessor, it features creative new worlds, astounding special effects, and a contagious sense of wonder. But Empire is much more mature than A New Hope, putting our heroes through a number of trials… only to hand them an abrupt, categorical defeat. In so doing, it makes each of its characters more complex, more interesting, more memorable. Without it, the legacy and enduring appeal of the Star Wars franchise wouldn’t be the same.