The Star Wars saga is the most iconic film franchise of all time. Everyone knows what Star Wars is. It has invaded our public consciousness for nearly 40 years. Now we have to try very hard not to know about this franchise, whose humble beginnings are found in a young filmmaker trying to scam Flash Gordon.
For an intergalactic space opera, Star Wars can sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic, so the amount of time Rogue One spends on gigantic space battles blowing the horn seems refreshingly like calling ROTJ all over again. This first Star Wars Story anthological film includes the ticking of time and attempts to break a shield on several fronts, and few things are as much fun on screen as two star destroyers that launch at full speed into NASCAR and hit the paint. It is also one of the few times in which the public sees some of the rebels as true fanatics, such as Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and his band of violent partisans, the pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), who deserted the imperial army, Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) as guardian of the sorcerers after The Force with Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), and the rebel Andor (Diego Luna) who doesn't skimp much sympathy for those outside politics. Jyn Erso, from Felicity Jones, does an admirable job focusing the story on hope, which serves as a bridge to the next film in the chronology, although we know that there is none for her or the rest of the team.
Ignore the movement of Obi-Wan's hand, this is the list of Star Wars movies ranked, from worst to best you were looking for. If you're looking for all the Star Wars movies ranked from worst to best, you've come to the right place. From the original trilogy of the 70s and 80s to the most recent Force movie, The Rise of Skywalker, and everything in between, we've used our expert eye and fan knowledge to rank every Star Wars movie from worst to best, so you don't have to. There are currently 12 Star Wars movies and, although that doesn't seem like much if you compare it to the other great cinematic universe that exists, the MCU, you're still talking about a few good days of marathons if you want to catch up with all of them.
That's where our list of Star Wars rated movies comes in handy. Before we rewatch all of the Star Wars movies in chronological order, read on to discover which are worthwhile and which are best missed. Keep reading to see all of the Star Wars movies ranked, from worst to best, and see if you agree with our verdict. Don't forget that you can watch the best Star Wars movies on Disney+ and, if Midichlorians aren't enough for you yet, check out the best LEGO Star Wars sets.
Let's get the worst out of the Star Wars movies as quickly as possible. Trust us, there's nothing worse than Attack of the Clones. The excessive dependence on CGI sets, the numerous boring scenes in the Senate, the uncomfortable and supposedly “romantic” conversations between Anakin and Padmé. Do I need to continue? There are many reasons why Attack of the Clones is one of the worst Star Wars movies, but most of them can be summed up in the fact that it is cursed by half the film.
We've seen this before with other trilogies, and while none of the Star Wars prequels are particularly good, the first and third at least knew what they wanted to do. The intermediate film, Attack of the Clones, tries to bridge the gap between Anakin, the cute and innocent boy from Episode I, and the eventually bad guy, Darth Vader, in Episode III, and the fact is that the script and Hayden Christensen simply weren't up to the task. The first Star Wars prequel has many of the same problems as Attack of the Clones, especially in the CGI department (should I mention Jar Jar Binks?) and the fact that the main actor cannot act. Okay, Jake Lloyd was only 10 years old when he played young Anakin in The Phantom Menace, but it's really painful to watch any scene in which he appears.
However, he is not the only problem with this film. Although most fans didn't realize it at first because they were too excited about the return of Star Wars after a long hiatus, telling the story of a 10-year-old Darth Vader before he turned evil (or actually did something remarkable) isn't very interesting, and that's basically what the whole movie is about. Do you know the tough anti-hero who made the first Star Wars movie so good? Yes, let's take him and put him in a Disney prequel where he's still tough and handsome, but he's not really a scoundrel. This is the only thing that we can assume that Lucasfilm executives were thinking when they came up with the idea for the movie Solo.
Watching this movie is like watching everything you loved about Han Solo from the original Star Wars movies be destroyed, because it's very difficult to make an uplifting film about someone who was essentially a bad guy until he ran into Luke Skywalker. It's true that Donald Glover perfectly plays a young Lando Calrissian and his droid companion L3 is a more than welcome addition to the universe, but that doesn't mean that the main character, Solo, is little more than a watered down version of the Han we know and love. If you're a completist, you can probably watch Solo, but it's far from being one of the best Star Wars movies. The Last Jedi is probably the most controversial of the Star Wars movies, and not without good reason.
Basically, he wiped out the entire sacred history of Star Wars by claiming that Rey's parents were “nobody”, took 'magic' from the Force and, oh yes, killed Luke Skywalker. But it's this fact of breaking the rules that makes it one of the best Star Wars movies, because it was the first in a long time that it seemed like it had something new to say. It's certainly not without its flaws (such as the fact that you can summarize the story of Finn and Rose without consequences), but overall, The Last Jedi broke the rules in exciting new ways, and it did so in style. Love it or hate it, you can't deny that it's an unforgettable entry in the Star Wars saga and you definitely can't miss it.
Yes, there are those who rightly point out that this is more or less a new hope (a lonely young man on a sandy planet is carried away by an adventure that ends with the destruction of an evil spaceship the size of a moon), but the first Star Wars film was a success for a reason. The Force Awakens reminded us why we fell in love with the Star Wars universe in the first place. The last film in the original Star Wars trilogy might technically be the worst of the three, but it's still a very good movie. With one of the best opening sequences of all time in which Luke and company save Han from Jabba the Hutt, and a moment of redemption between Luke and his father, Darth Vader, that will never be forgotten, Return of the Jedi has definitely earned its place as one of the best Star Wars movies.
When it comes to the Star Wars stories that fans wanted to see turned into movies, the one about the rebels who stole the plans of the Death Star, which Luke and his band use to destroy it in A New Hope, didn't top the list. However, fortunately, the decision to move away from the traditional tropes of the Star Wars movies (without opening screen wipes) and taking a much more blatant (but not too blatant) cinematic war approach paid off and gave us one of the best Star Wars movies to date, and all without any Jedi. Rogue One triumphs when Solo failed, by perfectly balancing the nods to the original movies (such as the appearance of Senator Bail Organa, Leia's adoptive father) with behavior very little like the Star Wars of his heroes (should we mention the opening sequence in which Cassian kills an ally?). Felicity Jones and Diego Luna are perfectly played as protagonists and their chemistry makes the film what it is, can we just talk about the final sequence? If you don't get goose bumps when you see the end of Rogue One and the beginning of A New Hope, you might be dead inside.
Ah, the film that started it all: A New Hope. That alone guarantees it one of the top spots on our list of all the ranked Star Wars movies, but Episode 4 is one of the best Star Wars movies for more than that. The appeal of this film lies in its simplicity. The young and heroic Luke, who strives to be part of something bigger, could be any of us.
Leaving behind his mundane life and teaming up with a scoundrel with a heart of gold to rescue a princess, it's easy to understand why the audience responded to the story of A New Hope. The epic opening battle over Hoth, the introduction of Lando Calrissian, Leia telling Han that she loves him (“I know), and the biggest shocking revelation in movie history when Luke discovers that Darth Vader is his father are just some of the reasons why Episode 5 isn't just the best Star Wars movie of all time, but one of the best movies of all time. When it comes to ranking all of the Star Wars movies from worst to best, there's really no competition. The Empire Strike Back is masterful.
Lauren is a fan of science fiction and fantasy from start to finish. He is passionate about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but there are few sci-fi or fantasy worlds he hasn't visited, either through books (Dune), television shows (Game of Thrones) or movies (Star Wars). Thousands of movies and franchises are created every year, but Star Wars has never fallen by the wayside. Its ability to stand the test of time and continue to entertain the world without fail is truly the reason why I think it's the best movie franchise of all time.
It's a true war movie about sacrifice and the acceptance of an ideal and, unlike most other Disney Star Wars movies, fan service (here with one Dark Lord of the Sith in particular) is literally murderous. From the research of Kamino's clone plant comes the Clone Wars, the starting point of the beloved animated series of the same name. But what set Star Wars apart from its predecessors (and from the numerous imitators that followed) was its heart and sense of wonder, from the first moment Darth Vader boarded Tantive IV until Luke gazed longingly at Tatooine's twin sunsets. The connection between Anakin and Obi-Wan drives both the Prequels and the Clone Wars, making The Phantom Menace an inexhaustible resource to revisit as you see more and gain new perspectives on how those characters grow and change.
People born around the time of the release of the original trilogy A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi seem to claim that these are the best Star Wars movies. In those moments, he only does what Star Wars does best: reinterpreting tried and true cinematic feats through a sci-fi lens. With a large cast of characters, Rogue One has an adult touch that most Star Wars movies lack and a raw, visceral scale in which the power of the Empire never seemed more imminent. Although it hasn't happened yet, I wouldn't be surprised if children born around the time of the sequels, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, began to say that these are the best Star Wars movies.
Even if it didn't give rise to the greatest movie franchise of all time, reshape 20th century pop culture, or expand the galaxy even further, Lucas' original Star Wars would still be a masterpiece. Children born in the early 2000s, like me, claim that the prequels The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are the best Star Wars movies. . .
