What’s the Middlest Star Wars Movie

Definitely Rogue One. I think it's good. Just good. Not among the original trilogy+TFA which I think are great, and of course not among the prequels which aren't good.

Definitely Phantom Menace.

Storywise it feels so detached from everything else. Whole lotta set-up. Only personally memorable for being the first Star Wars movie after a while, introducing me to Liam Neeson as the odd (for a Jedi) Qui-Gon Jinn, and Darth Maul for standing around looking menacing (and having a double-bladed lightsaber). The bad stuff isn't as lame as the bad stuff in The Force Awakens (I'll take Qui-Gon's quack midichlorian bullshit over the blatent fanservice that felt like the bulk of TFA's narrative), but the rest (battles, pod race, world building) all feel like a middle-of-the-road science-fantasy action movie. I guess the locales were pretty as well.

For reference: worst is The Force Awakens and best is Return of the Jedi (with special shout-out to Rogue One for absolutely nailing that final battle).

I'd go with Revenge of the Sith. Great moments and sequences, but dragged down enough by the prequels' sloppy storytelling to miss the mark on being good, while also not being terrible enough to be outright bad.

Rogue One is close, but the third act pushes it over into being pretty good for me.

I think the attack of the clones. Phantom menace almost felt like a passion project trying to break away from the mold. The original trilogy is the best obviously. And revenge of the sith had some great moments with obi wan. Rogue one was a Very good war film that happened to be in the Star Wars universe. And the force awakens was a safe film by focus groups and marketing researchers. The jj killed the look and production if I say so myself

I have yet to see the newest one, but I guess by sheer math of finding the middle ground of 8 films it ends up being Rogue One. Good ideas, flawed execution. It's rank 4, but the gulf between 4 and 5-8 is really quite large for me, since 5-8 are the films I'd say have both bad ideas and poor execution.

The Last Jedi.

Revenge of the Sith definitely. It's poorly directed and paced, but at least some of the actors have talent (Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid). The action sequences are pretty well choreographed, even if they are completely artificial and unbelievable. Plus General Grievous is the dumbest character other than Jar Jar...but I kind of love that. It's a bad movie but better than the worst ones at least.

I pretty much felt nothing watching the Force Awakens, so I'd have to choose that. Revenge of the Sith is also very bland, but some of the battle scenes, the Order 66 stuff and the few links in the last parts of the film to the original trilogy are at least memorable and appropriately melancholic.

Attack of the Clones is just bad and Rogue One felt like entertaining fan fiction.

Easily Rogue One. I left that theater with no emotions. I didn't like it, nor did I dislike it. It is the epitome of a mediocre movie.

I gave it to Return of the Jedi. I have some hardcore nostalgia for it because it's the first movie I remember seeing in the theater and I absolutely loved it, but these days I can recognize the faults. Not the least of which is Lucas' CGIing in Hayden Christensen in later versions. Also, Ewoks. Ugh. I haven't seen Rogue One. I think 1-3 are cancer and the new one is also less than good. I see The Last Jedi is being highly praised. I doubt it lives up to Empire, but who knows?

It's almost certainly Rogue One.

I like the original trilogy a lot, Ewoks notwithstanding. I mean, sure, Return of the Jedi starts to approach some serious corniness, but it's not that bad and it's still a fine end to the story.

The Prequel trilogy is something that I just can't bring myself to hate as much as many do. Those are the Star Wars movies that came out in theaters when I was growing up and, frankly, I enjoyed all of them as a kid. I don't really enjoy them that much now, except as a cringe-fest (especially Attack of the Clones), but I just can't bring myself to hate them.

I liked The Force Awakens. It's the one I voted for, but honestly it's a tie between TFA and Rogue One. People who say that Rogue One is on par with The Empire Strikes Back sound absolutely crazy. Rogue One is a mess of bad pacing, uneven characterization, and underutilized characters, but I still think it's fun as a movie and it does some stuff that you may not expect from a Star Wars movie (though, I really don't think they played up the "these guys are a little rougher than your average heroes" angle anywhere near enough). Rogue One had the recipe to be on par with Empire Strikes Back, but sadly they fumbled it just enough to drag it down to middle of the pack.

The Force Awakens is maybe a better movie, but it's also very by the numbers. It's fun and silly and has its moments but you could just watch A New Hope and read the Wikipedia article to fill in the blanks and not miss a beat. I don't really recommend doing that, but I also wouldn't really fault anyone for doing that.

It's Rogue One which is a shame because the Hammerhead Cruiser in Rogue One is Exhibit A in favor when they need to finally decide if KOTOR is canon.

Rogue One is fucking rad, ya haters. It's totally Return (haven't seen the new one yet).

Empire Strikes Back. Not a bad movie, it didn't have as much nonsensical storytelling as A New Hope, just always felt like it carried too much hype on its back. 'I am your father' was not nearly as iconic of a moment for me as it seems to have been for everyone else. It's not that I predicted it, but I also wasn't surprised to hear it.

I think all of those movies are overrated though. The prequels are by no means masterpieces, but they just felt like more of the same to me. I enjoy Star Wars enough to go see each movie that comes out on day 1, but I wouldn't put any of them in my top movies list of all time.

I actually think the newest three movies are also the best three. Well, possibly. I have only seen The Last Jedi once and am not sure about it yet.

Well, it is not any of the prequels because they ALL suck. They collectively sit so low down they cannot even see the middle. Thus it comes down to the original and new movies.

It is Rogue One.

Haven't seen TLJ yet, so of the other nine, Rogue One sits dead in the middle.

It's well made, but the casting could've been better, and that whole section involving Saw Gerrera was time that could've been better spent fleshing out the other characters.

Return of the Jedi is a bad movie. Rogue One has a solid act three. Return of the Jedi lowers the quality of the original trilogy. Rogue One is effectively unessential. Therefore Return of the Jedi is the correct choice. You can skip Rogue One and be fine. You have to watch Return of the Jedi, or at least its second half which is the only part that matters. Because it's a bad movie.

The worst is the one we don't speak of...

@shiftygism: That one's still not as bad as Attack of the Clones. Also, I don't really consider it a movie. It was made to be a TV pilot at first.

@nicksmi56:

Attack of the Clones is the prequel film I dislike the least. The second assassination attempt on Padme was cool, getting a glimpse of the underbelly of Coruscant was cool, the stuff on Kamino...cool, and the big battle at the end led to some cool stuff in Battlefront. All The Phantom Menace has going for it is the pod race, a super over-hyped villain, and that surprisingly effective first scene involving R2 (but then again, I'm an R2 mark). Revenge of the Sith...while better than Phantom Menace, was a straight up bore outside of Executive Order 66, the stuff with Grievous, and them finally making good on RotJ's promise of Kashyyyk despite them going with an incredibly ugly looking version of Chewbacca.

Rouge One, it's not bad but not great just middle of the road with a decent cast but predictable plot. Phantom menace is second closest to middling but parts of that are just bad like all the prequel trilogy.

I'm not a big fan of the series and haven't watched most of the movies in a decade, so take my opinion for the uninformed one that it is: The Force Awakens takes the cake when it comes to middling because it feels like such a retread, only with less fun characters. It's not bad, but I don't think it's especially good either. It feels like they didn't want to make anything as bad as the prequels again so they just stuck to the safest stuff possible, and I left the cinema thinking "Okay".

I know it's cool to dump on TFA now, but it's Return of the Jedi by a mile. That movie is the classic example of a film alternating between high highs and low lows. Everyone thinks back to it and fondly remembers the confrontation over the Sarlacc Pit and the final confrontation between Luke, Vader, and Palpatine. Unfortunately, those great scenes share a spotlight with moments such as the one where C3PO is hailed as a God by the Ewoks for what feels like an eternity. Seriously, everything on Endor (excluding the battle, I guess, and "Yub Nub") is downright awful.

Empire

New Hope

Jedi

Force Awakens

Rogue One

Phantom Menace

Sith

Attack of the Clones

In that order. Are we talking mean or median here?

Outside of the dumpster fire that is Episodes I, II, and III, I found that Rouge One to be quiet middle of the road. It essentially gives us a backstory for an event that didn't need a backstory and characters that were less interesting than that sad Christmas fruitcake that everyone ignores at dinner.

I am really hoping that The Last Jedi isn't a rehash of Episode V. It was really my biggest problem with TFA and how it was beat for beat, Episode IV remake.

Edited: Just made silly grammar mistakes.

It's definitely one of the recent ones. Rogue One at least has a few interesting ideas though, so Awakens.

Rogue One was a boring fart of a film but it was still leagues better than the Prequels. So Rogue One.

Rogue One is the closest to middle-of-the-road. Mediocre and forgettable, outside of the final scenes.

At least it is better than Attack of the Clones, which was straight on bad.

So, I would go:

1. Empire
2. A New Hope
3. Return
4. TFA
5. Rogue One
6. Phantom Menace
7. Revenge
8. Attack

Based on that either The Force Awakens or Rogue One would be the "middlest". Neither terrible nor great.

Nah, nah, nah.

Clones and Jedi both have really cool parts and really boring parts (involving a stupid love plot in both cases). If you're going by the balance of good to bad, it's probably Jedi. A lot of dumb in that movie.

But my actual answer is The Force Awakens because it basically does nothing. It doesn't add anything substantial, it rehashes 30 year old designs, and the plot is so uninspired. The new leads do give the movie a bit of life, but what they have to work with is just so... there. It's not offensive, but it's not interesting. At all. Curious to see the new one and if they gave it some more room to grow.

The originals are generally great. Jedi is the weakest of the three, but half of it is still really good. The prequels are generally awful. Revenge of the Sith has it’s moments, but isn’t good. The force awakens is good, but has some flaws. Kylo Ren is what Anakin should have been in the prequels. I thought The Last Jedi was better than the Force Awakens, maybe a little long and crowded.

Overall, I think Rogue One is the middle ground. It’s not bad, but none of the characters aside from K-2SO left any impact on me as a viewer. The battles looked nice and the Vader scene was awesome, but the rest of it was a little boring. Essentially, it’s two hours of fixing a minor plot hole from A New Hope.

Travis McElroy

Yup. Rogue One. Movie that left me feel nothing. Everything is bland.

Middle-est? Hmm. The original trilogy is still pretty rad save a few assorted weak moments, so those are out. The Force Awakens is fan-servicey and derivative as fuck, but still well-done and enjoyable overall. I would classify The Phantom Menace as awful (podracing scene and Darth Maul generally being pretty dope were the only redeeming things in that entire movie) and Attack of the Clones as bad (some cool battle scenes, but the worst "romance" ever put to film). That leaves us with Rogue One and Revenge of the Sith. I could make an argument for either as very middling.

Rogue One is a film that pretty much only exists to make Disney more Star Wars $$$$$. It was neither bad nor good, IMO, and I'm both glad I saw it and have zero desire to ever watch it again. I think it gets a little too much love because it was (smartly) presented as a side-story, which lowered everyone's expectations, so when it was competent enough, people were pleasantly surprised. It mostly avoided being overhyped and nitpicked to death because it wasn't a "main" Star Wars film. If you put it to that kind of scrutiny, it falls apart quickly, but it's mostly fine, if a bit forgettable.

Revenge of the Sith is almost a good movie. In a different world where the two movies that preceded it weren't as bad as they were, it could probably be viewed as a decent film in and of itself. I found it much more palatable as a viewer to finally be "allowed" to hate Anakin the way I already did thanks to the horrific acting/portrayals of the character in the first two movies by Lloyd and Christensen, and it mostly manages to connect some dots to the original trilogy and close the loop on some lame storylines of the prequels. Christensen is still bad, and it has too many cheesy moments for me to call it a quality film, but I don't hate it, which is a bit of an accomplishment considering the first two. It's the only prequel I'll sort-of defend as mostly a non-abomination, but that's some middling-ass "praise", so, yeah.

TFA for me. All the other movies had at least some part that made me feel "wow, this is Star Wars." while TFA just felt like the equivalent of a mix tape of all your favorite songs, but composed together that doesn't mean they make a great album. That doesn't mean that it's neccesarily bad... it's just boring since it contributes nothing and kind of a weird start to a new trilogy. I know Rogue One gets a lot of flack, but I praise it for at least attempting to show a different side of Star Wars and doing something creative about a plot hole that has existed for so long.

I can't consider Rogue One as a true Star Wars film in my head cannon because it's so different from the space epic main films. I also actually like Rogue One a lot for being something different and creating an avenue for other side stories loosely connected to the main films.

My most mediocre has to be attack of the clones. It's not even close to being as disappointing as Episode One (the wound was already open) and it's not quite as important as Revenge of the Sith (which I don't care for, but at least feels like it's trying harder). My ranking (mediocre to me is worse than being bad. Bad movies can be fun in their own right):

8th is Attack of the Clones, 7th is Phantom Menace, 6th is Revenge of the Sith, 5th is A New Hope, 4th is Rogue One, 3rd is The Force Awakens, 2nd is Return of the Jedi, and the number 1 is Empire Strikes Back.

I'd argue that for long-time fans of Star Wars movies, it's The Force Awakens.

That movie did pretty much exactly what it needed to in order to set up the new way forward and keep old & new fans somewhat happy; but in doing so it made only the safest of moves possible (and largest number of nostalgia plays) throughout. (obligatory "AT-ST's, AT-ST's, AT-ST's!" here)

Comes down to either Phantom Menace or Force Awakens for me. Phantom Menace is a somewhat interesting movie made poorly, while Force Awakens is very bland movie made competently so it's kinda apples to oranges in some regard.

Rogue One is the definition of mediocrity. Everything is very competently and professionally executed but the movie is completely without character or any interesting facet. You can't hate it because it isn't bad, but you can't like it because it is as bland as a particularly dull piece of plain toast.