Your Best To Worst Star Wars Movies List To Date (2017)

Honestly, I can get down with any list that has the prequels last. For me, it's:

1. Empire Strikes Back - Probably the only Star Wars movie that is legit a great movie
2. A New Hope - The original, sets up everything thereafter, deserves to be high up on anyone's list.
3. Return of the Jedi - I don't love it, the first half including everything pre-Ewok is pretty good, and thereafter goes to shit. It's position on this list should tell you how I feel about the rest of the series.
4. TFA - Kind of a beat for beat remake of A New Hope without all the characters I cared about. I never made any connection with Rey and uh whatshisface, but I fucking adored this cast compared to the one in...
5. Rogue One - Ugh, this had so much potential but is just wasted on a crappy cast of characters. It says something that the only one I had any feelings whatsoever for was the snarky droid. The last 30 minutes was cool though.
6. The Prequels - Just all of them, whatever. Complete trash. Bad writing, horrible characters, no chemistry, some of the worst acting ever put to celluloid.

Haven't see TLJ yet, hope to during the holiday break.

1. A New Hope

2. Empire Strikes Back

3. The Last Jedi (this could change, I've only seen it once. Gut feel.)

4. Return of the Jedi

5. The Force Awakens

6. Rogue One (Seen it once)

7. Revenge of the Sith

8. The Phantom Menace

9. Attack of the Clones

I should note that anything below Return of the Jedi I don't have a particular passion for. The Last Jedi did ignite the fan in me but that will likely drift away with Solo and the return of JJ Abrams.

1.The Last Jedi

2.The Empire Strikes Back

3.Revenge of The Sith

4.A New Hope

5.Return of The Jedi

6.The Phantom Menace

7.Rogue One

8.Attack of The Clones

9.Caravan of Courage

10.The Battle for Endor

11.Star Tours

12.Star Tours: The Adventure Continues

13.The Holiday Special

14.The Clone Wars

15.The Force Awakens

1.The Empire Strikes Back

2.Star Wars

3.Return of the Jedi

4.The Last Jedi

5.The Force Awakens

6.Rogue One

7.Battle for Endor

8.Caravan of Courage

9.Revenge of the Sith

10.Attack of the Clones

11.The Phantom Menace

12.The Clone Wars

Empire

New Hope

Force Awakens

Last Jedi

Return of the Jedi

Revenge of the Sith

Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

Best order; only order.

The Empire Strikes Back > Star Wars > Return of the Jedi > The Last Jedi > The Phantom Menace > The Force Awakens > Revenge of the Sith > Rogue One > Attack of the Clones

All right. Sure. Haven't seen The Last Jedi yet and I don't really want to until I can watch it on Blu-Ray, in my own room, with my own audio setup, my own food and drink, and no one to bother me. (I'm getting kinda tired of movie theaters).

Uh, that aside...

1. The Empire Strikes Back - I wrote so much for the other movies and nothing for this one at first because... I don't know, what do I really need to say? If you're on this forum, chances are pretty damn good that you've seen this film and you've already heard enough praise for this movie. It's just all-around an excellent use of the material, it's got tone and pacing downpat and perfect, it develops characters and story equally as well and in equal measure, it's just great entertainment from top to bottom.
2. A New Hope - These top two are pretty much interchangeable as far as my favorite goes. TESB gets top spot basically only because it's a more complex thing.
3. Return of the Jedi - I'm not a big fan of Ewoks but they don't bother me that much and I like the rest of the movie a lot. There are some parts of this movie where you can see a hint of where Star Wars would go later on, but those are only hints and it's still pretty damn great in almost all respects.
4. Revenge of the Sith - All right. Look. The prequels are all bad movies. They really are. But honestly, they were a big part of my childhood. I saw all of them in the theaters, I watched all of them multiple times. I have grown up and have since admitted that they were bad movies, but as a kid I watched Revenge of the Sith over and over. And I watched Phantom Menace pretty often, too.
5. The Force Awakens - It's fine. I've seen this movie twice now and both times, I came away feeling the same. Somewhat amused, somewhat entertained, somewhat satisfied. It's certainly a much better movie than all of the prequels, but it just didn't feel right putting this one above RotS. So I didn't. Sue me.
6. The Phantom Menace - See: RotS. I have a soft spot for the prequels. I don't want to watch them again, really, I've seen bits and pieces of them since becoming an adult and those bits and pieces are pretty cringe-y, but I just can't bring myself to hate this one or RotS. I did put it below The Force Awakens because it's got some problems I can't ignore. Midichlorians? Sure, whatever. A middle third that pretty much only exists to introduce Anakin Skywalker? Ugh. Jar Jar Binks? Very annoying character.
7. Rogue One - Ask me after I watched it in theaters and I'd put it at number 4, but the more time passes, the more I dislike this movie. The people who say it's as good or better than The Empire Strikes Back have to be clinically insane, right? It's one of those things where I just find myself wondering if people watched a different movie than me or something. It's not total garbage, I think it has some redeeming values and I'd watch it again. Again, from the most detached perspective I can muster, it's better than the prequels. But the plot feels held together by duct tape and prayer, the characters are inconsistent and sometimes motivations and changes of heart are unclear, and the pacing is all over the place.
8. Attack of the Clones - Even my nostalgia can't save this one and, frankly, when I was a kid I didn't think this movie was much good. It was the movie that I had to watch to get to RotS (and before that, I had to watch the movie just to get to the cool shit at the end, scene select be damned). At first my complaints amounted to "why is the middle of this movie so full of mushy shit, there's no cool stuff, my sugar-addled brain needs something stimulating". Then it became "Whoa, I understand why this mushy shit is here but oh my God why doesn't Padme put as much distance between herself and this fucking dweeb as possible!?" Seriously, forgot issues with pacing and plot, the whole romance thing in this movie just makes me want to die these days.

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Attack of the Clones
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Force Awakens
7. Rogue One
8. The Last Jedi
9. The Phantom Menace

With a loooot of distance the third position and the fourth

1. ESB
2. ANH
3. RotJ
4. RO
5. TFA
6. RotS
7. TLJ
8. TPM
9. AotC

And there's a sizeable gap between #4 (Rogue One, a pretty decent war story) and #5 (The Force Awakens, or, the '77 film but for millennials)

As an aside, I kinda love/dread the fact that eventually we'll be making the kind of absurdly large lists that James Bond fans have been making for ages. It gets nuts, trying to rank those

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A new Hope
3. The Last Jedi
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Force Awakens
6. The Star Wars Holiday Special
7. Rogue One
8. Droids (the cartoon show)
9. Ewoks (the tv show)
10. Revenge of the Sith
11. Clone Wars
12. Rebels
13. The two ewok movies
14. The Phantom Menace
15. Attack of the Clones
16. The clone wars movie that is actually the worst star wars product by a big big margin

1. Empire Strikes Back

2. A New Hope

3. Return of the Jedi

4. Rouge One

5. The prequels, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi are all fuckin' trash.

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Rogue One
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Force Awakens
6. The Last Jedi
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. The other two prequels.

Last Jedi may move up the list depending on how they follow up in episode IX.

1. Empire Strikes Back

2. A New Hope

3. Return of the Jedi

4. Revenge of the Sith

5. The Last Jedi

6. Force Awakens

7. The Phantom Menace

8. Rogue One

9. Attack of the Clones

1. A New Hope
2. Return of the Jedi
3. Empire Strikes Back
4. The Phantom Menace
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Last Jedi
7. Rogue One
8. Force Awakens
9. Attack of the Clones

Probably mine as well, but swap TFA with Rogue One. TFA was fine, but I thought it aped A New Hope just a tad too much.

1. Rogue One
2. Return of the Jedi
3. The Last Jedi
4. The Empire Strikes Back
5. The Force Awakens
6. Revenge of the Sith
7. A New Hope (sorry, I understand it's an important movie, I just find it a slog to watch)
8. The Phantom Menace
9. Attack of the Clones

It's almost been a week since I saw The Last Jedi, but I still can't stop thinking about it, and I suspect my opinion of it will fluctuate, but I am confident that I liked it enough for it to at least be in the same conversation as ESB and RotJ.

1. Empire Strikes Back

2. A New Hope

3. force awakens/return of the jedi/the last jedi

4. Rogue One

5. Revenge of the Sith

6. The Phantom Menace

7. Attack of the Clones

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Rogue One
3. A New Hope
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Force Awakens
7. The Phantom Menace
8. The Last Jedi
9. Attack of the Clones

Numbering feels kind of pointless so tier list it is.

OK tier:

• Empire Strikes Back
• A New Hope
• Return of the Jedi

Meh tier:

• The Force Awaken
• Revenge of the Sith
• Rogue One

Boring tier:

• The Last Jedi
• Attack of the Clones
• The Phantom Menace

Great movies:

1. Return of the Jedi
2. The Last Jedi
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. A New Hope

Good movies:

1. Rogue One

Flawed movies with redeeming qualities:

1. Revenge of the Sith
2. Attack of the Clones
3. The Phantom Menace

Bad movies:

1. The Force Awakens

The prequels are bad but are mostly fun to look at and have things that are great in theory. Most everything about The Force Awakens is terrible.

The last act of Rogue One is fantastic, but it doesn't have as much meat on it as the others. The characters are simple archetypes, which are enough for what the movie is, but the whole thing can't move past feeling like a very well done one-shot.

The original trilogy is wonderful and The Last Jedi has highs that compensate for its lows, with the rest of it being great all on its own.

For me, right now, I'm sitting at:

1. A New Hope
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Rogue One
5. Force Awakens
6. The Last Jedi
7. The Phantom Menace
8. Clone Wars
9. Revenge of the Sith

Thought process being: ANH and ESB are pretty close, but ANH edges ahead for being the original and I like the setpieces in ANH a bit better. RotJ is squarely last in the original trilogy for doing Death Star II and having Ewoks.

I really liked the idea of Rogue One; a smaller movie about the minor goings on between and around the big heros. It fumbles the execution, though; it's really a chopped together frankenstein flick. TFA reboots the franchise competently. Sure it's a rehash of ANH, and that's lame, but they do introduce the new characters well enough and set up some interesting plot threads. TLJ dashes all that, but doesn't do anything new with the supposed shakup. So it gets two negative marks, first for wasting TFA's potential, and second for failing to execute its own ideas effectively, either.

And finally, the prequels. They start off okay enough, minus marks for Jar Jar and little kid Anakin. The further we get into the love story and Anakin's turn, though, the worse they get, with maximum cringy awfulness in RotS. The increase in CG action doesn't elevate the later prequels enough to overcome that, for me.

1 Empire original / SE

2 Star Wars original / SE

3 RotJ original

4 Rogue One

5 RotJ SE

6 Last Jedi

7 Force Awakens

I don't care for the prequels and only slightly more for the Ewok movies so I won't list them here. I am not sure though if I prefer the Christmas special over the prequels but that's like deciding which pile of shit smells better.

1. The Force Awakens

2. The Empire Strikes Back

3. A New Hope

4. Rogue One

5. Return of the Jedi

6. The Last Jedi

7. Revenge of the Sith

8. Attack of the Clones

9. The Phantom Menace

I'm sure people will point out the parallels between The Force Awakens and A New Hope. The reason I ranked it first was because it's the better version of the two.

I didn't hate Last Jedi, but I didn't love it either. I found it adequate and more enjoyable than the prequels. I haven't seen the prequels since their theatrical releases, so I'm only ranking it above them based on remembering how much I disliked them at the time, and not actually judging it against them.

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Return of the Jedi
4. The Force Awakens
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. Rogue One
7. The Last Jedi
8. Attack of the Clones
9. Phantom Menace

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Rogue One
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Force Awakens
7. The Last Jedi
8. Attack of the Clones
9. The Phantom Menace

1: Empire Strike Back

2: A New Hope

3:Return of the Jedi

4:Rogue One

5:Revenge of the Sith

6:Phantom Menace

7:The Last Jedi

8:The Force Awakens

9:Attack of the clones (It would be lower if I could)

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Return of the Jedi
4. The Force Awakens
5. The Last Jedi
6. Rogue One
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. The Phantom Menace
9. Attack of The Clones

Best to least

1. Empire Strikes Back - I am your father. Introduction of Yoda. Hoth battle. Introduction of Lando. Just dark enough, but still not depressing. The classic.

2. Rogue One - Star Wars without the force (mostly). Every Character was well done. The way the ending perfectly went to A New Hope. Felt like a real war movie.

3. Return of the Jedi - Jabba. Jabba's Palace. Finally getting to see the Emperor up close. And his awesome royal guards. I even liked the Ewoks.

4. The Force Awakens - An awesome and fun return to our original characters. A lot of unanswered questions, that made it fun to talk about after.

5. A New Hope - I loved it as a kid. But it didn't date really well compared to the others. Still a great beginning to a series that affected my childhood.

6. Revenge of the Sith - Did its best to redeem 1 & 2. A bit too long, but still by far the best of the prequels. The younglings scene shocked me.

7. The Last Jedi - Fun to look at. Didn't give good answers to the questions in 7, and stretched what we thought of the force before. Waay too Disney. Off putting humor at bad times. Luke deserved better. Could be redeemed if 9 addresses its faults.

8. The Phantom Menace - Was shocked by how much I didn't like it walking out of the theater. I mean "Midi-chlorians"? Even Jar Jar was cooler than that. But had great locales. And Darth Maul was awesome.

9. Attack of the Clones - The worst convoluted story in the Star Wars series. And those romantic scenes were painful. Cool Jedi in Action. But an obvious filler to bridge 1 & 3.

The Good Ones!

Rogue One

Empire Strikes Back

Last Jedi

The OK And Mehhh Ones!

A New Hope

Return of the Jedi

The Bad Ones!

Force Awakens

Revenge of the Sith

The "There's A Special Place In Hell Reserved For These Ones"!

Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

IV > V > VI > VIII > VII > I > III > II

Definitive List

Good Tier:

The Empire Strikes Back

A New Hope

Return of the Jedi

Okay Tier:

Rogue One

The Last Jedi

Bad Tier:

The Force Awakens

Revenge of the Sith

The Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

1. A New Hope
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. The Last Jedi
5. The Force Awakens
6. Rouge One
7. Err, the Holiday Special?

Star Wars (1977)

The Last Jedi (2017)

All the others.

1. The Empire Strikes Back

2. The Force Awakens

3. Return of the Jedi

4. Rogue One

5. A New Hope

6. Revenge of the Sith

7. The Phantom Menace

8. Attack of the Clones

1. Rogue One
2. Return of the Jedi
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. A New Hope
5. Attack of the Clones
6. Revenge of the Sith
7. The Phantom Menace
8. The Force Awakens
9. The Last Jedi
10. Star Wars The Clone Wars

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Rogue One
3. The Last Jedi
4. A New Hope
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Force Awakens
7. Return of the Jedi
8. The Phantom Menace
9. Star Wars The Clone Wars (Animated Movie)
10. Attack of the Clones

As an aside I'll say that both Clone Wars and Rebels the animated TV series have episodes that are imo, better than every single Star Wars property otherwise that exists. Including Empire. But as TV shows, they are afforded the opportunity to focus on smaller characters for longer, and elaborate on story beats etc. If your a fan of the movies and would love more quality world building stuff and a focus on not just the Saga stuff but also the universe and some of it's other characters/planets, the shows do a much better job. First season of Clone Wars takes a bit to get into, but they develop some good stuff in the later seasons. However trying to "compare" them with the movies is impossible because the TV format affords them hours upon hours of extra running time, not to mention the freedom to take even whole story arcs to focus on things you just couldn't with the expectation of a movie.

A few people have Phantom Menance in the top half of their lists and I'm pretty curious why? While i dont agree I can see why RotS ends up there for some people but what do people see in the Phantom Menance?

The Force Awakens

Empire Strikes Back

Return of the Jedi

A New Hope

The Last Jedi

Rogue One

Revenge of the Sith

Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

Empire Strikes Back
A New Hope
Return of the Jedi
The Force Awakens
The Phantom Menace
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones
The Last Jedi

I haven't seen Rogue One yet so can't really talk about that one at all. I feel like Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens are pretty interchangeable for me, depending on the day. While Revenge of the Sith is probably actually the best of the prequel trilogy, I have a bit more nostalgia for the Phantom Menace, plus I appreciate the sets and locations, before it just became mostly CG for attack of the clones. The Last Jedi...I don't know, I'm not saying it's terrible but...I've never watched a Star Wars movie before watching my clock waiting for it to end and with no cares about the next movie.

1. Empire

2. A New Hope

3. Return of the Jedi

4. Rogue One

5. Force Awakens

6. Phantom Menace

7. Revenge of the Sith

8. Attack of the Clones

I haven’t seen Last Jedi yet. I was super excited, but have been trying to temper expectations with all the up and down discussion as of late.

Glad someone else in this thread finally joined the club, it was getting lonely in here.

1. Empire
2. Return of the Jedi
3. The Last Jedi
4. A New Hope
5. Rogue One
6. The Force Awakens
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. Phantom Menace
9. Attack of the Clones

I have really become down on The Force Awakens since seeing it for the first time. I just feel it's so derivative of A New Hope and the people they pumped up as being cool and worthwhile(Finn and Phasma especially) turned out to be busters of the highest order. I still need to see The Last Jedi again to solidify where it belongs on the list but anywhere from 3rd to 5th is probably where it will end up for now.

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. The Force Awakens
3. A New Hope
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Last Jedi
7. Attack of the Clones
8. Phantom Menace
9. Rogue One

Positions two and three seem to be interchangeable in my mind, as I wrote this list, walked away, and then changed the order when I came back. It really comes down to understanding what Lucasfilm was able to achieve back in '77 vs TFA more or less fulfilling what I always hoped those old movies could be with modern tech and a practically unlimited budget.

TLJ has fundamental plot and pacing issues along with what I feel are regressions in character arcs which outweigh the wooden and clunky dialog of RotS (easily its biggest flaw). As for Rogue One, I've challenged everyone I know who's seen it to name more than three original characters, and the 100% failure rate should tell you all you need to know about that mess of a film. At least everyone remembers how shit Jar-Jar was, but "guy with stick's buddy with the big gun" doesn't seem to ring a bell for some reason.

1. Return of the Jedi

2. Empire Strikes Back

3. A New Hope

4. The Last Jedi

5. Rogue One

6. The Force Awakens

7. Revenge of the Sith

8. Phantom Menace

9. Attack of the Clones

Empire is objectively the best film, but I have so much nostalgia for Return of the Jedi, that it has to win it for me. Generally the new movies are fine and well made with a great character in the center (Kylo primarily), but they lack some of the magic of the originals.

Prequels are obviously shit though Revenge does have some pretty good action scenes.

It's hilarious how most people have the last Jedi and force awakens eithernear the top or as "absolute trash garbage" at the bottom. Rarely middling.

@rk92: Emotions are running high, its too soon for people to be reasonable. That's the reason for the extremism.

1. Empire Strikes Back

2. A New Hope

3. 6,1,3,2

I really only consider Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope to be legit good movies. Empire Strikes Back is a fantastic film, A New Hope has some flaws but is still legit good. The rest I can honestly take or leave. I have not watched any of the new ones.

They all melt together to much for me to rank them properly but i can say this.

A new hope is the best one,

Revenge of the sith the least good one

Phantom menece i have more love for than most do. Its really good.

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Rogue One
3. A New Hope
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. Attack of the Clones
7. The Phantom Menace
8. The Force Awakens
9. The Last Jedi