Summary

  • The Star Wars franchise launched in 1977, and new movies continue to release today.
  • Many of these releases are divisive, with differing opinions particularly over Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
  • Every generation of viewers has a different relationship with Star Wars, meaning this ranking is sure to evolve.

What is the best Star Wars movie? Few topics are more debated amongst the fandom, ever since the original trilogy exploded with epic myth, parental plot twists and cuddly Ewoks. Screen Rant is here to settle the debate with a definitive Star Wars movie ranking.

The nature of Star Wars is constantly changing, of course, which means this list will inevitably change as new audiences mature. Every generation of Star Wars viewers engaged with the franchise in a different way; some fell in love with the hero's journey of Luke Skywalker, others by the tragedy of Darth Vader, and the latest generation first engaged with Rey. Meanwhile, the nature of Star Wars - which hops around the timeline - means every movie shines fresh light on its predecessors, reinterpreting them. There are even countless Star Wars TV shows to further expand the narrative, as well as books, comics, and other mediums. Here's every Star Wars movie (released in theaters - there's no Caravan of Courage or Ewoks: The Battle for Endor here), ranked from worst to best.

12 Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

A feature-length premiere that is struggling to find its feet.

The clones march on in the movie version of Star Wars The Clone Wars

This one's a little unfair as it wasn't made with a theatrical release in mind. Star Wars: The Clone Wars only became a cinematic event because George Lucas was impressed with the work of Dave Filoni and his team, and wanted to give it a bigger audience. However, while Star Wars: The Clone Wars would become the foundation for so many stories to come, its early seasons were certainly a case of a show finding its feet. That's truly evident in the feature-length premiere.

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars is, quite simply, not a good movie - even factoring in that it is an evolving show forced into the shape of a film. The story hangs together a lot better than the extended TV pilot premise really should, but that story is a mixture of pandering and fan bait. The animation and voice acting have promise, but it's rough going, with even aspects that would end up beloved initially feeling unrefined. Anakin Skywalker's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, is the perfect example; she was tremendously divisive when she was first introduced and, from the movie alone, that's understandable.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

19%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

40%

11 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

A movie as brand management gone wrong.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is what everybody feared would happen when Disney bought Lucasfilm and Star Wars in 2012 and hastily developed the sequel trilogy. It's a film that disregards the ending of George Lucas' episodes, that embraces fan service wholeheartedly, that takes J.J. Abrams mystery box storytelling to empty conclusion and that above all ultimately falls prey to studio mandate. The prime marketing line is that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the end of the Skywalker saga, but the mandate here is brand management after the divisive response to Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

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Bold swerves and fan service are nothing new to Star Wars, but The Rise of Skywalker takes on so much and moves at such a breakneck pace that everything becomes an unsettling blend of confused intent, poor setup, and supposedly emotional moments that are never given the time to land. While there's a competent sheen to the film, with franchise-fitting cinematography and mostly sharp CGI, the editing, story gaps and dialogue leaps put this firmly in the territory of the much-maligned prequels. With so much mishandled, it's unavoidable: Star Wars was only ever just a movie, but The Rise of Skywalker isn't even a good movie.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

51%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

86%

10 Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

A serviceable origin story that just doesn't quite work.

Han and Chewbacca in Solo A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story

Release Date
May 10, 2018
Director
Ron Howard
Cast
Alden Ehrenreich , Emilia Clarke , Donald Glover , Woody Harrelson , Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Thandiwe Newton
Writers
Jonathan Kasdan , Lawrence Kasdan
Budget
$275–300 million

Where to begin with Solo: A Star Wars Story? Directors fired mid-production, a replacement who reshot pretty much the entire thing, and the first box office bomb for the franchise: even by the turbulent productions of Disney Star Wars, that's next level. So it's somewhat impressive that the movie itself doesn't really betray that; it's a serviceable origin story that explores Han, making him more understandable without undoing that cocksure roguishness that made Harrison Ford's take so compelling.

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If anything, the problem with Solo: A Star Wars Story is a script that pulls both ways: it wants to be a gritty, down-and-removed smuggler tale under a totalitarian government, yet at every turn must tie itself into the wider mythos. Everything you never wanted to know about Han is explained, from the history of Lando's Return of the Jedi disguise to where the Solo name came from. It really unbalances what Ron Howard brings, best seen in the film's (and, in many ways, franchise's), worst moments; the undernourished and unclearly intentioned droid rights subplot, and the sudden Darth Maul cameo that pretends to tease a future for the character despite his canon story being wrapped up. Leaving all this aside, though, Solo got so much right that its failure is all the more disappointing. The action is fresh even for Star Wars, Alden Ehrenreich's performance is tremendous, and the 1977 Imperial Theme needle drop will never fail to excite.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

69%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

63%

9 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

Simultaneously the most anticipated and most disappointing movie ever made.

Darth Sidious and Darth Maul talking in secret in Star Wars The Phantom Menace

The fan reaction to Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is pretty much Yoda's "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering" adage writ large. It's been 20 years and only now is Star Wars emerging from that shadow (and still harrowing stories of the toxic fallout emerge). Ultimately, though, it's fine: Episode I is not great, it has serious problems, but it's pretty audacious and marked out the Star Wars prequel trilogy as something different almost immediately.

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Lucas always planned to have Episode I rooted in political intrigue, with Palpatine's manipulation of the Senate one of the first background ideas he noted down. In delivery, The Phantom Menace is al a bit muddled, with complex and somewhat illogical rules twisted without the audience quite understanding what's going on. There's a lack of engagement with the main narrative thrust, and the individual elements of Naboo, Tatooine, and Coruscant don't quite cohere. But story aside, it's visually and viscerally fascinating: the Trade Federation is a striking new foe and their invasion of Naboo the old-new of Star Wars personified; the podrace is uniquely delirious; and the simmering intensity of Duel of the Fates hasn't been topped. As for Jar Jar? He's not great but really not worth getting your ear flaps in a twist about.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

52%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

59%

8 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

George Lucas' limitations are on display in a surprisingly experimental movie.

Jawas and Sandcrawlers in Attack of the Clones

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones is a surprisingly experimental movie, but unfortunately that means George Lucas' filmmaking limitations are on full display. His storytelling is distracted, dialogue lacks the required emotion, and there's an over-reliance on CGI that proves debilitating. Yoda's duel with Count Dooku is a perfect example, because visually it's cool but it doesn't really feel as though it fits with the original character introduced in The Empire Strikes Back.

With all that being said, there are aspects that really work. Ewan McGregor enters his stride as young Alec Guinness in his own detective story (involving on a not-obtuse Jango Fett), Anakin's darker moments are well handled, and the final battle is the biggest of the series and made all the more fantastic by its hollow victory. And even on the VFX point, while there are a lot of scenes where characters walk down green-screened hallways, it's worth remembering the clones were all CGI creations, seven years before Avatar and nine before the "controversy" around Ryan Reynolds' all-digital Green Lantern costume. In that area at least, you can argue Lucas was just ahead of the curve.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

65%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

56%

7 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

An attempt to relaunch Star Wars that sadly plays it too safe.

The Force Speaks to Rey During Her Duel With Kylo Ren in Star Wars The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was always going to date more readily than other entries in the saga. It wasn't just Episode VII, it was the proper return of Star Wars following the prequels, and so every effort had to be made to rehabilitate the franchise. Viewed just seven years later, The Force Awakens is a solid entry in the saga. At the time, though, it was the make-or-break decider on whether the saga would continue in the eyes of many. In the end, the pressure probably meant J.J. Abrams played it too safe, with a narrative that had the sole aim of recreating the feel of the Star Wars original trilogy. It makes sense from a marketing viewpoint, but it lacks any development, and too much story goes untold.

What The Force Awakens does nail, though, is the characters. Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, BB-8 and, to a lesser extent, Poe, are so immediately fleshed out and thrown into an adventure that what is old feels new. The decision to spend 40 minutes introducing these new players before the potentially momentum-stopping entrance of Han Solo is one of the movie's best. This sees it coast through a choppily edited second act (watch it again and no scene connects well to the next) and to a thrilling cliffhanger (literally).

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

93%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

85%

6 Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

The most divisive of the sequels, a surprising evolution of George Lucas' vision that is loved by some and hated by others.

Luke Skywalker and the Twin Sunset in Star Wars The Last Jedi.

If George Lucas made Star Wars a deconstruction of mythic storytelling, Rian Johnson made The Last Jedi a deconstruction of Star Wars as the modern myth. The story is three generations deep (four counting Palpatine) and now galactic politics so incestuous the core idea - that Luke Skywalker is an everyman hero - has been lost. Episode VIII attempts to explore those ramifications and step beyond that, showing the flaws in the destined hero and the joy in the collective; the legacy-obsessed antagonist proclaims "let the past die" yet can't follow through, while the protagonist with no past to speak of discovers that she can grow from the mistakes of her mentor.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the most difficult movie to place in any ranking, simply because it's so divisive. Some Star Wars viewers adore it, considering it the best of the franchise, while others insist it isn't even proper Star Wars. Still, Johnson is to be praised for his bold attempt to return Star Wars to what it once was while moving it irrevocably forward. The division it has caused is a real shame, because that distracts from The Last Jedi's many great ideas. Johnson's themes are matched by a further evolution of Star Wars' visual style, and an unflinching expansion of the mythos. Hopefully, when the dust has settled, this will become the foundation on which Lucasfilm build many new stories.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

91%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

42%

5 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

The Star Wars prequel trilogy (mostly) sticks the landing.

The Star Wars prequels (mostly) stick the landing. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith still displays many of the creative issues that marred the previous movies; even Ewan McGregor isn't above some wooden delivery. Still, George Lucas' final Star Wars film completes his story in admirable fashion, and Matt Stover's novelization of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith serves to enhance this in an impressive way. The middle act involves a surprising amount of walking and talking as Anakin travels between the Jedi Temple and the Senate, but this is offset by Obi-Wan's detective mission against General Grievous, a villain who is striking mainly by how brief his role is.

Anakin's fall to the dark side is followed by the chilling horror of Order 66, as everything established by the prequels crumbles at shocking speed to leave the status quo from the original trilogy behind. The ending is totally convenient, with everything you wanted from the prequels rushed in a 15-minute epilogue, yet that only makes this cyclical sense of finality all the more wrenching. It was a rocky road, but the twin sunset was (almost) worth it.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

79%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

66%

4 Return of the Jedi (1983)

The tragedy of Darth Vader comes to a dramatic end.

The Emperor in Return of the Jedi

There was a time when Return of the Jedi was deemed the better sequel; Kevin Smith was going against the grain when he posited it was The Empire Strikes Back in Clerks. Today, that's quite clearly not the case, because sadly the final chapter of the Star Wars original trilogy hasn't dated terribly well. Nevertheless, it is still a near-great science-fiction movie and - while behind-the-scenes stories and the Ewoks can be used as examples of early rot - that shouldn't serve as a takedown.

The Jabba sequence is a fitting opening that delivers everything viewers expected while sideswiping other elements, with Boba Fett disposed of as an irrelevance (later stories didn't get the memo). With this done, Lucas moves on to a stunning finale. Everything involving the Emperor is delectable, injecting even more complications into Luke Skywalker, Darth vader, and the Force, while the space battle sets a high bar. Ewoks and redwood forests may not be to everybody's taste, but even that's enjoyable (and the primitive might of Ewoks toppling a war machine is a fitting symbol of Star Wars).

Oddly enough, the meaning of Return of the Jedi has been twisted more than anything else over the years. The Expanded Universe made the Luke and Leia sibling retcon core background, the prequels turned it into a Chosen One fulfilment, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker turned it into a pivot rather than an ending. It will be fascinating to see what future retcons will take place.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

83%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

94%

3 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

A gritty prequel to A New Hope that's packed with fanservice in the best possible way.

Death Star Explosion in Rogue One A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Release Date
December 13, 2016
Director
Gareth Edwards
Cast
Felicity Jones , Diego Luna , Ben Mendelsohn , Donnie Yen , Mads Mikkelsen , Alan Tudyk , Jiang Wen , Forest Whitaker
Writers
Tony Gilroy , Chris Weitz
Budget
$200–265 million

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is essentially the ethos of the Star Wars Expanded Universe turned into a movie. It explores a story adjacent to the main films, builds on concnepts and themes Lucas himself had established, and has a truly spectacular scale that makes the Empire feel truly imposing and oppressive. Gareth Edwards plays with scale similar to in Godzilla, taking the used-future aesthetic of A New Hope yet presenting it in a way that feels more imposing and oppressive. The characters get knocks, but each has a part to play as the story zips from planet to planet, and an arc that gives their deaths surprising weight.

This is all the more impressive given hints of behind-the-scenes drama and massive reshoots. These are only visible to a viewer who knows the trailers inside out, though, and the final act - complete with the stunning Darth Vader hallway scene - is incredible. In the end, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story elegantly connects to the original movie without any notable mental gymnastics, and that makes it a true achievement.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

84%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

87%

2 Star Wars (1977)

A movie full of joy and wonder, with an everyman hero anyone can connect to.

Luke watches the twin sunset on Tatooine in Star Wars

It's just Star Wars. Not Episode IV, not A New Hope: Star Wars. It's the end of New Hollywood, a throwback to the 1930s serials, a love-letter to Kurosawa, a western riff, an exploration of the hero's journey and a technical playground. And it's all glorious. It's so easy to downplay Star Wars because it's become so familiar, and it's been built upon in so many different ways; but take a step back, take in the world-building, the used-future, the big, human characters (even ones covered in metal or fur), the known yet alien landscapes, the symphonic score, the throwback actions (World War II dogfights and longsword fights) and it's a movie full of wonder.

Star Wars has built so much mythology on top of this story. Surprisingly, though, this first movie still works best when it's viewed in isolation. This is the story of Luke Skywalker, an everyman hero who any viewer can appreciate, an audience surrogate who proves anyone can change the fate of a galaxy. From Luke staring out at the twin sunset to his giggle at the medal ceremony, the small moments are the best.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

93%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

96%

1 The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

A sequel that dares to be different to its blockbuster hit predecessor.

If only more movies were like The Empire Strikes Back. So many modern sequels proclaim themselves as "The Empire Strikes Back of the franchise", yet that normally amounts to an increase of brooding and a desire to set up a third entry. While Episode V certainly is darker and does end on a cliffhanger down-note, those aspects aren't singularly what makes Irvin Kershner's - a teacher of Lucas - film great.

The Empire Strikes Back takes the core ideas of Star Wars - Rebels vs. Empire, everyman hero, mystical Force and the knights who wield it - and extends it. It creates a story that is emotionally deeper, expanding the galaxy in a way that is never superficial. It's challenging and against expectations more than even the most surprising modern blocbuster, and does while knowingly being neither a beginning nor an end. This is galactic tragedy set in an expansive landscape, levity and romance descending into terror and heartbreak, the insinuation that the Jedi are wrong. This is generally considered the best Star Wars movie of all, and it's easy to see why it has that reputation.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

95%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

97%

All Star Wars movies can be streamed now on Disney+.