I know it's a lot, but you should make some time for the Clone Wars and Rebels. Particularly for Prequel fans it really redeems those movies and adds so much to the story.
I seriously questioned my friendship with my best friend when he said solo was his favorite Star wars movie. I don't know what terrible choices he's made in his life, but they must be significant for him to come to that conclusion. This is a solid list in my opinion, very glad you listed rogue One as high as you did.
rogue one vs solo is just the best way to show the difference in world-building and writing. remember: rogue one is basically a movie to explain why the death star has that silly little fatal flaw... yet the show is so well-made that it spawned... freaking Andor! the characters make sense, the expanded continuity has weight because of the rebels and all the new characters. the stakes are high and everything is keyed to the right level of intensity... and to top it all off, IT SOMEHOW MANAGED TO HAVE VADER'S BEST SCENE! solo just felt completely forgettable or worse, self-indulgent. why not make it a tv series? then you can develop more of the world and have han do more space cowboy stuff... it didn't help that all the cheesy explainers were also terribly written and cringe-inducing. "so you're alone? han... solo, then." harrison ford was right to want his character killed off xD
Solo isn't that bad. Ron Howard is a solid director. I had fun with Solo. TLJ, Kenobi and Book of Bubba Fatt are bottom of the barrel... with TROS only slightly higher.
I'm with you regarding the prequels and regard the fight scene between Obi One, Quigon, and Maul, paired with the epic Duel of the Fates piece by John Williams is easily one of the very best moments (well, set of scenes) of the entire Start Wars universe!
except it ended on a pretty bleh note... made extra bleh by the inconsistent usage of force powers. remember when they had some sorta super speed when they were infiltrating the ship earlier? they were having such a well-choreographed fight but somehow QGJ exposes his belly for maul to stab? maul later gets halved; but he survives! yet QGJ with a clean stab dies almost immediately after giving obligatory final instructions... and to top it all off, rey later shows us FORCE HEAL exists xD
@@alveolateactualky maul surviving is something that REALLY bothers me but as it’s not shown in those prequels I didn’t know about it for a long time. In my head he’s dead-dead 🤷♀️ basically I get what you’re saying
Luke’s story in TLJ helped my little brother overcome huge anxieties in his life, so this movie and what happens with Luke will always matter to me, even if it doesn’t work for others.
I freaking love Rogue One and Andor. Both on the same level as the OT for me, because of how I feel about the characters fates. The last scene of RotJ when they have beaten the empire, and are all together will fireworks going off across the galaxy, then it cuts to the credits and the incredible John Williams score kicks in is one of the most rewarding moments in film history. The end of Rogue One, when you realise they are all going to die, but they are doing it just to give the rebellion a chance, just sends shivers down my spine even thinking about it now. And watching that alongside the OT, now helps to set up the payoff to RoTJ even more. It fits in absolutely perfectly and I can't separate it from the OT now, they all belong together. Even though I like the prequels a lot more than I did when they came out, they never made me feel that way. I don't even want to mention the sequels at all
It's nice to see that other people enjoy the prequels as well! My favorite is ROTS, but TPM and AOTC are criminally underrated and don't deserve the amount of hate they get sometimes.
Return of the Sith does have a lot of great moments, and from my comment section, seems like the favorite among prequel apologists, so you aren't alone!
I think the Phantom Menace has one of the best light saber fights in Star Wars, and the rest of the movie is passable. I can't stand the Attack of the Clones dialogue. It's the hardest prequel movie for me to watch. Return of the Sith was epic, and had the best action sequences of the prequels, and some good writing too. It just lacked the humor and charisma of the original trilogy. If it had that, it would have been a great movie.
That throne room fight is a very controversial scene! 😂 It’s a beautiful setting thematically, but the actual fight choreography is horrible. Worst large budget movie fight ever. I will never understand why they didn’t use the guy that coordinated the prequel fights. He’s still alive and his work is incredible.
THat's sooo funny, I loved the choreo, but see I know nothing about cinema/movies so I'm that basic person in the room who is like "wow cool!" 🤣Admittedly, it is interesting to hear you say the guy is incredible who coordinated the prequels, because I do think they have the best fight sequences.
Your ranking tiers are delightfully unique and fun. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the animated shows too. Like you, I came out of Force Awakens thinking "well, they played it super safe, now they can take it somewhere interesting for the next two." Ha ha... oh the naive optimism.
@@Bookborn I actually calmed down some friends of mine after it came out by rationally talking through how they got the play it safe movie out, and now they get to do some really interesting story stuff, because clearly that's the plan. Well damn, look at all that egg on my face. You could feed my entire neighbourhood with that much egg.
ROTJ was the first Star Wars movie I ever watched so that is my favorite. I rented it so much he was constantly asking me if I wanted to rent a different movie haha. The original trilogy will always have a special place for me.
The tragedy of Andor: By the time it came out, the Star Wars franchise had been damaged to such an extent that Andor was virtually ignored by the audience in proportion to the quality of the show.
Empire Strikes Back was one of the first movies i got to see in the theater without my parents. We had to get to the theater early because the lines were so long everyone was excited. It was almost like waiting in line for a rollercoaster. Expectations were so high that you would think it would be impossible for the movie to live up to that, but it did. People would walk out of the movie and go straight to the ticket booth to buy tickets to see it again. There was no way to improve on Empire so i think star wars fans were always sort of doomed to be disappointed. If there were 2 brain cells to rub together at Disney they would not have gotten anywhere near Star Wars, but they had their hubris.
I have thought for a long time that the prequals are more like one piece of media rather than 3 separate movies. PM is all the set up, AOTC is rising action and establishing conflict, and ROTS is the last few pieces of rising action followed by THE climax and resolution. Individually they are much, much weaker than when considered as a whole.
Such a great video. Love your thoughtful analysis and completely get why you have a soft spot for the prequels. As a kid who was born in the 70s and grew up in the '80s, that is probably my biggest gripe with your list because I really did not like the prequels except for revenge of the sith which was okay. I also would have ranked Mando a little higher and Rise of Skywalker to me was the only one that in that bottom tier. There were so many issues with it, and I completely agree that walking away from the Rey being nobody was a huge mistake. I also hated reincarnating palpatine, but more than anything, I hated that it literally felt like a completely different story from the previous one, which was admittedly flawed. You could actually see the internal fighting that happened at Disney to make this movie reflected on the screen, which can't be a good thing. Thanks again for the great video
I still get SO angry about how they got two directors who completely didn't agree and just... let it happen? are you KIDDING me? The first six Star Wars, even if you don't like the prequels, at least tell a consistent, and complete story. How could you start filming sequels to one of the largest franchises ever before agreeing on the overall PLOT? BASICS.
Some thoughts: - Agree totally about your assessment of the prequels, their stories are excellent buried under clunky/bad dialogue and not the best direction. But so much about those movies is fantastic, I love that you brought up the fashion, Amidala's looks are amazing, but the varied Jedi costumes, the clone armor, the looks of the different droids. And Dooku is tragically featured in the worst of the 3, but he is iconic. - I like Last Jedi a lot, I disagree with a lot of the takes out there on it. I think there are some amazing ideas there, and I actually think Luke's story there is great, though I wish they didn't show the flashbacks to his breakdown, let it be ambiguous. That said, I understand why it didn't work for everyone, and I wasn't pleased with the sequel trilogy overall anyway. I would have rather had Johnson's take on an original Star Wars story rather than a saga entry, and I wish JJ hadn't been involved at all. - I will always go to bat for Solo, on the basis that it is a fun and serviceable Star Wars adventure if you just pretend that the lead isn't Han Solo and is instead a wholly original character in the universe. Ehrenreich is charismatic enough as a lead, but he's not Harrison Ford, and he's not Han Solo. And I fully agree that explaining backstory stuff from the OT is unnecessary and giving Han a heroic arc before his heroic arc is dumb. But the story works as a stand-alone one-shot about some random thieves operating in the galactic underworld. AND IT INCLUDES A TRAIN HEIST, IN STAR WARS! Edit to add: Andor is the best Star Wars thing.
Ok I love the idea of Solo not being about Han Solo because then you are right about the movie - all my problems nearly disappear. And that's also why I wish they'd take more risks and do star wars stories about random characters and not established ones - so many stories they could tell!
If The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t dead set on undoing everything The Last Jedi did and actually followed through with the ideas set up, I feel like people would have a much more positive outlook on the sequels as a whole. But hey give it a decade or so and the people who grew up with the sequels will defend it and bash whatever new movies come out just like those who grew up with the prequels before them, and those who grew up with the originals even before them. Being a Star Wars fan is exhausting, so much negativity.
Hey I never bashed the prequels and I lived them! Itll be interesting to see if people come around on the sequels but I’m not sure they will - like you said, the movies feel at war with each other because no single narrative was followed.
@@Bookborn With all the content thats been released on Disney+ I could definitely see people only remembering the bad like Obi-wan and ignoring gems like Andor. It’s the same problem Marvel has.
Fun stuff! Haven't seen the tv serials just the movies so can't comment on those. Your comments made me think, imagine if Solo had described the arc of an optimistic naive young man who is made bitter and cynical by the realities of life under the Empire, and embraced selfishness and a life of crime. Totally family-unfriendly in the plot and messaging, but could have been really different and potentially a 'good' movie set in the future, rather than more space opera. I did like Kylo Ren's story arc, more so than Rae's which again was not particularly original.
AND THATS WHAT IT SHOULD"VE BEEN. Wouldn't have been that hard, tbh. Although, in general, I do think prequels are hard for the reason that a character arc is usually completed and it's hard to go back. The OG prequels work because Lucas always had Anakin's complete story arc in mind - meaning only half of it is seen in the originals. Andor works super well because idk the Andor creator knows what he's doing 🤣
@@Bookborn The thing about Luke that a lot of people forget for some reason is that he's a Jedi, and Jedi aren't supposed to train family members. He trains Ben Solo, who is the son of his twin sister and best friend, and never creates a contingency for if he goes dark. So Luke breaks the rule by having an attachment. Then the worst thing happens...Luke senses darkness in him, reads his mind and sees that he has already slaughtered people. So it becomes the "Trolly Moral Dilemma." By not killing his nephew, though he'd kill anyone else that posed a threat to the galaxy, he sacrificed his new jedi temple, his students, several planets and billions of lives. Almost like his father did to save his wife and unborn child(ren). So Luke acted like he always acted, as a pacifist when it came to family. Love is the death of duty. I thought TLJ was absolutely beautiful.
Somehow I saw the last Jedi in theaters and had no idea what was going on (even though I had seen the movies before as a kid- but mostly with other people who would always talk over them) so seeing the last Jedi is what made me go back and watch all the movies in my spare time so I have a special place for it, I feel like rise of the skywalker was the worst thing Star Wars ever did
I love that though! It's important to remember that even movies Star Wars fans don't love can be gateways into the fandom (I've seen several people say the force awakens was their first star wars and why they love it now, which is awesome). Also, Last Jedi did have a lot of good elements, imo, the Luke stuff just bothers me so much that it overshadows it.
After seeing some of the content beyond the main storyline, I'm using the following two thoughts to frame my readings of the narrative so far. 1. The greatest lie the Sith have ever told is that there are only ever two of them. 2. Yoda and the rest of the council have a very accurate sense of the word balance. As for the rankings, Boba Fett sold Han out to Jabba and will get no extra eyeball time from me in anything for which he is the star. Mandalorians can take their armor and polish it until the cows come home. If those bounty hunters were not necessary from time-to-time, they would be better off guarding the Imperial bank roll on some third moon somewhere.
I love this ranking so much - it shows Bookborn is a true Star Wars fan. A "true" Star Wars fan is a fan who has OPINIONS. I have to admit that I'm at most a low-tier level Star Wars fans. I do have OPINIONS on various Star Wars things, but for the most part I'm just easy to satisfy. Anyway, I do recommend checking out The Book of Boba Fett. They do something a bit unexpected with Boba Fett's story and character development, and Fennic Shand is absolutely delightful.
I highly recommend the Pitch Meeting for the Star Wars Christmas Special, it recaps its greatness in about 6 minutes! And it's a good call to avoid Boba Fett but I must admit that the ensuing rant would be amazing to witness lol
The Phantom Menace doesn’t deserve its bad rep. I think it was poorly received because it was the first Star Wars movie that wasn’t great, and people were disappointed that it wasn’t in the same class as the original trilogy. Also, it has the best light saber duel in all of Star Wars. Regarding The Last Jedi, when Mark Hamill told Rian Johnson that he had to think of Luke as a different character in order to play him, one of the producers should have said, wait a minute before we start filming, we’ve got a problem here…
Pretty close to my list. I'd move Phantom Menace down one, swap The Last Jedi with Solo, place Boba Fett in What is Happening. Did not see Andor due to dropping D+. A New Hope was the first movie I saw in a theater. It gets pride of place at the top of Perfection. For The Force Awakens I left the theater relieved they hadn't completely messed it up. Also, prequel trilogy suffered from the complete lack of chemistry between Hayden & Natalie. I think this was more about direction and writing than the actors.
Mmm, chemistry between Hayden and Natalie is something I never considered but you're right. Ford and Fisher were oozing in it, which also helped believability among perhaps less-than-stellar dialogue.
Yes, I will endlessly defend George Lucas, but the lack of chemistry between Hayden and Natalie is on him. I understand Anakin seeming awkward--he's supposed to be. He is emotionally stunted and his feelings for Padme are more of an obsession than a true, mature love. That's fine. But the problem is, why does Padme love him? Padme is mature beyond her years, and we don't really understand why she would be attracted to Anakin, at least at this point in his life. I think the idea is that she has been duty-bound since her childhood, and now she's discovering her spirit and is vulnerable to being whisked away by a free-loving uninhibited person. But that's not how Anakin is portrayed. So I think Natalie was completely flummoxed as to how to play the character and sell the romance.
What makes most people hate TLJ more than tRoS is Rian Johnson's attitude towards the fandom. Even though it constantly breaks lore, ruins characters left and right, introduces multiple awful new characters, and has possibly the single dumbest set piece in the entire saga, it IS a more coherent narrative than tRoS.
Yeah I mean, as much of a wreck TLJ is, I think it's the "best" of the three only because at least it TRIES, as abysmally misguided as it is, to do SOMETHING... at least, I *think* so. TFA is insultingly lazy and shockingly unimaginative, and TROS is literally a cinematic disaster. The way it's thrown together, it's like they spent less time editing it than the actual runtime.
@@pjalexander_author Well also considering that Johnson's ruining of the storyline caused Colin Trevorrow to forgo directing ep. 9, and from everything about his script that was leaked at that time that would have been an infinitely better movie. So not only can Rian be blamed for TLJ being awful, but he can also be blamed for tRoS winding up the shitshow that it was.
The prequels have such staying power. Pod racing, Darth Maul, Grievous. Maybe its because star wars is just that big, but they have stuck with me. I thought Solo was mid, but I am not the largest of Star Wars nerds. When you do a LOTR character ranking I will be locked in.
If Solo didn't do it for you then I'd recommend the Han Solo trilogy by A.C. Crispin. While it does explain Han's backstory, most of the explanations are better than the movie, and it's at least stretched over a trilogy instead of being condensed into a couple hours.
Great ranking. Solid fandom reasoning. I agree with about 95% of this, but I still have the Rise of Skywalker dead last. Book of Boba Fett felt like Mandalorian season 2.5. If you ever decide to watch it, there are a few characters in that show that took me out of the Star Wars universe altogether. Also, I'd swap Ep 1 and 3 in your ranking. That order 66 scene is one of the best scenes of the prequels!
This is a great ranking! Pretty similar to mine overall. My biggest difference is I do like Revenge of the Sith more than The Phantom Menace. I also didn’t hate Solo quite as much as you. And you’re definitely not missing anything by having skipped Boba Fett. What a lame show that was.
I'd say 99% of my comment section enjoys RotS more than TPM so I guess I really need to rewatch it now and just ignore the "nooo" scene and get over it 🤣
Great video! I love Star Wars. It's one of my favorite fictional universe's, from playing with action figures as a kid and being way too happy about wearing a Darth Maul backpack into my 2nd grade class, to watching and reading them annually as an adult. Beyond ignoring the core elements of what made us love the original characters, the biggest problem with the sequels is they make the universe feel repetetive, small, and inconsistent. With the different eras of Star Wars we get in the movies and the Expanded Universe timeline, while there are elements of consistency with the battle between Light and Dark, the landscape with how those battles take place are constantly changing based on the actions of humans and how it impacts the galaxy. Disney completely halted, went backwards, then blew up, the storytelling progression and logical consistency of the universe because they never understood it in the first place. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on some of the SW books if that's ever on the table! I'd be curious to hear what you've read so far and if you'd be open to trying others. May the Force be with you!
I'm def opening to trying more! I actually just read my first Thrawn book this year! I read most of the books when I was a kid, so I've only really read the more juvenille-focused books, like Young Jedi series (I think that's what it was called?) and the Jedi Apprentice series, as well as the novelizations of the books and some random Leia books here and there. Ok, that was a long way of saying I have to catch up on some of the more important adult Star Wars books in the future lol
@Bookborn Awesome! Hope you enjoy them :) Being well over 100 books it can be tough to decide what to read. Mike could probably help there. He has some videos on that topic. But I have some time to burn at the airport, so here are some spoiler free notes on what I'd consider some of the 'essentials' chronologically, to aid in deciding if you're interested: Darth Bane Trilogy - These are dark. Important moments in Sith history, with events setting the stage for the main story 1000 years before it happens. What makes these books so good is that you're reading from the perspective of someone learning how to become more powerful and more evil, but I often found myself rooting for him, and I'm not sure why. It's great! Darth Plagueis - This could be considered a sequel to the Bane books, tying it right into the movies: "Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?" - This is both that story and backstory for Palpatine. Kenobi - Much better than the Disney show. Smaller scale, rather than bombastic. This book is a Western, a story about conflict between Tatooine farmers, native Tusken Raiders, and the strange outsider named Ben who appeared recently. Obi-Wan is rarely the POV character, but it works very well. Underrated book. The Han Solo Trilogy (AC Crispin's books) - These are great world building books. The better backstory for Han, both tragic and fun. Quick reads. Written before the prequel movies, so some of the stuff with Boba Fett doesn't make sense canonically. The climax sequences in a couple of the books are excellent. Shadows of the Empire - Events between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, nicely filling in that time. Enjoyed Luke's growth and Vader's conflict quite a bit in this book. There is some excellent comedy. A couple scenes had me cackling out loud. However, a warning I feel obligated to give (mild spoiler ahead): There's an uncomfortable and creepy scene with one of the main female characters and a male villain. It turns out ok in the end, but I hated reading that part of the book (maybe that was the intent?). Other than that, the rest of this book is good, but if you don't want to read about an alien attempting to forcibly coerce sex by using pheromones, then not reading this one is understandable. Truce at Bakura - This book is immediately after Return of the Jedi, while our heroes are still on Endor. I'll say it, the alien villains of this book are kinda silly and bad. But the plot as the first diplomatic actions of the post-Emperor Rebellion, and the character work, is what makes this book worth reading. Leia in particular, still grappling with the knowledge that Vader was her father, is very good stuff. Thrawn Trilogy - You're reading it so you know. Considered the main first continuation of the story. Hand of Thrawn Duology - Can't say anything here, but sort of finishes this era of Star Wars books before the NJO begins. New Jedi Order - I'll defer to Mike's video that says why this series is important to him and worth reading. He does it better than I could. Legacy of the Force - The next big series of books. The children of the main characters are now main characters themselves. These books I feel enhance the overall story of Star Wars. There are tons of books in between these too, many of which I haven't read yet and intend to. What's neat is you can sort of pick and choose to read from whatever time period interests you most. A couple bonuses from new 'Canon'. While I'm not a fan of the new stuff generally, I have to give credit Claudia Gray, who wrote both of these and I really enjoyed both of them: Master and Apprentice - A story with Obi-Wan learning as Qui-Gon Jinn's apprentice. It's a good, fun stand-alone Jedi adventure. Lost Stars - This is the equivalent of a Star Wars rendition of Romeo and Juliet. I'm usually not big on romance, but I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book (lukewarm on the ending). You follow lovers who find themselves on opposite sides of the war as events from the original trilogy unfold. It shows the effects that Empire propaganda had with brainwashing people. That element of the Empire always fascinated me with how it translates to real life, and I thought it was done really well here.
I have all those Episode I PepsiCo cans boxed up somewhere. I was able to collect all of them as they came out except for Darth Maul. The next year I was at my aunt's house and was surprised to find one in her garage fridge, allowing me to complete the set.
Some of the ones I collected we never drank, so my family ahd to end up throwing them out when they inevitably got weird and started leaking. I'm so impressed you still have the entire collection!
I have the same nostalgia love for The Phantom Menace like you but its just not nostalgia its the feeling in the movie the soundtrack and especially the end fight between Darth Maul and Obi Wan, Qui Gon
@@Bookborn yea I’m a bit like you with Phantom Menace though, that was the one I rewatched the most as a child. But as I got older Revenge of the Sith got better overall, and I think once you watch the clone wars it will be so much better for you
RotS should be higher but the rest I agree with you on. I don't know why they picked Andor as a character to base a show on but I guess people like it so I'll give it a shot.
For me, there’s really only one title on this list that I don’t care for all that much and really struggle to watch. Thats the bottom one. The rest I either love or at least like and enjoy to some extent, and it’s often hard to choose. Nostalgia is also a factor, but personally: 1. Revenge of the Sith 2. The Empire Strikes Back 3. Return of the Jedi 4. A New Hope 5. The Last Jedi 6. Andor 7. Rogue One 8. The Phantom Menace 9. Attack of the Clones 10. The Mandalorian 11. The Force Awakens 12. Solo 13. Obi-Wan Kenobi 14. The Book of Boba Fett 15. The Rise of Skywalker
okay so obviously you know I love this video 😎 WHY are you apologizing for going TOO LONG? You seriously need to do a long form SW discussion so you can talk about all the things! My ranking is so close to yours. The most important things to me in a movie are story, characters, and cinematography, and if you consider those elements and compare Lucas SW to Disney SW, it's pretty obvious why one series is great and the other is... what it is. You said it best when ranking the bottom tiers and your tiebreaker was "it's shorter" 🤣😂🤣
Like look, we only have so much time, if I'm forced to watch something terrible I might as well get hours back 🤣 Maybe I'll add Star Wars to my list of live shows I want to do if I ever get a patreon so I can rant with you guys about random stuff without making it an official vid lol
Sorry to say you forgot two classic Star Wars movies: The Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage!! If you’re going to include the Holiday Special you have to include those two gems, hahahaha.
I have to admit that apparently I'm a fake fan...I literally always thought the Battle for Endor was animated! I had no idea it was live action until people have been telling me in the comments!
If you want to see the actual separation between the OG trilogy and the Prequels, do a scene comparison between the Han and Leia on the Falcon in Empire before they kiss and the scene between Anakin and Padme and his rant about sand. Everything about the scene is Empire is light years ahead of AOTC. Nuff said.
I'm glad this wasn't a review that just blatantly hate Disney star wars. Even if you don't like the sequels, rogue one is so good (i haven't seen andor yet) So just to defend solo a bit (of the movies, it ranks second to last behind attack of the clones) i think the idea behind Solo's arc is we are essentially seeing why he is a cold character in the beginning of a new hope. We see him as warm in Solo, but the betrayal from the love of his life probably wore on him
That was the most insane of the arguments against Andor for me. Like...Star Wars isn't JUST Jedi. It's an entire universe! There's room for so many stories.
I made myself do this off the cuff instead of planned, and it's weird how many times I was like "huh, I've never really thought about exactly where I'd place these" lol
I feel like there should be some category between "No" and "solid", like "very flawed but still entertaining", i would put Boba Fett and Obi wan Kenobi there. The Mandolorian would be (near) perfection The original trilogy, the prequels, The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker would be "Good to Great" The Force Awakens is "Jar Jar Binks Bad" Solo and Andor are "what is happening"
*S* Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Return of the Jedi *A* The Phantom Menace Revenge of the Sith *B* The Force Awakens The Last Jedi *C* Attack of the Clones Rogue One Solo *D* The Rise of Skywalker
May be a hot take but I would put RotS over A New Hope 😬 I was 4 when Phatom Menace came out so I have a huge soft spot for it, Christmas ‘99 was all Darth Maul toys
Ok soooo many people are talking about their love for RotS that I need to watch it again since it's been several years. I'm starting to think that maybe after getting over the whole "nooo" thing I might see it in a different light 👀
Attack of the Clones and Last Jedi should have been switched, and Revenge of the Sith could have been slightly higher, but otherwise the list is fair. I also think Empire Strikes Back is boring, but I'm also a child so maybe I'll grow into it like you did. Also Obi-Wan was good, I will stand by this
I haven't seen anything about it other than the first trailer but I'm mildly excited for Ahsoka. I think the Clone Wars show absolutely saved the prequels for me, I haven't watched Rebels but everyone of my friends who has says its great. And unlike Kenobi, Ahsoka isn't my favorite character so if its bad its not gonna ruin Star Wars and be a DNF (Probably, unless its awful).
I'm fairly close in my rankings, except that while I didn't like Solo I definitely put the sequel trilogy below it. The reason for this is that I genuinely feel like the sequel trilogy was intentionally written to lessen what came before, especially the original trilogy. That's worse than them just genuinely being really bad movies on their own. It starts with The Force Awakens giving us the exact same conflict that ended in Return of the Jedi. It doesn't matter that they rename the factions, it's still the same thing and that changes the climax of the OT from being this extremely satisfying victory against the Empire and against the dark side, to basically just achieving a lengthy cease fire. What the heroes and the rebels did just wasn't all that important anymore in the grand scheme of things. After removing that they go on to shatter all the character development that Luke had and basically wrote him as a completely different character (since he now lacks his two main traits that defines him throughout his development), so that OT thing also becomes irrelevant. I guess they do sort of the same with Han Solo, reverting him back so he can have his character development again, but this time thanks to Rey because everyone must love her. And finally they bring Palpatine back, making sure that Anakin's sacrifice ended up not balancing anything. The destruction of the original trilogy was now complete, and that is far worse than even something like Solo having to explain how he got his last name. Nothing actively hurts previous Star Wars canon as the sequel trilogy.
Solo is a better movie if you take Han out of it. It has interesting set pieces, new characters, tie-in with Maul, but we get distracted from the good because they kept trying to make it a story about Han.
I personally liked TFA, I felt like it had an element of like "time repeats itself and the force is a cycle" or whatever and I thought it had the potential to be a great set up for the other two movies to expand out into something new and original... which I guess they did but not in the way I wanted 😂 But I thought Adam Driver was great, I thought the Kylo/Rey dynamic had the potential to be really interesting, I'm a sucker for the nostalgia factor... just a shame the rest of the trilogy took a nose-dive!
Adam Driver is super great and one of the reasons Kylo doesn't completely fail as a character, imo, especially in the Last Jedi. He brings a lot of gravitas to the role.
I thought TFA was one of the worst stories every told in the history of storytelling. Something can repeat without being derivative, like the hook of a song. The hook is to reinforce the theme, to burn the theme in the listeners memory so that there's tired to road traction for the listener. TFA repeats the hooks and tries to rhyme the same word three times in a row, and those words belonged to the tracks in the first part of the album. Its a nonsensical random remix of the first three tracks of the album. It was absolutely uninspired and it felt like it was made by artificial intelligence before a.i. art was a thing.
@@Bookborn TLJ's Adam Driver is my favorite movie villain behind TDK's The Joker, and fifth fav villain in storytelling in general right behind "The Blight" in A Fire Upon the Deep.
I didn’t mind you taking the time to explain, perhaps rant a bit, about your choices. I wish you could have spent more time talking about the prequels and the last trilogy. I was 10 when I saw A New Hope. So I have a fondness for the original trilogy. I did like what Lucas did with the prequels. There was quite a bit of political intrigue and they still seemed to retain some of the tone of the originals. And that’s the crux of the matter for me, TONE. I feel Disney abandoned that tone with the last trilogy and the shows. The only show that may have retained some of it is The Mandalorian, although I haven’t finished the third season and I’m not sure I will. It didn’t seem to be as good as the first two seasons. I feel Disney has ruined their Star Wars and Marvel properties.
Tone is a really important element, and I do think some of the tone was ruined because they didn't have a cohesive story. Even people who don't like the prequels have to admit that the story is completely cohesive, and the themes of star wars are very apparent: redemption, rebirth, hope. I wish they would've focused more strongly on those themes in the sequels.
Agreed on TFA. It was one of the most derivative stories in the history of storytelling. No one in the history of man would have copied and pasted another story onto a new one and called it a sequel. It was so mind numbingly uninspired. I could see if he redid the OT and made them better, but he didn't. He repainted the mona lisa with a mustache. It was so terrible and it set a horrible precedent in film.
Do you still read any of the Star Wars books? I find myself avoiding the new stuff put out, but have been really enjoying digging through and finding some of the older ones I missed. My hot take on Star Wars is that I liked the Last Jedi. I wish they would have changed a few things, but I enjoyed a lot of it.
So I'm actually really polarized on the Last Jedi because there were actually a lot of things I did like about it, but the way they handled Luke drives me SO crazy, it's hard for me to give it anything but a bad score.
@@Bookborn I can completely see that and even mostly agree. I think if Rey had found another disenchanted Jedi who wasn't Luke people probably would have liked that story. Instead they just decided to show a beaten and fallen version of our hero and that definitely rubbed many people the wrong way.
I truly believe Disney dropped the ball by doing a Solo movie. They could have done a Lando movie which has so much space to explore. They coukd even have the Millennium Falcon in it for merch sales since we know he owned it before Han did. I think that movie could be at minimum solid if not done complete wrong.
Ok this idea is fantastic especially because a) the fandom isn’t as rabid about lando as han AND glover killed the role and could’ve carried an entire movie easily
I literally don't even remember the Solo movie at all, even though I know I watched it- so I am incapable of loathing it as much as you. Lol But that, in and of itself, probably speaks fair volumes all of its own. ^^
You'll need a lower category for the Accolade.... I never watched Solo. I knew the Cringe was going to be strong in this one. And I hated the third trilogy right from the start. The last of the old films is called "Return of the Jedi". Yet 30 years or so later, we learn the Jedi never won. The Empire just kept on existing in another form with new shiny Storm trooper armor, which makes no sense. Story wise, they should have redone a Phantom Menace. A functioning Jedi society, but then evil slowly starts seeping in. Corrupting an otherwise good world. With A NEW VILLAIN! The Emperor was dead! In hindsight, the 3d trilogy makes Luke Skywalker be an insignificant loser.
4, 5 and 6, probably in that order, then Rogue One, which I think will be seen as a classic. All the others have too many faults for me to rank. Agree about Solo. The actor was trying to channel Solo through the ticks and winks of Jack Nicholson and I didn't buy it
As an old, grumpy man (get of my synthetic lawn!) who saw Star Wars 7 times when I was 11, I still like the original trilogy the most. I was disappointed with the prequels when they came out, but I showed them to my 9 and 7 year old daughters and I liked them more than I remembered. I still can’t stand the character that shall not be named. The love story is typically sci-fi/fantasy bad. Disney has ruined SW for me. I wish they would have just followed the books.
How can someone be this right? You're not even /too/ critical, it just feels like these are honest opinions. I haven't seen Solo and I haven't seen the Rise of Skywalker, but you made me feel like I have been misrepresenting how I felt about the Force Awakens because I wasn't as open about my disappointment. Of course, your opinion on Andor was the cherry on top. I wanted to disagree with something, but I couldn't, and you seem like a bigger fan than me, too, so, thanks.
Here's the real question... which version of the OT? Because the original? Yes. Remastered? Definitely not. So many changes were made that weren't just cosmetic, some legitimately changed characters.
Man I was *positive* Boba Fett would be the worst. It was so low effort and it's best part were basically Mando 2.5. what a waste of such an iconic character. I keep forgetting solo exists. Prequels were fine and deserve apologies. Sequels should be shot into the sun. Shout out to Rebels for being SO GOOD. And low key giving me hope for Ashoka (please. Please god)
Solid list. I originally saw Star Wars in 1996 after my dad got the Original Trilogy on VHS in the 1995 "One Last Time.." box set that came out before the Special Editions came out in 1997. Though I had watched both the Droids and Ewoks cartoons when I was even younger, had the toys and had the third issue of the Star Wars: Dark Empire comic book series. What got me into Star Wars, being that I am a Star Trek fan since birth, were the novels. Particularly the Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin, which did Han Solo's backstory a thousand times better than Solo did, and the X-Wing series by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston. My best friend in the sixth grade lent them to me. I saw The Phantom Menace in theatres twice within a week of each other, and then didn't see Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith until they came out on home video. I saw the remaining movies and shows as they came out. I went to the first showing of Rogue One on the Thursday night preview night and, while I'm not as big of a fan of that movie as other people are, I still enjoyed it for what it was. I didn't see Solo in theatres though. I thought it was pointless because my Han Solo backstory had come out 21 years earlier in the novel trilogy by A.C. Crispin, and the movie felt wrong. I love The Mandalorian, though I do think season one is the best season. They keep trying to cram too much into these six to eight episode seasons and it doesn't work. I like Obi-Wan Kenobi just because Ewan MacGregor and Hayden Christensen got to reprise their roles, which nobody could've anticipated happening. The sequels aren't great either. Book of Boba Fett was pointless and really just a way to get Mando and Grogu back to together without wasting time in The Mandalorian to reunite them. And I haven't watched Andor yet. That's just a me thing though, it in no way represents the show as a whole.
Great Video. Thank you. My own Star Wars opinions are somewhat controversial. For one I loved The Last Jedi. And I like Jar Jar Binks, not love but like. I’m a huge original trilogy fan. They are still my favorites. So when TPM came out I hated it, but Jar Jar was actually one of it’s redeeming qualities for me. My favorite things were Qui Gong and Palpatine. Obi Wan I found really boring in TPM. After several rewatches I became to like TMP and now also think it’s the best of the preqels. So here’s my ranking: RotJ ANH TESB TLJ Rogue 1 Andor TPM Force Awakens RotS Mandalorian Boba Fett Obi Wan AotC Solo And Rise of Skywalker last. What an absolute shitshow. I also laughed at the Ray is a Palpetine reveal. It’s the only Star Wars movie I’ll probably never watch again.
I cannot fault Rise of Skywalker being last because it is probably the ACTUALLY Worst movie on the list, I just have a totally irrational hatred of Solo. I just HATE the idea of Rey being a Palpatine for multiple reasons but the biggest is how it's like "haha! Let's just bring an old villain back because we can't even think of a new one!"
I didn't love Kenobi as a show, but I enjoyed a few of the things that happened in it. Ever since I was a kid and first watched the originals, I was always upset that both Luke and Leia had their family murdered in ANH and then never addressed it again (in live action). So for the fan of Beru, Owen, Bail, and Breha in me, I really appreciated that Kenobi showed the depth of the love these adults had for their children. That the show gave us a little look into the life of the Skywalker twins adoptive families, the people that raised them. Which I think is just as thematically relevant to the series as their relationship with Anakin/Vader. Again, I can't say I love the actual events of the show, but that will still remain the highlight to me. While I think BOBF was equally as uninspiring in terms of plot, I really appreciated that they took the time to remove some of the racism and orientalism surrounding the Tusken Raiders. The show took care to humanize this group that is based on several indigenous cultures, a group that for so long were portrayed as 'savage' monsters. Otherwise it was unfortunately a bust.
My rankings are very different (RotS is the only prequel I unironically enjoy and I love TLJ, partly cause of Luke's story, lol), but I still had a great time watching this ^^ I'm hoping Star Wars fans get to the place where we can civilly disagree, cause I don't think that's very common in the fanbase. I watch you for book content, but this a fun way to mix up the stuff 😊
I agree with almost all of your choices. In my eyes, Revege of the Sith is one of my favorite movies of all time, Even more so than all of the originals. Ad the novelized version is even better. I highly recommend you read all the Star Wars movie novels if you haven’t already. They’re amazing, and give a lot more insight to the stories.
You're brave for making this video, because I'm sure everyone is like YOU'RE WRONG lol. I'll only say that my least favorite is the Last Jedi as I felt Rian Johnson had never seen a Star Wars film and his character assassination of Luke Skywalker made my blood boil.
Honestly, I love this long-form content every bit as much as I love your usual, shorter formats. I'd be thrilled to see more videos at this length!
ok ok fine fine maybe someday I'll release my unedited unhinged rants that are like 40 min and then you'll all really suffer 😂
I know it's a lot, but you should make some time for the Clone Wars and Rebels. Particularly for Prequel fans it really redeems those movies and adds so much to the story.
I have heard nothing about amazing things about Clone Wars and I really will watch it all some day. I've seen a few episodes!
@@Bookbornyou really should watch both series, it is a must
I seriously questioned my friendship with my best friend when he said solo was his favorite Star wars movie. I don't know what terrible choices he's made in his life, but they must be significant for him to come to that conclusion. This is a solid list in my opinion, very glad you listed rogue One as high as you did.
rogue one vs solo is just the best way to show the difference in world-building and writing.
remember: rogue one is basically a movie to explain why the death star has that silly little fatal flaw... yet the show is so well-made that it spawned... freaking Andor! the characters make sense, the expanded continuity has weight because of the rebels and all the new characters. the stakes are high and everything is keyed to the right level of intensity... and to top it all off, IT SOMEHOW MANAGED TO HAVE VADER'S BEST SCENE!
solo just felt completely forgettable or worse, self-indulgent. why not make it a tv series? then you can develop more of the world and have han do more space cowboy stuff... it didn't help that all the cheesy explainers were also terribly written and cringe-inducing. "so you're alone? han... solo, then." harrison ford was right to want his character killed off xD
I try not to fault people for liking Solo but it's hard 🙃
Solo isn't that bad. Ron Howard is a solid director. I had fun with Solo. TLJ, Kenobi and Book of Bubba Fatt are bottom of the barrel... with TROS only slightly higher.
@jonjon94Agree... Solo, Rogue One, Andor
I would put it slightly above Kenobi, ROS, and Boba Fett, but it's still pretty bad. Still definitely in the "What is happening zone" though.
I love hearing your nerdy rants! Keep them coming 🎉 I would have still watch this if it was 40 minutes 😂
Next time I'll go into the deep dive on why everything Padme wears is a revelation
@@Bookborn 🤩
I'm with you regarding the prequels and regard the fight scene between Obi One, Quigon, and Maul, paired with the epic Duel of the Fates piece by John Williams is easily one of the very best moments (well, set of scenes) of the entire Start Wars universe!
Ok YES. that song and fight scene together is seriously one of the best cinematic scenes in history and I stand by it. Literally ICONIC.
except it ended on a pretty bleh note... made extra bleh by the inconsistent usage of force powers. remember when they had some sorta super speed when they were infiltrating the ship earlier? they were having such a well-choreographed fight but somehow QGJ exposes his belly for maul to stab? maul later gets halved; but he survives! yet QGJ with a clean stab dies almost immediately after giving obligatory final instructions... and to top it all off, rey later shows us FORCE HEAL exists xD
@@alveolateactualky maul surviving is something that REALLY bothers me but as it’s not shown in those prequels I didn’t know about it for a long time. In my head he’s dead-dead 🤷♀️ basically I get what you’re saying
Don’t ever apologize for being a prequel apologist. 🤌🏻
Luke’s story in TLJ helped my little brother overcome huge anxieties in his life, so this movie and what happens with Luke will always matter to me, even if it doesn’t work for others.
When Darth Vader yelled "no" in ROTS I laughed for like... A half an hour
It doesn’t get any less funny I could not contain my laughter while watching again 🤣
I freaking love Rogue One and Andor. Both on the same level as the OT for me, because of how I feel about the characters fates.
The last scene of RotJ when they have beaten the empire, and are all together will fireworks going off across the galaxy, then it cuts to the credits and the incredible John Williams score kicks in is one of the most rewarding moments in film history.
The end of Rogue One, when you realise they are all going to die, but they are doing it just to give the rebellion a chance, just sends shivers down my spine even thinking about it now. And watching that alongside the OT, now helps to set up the payoff to RoTJ even more. It fits in absolutely perfectly and I can't separate it from the OT now, they all belong together.
Even though I like the prequels a lot more than I did when they came out, they never made me feel that way.
I don't even want to mention the sequels at all
I love your videos so much, that I watched this one, even though I have not seen a single Starwars movie😂
It's nice to see that other people enjoy the prequels as well! My favorite is ROTS, but TPM and AOTC are criminally underrated and don't deserve the amount of hate they get sometimes.
Return of the Sith does have a lot of great moments, and from my comment section, seems like the favorite among prequel apologists, so you aren't alone!
I think the Phantom Menace has one of the best light saber fights in Star Wars, and the rest of the movie is passable. I can't stand the Attack of the Clones dialogue. It's the hardest prequel movie for me to watch. Return of the Sith was epic, and had the best action sequences of the prequels, and some good writing too. It just lacked the humor and charisma of the original trilogy. If it had that, it would have been a great movie.
@@darrennewenhouse7334 Bro just watched the romance scences and thought it was all of AOTC
Star Wars I II III IV V VI are the GOATs, the pure masterpieces of the Star Wars world that built the legend, and they can never be beaten 🩷🔥🌟👸🏻
That throne room fight is a very controversial scene! 😂
It’s a beautiful setting thematically, but the actual fight choreography is horrible. Worst large budget movie fight ever. I will never understand why they didn’t use the guy that coordinated the prequel fights. He’s still alive and his work is incredible.
THat's sooo funny, I loved the choreo, but see I know nothing about cinema/movies so I'm that basic person in the room who is like "wow cool!" 🤣Admittedly, it is interesting to hear you say the guy is incredible who coordinated the prequels, because I do think they have the best fight sequences.
Please don’t fight me, but Rogue One is my favorite SW film by a long shot. I’m happy that you put it in A tier.
It only makes me a little sad, but not too sad because I do think it’s a fantastic film!
Your ranking tiers are delightfully unique and fun.
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the animated shows too.
Like you, I came out of Force Awakens thinking "well, they played it super safe, now they can take it somewhere interesting for the next two." Ha ha... oh the naive optimism.
So many of us were really convinced they were going to actually do something with the sequels huh 😭
@@Bookborn I actually calmed down some friends of mine after it came out by rationally talking through how they got the play it safe movie out, and now they get to do some really interesting story stuff, because clearly that's the plan.
Well damn, look at all that egg on my face. You could feed my entire neighbourhood with that much egg.
ROTJ was the first Star Wars movie I ever watched so that is my favorite. I rented it so much he was constantly asking me if I wanted to rent a different movie haha. The original trilogy will always have a special place for me.
Andor is my favourite example of why I hate the prequels :)
This might be the best Star Wars opinion I’ve ever seen. Phantom Menace is my favorite!
The tragedy of Andor: By the time it came out, the Star Wars franchise had been damaged to such an extent that Andor was virtually ignored by the audience in proportion to the quality of the show.
"Mandalorian is definitely worse than the prequels"
Wow we were doing so good back when we used to be friends
And she hasn't even watched season 3 😂
@@praiha well season 3 isn't very good so
@@readbykyle3082 well, that was my point. She hasn't even seen the worst bit (which was still better than Boba Fett and Obi-Wan)
@@praiha ahh, gotcha. Yeah, S3 wasn't very good, but it had great moments. I'm hopeful it'll set up a good S4, with Filoni more hands on.
@@readbykyle3082 Yeah, I'm bit worried how motivated Pedro Pascal will be at this point, but let's see how it goes...
Empire Strikes Back was one of the first movies i got to see in the theater without my parents. We had to get to the theater early because the lines were so long everyone was excited. It was almost like waiting in line for a rollercoaster. Expectations were so high that you would think it would be impossible for the movie to live up to that, but it did. People would walk out of the movie and go straight to the ticket booth to buy tickets to see it again. There was no way to improve on Empire so i think star wars fans were always sort of doomed to be disappointed. If there were 2 brain cells to rub together at Disney they would not have gotten anywhere near Star Wars, but they had their hubris.
Unfortunately, I fear, Disney has gotten everything they wanted out of Star Wars whether it's good content or not... 💰
I have thought for a long time that the prequals are more like one piece of media rather than 3 separate movies. PM is all the set up, AOTC is rising action and establishing conflict, and ROTS is the last few pieces of rising action followed by THE climax and resolution. Individually they are much, much weaker than when considered as a whole.
Such a great video. Love your thoughtful analysis and completely get why you have a soft spot for the prequels. As a kid who was born in the 70s and grew up in the '80s, that is probably my biggest gripe with your list because I really did not like the prequels except for revenge of the sith which was okay. I also would have ranked Mando a little higher and Rise of Skywalker to me was the only one that in that bottom tier. There were so many issues with it, and I completely agree that walking away from the Rey being nobody was a huge mistake. I also hated reincarnating palpatine, but more than anything, I hated that it literally felt like a completely different story from the previous one, which was admittedly flawed. You could actually see the internal fighting that happened at Disney to make this movie reflected on the screen, which can't be a good thing. Thanks again for the great video
I still get SO angry about how they got two directors who completely didn't agree and just... let it happen? are you KIDDING me? The first six Star Wars, even if you don't like the prequels, at least tell a consistent, and complete story. How could you start filming sequels to one of the largest franchises ever before agreeing on the overall PLOT? BASICS.
@@Bookborn amen to that. Keep kicking butt.
Some thoughts:
- Agree totally about your assessment of the prequels, their stories are excellent buried under clunky/bad dialogue and not the best direction. But so much about those movies is fantastic, I love that you brought up the fashion, Amidala's looks are amazing, but the varied Jedi costumes, the clone armor, the looks of the different droids. And Dooku is tragically featured in the worst of the 3, but he is iconic.
- I like Last Jedi a lot, I disagree with a lot of the takes out there on it. I think there are some amazing ideas there, and I actually think Luke's story there is great, though I wish they didn't show the flashbacks to his breakdown, let it be ambiguous. That said, I understand why it didn't work for everyone, and I wasn't pleased with the sequel trilogy overall anyway. I would have rather had Johnson's take on an original Star Wars story rather than a saga entry, and I wish JJ hadn't been involved at all.
- I will always go to bat for Solo, on the basis that it is a fun and serviceable Star Wars adventure if you just pretend that the lead isn't Han Solo and is instead a wholly original character in the universe. Ehrenreich is charismatic enough as a lead, but he's not Harrison Ford, and he's not Han Solo. And I fully agree that explaining backstory stuff from the OT is unnecessary and giving Han a heroic arc before his heroic arc is dumb. But the story works as a stand-alone one-shot about some random thieves operating in the galactic underworld. AND IT INCLUDES A TRAIN HEIST, IN STAR WARS!
Edit to add: Andor is the best Star Wars thing.
Ok I love the idea of Solo not being about Han Solo because then you are right about the movie - all my problems nearly disappear. And that's also why I wish they'd take more risks and do star wars stories about random characters and not established ones - so many stories they could tell!
Once you said, you were a prequel apologist, i knew your tier tist was going to be good
Prequel apologists RISE UP
Aye, I agree with that. Though personally I would put Revenge of the Sith a bit higher.
If The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t dead set on undoing everything The Last Jedi did and actually followed through with the ideas set up, I feel like people would have a much more positive outlook on the sequels as a whole. But hey give it a decade or so and the people who grew up with the sequels will defend it and bash whatever new movies come out just like those who grew up with the prequels before them, and those who grew up with the originals even before them. Being a Star Wars fan is exhausting, so much negativity.
Hey I never bashed the prequels and I lived them! Itll be interesting to see if people come around on the sequels but I’m not sure they will - like you said, the movies feel at war with each other because no single narrative was followed.
@@Bookborn With all the content thats been released on Disney+ I could definitely see people only remembering the bad like Obi-wan and ignoring gems like Andor. It’s the same problem Marvel has.
Fun stuff! Haven't seen the tv serials just the movies so can't comment on those. Your comments made me think, imagine if Solo had described the arc of an optimistic naive young man who is made bitter and cynical by the realities of life under the Empire, and embraced selfishness and a life of crime. Totally family-unfriendly in the plot and messaging, but could have been really different and potentially a 'good' movie set in the future, rather than more space opera. I did like Kylo Ren's story arc, more so than Rae's which again was not particularly original.
AND THATS WHAT IT SHOULD"VE BEEN. Wouldn't have been that hard, tbh. Although, in general, I do think prequels are hard for the reason that a character arc is usually completed and it's hard to go back. The OG prequels work because Lucas always had Anakin's complete story arc in mind - meaning only half of it is seen in the originals. Andor works super well because idk the Andor creator knows what he's doing 🤣
@@Bookborn The thing about Luke that a lot of people forget for some reason is that he's a Jedi, and Jedi aren't supposed to train family members. He trains Ben Solo, who is the son of his twin sister and best friend, and never creates a contingency for if he goes dark. So Luke breaks the rule by having an attachment. Then the worst thing happens...Luke senses darkness in him, reads his mind and sees that he has already slaughtered people. So it becomes the "Trolly Moral Dilemma." By not killing his nephew, though he'd kill anyone else that posed a threat to the galaxy, he sacrificed his new jedi temple, his students, several planets and billions of lives. Almost like his father did to save his wife and unborn child(ren). So Luke acted like he always acted, as a pacifist when it came to family. Love is the death of duty. I thought TLJ was absolutely beautiful.
Somehow I saw the last Jedi in theaters and had no idea what was going on (even though I had seen the movies before as a kid- but mostly with other people who would always talk over them) so seeing the last Jedi is what made me go back and watch all the movies in my spare time so I have a special place for it, I feel like rise of the skywalker was the worst thing Star Wars ever did
I love that though! It's important to remember that even movies Star Wars fans don't love can be gateways into the fandom (I've seen several people say the force awakens was their first star wars and why they love it now, which is awesome). Also, Last Jedi did have a lot of good elements, imo, the Luke stuff just bothers me so much that it overshadows it.
After seeing some of the content beyond the main storyline, I'm using the following two thoughts to frame my readings of the narrative so far. 1. The greatest lie the Sith have ever told is that there are only ever two of them. 2. Yoda and the rest of the council have a very accurate sense of the word balance. As for the rankings, Boba Fett sold Han out to Jabba and will get no extra eyeball time from me in anything for which he is the star. Mandalorians can take their armor and polish it until the cows come home. If those bounty hunters were not necessary from time-to-time, they would be better off guarding the Imperial bank roll on some third moon somewhere.
Empire Strikes Back has big marvel dialogue energy. Just quip to quip to quip
I love this ranking so much - it shows Bookborn is a true Star Wars fan. A "true" Star Wars fan is a fan who has OPINIONS. I have to admit that I'm at most a low-tier level Star Wars fans. I do have OPINIONS on various Star Wars things, but for the most part I'm just easy to satisfy.
Anyway, I do recommend checking out The Book of Boba Fett. They do something a bit unexpected with Boba Fett's story and character development, and Fennic Shand is absolutely delightful.
True Star Wars fans have opinions and are too loud about them so true 😭
I'm Gen-X, so I dont like the Prequels or Sequels, but appreciate your honest opinion on them, and largely agree with your other comments
I highly recommend the Pitch Meeting for the Star Wars Christmas Special, it recaps its greatness in about 6 minutes! And it's a good call to avoid Boba Fett but I must admit that the ensuing rant would be amazing to witness lol
Didn't know there was a pitch meeting on that one, love that channel, will def go find it haha
The Phantom Menace doesn’t deserve its bad rep. I think it was poorly received because it was the first Star Wars movie that wasn’t great, and people were disappointed that it wasn’t in the same class as the original trilogy. Also, it has the best light saber duel in all of Star Wars.
Regarding The Last Jedi, when Mark Hamill told Rian Johnson that he had to think of Luke as a different character in order to play him, one of the producers should have said, wait a minute before we start filming, we’ve got a problem here…
I collected those pop cans too! So great to see I wasn't the only one nerdy enough to do this lol The picture of the cans made me so nostalgic.
Obi-Wan is AMAZING!! Great story!
I would have put Mandalorian in JarJar Tier, but otherwise 100% agree with the list
Asohka would probably sit in "No"
I only watched one episode of Asohka ☠️ it wasn’t bad but it felt… boring and uninspired
@@Bookborn I would say "soulless" and "bland"
As someone who knows almost nothing about star wars, i loved the han solo movie 😂😂
My hatred is absolutely irrational, you really shouldn't listen to me on it 😂
@@Bookborn 😂
Pretty close to my list. I'd move Phantom Menace down one, swap The Last Jedi with Solo, place Boba Fett in What is Happening. Did not see Andor due to dropping D+. A New Hope was the first movie I saw in a theater. It gets pride of place at the top of Perfection. For The Force Awakens I left the theater relieved they hadn't completely messed it up. Also, prequel trilogy suffered from the complete lack of chemistry between Hayden & Natalie. I think this was more about direction and writing than the actors.
Mmm, chemistry between Hayden and Natalie is something I never considered but you're right. Ford and Fisher were oozing in it, which also helped believability among perhaps less-than-stellar dialogue.
Yes, I will endlessly defend George Lucas, but the lack of chemistry between Hayden and Natalie is on him. I understand Anakin seeming awkward--he's supposed to be. He is emotionally stunted and his feelings for Padme are more of an obsession than a true, mature love. That's fine. But the problem is, why does Padme love him? Padme is mature beyond her years, and we don't really understand why she would be attracted to Anakin, at least at this point in his life. I think the idea is that she has been duty-bound since her childhood, and now she's discovering her spirit and is vulnerable to being whisked away by a free-loving uninhibited person. But that's not how Anakin is portrayed. So I think Natalie was completely flummoxed as to how to play the character and sell the romance.
What makes most people hate TLJ more than tRoS is Rian Johnson's attitude towards the fandom. Even though it constantly breaks lore, ruins characters left and right, introduces multiple awful new characters, and has possibly the single dumbest set piece in the entire saga, it IS a more coherent narrative than tRoS.
Yeah I mean, as much of a wreck TLJ is, I think it's the "best" of the three only because at least it TRIES, as abysmally misguided as it is, to do SOMETHING... at least, I *think* so. TFA is insultingly lazy and shockingly unimaginative, and TROS is literally a cinematic disaster. The way it's thrown together, it's like they spent less time editing it than the actual runtime.
@@pjalexander_author Well also considering that Johnson's ruining of the storyline caused Colin Trevorrow to forgo directing ep. 9, and from everything about his script that was leaked at that time that would have been an infinitely better movie. So not only can Rian be blamed for TLJ being awful, but he can also be blamed for tRoS winding up the shitshow that it was.
@@HeavyTopspin Yeah the whole thing is a cluster. No focus, no direction, just showmanship above storytelling.
The christmas special isn't "bad", it's the most trippy thing ever. You need to see it!
I watched a couple minute clip of it while doing this video and... it was somehow worse than I expected 🤣
The prequels have such staying power. Pod racing, Darth Maul, Grievous. Maybe its because star wars is just that big, but they have stuck with me. I thought Solo was mid, but I am not the largest of Star Wars nerds. When you do a LOTR character ranking I will be locked in.
Idk where to even begin with an LOTR character ranking, I love every character too much 🤣
If Solo didn't do it for you then I'd recommend the Han Solo trilogy by A.C. Crispin.
While it does explain Han's backstory, most of the explanations are better than the movie, and it's at least stretched over a trilogy instead of being condensed into a couple hours.
Great ranking. Solid fandom reasoning. I agree with about 95% of this, but I still have the Rise of Skywalker dead last. Book of Boba Fett felt like Mandalorian season 2.5. If you ever decide to watch it, there are a few characters in that show that took me out of the Star Wars universe altogether. Also, I'd swap Ep 1 and 3 in your ranking. That order 66 scene is one of the best scenes of the prequels!
MOST people seem to swap out TPM and ROTS so I really need to revisit that one and just ignore the "NOOO" Scene 💀
And the Duel on Mustafar is the best lightsaber duel, I will die on this hill.
@@KaiHung-wv3uleasily
This is a great ranking! Pretty similar to mine overall. My biggest difference is I do like Revenge of the Sith more than The Phantom Menace. I also didn’t hate Solo quite as much as you. And you’re definitely not missing anything by having skipped Boba Fett. What a lame show that was.
I'd say 99% of my comment section enjoys RotS more than TPM so I guess I really need to rewatch it now and just ignore the "nooo" scene and get over it 🤣
My fav is star wars 3 action from start to finish fantastic movie peek star wars
Jar jar binks is the best character in phantom menace and it’s the best of the prequels
This is just objectively true. Just look at his dialogue. It’s actually brilliant
Great video! I love Star Wars. It's one of my favorite fictional universe's, from playing with action figures as a kid and being way too happy about wearing a Darth Maul backpack into my 2nd grade class, to watching and reading them annually as an adult. Beyond ignoring the core elements of what made us love the original characters, the biggest problem with the sequels is they make the universe feel repetetive, small, and inconsistent. With the different eras of Star Wars we get in the movies and the Expanded Universe timeline, while there are elements of consistency with the battle between Light and Dark, the landscape with how those battles take place are constantly changing based on the actions of humans and how it impacts the galaxy. Disney completely halted, went backwards, then blew up, the storytelling progression and logical consistency of the universe because they never understood it in the first place.
I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on some of the SW books if that's ever on the table! I'd be curious to hear what you've read so far and if you'd be open to trying others.
May the Force be with you!
I'm def opening to trying more! I actually just read my first Thrawn book this year! I read most of the books when I was a kid, so I've only really read the more juvenille-focused books, like Young Jedi series (I think that's what it was called?) and the Jedi Apprentice series, as well as the novelizations of the books and some random Leia books here and there. Ok, that was a long way of saying I have to catch up on some of the more important adult Star Wars books in the future lol
@Bookborn Awesome! Hope you enjoy them :) Being well over 100 books it can be tough to decide what to read. Mike could probably help there. He has some videos on that topic. But I have some time to burn at the airport, so here are some spoiler free notes on what I'd consider some of the 'essentials' chronologically, to aid in deciding if you're interested:
Darth Bane Trilogy - These are dark. Important moments in Sith history, with events setting the stage for the main story 1000 years before it happens. What makes these books so good is that you're reading from the perspective of someone learning how to become more powerful and more evil, but I often found myself rooting for him, and I'm not sure why. It's great!
Darth Plagueis - This could be considered a sequel to the Bane books, tying it right into the movies: "Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?" - This is both that story and backstory for Palpatine.
Kenobi - Much better than the Disney show. Smaller scale, rather than bombastic. This book is a Western, a story about conflict between Tatooine farmers, native Tusken Raiders, and the strange outsider named Ben who appeared recently. Obi-Wan is rarely the POV character, but it works very well. Underrated book.
The Han Solo Trilogy (AC Crispin's books) - These are great world building books. The better backstory for Han, both tragic and fun. Quick reads. Written before the prequel movies, so some of the stuff with Boba Fett doesn't make sense canonically. The climax sequences in a couple of the books are excellent.
Shadows of the Empire - Events between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, nicely filling in that time. Enjoyed Luke's growth and Vader's conflict quite a bit in this book. There is some excellent comedy. A couple scenes had me cackling out loud. However, a warning I feel obligated to give (mild spoiler ahead): There's an uncomfortable and creepy scene with one of the main female characters and a male villain. It turns out ok in the end, but I hated reading that part of the book (maybe that was the intent?). Other than that, the rest of this book is good, but if you don't want to read about an alien attempting to forcibly coerce sex by using pheromones, then not reading this one is understandable.
Truce at Bakura - This book is immediately after Return of the Jedi, while our heroes are still on Endor. I'll say it, the alien villains of this book are kinda silly and bad. But the plot as the first diplomatic actions of the post-Emperor Rebellion, and the character work, is what makes this book worth reading. Leia in particular, still grappling with the knowledge that Vader was her father, is very good stuff.
Thrawn Trilogy - You're reading it so you know. Considered the main first continuation of the story.
Hand of Thrawn Duology - Can't say anything here, but sort of finishes this era of Star Wars books before the NJO begins.
New Jedi Order - I'll defer to Mike's video that says why this series is important to him and worth reading. He does it better than I could.
Legacy of the Force - The next big series of books. The children of the main characters are now main characters themselves.
These books I feel enhance the overall story of Star Wars. There are tons of books in between these too, many of which I haven't read yet and intend to. What's neat is you can sort of pick and choose to read from whatever time period interests you most.
A couple bonuses from new 'Canon'. While I'm not a fan of the new stuff generally, I have to give credit Claudia Gray, who wrote both of these and I really enjoyed both of them:
Master and Apprentice - A story with Obi-Wan learning as Qui-Gon Jinn's apprentice. It's a good, fun stand-alone Jedi adventure.
Lost Stars - This is the equivalent of a Star Wars rendition of Romeo and Juliet. I'm usually not big on romance, but I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book (lukewarm on the ending). You follow lovers who find themselves on opposite sides of the war as events from the original trilogy unfold. It shows the effects that Empire propaganda had with brainwashing people. That element of the Empire always fascinated me with how it translates to real life, and I thought it was done really well here.
"The original trilogy was about trios." I will not stand for this Chewbacca erasure!
You’re right and I’m sorry 😭
I have all those Episode I PepsiCo cans boxed up somewhere.
I was able to collect all of them as they came out except for Darth Maul. The next year I was at my aunt's house and was surprised to find one in her garage fridge, allowing me to complete the set.
Some of the ones I collected we never drank, so my family ahd to end up throwing them out when they inevitably got weird and started leaking. I'm so impressed you still have the entire collection!
I have the same nostalgia love for The Phantom Menace like you but its just not nostalgia its the feeling in the movie the soundtrack and especially the end fight between Darth Maul and Obi Wan, Qui Gon
I like your thinking for the most part. I think the only things I would change is revenge of the sith over the other prequels by a long shot.
That seems to be the consensus tbh lol so maybe I need to go rewatch all three in a row and see if I’ve changed my opinion 🤣
@@Bookborn yea I’m a bit like you with Phantom Menace though, that was the one I rewatched the most as a child. But as I got older Revenge of the Sith got better overall, and I think once you watch the clone wars it will be so much better for you
RotS should be higher but the rest I agree with you on. I don't know why they picked Andor as a character to base a show on but I guess people like it so I'll give it a shot.
Another Prequel apologist, lets go. Being a kid when the Phantom Menace was in theaters was magical.
Prequel zoomers who grew up on them are the equivalent to the OT kiddies who hated on the PT at release. The hypocrisy is astounding.
For me, there’s really only one title on this list that I don’t care for all that much and really struggle to watch. Thats the bottom one. The rest I either love or at least like and enjoy to some extent, and it’s often hard to choose. Nostalgia is also a factor, but personally:
1. Revenge of the Sith
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. A New Hope
5. The Last Jedi
6. Andor
7. Rogue One
8. The Phantom Menace
9. Attack of the Clones
10. The Mandalorian
11. The Force Awakens
12. Solo
13. Obi-Wan Kenobi
14. The Book of Boba Fett
15. The Rise of Skywalker
okay so obviously you know I love this video 😎 WHY are you apologizing for going TOO LONG? You seriously need to do a long form SW discussion so you can talk about all the things!
My ranking is so close to yours. The most important things to me in a movie are story, characters, and cinematography, and if you consider those elements and compare Lucas SW to Disney SW, it's pretty obvious why one series is great and the other is... what it is. You said it best when ranking the bottom tiers and your tiebreaker was "it's shorter" 🤣😂🤣
Like look, we only have so much time, if I'm forced to watch something terrible I might as well get hours back 🤣
Maybe I'll add Star Wars to my list of live shows I want to do if I ever get a patreon so I can rant with you guys about random stuff without making it an official vid lol
I think that The Phantom Menace is vastly underappreciated.
Sorry to say you forgot two classic Star Wars movies: The Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage!! If you’re going to include the Holiday Special you have to include those two gems, hahahaha.
I have to admit that apparently I'm a fake fan...I literally always thought the Battle for Endor was animated! I had no idea it was live action until people have been telling me in the comments!
If you want to see the actual separation between the OG trilogy and the Prequels, do a scene comparison between the Han and Leia on the Falcon in Empire before they kiss and the scene between Anakin and Padme and his rant about sand. Everything about the scene is Empire is light years ahead of AOTC. Nuff said.
I'm glad this wasn't a review that just blatantly hate Disney star wars. Even if you don't like the sequels, rogue one is so good (i haven't seen andor yet)
So just to defend solo a bit (of the movies, it ranks second to last behind attack of the clones) i think the idea behind Solo's arc is we are essentially seeing why he is a cold character in the beginning of a new hope.
We see him as warm in Solo, but the betrayal from the love of his life probably wore on him
TFA being similar was intentional, it was a soft reboot… TROS on the other hand.
13:16 YES! It was perfect, no need to retcon JJ!
15:15-15:23 thank you!! There's a certain content creator that was mad that there was no jedi. Like come on!
That was the most insane of the arguments against Andor for me. Like...Star Wars isn't JUST Jedi. It's an entire universe! There's room for so many stories.
@@Bookborn exactly!!
I should do this. I don’t think I’ve ever actually ranked all SW things for myself. 🤔
-T
I made myself do this off the cuff instead of planned, and it's weird how many times I was like "huh, I've never really thought about exactly where I'd place these" lol
The force is strong with this one. I just need the Ewok movies.
Perfect perfect list. And I might try Andor now. I had given up all hope after watching Obi Wan.
As you should have, that chase scene was ridiculous 😭 but do try Andor, it’s very good
I feel like there should be some category between "No" and "solid", like "very flawed but still entertaining", i would put Boba Fett and Obi wan Kenobi there.
The Mandolorian would be (near) perfection
The original trilogy, the prequels, The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker would be "Good to Great"
The Force Awakens is "Jar Jar Binks Bad"
Solo and Andor are "what is happening"
Despite a few flaws, I thought that The Last Jedi was a pretty entertaining movie.
*S*
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
*A*
The Phantom Menace
Revenge of the Sith
*B*
The Force Awakens
The Last Jedi
*C*
Attack of the Clones
Rogue One
Solo
*D*
The Rise of Skywalker
May be a hot take but I would put RotS over A New Hope 😬 I was 4 when Phatom Menace came out so I have a huge soft spot for it, Christmas ‘99 was all Darth Maul toys
Ok soooo many people are talking about their love for RotS that I need to watch it again since it's been several years. I'm starting to think that maybe after getting over the whole "nooo" thing I might see it in a different light 👀
Attack of the Clones and Last Jedi should have been switched, and Revenge of the Sith could have been slightly higher, but otherwise the list is fair. I also think Empire Strikes Back is boring, but I'm also a child so maybe I'll grow into it like you did.
Also Obi-Wan was good, I will stand by this
I haven't seen anything about it other than the first trailer but I'm mildly excited for Ahsoka. I think the Clone Wars show absolutely saved the prequels for me, I haven't watched Rebels but everyone of my friends who has says its great. And unlike Kenobi, Ahsoka isn't my favorite character so if its bad its not gonna ruin Star Wars and be a DNF (Probably, unless its awful).
I've heard a lot of people are cautiously optimistic for Ahsoka which means I've also gotten my hopes up....I really pray they aren't dashed lol
My very imperfect criteria for whether I will generally agree with a Star Wars fan is whether they like or dislike Rogue One.
Oh no did I pass
@@Bookborn You did! Rogue One is my favorite of the Star Wars movies, even though I'm an old SW fan.
Wow, I’ll never agree about Obi Wan, best Star Wars thing we’ve gotten in my opinion
I'm fairly close in my rankings, except that while I didn't like Solo I definitely put the sequel trilogy below it. The reason for this is that I genuinely feel like the sequel trilogy was intentionally written to lessen what came before, especially the original trilogy. That's worse than them just genuinely being really bad movies on their own.
It starts with The Force Awakens giving us the exact same conflict that ended in Return of the Jedi. It doesn't matter that they rename the factions, it's still the same thing and that changes the climax of the OT from being this extremely satisfying victory against the Empire and against the dark side, to basically just achieving a lengthy cease fire. What the heroes and the rebels did just wasn't all that important anymore in the grand scheme of things.
After removing that they go on to shatter all the character development that Luke had and basically wrote him as a completely different character (since he now lacks his two main traits that defines him throughout his development), so that OT thing also becomes irrelevant. I guess they do sort of the same with Han Solo, reverting him back so he can have his character development again, but this time thanks to Rey because everyone must love her.
And finally they bring Palpatine back, making sure that Anakin's sacrifice ended up not balancing anything. The destruction of the original trilogy was now complete, and that is far worse than even something like Solo having to explain how he got his last name. Nothing actively hurts previous Star Wars canon as the sequel trilogy.
Solo is a better movie if you take Han out of it. It has interesting set pieces, new characters, tie-in with Maul, but we get distracted from the good because they kept trying to make it a story about Han.
I personally liked TFA, I felt like it had an element of like "time repeats itself and the force is a cycle" or whatever and I thought it had the potential to be a great set up for the other two movies to expand out into something new and original... which I guess they did but not in the way I wanted 😂 But I thought Adam Driver was great, I thought the Kylo/Rey dynamic had the potential to be really interesting, I'm a sucker for the nostalgia factor... just a shame the rest of the trilogy took a nose-dive!
Adam Driver is super great and one of the reasons Kylo doesn't completely fail as a character, imo, especially in the Last Jedi. He brings a lot of gravitas to the role.
I thought TFA was one of the worst stories every told in the history of storytelling. Something can repeat without being derivative, like the hook of a song. The hook is to reinforce the theme, to burn the theme in the listeners memory so that there's tired to road traction for the listener. TFA repeats the hooks and tries to rhyme the same word three times in a row, and those words belonged to the tracks in the first part of the album. Its a nonsensical random remix of the first three tracks of the album. It was absolutely uninspired and it felt like it was made by artificial intelligence before a.i. art was a thing.
@@Bookborn TLJ's Adam Driver is my favorite movie villain behind TDK's The Joker, and fifth fav villain in storytelling in general right behind "The Blight" in A Fire Upon the Deep.
I also kinda like TFA but I would probably put it in b tier. It is unoriginal but I think despite all its flaws it had a fair amount of potential.
I didn’t mind you taking the time to explain, perhaps rant a bit, about your choices. I wish you could have spent more time talking about the prequels and the last trilogy.
I was 10 when I saw A New Hope. So I have a fondness for the original trilogy. I did like what Lucas did with the prequels. There was quite a bit of political intrigue and they still seemed to retain some of the tone of the originals.
And that’s the crux of the matter for me, TONE.
I feel Disney abandoned that tone with the last trilogy and the shows. The only show that may have retained some of it is The Mandalorian, although I haven’t finished the third season and I’m not sure I will. It didn’t seem to be as good as the first two seasons.
I feel Disney has ruined their Star Wars and Marvel properties.
Tone is a really important element, and I do think some of the tone was ruined because they didn't have a cohesive story. Even people who don't like the prequels have to admit that the story is completely cohesive, and the themes of star wars are very apparent: redemption, rebirth, hope. I wish they would've focused more strongly on those themes in the sequels.
Seven times?!?!? 😮😮😮
Clearly your dad is awesome!!
I was scared when I saw this. But it turned out good. Don't worry about boba Fett. You don't need to suffer that.
Agreed on TFA. It was one of the most derivative stories in the history of storytelling. No one in the history of man would have copied and pasted another story onto a new one and called it a sequel. It was so mind numbingly uninspired. I could see if he redid the OT and made them better, but he didn't. He repainted the mona lisa with a mustache. It was so terrible and it set a horrible precedent in film.
My ranking.
6. Attack of the Clones
5. Return of the Jedi
4. The Phantom Menace
3. A New Hope
2. Revenge of the Sith
1. Empire Strikes Back
Do you still read any of the Star Wars books? I find myself avoiding the new stuff put out, but have been really enjoying digging through and finding some of the older ones I missed.
My hot take on Star Wars is that I liked the Last Jedi. I wish they would have changed a few things, but I enjoyed a lot of it.
So I'm actually really polarized on the Last Jedi because there were actually a lot of things I did like about it, but the way they handled Luke drives me SO crazy, it's hard for me to give it anything but a bad score.
@@Bookborn I can completely see that and even mostly agree. I think if Rey had found another disenchanted Jedi who wasn't Luke people probably would have liked that story. Instead they just decided to show a beaten and fallen version of our hero and that definitely rubbed many people the wrong way.
I don't see your problem with Rise
I truly believe Disney dropped the ball by doing a Solo movie. They could have done a Lando movie which has so much space to explore. They coukd even have the Millennium Falcon in it for merch sales since we know he owned it before Han did. I think that movie could be at minimum solid if not done complete wrong.
Ok this idea is fantastic especially because a) the fandom isn’t as rabid about lando as han AND glover killed the role and could’ve carried an entire movie easily
I literally don't even remember the Solo movie at all, even though I know I watched it- so I am incapable of loathing it as much as you. Lol
But that, in and of itself, probably speaks fair volumes all of its own. ^^
You'll need a lower category for the Accolade.... I never watched Solo. I knew the Cringe was going to be strong in this one. And I hated the third trilogy right from the start. The last of the old films is called "Return of the Jedi". Yet 30 years or so later, we learn the Jedi never won. The Empire just kept on existing in another form with new shiny Storm trooper armor, which makes no sense. Story wise, they should have redone a Phantom Menace. A functioning Jedi society, but then evil slowly starts seeping in. Corrupting an otherwise good world. With A NEW VILLAIN! The Emperor was dead! In hindsight, the 3d trilogy makes Luke Skywalker be an insignificant loser.
I had the same experience with TPM as a teen when I first watched it. I was obsessed! For me into SW in general, from the original movies to books.
4, 5 and 6, probably in that order, then Rogue One, which I think will be seen as a classic. All the others have too many faults for me to rank. Agree about Solo. The actor was trying to channel Solo through the ticks and winks of Jack Nicholson and I didn't buy it
As an old, grumpy man (get of my synthetic lawn!) who saw Star Wars 7 times when I was 11, I still like the original trilogy the most. I was disappointed with the prequels when they came out, but I showed them to my 9 and 7 year old daughters and I liked them more than I remembered. I still can’t stand the character that shall not be named. The love story is typically sci-fi/fantasy bad. Disney has ruined SW for me. I wish they would have just followed the books.
How can someone be this right? You're not even /too/ critical, it just feels like these are honest opinions. I haven't seen Solo and I haven't seen the Rise of Skywalker, but you made me feel like I have been misrepresenting how I felt about the Force Awakens because I wasn't as open about my disappointment. Of course, your opinion on Andor was the cherry on top. I wanted to disagree with something, but I couldn't, and you seem like a bigger fan than me, too, so, thanks.
Here's the real question... which version of the OT? Because the original? Yes. Remastered? Definitely not. So many changes were made that weren't just cosmetic, some legitimately changed characters.
I hate the remastered versions and obvi Han shot first let’s not get it twisted
Man I was *positive* Boba Fett would be the worst. It was so low effort and it's best part were basically Mando 2.5. what a waste of such an iconic character. I keep forgetting solo exists.
Prequels were fine and deserve apologies. Sequels should be shot into the sun.
Shout out to Rebels for being SO GOOD. And low key giving me hope for Ashoka (please. Please god)
Also. ALSO. How is it possible that "Somehow, Palpatine returned." is a real thing?
That's family guys special level writing and it's REAL
Solid list. I originally saw Star Wars in 1996 after my dad got the Original Trilogy on VHS in the 1995 "One Last Time.." box set that came out before the Special Editions came out in 1997. Though I had watched both the Droids and Ewoks cartoons when I was even younger, had the toys and had the third issue of the Star Wars: Dark Empire comic book series. What got me into Star Wars, being that I am a Star Trek fan since birth, were the novels. Particularly the Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin, which did Han Solo's backstory a thousand times better than Solo did, and the X-Wing series by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston. My best friend in the sixth grade lent them to me. I saw The Phantom Menace in theatres twice within a week of each other, and then didn't see Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith until they came out on home video. I saw the remaining movies and shows as they came out. I went to the first showing of Rogue One on the Thursday night preview night and, while I'm not as big of a fan of that movie as other people are, I still enjoyed it for what it was. I didn't see Solo in theatres though. I thought it was pointless because my Han Solo backstory had come out 21 years earlier in the novel trilogy by A.C. Crispin, and the movie felt wrong. I love The Mandalorian, though I do think season one is the best season. They keep trying to cram too much into these six to eight episode seasons and it doesn't work. I like Obi-Wan Kenobi just because Ewan MacGregor and Hayden Christensen got to reprise their roles, which nobody could've anticipated happening. The sequels aren't great either. Book of Boba Fett was pointless and really just a way to get Mando and Grogu back to together without wasting time in The Mandalorian to reunite them. And I haven't watched Andor yet. That's just a me thing though, it in no way represents the show as a whole.
Great Video. Thank you.
My own Star Wars opinions are somewhat controversial. For one I loved The Last Jedi. And I like Jar Jar Binks, not love but like. I’m a huge original trilogy fan. They are still my favorites. So when TPM came out I hated it, but Jar Jar was actually one of it’s redeeming qualities for me. My favorite things were Qui Gong and Palpatine. Obi Wan I found really boring in TPM. After several rewatches I became to like TMP and now also think it’s the best of the preqels.
So here’s my ranking:
RotJ
ANH
TESB
TLJ
Rogue 1
Andor
TPM
Force Awakens
RotS
Mandalorian
Boba Fett
Obi Wan
AotC
Solo
And Rise of Skywalker last. What an absolute shitshow. I also laughed at the Ray is a Palpetine reveal. It’s the only Star Wars movie I’ll probably never watch again.
I cannot fault Rise of Skywalker being last because it is probably the ACTUALLY Worst movie on the list, I just have a totally irrational hatred of Solo. I just HATE the idea of Rey being a Palpatine for multiple reasons but the biggest is how it's like "haha! Let's just bring an old villain back because we can't even think of a new one!"
I didn't love Kenobi as a show, but I enjoyed a few of the things that happened in it.
Ever since I was a kid and first watched the originals, I was always upset that both Luke and Leia had their family murdered in ANH and then never addressed it again (in live action). So for the fan of Beru, Owen, Bail, and Breha in me, I really appreciated that Kenobi showed the depth of the love these adults had for their children. That the show gave us a little look into the life of the Skywalker twins adoptive families, the people that raised them. Which I think is just as thematically relevant to the series as their relationship with Anakin/Vader. Again, I can't say I love the actual events of the show, but that will still remain the highlight to me.
While I think BOBF was equally as uninspiring in terms of plot, I really appreciated that they took the time to remove some of the racism and orientalism surrounding the Tusken Raiders. The show took care to humanize this group that is based on several indigenous cultures, a group that for so long were portrayed as 'savage' monsters. Otherwise it was unfortunately a bust.
My rankings are very different (RotS is the only prequel I unironically enjoy and I love TLJ, partly cause of Luke's story, lol), but I still had a great time watching this ^^
I'm hoping Star Wars fans get to the place where we can civilly disagree, cause I don't think that's very common in the fanbase.
I watch you for book content, but this a fun way to mix up the stuff 😊
Luckily everyone here has been super great! It’s silly to get so heated over stuff like this, much more fun to hust discuss!
I agree with almost all of your choices. In my eyes, Revege of the Sith is one of my favorite movies of all time, Even more so than all of the originals. Ad the novelized version is even better. I highly recommend you read all the Star Wars movie novels if you haven’t already. They’re amazing, and give a lot more insight to the stories.
Jake Lloyd wasn't entirely unknown. He stared in Jingle All The Way, two years earlier.
You're brave for making this video, because I'm sure everyone is like YOU'RE WRONG lol. I'll only say that my least favorite is the Last Jedi as I felt Rian Johnson had never seen a Star Wars film and his character assassination of Luke Skywalker made my blood boil.