These last 2 days me and my family watched all 9 mainline star wars movies. Great fun catching up on all the movies, it was also my first time watching Rise of Skywalker and Attack of the clones. Here’s what i think of all the movies.
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
This movie was a lot more boring than i remembered and jar jar is far more of a nuisance than he was when i first watched this movie when i was 10. Liam Neeson and Ewan Mcgregor are by far the highlights of this movie and their final battle with maul was great. the plot for the rest was pretty weak and anakin destroying the shield thingy in the final battle was pretty contrived and bad. But as an origin of an origin it does a decent job setting up the conflict and world, all in all pretty okayish movie that has some really bad parts.
Star Wars Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones
This is where the fun begins, though the story is pretty poor, relying a lot on contrivances and dumb luck but it is a blast watching it unfold. There’s a lot more good to be found here, from fun character dynamics, to an awkward blossoming romance and tons of action that despite the dated cgi still holds up. this movie still has a lot of problems in terms of pacing, Hayden Christensen and other actors having some bad moments in their acting and the battle of geonisis which takes way too damn long and is just a sensory overload at points. but all in all a fun sequel
Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith
My favorite of the prequel trilogy. apart from Padme dying from sadness i think this is really well executed story of how the jedi order got destroyed and how Anakin Skywalker became darth vader, though it couldn’t have worked without the set-up of the previous two films. The action is great,the dialogue is cheesy but really well acted, order 66 is a fantastic scene, the final battle between anakin and obi-wan is fantastic and Ian Mcdiarmid is absolutely chewing scenery as darth sidious. Great movie
Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope
The original episode 1, what an excellent movie that still holds up. Great acting, great effects (if you ignore the god awful cgi that was implemented after) and a really fun adventure story about defeating evil against all odds. I was surprised that so much of the first movie is taken up by tatooine and saving the princess from the death star but it doesn’t detract from a great movie and a great (re)establishment of this world and the main trio. Though some parts are contradictions here from the prequels (like obi-wan saying that owen didn’t agree that anakin was going to fight in the clone wars) that’s not the fault of the movie, but rather of the prequels.
Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
What a great sequel; building upon the world of the first movie, having great character development for the entire main cast and having some awesome setpieces. Like the cold open of hoth and Luke getting taken by the wampa, the battle of hoth,training on dagobah with Yoda and the battle between vader and Luke on bespin
Star Wars Episode 6: Return Of The Jedi
What a weird but effective way to close out the original trilogy. From invading Jabba’s palace to save Han and the rest of the gang who got captured to hijinx on endor to defeating the emperor and finding the good in your father. For some reason this one didn’t quite connect with me like the other two original trilogy movies. It still has its amazing moments like luke being a badass during the entire jabba section, that weirdly intimate moment with the rancord owner, the gangs interaction with ewoks and the final fight in the emperors throne room but it didn’t have the pizzaz the other two OT movies had, still a good and satisfying ending for a great sci-fi trilogy
Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens
I actually saw force awakens and the last jedi in theaters when they came out so i might have some bias because star wars is way more epic on the big screen. Anyhoo the force awakens and this sequel trilogy might be the biggest case of missed potential due to no planning at all. The new trio of rey, finn and poe could’ve been so much more but they get wasted so badly. The film itself is fun enough a bit of a rethread of a new hope but that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme. Han Solo and his death are really well executed.the sequel’s only good character, Ben Solo, has a great setup here and is an interesting villain. I’m also probably one of the very few people who likes general Hux and he was fun secondary villain.
Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi
I’m also probably one of the very few people that really liked last jedi. My biggest issue lays with how they wrote Luke as this person that gave up after Ben Solo turned evil, which is a pretty major flaw but i think the building relationship between Rey and Ben is great, the general themes are pretty good too. letting the past die and all that. the cinematography was excellent, loads of beautiful shots. Even stuff i disliked the first time around like supreme leader Snoke and Finns fetch quest with his newly invented love interested i enjoyed alot more on this rewatch. Luke also gets his moments despite his setup being fundamentally flawed and his final dialogue and fight with Ben is excellent. little tangent they should have let Finn die at the final battle on crait as he barely does anything of note in rise of skywalker and they already repeated his arc once here, so that would’ve been a good send off.
all in all despite having a fundamental flaw with one character and some minor nitpicks here and there, i quite enjoyed this sequel.
Star Wars Episode 9: Rise Of Skywalker
What an awful movie, backtracking on some of the controversial decisions the last jedi made, resetting all the characters (even literally with c3po for an extended portion of time). and deciding Palpatine was not really dead and Rey is his descendant was awful. Ben though having an excellent moment with schizophrenia Han goes back on his excellent development of the last movie and dies in a wet fart due to the return of FUCKING FORCE HEALING. the worst concept of the prequels that i always though was a ruse to lure Anakin to join the dark side is apparently very real and its very stupid. the cinematography is also noticeably worse and a lot of the dialogue feels stilted, forced and like the actors were having 0 fun. The plot also feels super insignificant even though they destroy the first and final order and kill Palpatine once and for all. Also fuck them for giving Hux some development by making him a spy that is only a spy because he doesn’t like Solo’s leadership and then immediately killing him off.
Ranking of all the movies ( do mind that the quality gap between spot 5 and 6 is massive )
- Empire Strikes Back
- A New Hope
- Last Jedi
- Revenge Of The Sith
- Return of The Jedi
- Attack Of The Clones
- Force Awakens
- The Phantom Menace
- Rise Of Skywalker
He plays a great brash, ego-filled character that always shows up or does the wrong thing, at the worst time.
