TOP 5 STAR WARS MOVIES

A few posts back, I promised to list my favorite Star Wars films. Presented in this article by no one’s suggestion are my personal “Top Five” favorite Star Wars motion pictures to date.¹

Author’s Note: When it comes to Star Wars, my tastes are fairly mainstream. My top three favorite Star Wars films are going to match the top three favorite Star Wars films on many people’s favorite Star Wars movies lists.

If Disney Lucasfilm ever makes a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic film and it’s actually a good film, all bets are off.²

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

I’ve never been a big fan of George Lucas‘ Star Wars prequel films, but Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first Star Wars film I got to see at its Midnight premiere back in 2005. I even went in costume as my favorite character from the prequels, Supreme Chancellor Emperor Sheev Palpatine.

Though most Star Wars fans loved the prequels when they were first released, I admit that I wasn’t as fond of them as I was of the original trilogy. Episode I – The Phantom Menace was far too unfocused and meandering,³ and I couldn’t buy into Anakin Skywalker‘s “romance” with Queen Senator Padmé Amidala in Episode II – Attack of the Clones for one second.⁴ I didn’t hate them as much as a certain centenarian amateur documentarian/serial killer does (as he has explained at length for Episode I, Episode II, and Episode III), but they certainly weren’t among my favorite Star Wars films (or among my favorite films in general).

There’s just something about Star Wars: Episode III, though, that makes it special to me. Was it finally seeing Anakin get sealed up in his Darth Vader suit and seeing the prequel trilogy come to a close as certain as death and taxes? Was it the added depth granted to the film’s story by the superb novelization penned by veteran Star Wars novelist Matthew Stover? Was it seeing the gleefully evil and manipulative Sheev Palpatine in full form, flitting from outright seducing grooming Anakin to flipping about tossing the entire Republic Senate at poor Master Yoda with poise, grace, and ridiculous ease? Was it the tremendous satisfaction I felt knowing that the much-despised Jar-Jar Binks would never plague movie screens again?⁵ Methinks it was all of the above.

Is the story perfect? Lord no! It’s not even in the top ten best George Lucas films! Anakin’s doomed relationship with Padme and her pregnancy with Luke and Leia is horribly rushed, as are the multiple endings meant to tie every dangling plot thread together and pave the way to Episode IV. Even with all its flaws, though, Episode III is still my favorite movie out of the prequel trilogy.

4. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  (2016)

Warning: This is the final Disney Era Star Wars film on this list. Outside of Solo: A Star Wars Story (which I would place sixth on this list, if it had a sixth entry), I wasn’t a major fan of the prequel films, and I hated the rest of the sequel films. One day, I may write a post about which Star Wars films I hated the most, but that is not the focus of this entry.

Rogue One was, quite honestly, a pleasant surprise… though not when I first saw it! When I first saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at one of my local cinemas, I fell asleep in the theater. I was admittedly pretty tired from work when I went to see the movie, but the story really didn’t impress me at the time. I was still sore at Disney for jettisoning Lucasfilm’s initial Expanded Universe works — which included the original hero who obtained the Death Star plans, Kyle Katarn from the stellar Star Wars: Dark Forces/Jedi Knight video game series — and I was expecting a film with the same fast pacing and overall upbeat tone as Abrams’ The Force Awakens. Instead, I got the Star Wars version of Three Kings with a party wipe ending, and I was not prepared for that in the slightest.

Utterly bored with the film (except for that exceptional nostalgia-drenched end scene), I let it go for several years and never bothered to watch it again, even when I re-watched the other movies in the franchise. I finally revisited it on Disney+ back in September 2024 while I was building a do-it-yourself R2-D2 art piece,⁶ and I was blown away by the film’s more serious, grounded tone and reasonable reverence toward the original Star Wars trilogy. The brief funny moments (mostly courtesy of K-2SO, portrayed by the always awesome Alan Tudyk) never intruded on the overall tone too much, and the nostalgic moments never wore out their welcome (aside from the iffy CGI on Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia, maybe).

Before you ask, yes, I’ve seen a few episodes of Andor, and I love the series better than Rogue One. I daresay the series makes Rogue One even better in retrospect. Rogue One and Andor both represent the sort of grounded, grown-up Star Wars I wish we could see more of, but I don’t think everyone at Disney Lucasfilm is quite on board with that yet.

Personally, Rogue One is the sort of film I wish we’d have gotten with The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker… but maybe Rogue One was simply a little too ahead of its time.

3. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi  (1983)

Ewoks, man. Bloody damned cannibalistic Ewoks.

Most of all, I appreciate this film for what it truly is: George Lucas’ mind-numbing, gut-wrenching follow-through. The film itself isn’t mind-numbing or gut-wrenching; it’s a fast-paced, fun-filled romp through the final chapter of Luke Skywalker’s three-film saga, from the rescue of Han Solo to Luke’s final physical and spiritual confrontation with Darth Vader and the introduction — and downfall⁷ — of my beloved Emperor Sheev Palpatine.⁸ No, completing the movie was both mind-numbing and gut-wrenching for poor George Lucas.

There’s an old phrase, “Art through adversity,” that I think rings true with many great works of cinematic art that truly transcend the commercial aspects of any blockbuster motion picture produced by any major movie studio — and make no mistake, big budget movies are commercial products, just like a chain restaurant cheeseburger or a bottle of brand name shampoo. The business and marketing aspects of promoting the Star Wars movies and making fat bank off the merchandizing have always seemed to come as second nature to George Lucas. Indeed, his movie marketing magic — from including the toyetic Ewoks in the movie to the entire trilogy’s slick production design work — should be studied at filmmaking school movie marketing classes, if it isn’t already.

No, the real artistry in the film came from the pain and anguish Lucas went through to make these films. The first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, damn near gave George a heart attack during production. His second masterwork, Empire Strikes Back, endangered his first marriage to Marcia Lucas and stressed him out to no end. This film pretty much killed his first marriage completely. As fun as this movie is, you can feel that anguish as an undercurrent to the entire production. The story has more plot holes and contrivances than the previous two entries. The film’s major plot twist — that Princess Leia is secretly Luke’s sister — seems to come out of nowhere, even though it was briefly hinted at in the previous film, because there’s no real build-up to it in this movie’s script (and it doesn’t really make sense when compared to the story in A New Hope). Even Harrison Ford feels like he’s ready to put the trilogy to bed,⁹ as Han’s whole attitude toward the events of this film can easily be summed up by the phrase, “Screw it, why not?”.

Filmmaker aggravation aside, that “Screw it, why not?”, “Let’s put this trilogy to bed” vibe is part of the movie’s fun. Luke sets up a chess game with a crime lord, but Luke’s moves make no logical sense yet leads to really rousing fight scenes over a gigantic living monster mouth in the desert, and we get to see Princess Leia in a sexy metal bikini while choking said crime lord to death? Sounds hella fun! Let’s go! Cuddly, vicious, cannibalistic sentient teddy bears show up to help the Rebels? Why the hell not? Lando pilots the Millennium Falcon through the innards of the second Death Star while Luke wages a literal and spiritual battle for his fallen father’s soul against a lightning-handed space wizard pulled right out of a Dungeons & Dragons boss fight? Sign my fat ass up! Han and Leia finally get together? About damn time! This film is awesome in a throw-your-hands-up-in-surrender, just-give-in-to-the-madness sort of way, and I’ll love it for that ’til the day I die.

2. Star Wars: Episode VI – A New Hope  (1977)

This is the Star Wars film that started it all! If this film isn’t somewhere in your Top Ten favorite Star Wars films, at the very least, then are you even a Star Wars fan? Do you even Star Wars, bruh? This film shows you how to Star Wars. Nobody knew how to Star Wars until George Lucas produced Star Wars: Episode VI – A New Hope, so show some damn respect!

Damn kids and your newfangled High Republic and its Force-sensitive rocks…

This film should be adored purely for its cinematic historic value — it’s not only the first Star Wars film and the start of the “Skywalker Saga,” it’s the first true science fiction/fantasy blockbuster film (and the first real blockbuster in general!) and one of the first films in the modern era to capture, galvanize, and successfully monetize the imagination of the entire nation (if not the entire world)!

In addition to all that, the film is a pretty solid science fantasy adventure story appropriate for all ages, from age 9 to age 99. George Lucas makes deft use of all his inspirational material — the “Hero’s Journey”, basic European fantasy/fairy story tropes, samurai cinema, “spaghetti Westerns”, Buddhist and Judeo-Christian religious mores, classical Greek storytelling, and old Flash Gordon serials, among many other things, all blended together in a neat, snazzy, realistic modern package with awesome sci-fi visuals, fast pacing, and slick storytelling (plot holes and sometimes silly dialogue notwithstanding) — and created a film with almost universal reach, a feat that wouldn’t be duplicated again until The Matrix hit theaters in 1999.

1. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back  (1980)

This movie is listed as many people’s all-time favorite Star Wars movie, and with good reason. Enlisting the aid of his film school instructor Irvin Kershner as director and Hollywood veteran Lawrence Kasdan and science fiction alumni Leigh Brackett as co-writers, Lucas brought out all the stops to take the relatively simple little space fantasy film he made in 1977 and elevate the story far beyond the initial franchise concept.

Starting with a basic, common sense idea (that an evil empire wouldn’t fall in one day after its major superweapon is destroyed), the film begins on a beautiful, serene ice world — the polar opposite of starting the film on dusty Tatooine, as both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi began — then takes us to other dreamy science fantasy locations, from a dazzling city in the clouds to a murky, gloomy swamp off the beaten path of civilization, and even to deep space itself with a cat-and-mouse game through a field of positively massive asteroids. Twists and surprises await the viewer behind every rock and tree,¹⁰ yet the story retains its consistent pacing without any of the major and minor plot twists becoming a show-stopping speed bump. New characters are introduced to spice up the narrative, from the beloved new major characters like wise Master Yoda, the enigmatic bad-ass Boba Fett, and suave scoundrel Lando Calrissian to minor characters like Captain/Admiral Piett to a cadre of intriguing alien bounty hunter “scum”.

If you haven’t seen the film, I won’t spoil the major story reveal at the film’s climax for you, but that plot twist ranks right up there with other classic historic cinematic plot twists from movies like Fight Club, Psycho, Planet of the Apes, and The Sixth Sense.

1. I selected only five Star Wars films because there are, at the time of this writing, twelve Star Wars movies, not counting the accursed yet unintentionally hilarious 1978 Holiday Special, the two Ewoks TV movies (Caravan of Courage and Battle for Endor), or any of the LEGO Star Wars films. If I selected ten, I’d be listing almost every current Star Wars movie except for, like, two films I deem really terrible.[↩]
2. The “Old Republic” setting in Star Wars Legends media is my favorite Star Wars setting, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is my favorite Star Wars media of all time.[↩]
3. I must admit, though, that Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Master Mace Windu, Darth Maul, and podracing were pretty neat additions to Star Wars franchise lore.[↩]
4. I’d been in enough failed relationships by then to know that Anakin’s whirlwind fling with Padme was not a good fictional example of either a good relationship or a failed one.[↩]
5. I did enjoy Jar-Jar’s appearances in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, though. See my contact information to send your hate mail.[↩]
6. I call it an “art piece” because the toy in question — a LittleBits R2-D2 Droid Inventor Kit — is discontinued, so the Bluetooth app that controls it is no longer available in the Google Play Store.[↩]
7. There’s a reason I say downfall and not demise here. SCREW YOU, J.J. ABRAMS, FOR RETROACTIVELY RUINING MY CHILDHOOD.[↩]
8. Seriously, Palpatine is the best character in the prequel films.[↩]
9. Ford begged Lucas to kill him at the end of Empire Strikes Back, but Lucas rejected the idea.[↩]
10. These story twists are executed far better than any of the “subversive” elements of The Last Jedi, which struggles and fails to ape the truly subversive nature of Empire Strikes Back in several ways.[↩]