The sequels suck but Andor is a legit masterpiece.
this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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I would say:
The Force Awakens: Not bad, basically a knock-off of A New Hope story-wise but it feels like Star Wars and is pretty harmless fun.
Rogue One: Probably the best of the Disney Star Wars movies IMO, although it does have a couple of dodgy "bringing back an old actor as CGI" scenes.
The Last Jedi: Lots of people hate this one, I'm slightly more forgiving. I think it tried to do something a bit weird and different, and it didn't really work. But I do appreciate the effort of not just playing it safe.
Solo: A Star Wars Story: Another one that seems to get a lot of heat, but I thought it was pretty inoffensive. Although my brain did kind of delete most of it as soon as it was over lol.
The Rise of Skywalker: Legitimately one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I can't even call it a bad movie, because it's essentially just a random series of Star Wars-themed sounds and images that batter you for what feels to be about a year and a half before it mercifully ends, taking with it any good will towards the franchise you might have had left.
the force awakens
My only issue with TFA isn't the movie itself. It's just that it sets up so much good stuff that the rest of the trilogy just doesn't do fuck all with. There are some really cool story points, some incredible characters, and amazing acting. Then just garbage through the next two.
Rouge One
Yeah this is easily the best star wars movies IMO. It's hectic, and all over the place, and there's a ton of characters, then it just all clicks together in the last little bit of the movie. No spoilers or anything but you absolutely need to watch this. I genuinely can't over recommend this enough, it's a golden movie. Then go watch Andor, its easily the best Star wars TV and there are a couple scenes id nominate for top 10 TV scenes of all time. It's the prequel to Rouge One and goes over Cassian Andor (main character in Rouge One) story.
Solo
I actually really enjoyed Solo. Its not super relevant to the greater star wars saga, and its not the most ground breaking piece of cinema ever. But its fun and enjoyable, just go into it with the idea that its "filler content" for the rest of them.
TL:DR I mostly agree with you
Ive been tempted to watch it all chronologically
I'm gonna die on the hill that rogue one was unnecessary.
Its a cool ass movie, but the "everything must have detailed in universe lore"-culture annoys me so much. Especially regarding a franchise that started as metaphoric of a story as star wars.
Like I don't need in-universe guides to enjoy old kung fu hero movies with floaty wallruns and rooftop jumps. Its all metaphor and stylistic choice.
Why do I need midichlorians and shoehorned blueprint fudging? Plus the ending was so predictable, i was disappointed when realising they really didn't come up with a better out than what i guessed before sitting down in the theater.
Explaining the Death Star plans isn't the point of the movie though. It's really a movie to say "okay, you've seen the Rebellion through the eyes of the heroes, and the Clone Wars from the point of view of Jedi. Now let's see how it looked like from the point of view of the random soldiers that were also there and aren't mentioned by name"
It's really a movie to show the other side of the revolt against the Empire. (And, even though it's not a movie, Andor continues this idea and is giving us a frankly impressive result)
And really I'd say that just the fact that Rogue One is really the first movie to give some room to normal, non Jedi people makes it so important.
I wish i could agree with you, but some critical moments still hinge on "totally not a jedi" force user with staff. Unless I'm misremembering, its been a while.
Don't get me wrong it's a good movie, I just don't share the hype. The premise is cool, but to me personally, it falls a bit flat.
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Regarding The Last Jedi - I agree that it tried something different, and that wasn't a bad approach. What killed it for me however was the amount of slapstick and Marvel-esque humor. Star Wars always felt like mostly serious movies - sure, there was always goofy stuff like the trash chute monster or Jar Jar, but all in all they had the air of movies that take themselves seriously (probably due to the space opera nature).
TLJ was the first movie where I didn't feel any of that. The first scene basically took a shit on a beloved character by way of cheap slapstick, and that never stopped.
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Agree with all that.
Maybe bit more negative on both Last Jedi and the Solo movie. I don't even remember if I actually watched the whole Solo movie because it was so forgettable.
Rise of the Skywalker, any bad review I read heavily underestimated how terrible of a Star Wars movie it is. Like, really bad. I held of watching it for many years, had the lowest of low expectations. And it still hit me how bad it was.
AFAIK, thereβs only three Star Wars films. Episode IV, V and VI.
Rogue One is good.
I recommend Rogue One, the Clone Wars, and Bad Batch
I would add Rebels. First season is a liiiiittle more kid friendly and toned down than it really needed to be, the rest of it is fantastic and finished the story of Darth Maul.
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There's nothing magic about Lucas's vision. But JJ Abrams vision is exclusively "bigger is better". Death Star destroys planets? Well, this Death Star IS a planet. And it kills multiple planets, and it's called Starkiller, and it shoots through hyperspace.
Star Destroyer? Let's make each one a Death Star. With a big gun. And you can ride horses on the hull.
Stormtroopers? They fly now.
(Godzilla? Uhh.. My monster is just as big as Godzilla, and it's only a baby.)
No.
They are all terrible movies, with droid-like performances, plot holes the size of a Sarlacc pit and effects and fight choreographies as pointless as the little pistons on the exterior of a surrogate hand.
Mark Hamill should be ashamed of agreeing to participate in them, even more to compensate the fact that apparently Ford cannot help himself from doing it here and in the Indy movies.
I lost all interest in the entire series when they were chasing the fleet and shooting lasers in an arch...to combat wind resistance in space, I guess. Oh man, I laughed (unintentionally) when I saw that. I almost walked out of the theater.
I don't even know if the space in Star Wars is supposed to be empty space like ours. I seem to recall they have a rule not to show anyone ejecting or drifting in space for that same reason.
Disagree, the prequels arenβt worth watching.
The prequels are bad because it highlights Lucas's failures as a director and dialogue writer.
The prequels are memorable because they highlight Lucas's talents as a producer and whatever equivalent to show runner that movie franchises have.
The prequels are rough and coarse and they get everywhere
Agreed. The prequels have flawed execution, but imo a good base. It's the reverse with the sequels that are mostly style over substance, chasing some pretty shots regardless whether it makes for a good movie. And I take the former over the latter any day. Especially if we remember that Lucas asked other directors to make them.
There's problems with them, especially with dialogue and the existence of Jar Jar. But they were also incredibly prescient for the modern political climate. I think it's an important story about how a scared and lonely child raised by people who told him to suppress and ignore his emotions can turn into a fascist while also telling the story of how a manufactured political crisis can get a populace to support the transition from a liberal representative democracy to a fascist dictatorship.
But they were also incredibly prescient for the modern political climate.
Maybe for people who know nothing about real history... It wasn't prescient, it was based on events that had already happened in real life. Like I'm glad that those shitty movies were able to teach some kids about fascism, but there was nothing groundbreaking about what you just described.
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They hated him because he spoke the truth
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Iβd argue you should watch A New Hope because it was groundbreaking at the time, Empire Strikes Back because itβs amazing by any standard, and Return of the Jedi only if you crave resolution. Then watch Rogue One because itβs borderline better than Empire Strikes Back.
Thereβs only 2 good Star Wars movies that are good by the standards of modern cinema.
The sequels suck.
The Mandalorian, Rogue One, Andor, Ahsoka, The Clone Wars The Bad Batch, all range from great to decent. Hell, even the Boba Fett and Obi Wan series were okay.
They were fun to watch but I donβt take anything from Disney as canon except for rogue one and andor
The animated stuff like clone wars and rebels make the filoniverse come alive. Early mandalorian was great, andor was as well. So skip the movies and enjoy good star wars stuff instead.
Bad Batch got so close to delving into Palpatines force clone experiments, and went some dark places.
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See, here's how it is-
The movies suck ass. BUT the story still continues. And it continues in a way that I personally am liking so far. The new Ahsoka show, the mandalorian, etc. have worked out pretty fine. So I you want to be invested in the franchise (I would recommend this), then try watching the sequels.
The prequels for example imo sucked-ish too. It's the surrounding story and shows that made them a lot cooler (the clone wars especially).
BUT the story still continues. And it continues in a way that I personally am liking so far. The new Ahsoka show, the mandalorian, etc. have worked out pretty fine.
Biggest problem is that they butchered Luke character beyond repair in TLJ. Luke is destiny to fail to understand why he won against the emperor and he can't understand that the message of no attachments from the prequel era jedi is totally wrong and bullshit. In the Expanded Universe that Disney killed Luke succeed on that and the new jedis understand the force better, in the Disney canon the character that probably will do that is Rey. There's absolute nothing that Filoni and the others creators can do to fix this.
Yes
I don't think they're as groundbreaking as the original trilogy (my preferred trilogy) but they're still watchable. Sometimes you gotta take things with a pinch of salt, even your favorite movie franchise.
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They would be if they were good.
Disney should have known to create an overall writer/producer for the sequels; they had done it Marvel and the thing that set Star Wars above other sci-fi was Lucas creating a deep universe for the stories to exist in.
Abrams was a shitty choice to control writing of VII; he basically made a Star Wars fan film and reset a lot of VI to keep the same kind of conflict as the original series. Johnson had some interesting ideas, but he broke a lot of previous world building for VIII, like the Resistance militia leaders keeping their plan a secret and the kamekaze ship. Then, somehow, Abrams returned.
It says something that, while the prequels aren't seen as good as the original series, they still resonate in a way that the sequels haven't. A lot of that can be attributed to why Lucas was a great producer.
Then, somehow, Abrams returned.
Fucking gold.
I truly could not believe my eyes when I saw "Somehow, Palpatine returned" on the opening crawl...
Just awful.
If you ignore the social stigma about them about how many ways people inject their social philosophies and other mind junk into the fabric of the films. As well as not look to into things, then it's just as Star Wars as they come except Disney-fied.
Only if you want to get filled in on how bad they were. Otherwise, nah. Just watch the critics and you'll get the gist of it.
On Episode VII I walked out if the cinema. When my brother bought Episode VIII on DVD I gabe it a shot but turned it off after about an hour, never tried Episode IX.
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Force Awakens: I can't recommend it but if it were already on I wouldn't turn it off. Pretty much just repeatedly yelling "Hey, remember when you liked Star Wars? This is kinda like that!" But it's inoffensive as nostalgia bait goes, a fairly well-made toy commercial.
Last Jedi: It has themes and character development and adds depth to the setting. Uniquely among the trilogy, it is an actual movie made by actual adults. There are some pacing issues but it's pretty solid on balance. Not amazing or anything but I'd say it's worth the average Star Wars fan's time.
Rise of Skywalker: People were very upset that Last Jedi had been an actual movie, so this reversed course on that decision and HARD. There is literally nothing there at all behind the jingling of its keys in your face and it jingles them very aggressively.
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