FTRS Bye Week Power Rankings 2.0: Star Wars Movies

In case you’ve been living under a rock, this little cult series called Star Wars released the final trailer for the final film of The Skywalker Saga on Monday night (the best part of Monday Night Football imo). I’ve always been a huge Star Wars fan, so I’ve been super hyped for this new film. And now, that it’s Georgia Tech’s bye week, it’s the perfect time to rank the 12 Star Wars films that exist in the ether of the universe. Be prepared, though, because I have some takes that could be considered controversial.

N/A. The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

This film thing doesn’t even deserve to be given a number on the list. Created to capitalize on the success of the original Star Wars, the Holiday Special was a variety show-esque thing that primarily starred Chewbacca and his family as they prepared to celebrate Life Day on their home planet of Kashyyyk.

There are so many problems with this, I don’t even know how to start. The casual watcher is going to have no idea what is happening throughout most of the film, as Chewie’s family speaks their native language of Shyriiwook. No subtitles are available, so you have to use context clues to understand what’s happening. There’s one scene that is particularly memorable where Chewie’s father Itchy is gifted what Wikipedia calls a “virtual reality fantasy program.” It was a porn chair. He used it right in the living room in front of the whole dang family. We had to watch Chewie’s father used a freaking porn chair.

Famed bounty hunter Boba Fett also saw his introduction to the Star Wars universe during one of the segments. He calls everybody “friend” and doesn’t do much else. I will say, though, this segment produces the best part of the whole special.

We see Han’s eyes open like this once, and this is it. It’s kind of funny.

The thing ends with Carrie Fisher added lyrics to the Star Wars theme, and it was rough. Nobody looked like they were having a good time.

After all of this filth, it has the audacity to play a sizzle reel of the original Star Wars for those that stayed around for the end. This was not good enough to deserve that sizzle reel. This thing is an absolute disgrace to the Star Wars franchise and should be erased from the ether of the universe.

I HATE THIS THING. I actively avoided watching this as long as humanly possible. But I started a podcast with some friends of mine a little over a year ago, so naturally, we got to this and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I have never been so angry watching something. Anyway, let’s move on before I get angrier.

11. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

Starting at the real bottom of my list is the animated film that came out before Disney purchased Lucasfilm. This film follows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, along with his new Padawan, Asohka Tano, as they search for and rescue the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt. It went on to spawn The Clone Wars TV series that is fixing to pick back up after the launch of the Disney + streaming service.

If I was basing this ranking on the TV show that it spawned, I would rank this a lot higher. The TV show is well worth watching. The movie? Ehh, it’s not super great. It’s very directed towards a younger target audience. If you haven’t seen the show, I’d say watch the movie since it sets the basis for the show, but don’t waste a whole lot of time with this one.

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

The middle film of the prequel trilogy is by far the worst of them. Attack of the Clones starts on Coruscant with an assassination attempt on Padme Amidala, the former Queen-turned-Senator of Naboo. In response, two Jedi (Obi-Wan and Anakin) are named security for her. The film follows Anakin and Padme as they go into hiding on Naboo (before leaving and going to Tatooine) while Obi-Wan investigates the assassination attempt, which leads him to discover the Clone Army purchased by deceased Jedi Sifo Dyas on behalf of the Galactic Republic.

The plot lines meet on the planet of Geonosis when Obi-Wan is captured by the Sepratists and Anakin and Padme get captured in their rescue attempt. As they are prepared to be executed by a number of savage beasts, the Jedi come to the rescue, followed closely behind by the Clone army. The movie ends with Anakin and Obi-Wan being defeated by Count Dooku before being saved by Yoda in probably the coolest sequence in the whole film.

This movie has some interesting plot themes, like what happens to Anakin’s mom, what’s this whole thing going on with the Clone army, but between some putrid writing and a love story that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, this movie is so dang boring until the execution scene on Geonosis.

I actually have a theory about Anakin and Padme falling in love. Watching the film, I have never understood how Padme ends up falling in love with Anakin. He’s obsessive, irrationally angry about everything, and just all around not pleasant to be around. Here’s what I think happened. Anakin is the most naturally gifted force user to ever exist, so I believe that unintentionally, Anakin used the force to influence Padme into falling in love with him. It helps me buy their relationship a whole lot easier.

9. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

Disney’s first Star Wars film is a weird one for me. My first viewing of it on opening night is one of my favorite film experiences of all time. I grew up a huge Star Wars fan, so getting to experience that theme in a movie theater for the first time as an adult was an experience like none other. The first time I watched it, I really enjoyed it. It left me with a lot of questions, among those: who are Rey and Snoke? Where’s Luke? etc. But the more I watched it, the less I enjoyed it each time.

This film takes place 30-something years after the end of Return of the Jedi. The new Republic has been established, and the remnants of the Empire of vanished into the Unknown Regions where they reorganize as the First Order under the leadership of the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke.

The film primarily follows our new protagonists Rey and Finn as they escape Jakku on the Millennium Falcon as try to catch up to the Resistance, headed up by General Leia Organa, to put up a fight against the First Order following the annihilation of the new Republic.

To put it simply, I have two major issues with the film. The first is that this film, in it’s entirety, is nothing but a nostalgia fest. From hearing Rey calling the Millennium Falcon a piece of junk to seeing Poe fly his X-wing through the trench to blow up Starkiller base, this movie was created to generate endless amounts of nostalgia and get people excited about Star Wars again. It worked, and I loved it in the moment. But as the film ages, it gets a little less exciting each time.

My other problem is that in this movie, JJ Abrams throws a TON of potential plot points at the wall, hoping something would stick, and a lot of them really don’t. He also ends the movie with a cliffhanger, as Rey approaches Luke on Ahch-To, handicapping where The Last Jedi is able to start. I think this movie does a really poor job of setting up the sequel trilogy and plays into a lot of the complaints that fans have about The Last Jedi.

Before I started working on this, I actually had The Force Awakens one spot higher on this list, but after starting, I started feeling some pretty heavy nostalgia for the film that was here, so I switched them.

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

Ahh the first prequel. It seemed like things were so easy back then. Fun fact, The Phantom Menace was the first movie I ever saw in theaters and is a big reason I am as big a fan as I am. From the second it started, I was enthralled.

This movie shows the audience where Anakin Skywalker comes from, in his humble roots on Tatooine. We also get to learn a lot about the political structure of the Republic before the Emperor rose to power. Most importantly, this movie spawned the single greatest conspiracy theory of all time: the Darth Jar Jar theory. I’ll spare you the details, but if you haven’t read all the way through that, I would highly recommend it.

Now, this movie has a lot of problems. I think the biggest one, though, is that Anakin is too young. Because of how old he is in this one, he is recast in future films. I think his character would have benefited from having just one actor play him in the trilogy. A lot of the CG doesn’t age well, and who could forget Jar Jar? Personally, I love him. I understand why people abhor him, but I don’t care. I love him.

This movie also introduces one of my favorite characters in the whole saga: Qui-Gon Jinn, the master of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Played by Liam Neeson, Qui-Gon is one of the most intriguing characters in the whole saga. He is clearly at odds with the Jedi council throughout The Phantom Menace, preferring to follow the will of the Living Force, and then in Episode III, we find out that he has figured out the path to immortality (i.e. becoming a force ghost), and I think that’s really cool! You also get Darth Maul, so come on! That’s awesome!

7. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Before this came out, Solo faced a lot of drama. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were initially hired to direct the film, but about three quarters into principle photography, they were fired over creative differences, and Ron Howard was hired in their place. He proceeded to re-shoot a large majority of the film and still had it ready to release by its original release date in May 2018.

This film follows a young Han Solo as he finds his way off Corellia before meeting up with Beckett and his gang. They pull off a job to hijack some coaxium (hyper speed fuel), where half the team is killed. After failing to secure the coaxium, Beckett and Han form a new team, including Han’s former girlfriend who got left behind on Corellia and Lando Calrissian, along with his droid companion, the sassy L3-37.

There’s a lot of fan service in this movie, including Han and Chewie’s first meeting, Han flying the Falcon through the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs (they round down!), and the game of Sabacc that gifts the Falcon to Han. This movie even explains how Han got the last name Solo, much to everyone’s chagrin.

I was really impressed that Ron Howard was able to create a film of this quality after reshooting most of it in the amount of time that he did. I also think it’s a pretty good film. It’s not your traditional Star Wars film, and I get why some people take issue with that. But honestly, this is a fun story about a space heist that has some fun characters and great moments. There’s also a major payoff for those who watch The Clone Wars and Rebels TV shows, where we see the return of Maul at the end of the film.

6. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

I’m going to get some hate for this one. I know that. The original Star Wars is a great film for many reasons, but it’s not my favorite, and it’s not really close.

This movie gives us the story of how our three main characters—Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa—come together in the fight against the Empire. Luke and Han team up as Luke is looking for passage to Alderaan with Obi-Wan Kenobi in order to aid Leia’s father. Following the destruction of Alderaan, Luke and Han find themselves rescuing the princess from the Death Star. After they escape, the trio regrouped with the rest of the Rebel Alliance to prepare for the fight against the Empire. As the Death Star approaches Yavin 4, the Rebels put up a fight and end up exposing the fatal flaw (later revealed to be put there intentionally), destroying the Death Star.

Obviously, there’s a lot to love about this movie. It’s the original and spawned the entire series. Without this movie, the rest of Star Wars doesn’t exist. I don’t really have problems with the movie; it’s really just that I like the others better than the original. There are some iconic moments, like Luke staring at the double sunset, and the introduction of all the characters we’ve grown to love.

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

Moving into the top five, we have a movie that I’m assuming a lot of people probably wouldn’t have guessed would be here, but here we are.

The final film of the prequel trilogy details the ultimate fall of Anakin Skywalker as well as Galactic Republic’s transition to the Empire. It starts at the end of the Clone Wars as Anakin and Obi-Wan infiltrate General Grievous’ ship where Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is being held captive. Upon rescuing and defeating Count Dooku, Obi-Wan and Anakin go their separate ways—Obi-Want to go after Grievous and Anakin to stay and spy on the Supreme Chancellor, an idea that he is less than thrilled about.

While Obi-Wan is off on Utapau fighting Grievous, Palpatine reveals himself to be a Sith Lord to Anakin, who naturally reacts poorly. He goes to Mace Windu, who puts together a team of Jedi to go arrest Palpatine. Needless to say, that doesn’t go well. Palpatine wipes out all but Windu within seconds and then defeats Windu after an assist by Anakin (UNLIMITED POWUHHHHH).

Now fully revealed as a Sith Lord, Palpatine initiates Order 66, an order for the Clone Troopers to turn on their Jedi leaders in order to wipe them out entirely. Meanwhile, on Utapau, Obi-Wan has defeated Grievous right before Order 66 is executed, so his Clones turn on him while he’s there and nearly kill him. He’s able to get away and meet up with Yoda, who has been helping the Wookies on Kashyyyk, back on Coruscant, where they fight off Clones in the Jedi Temple before going off to face their battles: Yoda to Palpatine on Coruscant and Obi-Wan to Anakin on Mustafar.

As the two couples dual, it’s one of the most beautiful fight sequences in all of Star Wars, especially the battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Yoda loses after being overpowered by Palpatine and decides to go into exile, while Obi-Wan bests Anakin and leaves him for dead after chopping off three limbs and letting him burn alive by the lava.

There’s a lot that happens in this movie, and that’s a large part of why I like it so much. You get some really dark moments designed to make you feel uncomfortable (i.e. Anakin killing the Jedi younglings), but you also get some incredible fights, and it was nice to get the completion of what we all thought was the whole story at the time.

I know a lot of people take issue with Padme “losing the will to live” and dying because of a broken heart. Well, my theory on this goes back to my theory on how Padme fell in love with Anakin, at least one of my theories does. The one I’m talking about is that through the connection that Anakin forged when he manipulated Padme into falling in love with him, he also sucked the life from her in order to save himself, making Palpatine’s words true: “In your anger, you killed her.” Unintentionally, sure, but I think it adds a lot more to Anakin’s character.

4. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Alright, let’s get back to the original trilogy with a movie that some consider to be the best sequel to a movie ever released. It’s definitely a great sequel, and I love this movie a lot.

This movie takes place a few years after the events of A New Hope, and the Rebels have moved their base to the ice planet of Hoth. In their continual game of cat and mouse, the Empire finds them and attacks. As the Rebels are able to escape, Han and Leia escape on the Falcon and spend most of the movie running from Imperial Star Destroyers before making it to Bespin.

While that is going on, Luke takes a trip to the swamp planet of Dagobah in search of Yoda, whom Obi-Wan told him about posthumously. After some pouting and impatience from Luke, Yoda agrees to train Luke. While they begin training, Luke and Leia make it to Bespin where they meet Han’s old buddy Lando. Unfortunately, Darth Vader and the Empire beat them there and essentially hold the planet hostage in order to lure Luke in. Leia and Han fall into the trap, so Vader decides to test the carbon freezing trap on Han. Before he’s frozen, we get the famous “I love you. I know.” exchange between Han and Leia.

While this is going on, Luke senses that they are in trouble, and despite warnings from Yoda and Obi-Wan’s force ghost, he goes to Bespin to save his friends and face Darth Vader. The confrontation doesn’t go very well for Luke, given his inexperience. Vader pushes the fight out to this deep pit looking thing and essentially backs Luke off the edge of it. While there, he cuts off Luke’s hand and tells him that he’s his father, you know, as one does.

I mean, what else can I say? This movie is incredible. I think it drags a bit during the middle of the film, but the beginning and the end of the movie are really great. The reason I rank it a little lower is because I never had the attachment to this movie like I did with another movie in the original trilogy. Still absolutely adore this one though!

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

I freaking love this movie! Growing up, this was my favorite Star Wars movie. When I would wake up on Saturday mornings, I would pop this in my VCR before the rest of my family woke up and watch this movie. It was beautiful.

This movie takes place about a year after the events of Empire Strikes Back, as our main group of heroes are infiltrating Jabba’s palace to rescue Han. It works, but as Leia is able to unfreeze Han, it turns out that Jabba and his goons have been watching the whole time, so they both get imprisoned. Luke shows up to try and barter for for his friends’ freedom, and that doesn’t go so well, so Jabba tries to have him killed. Luke, well Leia technically, kills Jabba.

From there, most of the group meets up with the Rebel Alliance who has learned that the Empire is nearing completion on the construction of the second Death Star, and that the Emperor is personally overseeing the final stages. While this is going on, Luke goes back to Dagobah for Yoda’s last moments for confirmation that Vader is indeed his father and that he also has a twin sister in Leia (just forget about that time they kissed).

After Yoda dies, Luke rejoins the Rebels as they prepare the task force to go to Endor to disable the shield generator of the Death Star. They all get down there, meet some Ewoks and cause a lot of ruckus. Luke feels he’s endangering the mission, so he turns himself over to the Empire and is brought before the Emperor and Vader. From here, there’s like three battles going on at once. You’ve got Han, Leia, and the Ewoks battling stormtroopers on the planet. While that’s going on, the rest of the Rebels are hanging out in space waiting on them to disable the shields, so instead it turns into a giant space battle. And then there’s also the final dual between Luke and Vader.

Eventually, with the help of some Ewoks, Han and Leia destroy the shield generator, and the Rebels are able to do another trench run (but this time through the middle of the whole dang thing) to destroy the new Death Star. While this is going on, Luke is losing the battle to Vader, so Vader taunts him by saying that if Luke won’t join the Dark Side, perhaps his sister will. This pisses Luke off, and he gives into his anger and ends up defeating Vader and chopping his arm off. Palpatine is super pleased with this and implores Luke to turn to the Dark Side. Luke is like, “Nah, I’m a Jedi, like my father before me.” Palpatine is less pleased and starts using his force lightning on Luke. Vader sees this and decides to be a good dad and throws the guy that’s killing his son over the railing, seemingly defeating* him. Vader gets to see Luke with his own eyes before dying and then they all celebrate!

Like I said earlier, I love this movie. It was my favorite one growing up, and that’s a large reason it’s still in my top three. Does it have its problems? Sure, but this is an opinionated list, so I don’t care. I really enjoy watching Luke’s journey throughout this movie. The movie starts and Luke seems like he has everything really put together, but then we get to the end and we realize that maybe he doesn’t when he gives into the Dark Side in order to defeat Vader. I like that it paints the picture that Luke isn’t perfect. That plays a key role later.

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

And here is where I’m going to start getting a ton of hate.

This movie serves as a direct prequel to A New Hope and a very roundabout way to fix a 40-year-old plot hole. In this movie, we follow the journey that a few Rebels take to steal the original Death Star plans. We meet a number of interesting characters throughout the film, including Jyn Erso, Chirrut Imwe and some others.

I really love this movie. Through it, we get an interesting cast of unique characters. My personal favorite is the duo of Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus, two former Guardians of the Whills, whom we meet on Jeddha. Despite not being force sensitive, they both have an interesting connection to the force (and each other) that made them really compelling to me.

I also really like the character of Director Krennic. He was like Tarkin lite, but then got overruled by the actual Tarkin. Personally, I’m a fan of seeing some of the politics that you wouldn’t normally see, and in Rouge One, we get to see some of the politics between Krennic and Tarkin, as Tarkin takes control of the Death Star away from him.

One of my biggest reasons for loving this movie is that from the time they land on Scarif to the end of the film is one of my favorite sequences in any movie ever. I love that the characters in this movie die. It would have been an easy resolution to find a way for them to survive, but I have a lot of respect for letting them die. And plus, we get that incredible Vader scene at the end.

Some people take issue with the use of CG to recreate Grand Moff Tarkin and a young Princess Leia. I don’t. And personally, I think it’s really good CG.

1. Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

And here’s where that hate culminates: by putting the most divisive movie in the Star Wars franchise at the very top of my list.

This movie takes place directly after the events of The Force Awakens as the Resistance goes from celebrating their victory over the First Order to getting the heck out of dodge as they retaliate. There are a couple different strings of plot here. The first being the Resistance fleet running from the First Order. After narrowly escaping their base and losing an entire bombing fleet, the Resistance discovers that the First Order is able to track them through hyperspace, a previously impossible thing to do. Instead of jumping to hyperspace again, they decide to just fly just out of range of the blasters of the star destroyers. Unfortunately, some fighters are able to get a couple shots off at the bridge of the main ship and are able to kill nearly all of the leaders of the Resistance. Tapping into her force powers, Leia is able to pull herself back to the ship and survive. With Leia out of commission, Vice Admiral Holdo is put in charge, much to the chagrin of Poe. Pissing him off even more, Holdo refuses to tell Poe what the plan is, maintaining that he should just follow orders.

I’m going to interrupt this plot synopsis for a second to mention something important here that should have been in the movie. In the novel adaptation of the movie, this strife between Holdo and Poe is explained a little further. In the beginning of the movie, Poe takes a fleet of bombers out to destory a Dreadnought and all of the bombers are destroyed. Holdo was the one who was actually over that fleet, so Poe got all of the folks in Holdo’s fleet killed. Makes a little more sense why she didn’t really seem to like him, now doesn’t it?
Anyway, Poe is upset because he feels like there’s more he can do instead of being patient and trusting those in charge. He finds Finn and Rose, and they come up with a plan to disable the First Order’s hyperspace tracking and send them off.

While all this is going on, Rey is on Ahch-To trying to convince Luke to train her. At this point, Luke has completely cut himself off from the force and has zero interest in training her after failing with Ben Solo. After being stubborn enough, Luke begrudgingly agrees to give her three lessons to show why the Jedi should end. While on Ahch-To, we get to learn a little more about what happened between Luke and Ben Solo, all the while Rey and Kylo Ren discover they have some kind of force bond. They get to talking, so we get three versions of what happened that fateful night. Luke discovers that Rey has been talking to Kylo Ren and gets pissed off and freaks out, blowing up a whole hut, so Rey leaves. Luke responds by trying to set fire to the ancient Jedi texts in the old tree thing they were hanging out in. He gets interrupted by the force ghost of Yoda, who proceeds to strike the tree with lightning. They have a little pow-wow, and it’s just a great scene.

Moving over to Finn and Rose, they go to fancy city called Canto Bight in search of a master codebreaker who can hack them into the First Order’s ships in order to disable the hyperspace tracking. Instead, they find a codebreaker in the form of Benicio del Toro’s unnamed character who is commonly referenced as DJ. While on Canto Bight, they discover that the wealthiest of those that are there achieved those riches by being war profiteers, making ships and weapons for both sides. I think this arc is really interesting in helping figure out what the political climate of the galaxy looks like at this point, because we don’t know much. Anyway, the end up escaping and getting back to the star destroyer, where they proceed to get caught.

Back on the Resistance ships, Poe is buying time by staging a coup against Holdo. Ultimately, it’s unsuccessful as Leia is starting to recover and shoots Poe with a stun gun, stunning him long enough to go through with Holdo’s plan: using small ships underneath the First Order’s radar to retreat to an abandoned nearby base while they wait for back-up. Unfortunately, this doesn’t go well, as DJ gives up that information in exchange for his freedom from the First Order, as Finn and Rose are being prepared to be executed.

While this is happening, Rey has also traveled to this ship to confront Kylo Ren, whom she believes will ultimately join her in the fight against the First Order. Needless to say, that’s not exactly how it plays out. She is brought before Snoke and essentially tortured for information about Luke Skylwalker and to ultimately be killed. Snoke, thinking he has an upperhand, asks Kylo Ren to kill her. Instead, he tricks Snoke and kills him. Together, Rey and Kylo Ren defeat the rest of Snoke’s guards and they try to get the other to join them. They fight over Anakin’s lightsaber, eventually breaking it in half, and Rey is able to get away.

Back to the Resistance, ships are being destroyed pretty quickly, so thinking quickly, Holdo turns the remaining cruiser around to use as a hyperspace ram, decimating all of the First Order ships there.

I’m gonna interrupt again. This is another issue that a lot of folks have, wondering why this isn’t done more often, like against the Death Star. Well, it’s another thing that gets explained in the book. The reason that this worked like it did is because of a very sci-fi reason. In short, the ship had to be precisely far enough away to make an impact and the use of experimental shields on the cruiser allowed the ship to survive long enough for it to work. There’s a lot more to it that I would recommend reading up on if you’re interested.

After all this, the story moves down to the salt planet Crait, where the Resistance is hiding in an old Rebel hideout behind a big metal door. The First Order, now under the leadership of Kylo Ren, come down with a mini Death Star blaster to knock the door down. Poe and a group of fighters try to mount a defense, but Poe learns from past mistakes and calls them off before they all die. Finn hasn’t learned that lesson, though, and nearly sacrifices himself in a fruitless effort to stop the blast, but is saved by Rose at the last second.

The First Order marches on but is stopped when Luke Skywalker shows up out of nowhere to go face down the First Order with a laser sword. Seeing him, Kylo Ren commands that they shoot every blaster they have at him. It doesn’t work, so he goes down there himself, only to find out that Luke is nothing more than a force projection.

While they’re distracted, the Resistance is able to get through the cave they’re hiding in and find Rey and the Millennium Falcon and get away.

Now, I know people have a ton of problems with this film. I’d like to address some of those. The biggest one I hear about is how Luke Skywalker is presented in this movie. He has completely given up on the Jedi and is just ready to die after nearly attacking Ben Solo. In the old EU, Luke is essentially made a god who can do no wrong. Personally, I like this version of Luke Skywalker more. He’s not perfect, he makes mistakes. He let himself get caught up in the hubris of being a legend that in a moment of pure instinct, he nearly extinguished a potential threat to that. He failed, which I think is the main theme of this movie. We see every hero fail in some facet, but over the course of this movie, we see them grow from their failures into the leaders of the Resistance, and I think it’s some great direction from Rian Johnson to see such character development for all of the characters.

A lot of people were also upset with how they dealt with Snoke. Personally, I never thought Snoke was going to be the big bad of this trilogy. In my mind, it made no sense to introduce a completely new bad guy in the final third of the Skywalker Saga. Coming into this movie, I even predicted that Snoke was going to die. I was hoping Kylo Ren would ultimately prove to be the big bad, but it seems like old Palpatine will be making his return in The Rise of Skywalker. I’m still kind of unsure about that decision, but we’ll see how it plays out.

Anyway, it’s almost 1:30 in the morning and I’m 5,500 words in, so I’m going to quit rambling. I think The Last Jedi is a beautifully filmed and written movie. In my 25 years of life, I have never felt more satisfied at the end of a movie, and that really speaks volumes to me.

Conclusions

Wow, this ended up being a lot longer than I thought, but that’s what happens when I start rambling about plot. Anyway, I know that I have some pretty different takes when it comes to Star Wars. It’s something I’ve loved all my life that I know not everyone is going to agree with me about. I also know that some folks in the Star Wars community tend to get pretty heated when it comes to some of these movies, so I just want to implore y’all to keep things civil, but don’t let that keep y’all from discussing what your favorite Star Wars movies are!

Also, if you made it through this whole thing, props to you!