Star Wars 1-9 - Movie Review

Skywalker Saga

Since seeing Rise of the Skywalker, I had been debating on whether to review all the Star Wars movies or limit the review to the numbered movies. With shows like Mandalorian, Rebels, and Clone Wars adding to the current canon expanded universe, I decided to limit this review. There may be spoilers in the previous movies but I will try to make the Rise of the Skywalker review spoiler free.

The Phantom Menace

Love or hate the prequel trilogy, this movie brought us back to the Star Wars universe 16 years after Return of the Jedi. Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn was by far my favorite character in this movie. I understand the need to kill of this character for the story but I often wonder what would have happened to the series if he had remained alive. One could also wonder if Qui-Gon had taught Anikin if he would have chosen the dark side.

I did find the story interesting not from the invasion of Naboo but more from how Palpatine manipulated events that would start his rise to power. Although not the best movie, I rate this as the seventh best numbered movie in the franchise.

Attack of the Clones

Without Jar Jar Binks, Palpatine would have never found someone to manipulate to give him the emergency powers necessary to create the Republic army that would ultimately allow him to become emperor. It was interesting to see the plotting that had created the first clone army. So much special effects were needed to make this movie possible. The drawback to this new technology was that many movies that copied it focused on virtual worlds vs practical effects. It was nice to have context to the Clone Wars reference Leia made to Obi-Wan Kenobi in a New Hope. We can see in this movie how Anikin is starting his fall to the dark side. I felt this movie is fourth best numbered movie because of the story and dialog.

Revenge of the Sith

I appreciated the story showing how Palpatine had started to manipulate Anikin to become his new apprentice in this movie. General Grievous is by far my favorite character in this movie. To appreciate how he has so many lightsabers, one would have to watch the original animated Clone Wars movies that like the Holiday Special, are meant to be forgotten in favor of the CGI Clone Wars series. 

We see Palpatine become emperor and the fall of the Republic along with the end of the Jedi with order 66. I recommend watching the sixth season of the Clone Wars to get more information on how this order forced the clones to kill the Jedi. Seeing Yoda at his best but still get beaten was not enough to save this movie from being sixth (not Sith as my spell correction tried to do) on my list.

A New Hope

Many of us that are old enough simply call this one Star Wars as there was no title to this movie beyond that when it first came out. As my reviews are based on the digital movies you can get and not the original version that not even the Library of Congress has access to (feel free to Google that one), I have to say I did find most of the updates acceptable but Han shot first. No amount of force editing to this movie can make it acceptable for Greedo to shot at all. 

I very much liked the Jabba scene even though the special effect department was limited on what they could do with Han walking behind him. As much as I love Boba Fett, it was overkill to add him to this scene. Overall, I say the digitally altered A New Hope comes in at third on my list.

The Empire Strikes Back

I don't know many people who have complained about any of the updates made to this movie. Even without the changes, I feel this movie has it all. The original first appearance of a live action Boba Fett. The famous "I am your father" reveal along with the "I know" from Han to Leia. If I had to pick only one of the nine movies to watch, this would be it. Who cares that it ends on a little cliff hanger. The story was by far the best in my opinion making this number one in the numbered movies.

Return of the Jedi

Two words: Slave Leia. This movie probably cemented Carrie Fisher in the minds of males at any age. Even in that outfit, she kicked butt. Her Ewok outfit is probably the second best outfit she wore in the series. Fun fact was the battle was supposed be done by Wookiees but Chewbacca became too knowledgeable about technology to make this possible so Ewoks were invented. The updates to the Max Rebo band scenes were not an improvement in my mind. Seeing the Twi'lek dancer face the Rancor was impressive especially considering it was the same actress who reprised the role 14 years later for the special edition version. This movie comes second on my list.

The Force Awakens

First in the sequel trilogy, this movie had some much going for it with J.J. Abrams coming of the Star Trek reboot and several of the original trilogy stars reprising their roles. What went wrong? Decades of expanded universe was thrown out the door and was replaced by this movie. Considering Harrison Ford's thoughts on his character Han Solo, there was no surprise for me how they got him to come back.

I might have been able to stomach this movie if they had not named Han and Leia's son Ben Solo. Jacen Solo in the expanded universe that is no longer canon fell to the dark side. Ben Skywalker was in the expanded universe as Luke's son. Any name but Ben would have been acceptable to me but Jacen would have been a nice nod to the old expanded universe.

My biggest complaint about the movie was that it appeared to just be a remake of A New Hope with a female lead. Even Han joked during the movie how much it was like A New Hope with his comment about Star Killer Base. Since the story was not original but it was executed adequately, this movie comes in eighth on my list.

The Last Jedi

I do not feel I am alone in rating this the worst numbered movie in the series. The only thing that could have made it worse was for Luke to tell Rey "I am your father". The movie took the Empires Strikes back and changed the order of events. Jedi training in the beginning vs the middle. Walkers attacking a rebel base towards the end instead of the beginning. At least they had the Falcon flying through an obstacle course about the same time in the movie. 

Probably the biggest issue with this movie is the optimistic Luke from the original trilogy is now just a cynical hermit. Yes, he had some horrible things happen after Return of the Jedi but he was still optimistic in the original series being orphaned not once but twice in his life. Not even Yoda appearing in the movie could save it from the disaster it was. The only redeeming scene in this entire movie was when Ben and Rey battle Snoke's troops together.

The Rise of Skywalker

Speaking of being cynical, I came into this movie with extremely low expectations based on the last two movies along with the trailers for this movie. I fully expected to see a Return of the Jedi remake. I was extremely happy to be wrong. This movie has some interesting events happen that almost keep you guessing. I really like that in a movie. While the 2 hours and 22 minutes run time started to feel long, I am not sure the movie could have been shorted to wrap up many points for the sequel trilogy. I found the movie refreshing after the last two movies and rate this as the fifth best movie in the franchise. 

Rating

The series as a whole deserves a HD rating. The top six movies are worth getting in HD for under $20. I picked up the first six in HD from Google as a bundle on sale for less than $90 since I already had the DVDs for these movies. The last two I picked up with Blu-ray for $20 or more. I may do the same for this one as it is more deserving than the Last Jedi. It should be noted that Disney has released these movies now in UHD format for those interested. I did see the digital HD as low as $10 each when Rise of the Skywalker first opened. Not sure if they will go that low again.

I ended up ordering my 4K Blu-ray with digital copy for $30 from Walmart as they had free shipping and was the same price as everyone else. UltraCloudHD did have the HD copy as low as $11 and the UHD as low as $16 but I wanted to complete the Skywalker Saga with a disc copy as well.