My partner and I have recently watched all 9 main series star war films, in release order. There will be some spoilers throughout. Here are our rough opinions on them:
* IV: A New Hope - Incredible film, slightly soured by Lucas' insistence on "improving" things with mostly awkward edits (why do we need the exact same Han Solo scene to play out twice, with Jabba and Greedo?). Action scenes are a little awkward at times, but the story is great. My 2nd favourite in the franchise.
* V: The Empire Strikes Back - Even better than the original, which it builds on well. We of course knew the big reveal with Vader at the end but it's still so well done. Action scenes and lightsaber duels are better done than the original. My favourite of the nine.
* VI: Return of the Jedi - Not as good as the first two, I feel like the Leia is Luke's sister reveal is just a little... forced in the context of the first two films. Like they wanted to replicate the success of the Vader reveal but couldn't quite do it right. Otherwise it's a really great film. My 4th favourite.
* I: The Phantom Menace - It's prequel memes time! Qui-gon and Obi-Wan are the real strength of this film, Anakin and everything around him is the biggest issue. Bigger than Jar-Jar. Like... little 9 year old slave boy, somehow able to build his own pod racer, using... what money? How does he afford to do this? And his ship is somehow able to compete with all these competitive (and cheating) racing experts with ships built by adults. Simultaneously along with his magic slave money tree he also builds a droid. What kind of droid? One to help him and his mum as they are destitute... nah just kidding he builds a translator droid, of course. And somehow little 9 year old Anakin convinces a teenage queen to semi-fall in love with him, not creepy at all. Yeah, there's issues here. On the plus side, from this point on the lightsaber duels tend to be much better, which is cool.
* II: Attack of the Clones - More memes. Despite watching this less than a month ago I honestly barely remember the overall plot. Teenage Anakin is arrogant, creepy and angsty, which honestly is exactly how he should be portrayed. His dialogue maybe could have been improved but he's well acted I feel. Obi-Wan carries the film again, though.
* III: Revenge of the Sith - I remember saying to my partner of this one, it feels like they ran out of plot to write and so substituted in more action packed lightsaber duels. I lost count of how many there are, at least 6 I think (Dooku, Obi vs Grievous, Anakin vs Grievous, Windu + Anakin + Palpatine, Yoda vs Palpatine, Obi vs Anakin). Anakin's switch in the Windu and Palpatine scene feels very sudden. Like he was building up to betrayal at that point but he just switches from "he should stand trial" to "Ima kill all Jedi now" in about 3 seconds. The Padme birth scene at the end is hilariously bad. Overall not good.
* VII: The Force Awakens - It feels somewhat generic. I don't really like the way Kylo Ren acts in this one, it feels like they're trying to force another Vader character but without it building up the respect it needs. And in general Ray and her situation feels quite contrived, with how it builds up. The map macguffin plot also feels quite weak, like... can you really not identify that area of space? But somehow R2D2 had a near perfect map of everything else and that's what you needed? The Han death scene was excellently done, and I feel like that really helped sell Ren's character as something good.
* VIII: The Last Jedi - Okay, controversial opinion time. This is the 3rd best Star Wars film. I went in with low expectations and I was blown away. The plot was constantly unpredictable with little twists and surprises throughout, yet they rarely felt random or just thrown in for the sake of it. After most of these twists I immediately went, "Ah, that's what was being foreshadowed". Luke's character I feel was done very well, and fits what you'd expect of someone who had huge burdens and expectations placed upon them which they catastrophically failed to reach. Kylo manages to become a truly interesting character and Rey develops alongside him, and I loved the reveal about Rey's parents. And the final Luke vs Ren fight scene was done so well, with a great twist reveal - there was hinting he wasn't really there, and that's why he was dodging everything, as well you can't interact through space. The film wasn't perfect, the Leia floating into the airlock scene in particular was dumb. But overall, it was a great film with a few dumb moments.
* IX: The Rise of Skywalker - I had heard lots of bad things about this film, even more than VIII so again went in with low expectations, and it managed to drop below them in about the first 5 minutes. Bringing back Palpatine was dumb. Changing Ray's lineage to try and pull a "Vader" moment was VERY dumb and just cheapened the big reveal from The Last Jedi. Ray and Ren suddenly being able to physically interact through a distance felt super dumb and inconsistent after VIII, where it was a pretty plot point that you CAN'T do that. And while I know Force Healing is a thing in the extended Star Wars universe, Rey suddenly being able to use it here felt pretty ridiculous as well. The entire plot was built around a silly macguffin as well. The Leia scenes all felt very fake, they did not do Carrie Fisher justice. Still, some of the lightsaber duels were great, and the moment that Rey handed Ren the lightsaber was at least internally consistent, which made for a pretty cool scene. Overall, it was a dumb film with a few great moments.
Overall, the original series was the best, the Prequels are badly written but have cool worlds and stories, the sequels, watch 7+8 and just don't bother with 9.
