Favorite Star Wars Films

Really just listed in order of personal preference.

1. The Empire Strikes Back. I mean, it's the best one. I love it.
2. Return of the Jedi. It's really close between IV and VI, but the fact that this came out when I was 7 years old and pretty much at the peak of my adoration for Star Wars pushes it up to #2 on my list. The nostalgia is strong with this one.
3. A New Hope. Dropping the OG down to #3 is a little controversial...it's an awesome movie, but ever since I was a little kid I've felt that the last part of the film (the final attack on the Death Star) drags a little bit.
4. Rogue One. I love how they were able to tie it directly into the beginning of Episode IV, and the minimal use of lightsabers and Jedi talk. Hopefully this is the future of Star Wars filmmaking. 
5. The Phantom Menace. Sure it has its issues, but I'm not as offended by it as is the general populace. In Darth Maul, it brought us the only compelling villain that they've been able to come up with since 1983. Also, it brought us one of the great pieces of Star Wars music. 
6. Solo. Although it took a beating at the box office,  I thought it was a decent movie that went off the rails towards the end. The ending was not at all consistent with Han Solo's character arc. The folks who made this definitely thought Greedo shot first.
7. Attack of the Clones. Get rid of all the boring separatist talk, replace Count Dooku with Darth Maul (who should have never been killed off) and fix up the Padme/Anakin dialogue a little, and this is a much better movie. No big deal.
8. Revenge of the Sith. Definitely a 21st century movie. The total screen time devoted to lightsaber duels in this movie (12 minutes) is nearly as much as the screen time devoted to lightsaber duels in the first five Star Wars movies combined (14 minutes).
9. The Force Awakens. I enjoyed it the first couple of times. But watching its two sequels actually makes you feel worse about this one.
10. The Last Jedi. I enjoyed it in the theater. But it's the first one that I haven't bought on DVD.
11. The Rise of Skywalker. I'm just really hoping that this is truly the end of the so-called "Skywalker saga". It took 40 years, but they've almost made me dislike Star Wars at this point. 

I really came down hard on lightsabers. Not against a good lightsaber battle, but they've just overdone it to the point where it's not special anymore.