Star Wars’ Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
The Skywalker Saga begins – not with a bang but with, er, trade negotiations. Yippee! The first chapter in George Lucas’ prequel trilogy is both the story of Jake Lloyd’s young Anakin Skywalker (fated to become Darth Vader) being rescued from servitude by Jedi duo Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (hello there, Ewan McGregor), and a look at how the Empire’s eventual rise began with political meddling and Sith-flavoured subterfuge in the highest halls of power.
Spoiler: the ‘Phantom Menace’ is Senator Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), aka Darth Sidious, the man who’ll later become the Emperor, pulling the strings on a manufactured dispute to destabilise the Republic. More likely, you’ll remember the podrace set-piece, the astonishing ‘Duel Of The Fates’ lightsaber battle as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan face off against Palpatine’s apprentice Darth Maul (resulting in Qui-Gon’s noble end, and Maul being sliced in two), and the slapstick antics of one Jar Jar Binks.
Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones
The middle film in the prequel trilogy leaps forward a decade after The Phantom Menace – Anakin Skywalker is now not only Hayden Christensen-shaped, but a hater of sand, a beginner at flirting, and a fully-fledged Padawan apprentice to Obi-Wan Kenobi (still McGregor). Attack Of The Clones is both a romance, and a conspiracy thriller: while Anakin pursues a secret love affair with Naboo royalty Padmé Amidala (let’s gloss over the fact that she met him when he was a small child in Phantom), Obi-Wan is on a trail to find the truth behind an assassination attempt on Padmé’s life. That path leads him to discover that a clone army is being created, ordered by a long-dead Jedi, supposedly intended to help the Republic. So far, so suspicious. After tussling with clone DNA source (and bounty hunter) Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), Obi-Wan eventually learns that Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) was behind the murder plot, and is Darth Sidious’ latest apprentice. Anakin secretly marries Padmé, and prepares to fight alongside Obi-Wan in…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
While Yoda declared, “Begun, the Clone War has” at the end of Attack Of The Clones, the conflict was never depicted in the movies. Enter The Clone Wars, a theatrically-released animated 2008 film (directed by Dave Filoni, no less) that kicked off a seven-season cartoon series, exploring what Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Padmé got up to while fighting alongside the clone army, against Count Dooku’s Separatists. Told across 133 episodes, comprising various story arcs, presented in non-chronological order, with a vast amount of expanded lore – from Mandalorians to Sith holocrons, with entire new planets and races introduced – The Clone Wars is almost a whole galaxy unto itself. Most importantly, it introduces Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), a Jedi Padawan to Anakin Skywalker who eventually decides to leave the Jedi Order after feeling betrayed by the flaws within its system. Elements of The Clone Wars’ final season take place concurrently with…
Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
The final chapter of the prequel trilogy sees Anakin Skywalker finally become Darth Vader – turned to the Dark Side under the influence of Palpatine, who’s eventually revealed as the mastermind behind the collapse of the Republic. Padmé is pregnant, and Anakin is suffering nightmare visions of her dying in childbirth. Having already lost his mother during Attack Of The Clones, Anakin vows to save Padmé – and is told by Palpatine that only the powers of the Dark Side can allow that to happen. The real sting in Palpatine’s plan to kick-start the Galactic Empire is executing Order 66 – a genetically-encoded decree to the clone army to turn against their Jedi allies and slaughter them all, wiping out near every Jedi in the galaxy. A Dark Side-leaning Anakin battles Obi-Wan on the lava-strewn planet of Mustafar – where Obi-Wan eventually gets the high ground, and Anakin loses limbs and falls into the fire. As Anakin is encased in his life-saving Darth Vader armour, Padmé dies giving birth… to twins! She names them Luke and Leia, and Obi-Wan places them in separate care – Leia with Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) on Alderaan, Luke with Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton) and Aunt Beru (Bonnie Piesse) on Tatooine – to protect their lives.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
The Clone Wars ended around the events of Revenge Of The Sith – and The Bad Batch is effectively its sequel series, concerning a squad of rogue clone mercenaries, Clone Force 99, on the run after witnessing the atrocities of Order 66. With the Clone Wars over, the members of Clone Force 99 – that’s Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair and Echo (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) – are not only figuring out their place in the galaxy in the early days of the Empire, but looking after young girl Omega (Michelle Ang); a female clone drawn from the same Jango Fett DNA as the rest of the Batch. Two seasons have been produced so far.