With The Mandalorian and Grogu now in theaters, the first Star Wars theatrical film since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, it feels like the perfect time to take a fresh look at the entire live-action saga through the eyes of professional critics.
In this feature, we've ranked every Star Wars movie (the nine Skywalker Saga entries plus the major spin-offs) strictly by their Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer scores. From groundbreaking originals that defined blockbuster cinema to the divisive prequels, ambitious sequels, and standalone adventures, this list reveals which films won over critics and which ones left them cold.
Some placements might surprise you. Fan favourites don't always align with critical consensus, long-maligned entries have aged better than expected in retrospect, and the latest chapter finds itself navigating the tricky waters of franchise fatigue while still delivering what many fans came for.
Check out this ranking in its entirety by clicking on the "Next"/"View List" buttons below.
11. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
Score: 51%
Rotten or Fresh? Rotten
Critics Consensus: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion.
What a disaster. While attempting to please everybody, director J.J. Abrams pleased pretty much no one with this rushed, messy finale to the Skywalker Saga.
Kylo Ren got an okay ending (somehow made worse by The Hunt for Ben Solo being shelved), but beyond that, characters were mostly underserved, and the return of Emperor Palpatine was majorly botched. The franchise deserved better, so these reviews weren't surprising.
10. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Score: 54%
Rotten or Fresh? Rotten
Critics Consensus: Burdened by exposition and populated with stock characters, The Phantom Menace gets the Star Wars prequels off to a bumpy -- albeit visually dazzling -- start.
The Phantom Menace has been treated too harshly over the years, and while it disappointed many Star Wars fans, some parts of it definitely worked. Now, it's become beloved (or well-liked, at least) by the fans who grew up with it.
It's no masterpiece, but it's still hard not to be grateful to the movie for introducing us to characters like Darth Maul and Qui Gon Jinn, both of whom have been explored in greater depth since.
9. Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones
Score: 62%
Rotten or Fresh? Fresh
Critics Consensus: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones benefits from an increased emphasis on thrilling action, although they're once again undercut by ponderous plot points and underdeveloped characters.
Arguably a worse film than The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones wasted far too much time on exploring Anakin Skywalker's romance with Padmé Amidala (CGI fruit!) and setting up a conflict which would only ever be touched on in an—admittedly stellar—animated series.
There were some highlights, like Yoda seeing some action, but they weren't frequent, and this felt like a filler middle chapter. In hindsight, George Lucas would have been wise to actually throw us into the midst of the Clone Wars rather than just setting it up.
8. The Mandalorian And Grogu
Score: 63%
Rotten or Fresh? Fresh
Critics Consensus: Bountiful in action but threadbare in narrative thrust with its episodic structure, this Star Wars is more of a skirmish that coasts on the charm of its central dynamic duo.
The first Star Wars movie since 2019 has not received the warmest of responses from critics, but The Mandalorian and Grogu is far from a disaster. Reading the reviews, it's clear there's an element of franchise fatigue that's seen it judged far more harshly than other movies here.
Overall, it's a fun ride for fans of Din Djarin and Grogu that, while a little too standalone at a time when interconnected stories have become the norm, is still worth watching on a big screen...even with two streaming leads.
7. Solo: A Star Wars Story
Score: 69%
Rotten or Fresh? Fresh
Critics Consensus: A flawed yet fun and fast-paced space adventure, Solo: A Star Wars Story should satisfy newcomers to the saga as well as longtime fans who check their expectations at the theater door.
Another Star Wars movie that gets a bad rap, the biggest problem with Solo was how badly marketed it was (and the decision to drop filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, of course).
While it definitely wasn't the strongest origin story for the iconic smuggler, there were a lot of surprises here, with Darth Maul's return one of the biggest in the franchise's history. Honestly, it's worth the price of admission for Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover alone.
6. Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
Score: 79%
Rotten or Fresh? Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: With Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas brings his second Star Wars trilogy to a suitably thrilling and often poignant -- if still a bit uneven -- conclusion.
A much better conclusion to a trilogy than The Rise of Skywalker, Revenge of the Sith is by no means perfect, but witnessing the fall of the Jedi Order made for gripping viewing. Plus, how could you not love Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker's duel on Mustafar?
The storytelling could have been better, and it was a shame more attention was devoted to key elements like Anakin's growing resentment of his fellow Jedi, but it's easy to see why this didn't earn the scorn of critics and is receiving more love now than it did in 2005.
5. Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi
Score: 83%
Rotten or Fresh? Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: Though failing to reach the cinematic heights of its predecessors, Return of the Jedi remains an entertaining sci-fi adventure and a fitting end to the classic trilogy.
It's always difficult to make everyone happy with a finale, but Return of the Jedi fared better than most. We could have lived without the Ewoks and yet another Death Star serving as the MacGuffin, but everything with Luke and Darth Vader worked perfectly.
Emperor Palpatine finally emerging from the shadows as the big bad was also great, even if his impact was lessened by an inexplicable return decades later. That opening was also phenomenal, and Luke Skywalker made for a badass Jedi Knight.
4. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Score: 84%
Rotten or Fresh? Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: Rogue One draws deep on Star Wars mythology while breaking new narrative and aesthetic ground -- and suggesting a bright blockbuster future for the franchise.
The first Star Wars spinoff movie may have been plagued by issues behind the scenes, but those weren't evident while watching it on the big screen. It also laid the groundwork for a phenomenal TV series, with Disney+'s Andor.
With a diverse, exciting cast of characters, Rogue One did an excellent job of filling in some of the gaps in the franchise's history and made the story behind the theft of the Death Star plans a blast (no pun intended) to follow.
3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Score: 91%
Rotten or Fresh? Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: Star Wars: The Last Jedi honors the saga's rich legacy while adding some surprising twists -- and delivering all the emotion-rich action fans could hope for.
Perhaps the most controversial Star Wars movie listed here, it's not hard to see why fans were unhappy with what Rian Johnson delivered in The Last Jedi. Defying fan expectations, he made some big changes to Luke Skywalker, and those weren't at all well-received.
The visuals and action were phenomenal, however, and as a film, it works. Whether it works as a Star Wars movie is another matter, as is Johnson setting out to undo everything J.J. Abrams had introduced in The Force Awakens, like Snoke's importance and Rey's parentage.
2. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (TIE)
Score: 93%
Rotten or Fresh? Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: Dark, sinister, but ultimately even more involving than A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back defies viewer expectations and takes the series to heightened emotional levels.
An absolute masterpiece, The Empire Strikes Back is arguably Star Wars at its best, and for many fans, it just doesn't get any better than this. Critics, however, seem to feel differently, which we'll get to in our final slide.
Still, from that incredible opening on Hoth to Luke's time training with Yoda, the visit to Cloud City, and that epic final battle with Darth Vader (not to mention the big twist), this is impossible to fault, and it arguably deserves an even higher score than the one above.
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TIE)
Score: 93%
Rotten or Fresh? Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series' former glory while injecting it with renewed energy.
For some fans, J.J. Abrams stuck far too closely to the formula used by A New Hope, but between the introduction of some compelling new characters and the return of a few fan-favourites, The Force Awakens remains a joy to watch.
Its biggest crime is not giving Luke Skywalker a decent role in proceedings, but Han Solo's death at his son's death hits hard every time. Could and should it have been better? Perhaps, but if you saw this in a theater in 2015, it was one heck of an experience.
1. Star Wars: A New Hope
Score: 94%
Rotten or Fresh? Certified Fresh
Critics Consensus: A legendarily expansive and ambitious start to the sci-fi saga, George Lucas opened our eyes to the possibilities of blockbuster filmmaking and things have never been the same.
This is where it all started, and what a classic! Yes, it's easy to find fault in hindsight—why wasn't the long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi/Darth Vader reunion more action-packed and emotional?—but that's only because of the other stories which have now informed this one.
There's a huge amount to love here, and some moments which have gone down in cinematic history as being legit classics. Lucasfilm has been trying to recapture this magic to varying degrees of success ever since.