Happy Star Wars Day!

(hat tip to Once Upon a Geek for the pic)

In honor of Star Wars Day ("May the fourth be with you"), here is my ranking of the Star Wars films, from best to worst:

1. Episode IV: A New Hope: The first one had it all. Epic story, humor, character development, and some really nasty villains. A better movie has never been made.

2. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: This episode's dark tone lent the series a bit more gravitas than George Lucas was capable of doing on his own. Thank you Lawrence Kasdan!

3. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith:  This movie was the "ah ha" moment of the entire first six films, where we get to realize the point of the whole story: It was all about the rise and fall (and later rise again) of Anakin Skywalker.

4. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: Take the Ewoks out of this, and this movie would rate higher. Lucas's penchant for creating "cute" characters is maddening at times.

5. Episode VII: The Force Awakens: This episode was extremely derivative of Episode IV, which holds it down, but that is also its saving grace.

6. Episode I: The Phantom Menace: This episode gets dinged for introducing the most vile character in Star Wars history, Jar Jar Binks, and uses him extensively. However, it also contains what I consider the best light saber fight sequence ever, between Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Obiwan Kenobi.

7. Episode II: Attack of the Clones: Don't mistake this low ranking as some kind of deep criticism. However, Natalie Portman's wooden acting combined with the continued presence of Jar Jar Binks keep this film at the bottom of the rankings. Still, I would happily watch this film again because some of the action sequences are impressive.