Looking back at "Star Wars" films that Disney pumped out these last few years, I'm amazed at how quickly they've squandered so much of the good will people have for this franchise in such a short period of time. They released five films in five years, ranging from very good to unfortunate, and no more are coming in the foreseeable future. All five have their problems, and all of them could have used more time and thoughtful construction. I'm glad that they were made, but at the same time I'm bitterly disappointed in what could have been.
Below, from best to least, are my rankings of the "Star Wars" films of 2015 to 2019. Spoilers everywhere.
"The Last Jedi" - The movie that threw the fanboys into a tizzy, but was also easily the best conceived of the new trilogy. Not everything about it worked, but I appreciated the fresh POV, the new takes on familiar characters, and the willingness of Rian Johnson to throw established mythology out the window, and subvert formula. It was also the installment with the best visuals, including the planet Crait, the throne room fight, and Holdo's lightspeed maneuver. I enjoyed the cynical version of Luke Skywalker, and thought his final standoff with Kylo Ren was easily the best moment in the entire run of new films.
"The Force Awakens" - I don't like this film as much as most, because it's full of J.J. Abrams' bad habits. The callbacks to the original trilogy really get to be too much, and some of the performances and writing don't feel up to snuff. I like the way the new characters are introduced and the humor all works, but any time Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher were on the screen felt awkward. My biggest complaint is that the film is too self-aware that it's setting up a big, epic story, and isn't very successful at being a stand-alone adventure movie. It was easy to overlook its flaws, though, with so much hype and nostalgia behind it.
"Rogue One" - The first half the of the film is an unqualified mess. There are awkward bits of plotting everywhere you look. Forrest Whitaker' character should have been left on the cutting room floor. The film tries and fails repeatedly to make Jyn Erso sympathetic. The digital doubles just aren't good enough for what the creators want them to do. The back half, however, with the planet Scarif and the big mission to steal the Death Star plans, is fabulous. It's one big, long, multiprong battle sequence that gives everyone something to do and doesn't chicken out with the consequences. And the Vader cameo is just enough to be a real thrill.
"The Rise of Skywalker" - As much as I enjoy a lot of the various different parts and pieces of this film, there's no denying that J.J. Abrams whiffed it. Rey and Kylo are the only two characters to emerge mostly unscathed, while Finn, Poe, Rose, and Leia all suffer at the whims of a rocky, often schizophrenic script. And even when the ideas are good, the execution is often lamentable. I don't object to the film's Big Bad, for instance, but everything about his plans, his goals, and how he got to the point where we see him is so lazily slapdash and incompletely rendered. The only reason I have this ranked higher than "Solo," is because the performances are better and I'm a sucker for tragic romance.
"Solo" - Again, I like a lot of things in this film while being very cool on the film itself. Alden Ehrenreich makes a perfectly fine young Han, Donald Glover is a swell Lando, and the early parts of the film are fast-paced and diverting. The trouble comes when the creators try to stuff way too much into the story. There's the proto-Rebellion, the Crimson Dawn shenanigans, and a wooden Emilia Clarke as Han's terribly underwritten girlfriend Qi'ra. The depiction of the Kessel Run is a massive letdown. The surprise cameo just plain didn't work. I don't know what was really going on behind the scenes, but I think I'd have much preferred the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller version of "Solo" that was never made.
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