A few months ago I wrote a post sharing all of the Rotten Tomatoes scores of the Marvel movies at that time. Now I’ve decided to do the same for all ten Star Wars movies. Let’s see which movies prevail and which movies the critics deem the worst in the franchise. Enjoy!
11. The Rise of Skywalker: 52%
Yep, The Rise of Skywalker sits at the bottom of this list and I’m not surprised. This movie had its exhilarating moments but it had plenty of horrible moments as well. Too many to count on two hands.
Audience Score: 86%
The audience liked it more than the critics did, obviously. I’m on the side of the critics.
10. The Phantom Menace: 54%
Children (me being one of them) loved and still love The Phantom Menace. Adults, obviously not so much.
Audience Score: 59%
The audience was a tad bit more lenient, but it was still rotten.
9. Attack of the Clones: 65%
Moving out of Rotten territory, Attack of the Clones is looked upon with a little more fondness upon critics. This isn’t, by any means, a good score though.
Audience Score: 56%
Audiences, however, were not very fond of the Star Wars prequel-sequel, giving it a score worse than The Phantom Menace.
8. Solo: A Star Wars Story: 70%
Solo was fraught with behind-the-scenes conflict, resulting in a film that not only lost money for Disney but would become one of the franchise’s worst-reviewed films. But it is Certified Fresh so that’s a relief.
Audience Score: 64%
While it’s not considered Rotten among audiences it was very clear that they were not in love with this second standalone Star Wars movie.
7. Revenge of the Sith: 80%
While it is clearly deemed far better than its prequel predecessors by critics this film is far from glory in terms of Rotten Tomatoes scores. But hey, at least it reached 80%.
Audience Score: 66%
Audiences were not as lenient. With Darth Vader’s infamous “NOOO!!!!!!” echoing in their ears it was destined for this score to sit under 70%.
6. Return of the Jedi: 81%
While A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back were clear cinematic masterpieces Return of the Jedi is clearly the weakest of the original trilogy. I mean come on, Ewoks. Giant teddy bears with spears? Not that cool…at all. But that’s just my opinion.
Audience Score: 94%
Clearly, the audience felt differently.
5. Rogue One: 84%
Now, this is ridiculous. This movie is clearly better than an 84% score. But I guess critics didn’t feel the same way. I think because Jyn’s story wasn’t developed more and it moved along at a super-fast pace, concluding with a very long battle sequence that can honestly be a bit tiring to most, it would leave some walking out of the theater with a dazed brain. Hence, 84%.
Audience Score: 86%
Well, at least audiences had a little more sense. This movie is amazing. Pure and simple.
4. The Last Jedi: 91%
While this film was met with plenty of searing backlash by fans critics actually liked the film, heralding it for its thoughtful storytelling and epic qualities.
Audience Score: 44%
While this score was mainly affected by the ridiculous Star Wars trolls that bombarded Rotten Tomatoes to give the film a horrendous score it is no secret that this movie split fans straight down the middle with its polarizing themes, characters, and use of classic heroes.
3. The Force Awakens: 93%
J.J Abrams revived the Star Wars franchise with an agreeable film that left critics pleasantly surprised. No, it wasn’t the best Star Wars movie ever made but it was pretty darn close.
Audience score: 87%
Star Wars fans weren’t as easy to please but it was very clear that this movie managed to please the masses.
2. A New Hope: 93%
Beginning what would be four decades of happiness for generations of families A New Hope is the only Star Wars movie to be nominated for Best Picture and it deserved it. The movie would go on to be the greatest cultural phenomenon of all time.
Audience Score: 96%
It wasn’t the critics that took this film to the heights that it reached but rather the avid fans as they could not stop thinking about the movie that transported them to a galaxy far, far away.
1. The Empire Strikes Back: 95%
It’s no surprise that this is the best rated Star Wars movie on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s literally perfect from beginning to end. Will it ever be topped? It’ll take an Oscar-worthy Star Wars film to dethrone the Jedi Master.
Audience Score: 97%
Fans thought A New Hope was amazing but they were not prepared for what would come next. With the film taking a dire turn and dropping the greatest movie bombshell in cinema history it’s very deserving of this vs near-perfect score.
So these are all of the Rotten Tomatoes scores. Some are surprising, some, not so much, but it’s fun to see nonetheless.
I thank you for reading and I hope you have an amazing day. May the Force be with you.
Annlyel Online 
Well, if I had to make an ordering with a gun to my head, I’d probably say something like this:
5, 4, 3, Rogue One, 6, 7, 2, 1, 8, 9. I’m not sure on Solo. I’m going to need to watch it a second time (still haven’t done that to this day) but I’d probably put it closer to the bottom four than the top four. And I still think the tale of Darth Vader’s time as a Sith began better than it ended. I could be talked into sliding Rogue One up or down another slot, but that’s roughly as far as I’d be willing to go. IMO, it’s clearly below 4/5 and clearly above 1/2/8/9 and probably above 7.
Their rank for Force Awakens feels a little bit high, but it was reasonably good. It’s possible I’m being too unforgiving of it in hindsight, although even on my most forgiving day I’m just not as interested in Kylo Ren, and if you don’t love him then the sequels just aren’t going to work.
I’m probably somewhere in the middle between the critics and fans on Last Jedi. The trolls who downrated it are scum balls, but that doesn’t mean I think it was genuinely great. I’m pretty much incorrigible that 1, 2, 8, and 9 are the weakest four movies in some order, and that 9 is at the bottom. The thing that slays 8 for me is the interminable chase scene. They did do similar in Empire, but the hyperdrive malfunctioning was a better way to do it than it simply not being an effective escape and forcing the visual chase to be an endless straight line through deep space. Then we’re suddenly talking about fuel limits for ships for some reason, and then the side detour to a casino, and… ugh. The Rose-Finn story was nice. Poe was an ass, and it frankly messed up the movie to do that to his character. Holdo was a cypher onto which we’re supposed to imprint a mansplaining victim without ever much developing who she is.
And then there’s just the stylistic choices on the weapons. Energy artillery curves with arc in space? B-17 style mass drops of dumb bombs is actually a thing in space opera? We’re dragging what looks like a giant hadron collider slowly across desert just to open a door? Sand skimmers need to drag a fin into the sand for some reason just so we can kick up red dust?
They tried. They really did. But I’m not there yet in negotiating forgiveness to 8, and I’m further along in doing so to 1 and 2.
I need to watch Solo again to decide where I’d put it. It’s just… kinda there for the sake of being there, so I’d probably have to put it in the 1-2 range, as those movies were also just… kinda there for the sake of being there, but didn’t have TOO much in there that I couldn’t forgive. I don’t know where I’d put Solo exactly though. Obi-Wan redeems 1-2 a bit, but I remember Emilia Clarke being interesting in Solo.
Okay, I don’t have a good closing statement, so I’ll just stop now.
LikeLiked by 1 person