With the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," we have begun a new era in the saga. The franchise created by George Lucas has now been taken over by Disney, whose plan is to release a "Star Wars" movie every year for the foreseeable future — either a continuation of the original episodes or anthologies/spin-offs.
As "The Force Awakens" is now over the $1 billion mark worldwide at the box office and reviews are surprisingly ecstatic, it doesn't appear that people's enjoyment of all things "Star Wars" is going to wane anytime soon.
But how does the latest entry compare to the previous six? How do we size it up in the ongoing debate about the movies?
Here's my take on that age-old question: "Which 'Star Wars' is the best?"
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7. "The Phantom Menace" (1999)
George Lucas has said from the beginning that "Star Wars" was made for kids, and he really took that to heart when he unveiled "Episode I — The Phantom Menace," 16 years after finishing the groundbreaking original trilogy. Introducing us to Anakin Skywalker at the age of 9 as he's plucked by Qui-Gon Jinn as the "chosen one" who will bring balance to the Force, the first prequel gives us a lot of tame action and unlikely scenarios for Anakin to be in, even in a galaxy far, far away. Sadly, the best part of the movie is its villain, Darth Maul, who has an incredible duel with the Jedi at the end of the movie. It's one of the only goose-bump moments in the whole movie — heightened by John Williams' score — and you have to wait over an hour to get to it. And at this point, the less said about Jar Jar Binks, the better.
6. "Revenge of the Sith" (2005)
The conclusion of the prequel trilogy is one of the saga's darkest. A now grown Anakin is seduced by the dark side of the Force and wipes out the Jedi, including the younglings (!). Padmé Amidala dies, but not before giving birth to their twins, Luke and Leia. But the most agonizing thing to sit through is Hayden Christensen's performance as Skywalker conflicted with the dark side — more a sniveling 20-something than a disillusioned "chosen one." We wouldn't get a good performance of that pull to the dark side until Adam Driver came along to play Kylo Ren in "The Force Awakens." Though we can only partly blame Christensen: Lucas was never big on giving actors instructions, which proved here to be costly.
5. "Return of the Jedi" (1983)
The final film in the original trilogy accomplishes what we needed it to. It closes that chapter of the saga by answering many of the questions that were floating around for years. But as a standalone, years later, it doesn't have the same impact "Episode IV" and "V" have. That mostly has to do with the introduction of the Ewoks, which makes for deflating sequences in the movie. And it's still a bummer to see Boba Fett die in the first 20 minutes.
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