(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Spoiler free review: I loved it, want to see it again. One subplot too many, but still very good. If “there is always a way to blow it up” sums up The Force Awakens, the title of this post summarizes this film. New ranking:
Empire
Last Jedi
New Hope
Rogue One
Return of the Jedi
Revenge
Christmas Special
Phantom
Clones
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
You left The Force Awakens off your list.
I wouldn’t put Rogue One ahead of Return of the Jedi; for all its flaws, there was a lot to like in Jedi, and Rogue One is basically a series of gimmicks.
Christmas Special gets a dispensation.
Not having seen TLJ yet, the correct ranking is:
Empire
New Hope
Force Awakens
Return of the Jedi
Rogue One
There are no other Star Wars movies.
Edit: Jim Geraghty’s review is basically identical to Matt’s.
Ewoks
I rest my case
Get over it. Jabba the Hutt rocks, the character development on Endor works and the final epic confrontation between good and evil is worked out exactly right – some subpar dialogue but overall quite well done.
PS There are much worse things wrong in Jedi than the ewoks. At the time, the WaPo review said (quoting from memory) “this must be the first movie in history where the male romantic lead regains his sight in an aside.”
Plus, what other movie could produce this:
Okay you forced my hand- Ewoks killing an entire legion with sticks and rocks.
I have a much more positive assessment of Rogue One. I know Red Letter’s review of it is hysterical but I don’t think they are really fair. First, Star Wars and most other fantasy movies never have much character development. Mostly, they have character types on which you can project yourself — that’s the fantasy part of it. Second, they fail to give credit to some of the truly innovative things that Rogue One did. At least it didn’t have another bigger death star. And it had the courage to show that rebellions have dark sides, schisms, and real costs. Lastly, I don’t see what’s so horrible about fan service. I’m a fan and I love that they rewarded me in Rogue One with a lot of wonderful details about this imaginary universe that we’ve gotten to know.
So, not having seen the new one, my order would be:
Empire
New Hope
Rogue One
Force Awakens
Return of the Jedi
There are no other Star Wars movies.
Star Wars and most other fantasy movies never have much character development
Stopped reading at this.
PS regarding character development:
Agree with your ranking; some may interpret this as a spoiler, but ‘Last Jedi’ resolved Star Wars for me. I don’t need to see Episode IX.
That . . . could be a poor business model.
By the way, as an alternative, I found this ranking genuinely fascinating. Really forced me to rethink my assumptions.