That's interesting. It has a 57 score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience gave it an 87. That's exactly the opposite of what happened with The Last Jedi, which was given a 91 rating, yet the audience gave it a 43.
There's a serious disconnect there for those last two movies. I'm not sure what the deal is.
Here's my updated order:
1. A New Hope
2. Revenge of the Sith
3. Rogue One
4. Empire Strikes Back
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Rise of Skywalker
7. Force Awakens
8. Attack of the Clones
9. Phantom Menace
10. The Last Jedi
11. Solo
Rise of Skywalker goes in between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens. Interestingly enough, this also made me push down The Last Jedi below Phantom Menace.
Without giving away any major spoilers, I liked this movie. I think JJ Abrams did the best he could with the mess that Rian Johnson left for him. It felt like they spent the beginning of the movie undoing some of the damage that was done in the last one. I'll give JJ Abrams a lot of credit for salvaging this pretty well.
To be honest, I felt vindicated about my feelings for The Last Jedi. It was just a jumbled mess in the middle of the trilogy. Here's my take on how the new trilogy unfolded:
Force Awakens: JJ Abrams has a plan in mind. He mirrors the original trilogy too much and sets up a lot of "mystery boxes" that are to be opened up later on as the trilogy unfolds.
The Last Jedi: Rian Johnson, conscious of the criticism JJ Abrams got for staying too closely aligned with the original trilogy, does the exact opposite. He veers way off the intended course. Remember those mystery boxes that Abrams set up? Yea those don't matter anymore. He ***** everything up in his attempt to be different.
Rise of Skywalker: JJ Abrams steers the trilogy back on track by undoing Rian Johnson's failures. It felt like there were a few "Ah ha, I was just kidding" kind of moments to retcon things back together.