Stumbled upon this Rotten Tomatoes article comparing Tomatometer (aggregate scores from a bunch of reviewers) ratings of the Star Wars prequels and original movies.
It turns out that the reviews of the original trilogy, written back in the day paint a much uglier picture of Star Wars. The original trilogy had an average of 54%:
- 79% – Star Wars (Ep 4)
- 52% – The Empire Strikes Back (Ep 5)
- 31% – Return of the Jedi (Ep 6)
Which seems to show a typical decline in quality with each successive sequel. The new trilogy is on an average of 70%, which seems to indicate, contray to popular opinion, the new movies are better than the originals (and not only that, they get better and better):
- 62% – The Phantom Menace (Ep 1)
- 65% – Attack of the Clones (Ep 2)
- 83% – Revenge of the Sith (Ep 3)
Most interestingly, when they computed the score for the original trilogy based on reviews written by current critics, the average jumps from 54 to 90%. Rose-tinted glasses, and all that.
