Reviews for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” have started to float their way online, and things are all over the place.
What’s going on: “Rise of Skywalker” will be the ninth film in the Skywalker Saga, which includes the original trilogy of “Star Wars” films, the prequel trilogy and the recent sequel trilogy.
- The film marks the end of a third trilogy, the finale of a nine-episode arc and the completion of this phase of Star Wars.
- The film comes after “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which was highly controversial among Star Wars fans. The divide was strong and polarized Star Wars fans. So questions about how “Rise of Skywalker” would perform were raised almost immediately.
Rotten tomatoes: The film has a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes so far. The critics’ consensus is that the movie “suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion.”
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Reviews: A number of media outlets have shared their reviews of the movie.
- Deseret News: “There’s certainly nothing wrong with a kick of nostalgia from time to time, and it’s always nice to take a trip to a galaxy far, far away. But once the stardust settles, we’ll probably still admit that the original trilogy is just never going to be matched.”
- Entertainment Weekly: “We need a new franchise designation for this stumbling, bloodless conglomeration of What Once Was. Rise of the Skywalker isn’t an ending, a sequel, a reboot, or a remix. It’s a zombie.”
- Time: “In its anxiety not to offend, it comes off more like fanfiction than the creation of actual professional filmmakers. A bot would be able to pull off a more surprising movie.”
- Los Angeles Times: “Like some of his other major pop-cultural contributions (two enjoyable “Star Trek” movies and the twisty TV series Lost among them), “The Rise of Skywalker” is a swift and vigorous entertainment, with a sense of forward momentum that keeps you watching despite several dubious plot turns and cheap narrative fakeouts.”
- People: “In addition to a lot of story told over the course of the film’s nearly two and a half-hour run time, there are Easter eggs upon Easter eggs, and major set pieces that have become touchstones of the franchise. While thrilling to see, there’s a blink-and-you-miss-it feel to all the action, because of all the ground the film covers.”
- The New York Times: “For a single film to risk being too interesting would be to imperil the long-term strategy of cultivating a multigenerational, multinational fandom. ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ — Episode IX, in case you’ve lost count — is one of the best. (It opens Friday.) Also one of the worst. Perfectly middling. It all amounts to the same thing.”
- Forbes: “The Rise of Skywalker is possibly worse than any prior Star Wars ‘episode.’ It retroactively ends a legendary franchise with a thud while denying this new trilogy its artistic reason for existence. It represents the cultural theft of Star Wars from today’s kids by today’s arrested-development-stricken adults.”
- Uproxx: “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker never lets us in. It, instead, keeps us at arms length so it can use almost its entire first half as exposition. Just character after character explaining things.”
- Denver Post: “‘The Rise of Skywalker’ earns much of its affection with cameos, callbacks and other candy that will be best savored upon repeat viewings.”
- RogerEbert.com: “It’s not unlike a rollercoaster ride in that it has just enough thrills to satisfy fans, but you can also see exactly where the ride begins and ends before you strap in.”
- IndieWire: “‘Rise of Skywalker’ operates as if the only cinematic tradition at its disposal hails from a galaxy far, far away.”
- Cinema Axis: “‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is a complicated blend of contradictions. It lacks the balance it desperately seeks as it entertains and disappoints with equal measure.”
- SciFiNow: “This isn’t a flawless finale to the Skywalker Saga, but it’s one that will probably give the broadest cross-section of Star Wars fans what they want - which is both a strength and a weakness.”
- FF2 Media: “If you think Lost was about a polar bear, you’ll find flaws in Episode IX. But if you understand that ending, you’ll understand this one. Some themes are timeless.”