The epic nine-film Star Wars saga concludes with The Rise of Skywalker, but did director J.J. Abrams’ Episode IX live up to the hype? The review embargo was lifted on Wednesday morning – and the early Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t pretty.
As of 9:00 a.m. ET on December 18th, The Rise of Skywalker had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 58% based on 108 critic reviews. For reference, the last two episodes in the series, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, have RT scores of 93% and 91%, respectively. The Phantom Menace holds the all-time low score in the Star Wars series at 53%.
Note: We’re keeping this article as spoiler-free as possible, but if you want to go into the theater knowing absolutely nothing about The Rise of Skywalker, you should probably close this tab and refrain from reading reviews.
What critics are saying:
A common theme from the early reviews seems to be that The Rise of Skywalker tries too hard to please everyone, and may rely too much on nostalgia. The Atlantic labeled Episode IX “The Most Incoherent Star Wars Movie Ever Made,” and reviewer David Sims compares the plot to a manic “video-gamey fetch quest.”
Many reviews also slam The Rise of Skywalker for a lack of imagination. Collider’s Matt Goldberg writes that “the larger problem with the movie is that Abrams is terrified of originality or doing anything bold that might be interpreted as unpopular.”
Esquire’s Matt Miller writes that while The Rise of Skywalker is ultimately “fun and satisfying,” he was left wondering what the point of a third trilogy was.
“In the end, did these three movies justify the return of the Skywalker Saga? Why did we need this story to have yet another ending? What was the point of not letting the past just be? That’s something I can’t answer right away.”
Other reviewers, though, loved The Rise of Skywalker. The Guardian gave the film five stars (out of five). Games Rader’s Jamie Graham writes that the film “rises to the impossible occasion.”
You can read more reviews here.