Innovation, surprise and humor – three things you won’t find to be very prevalent in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
At least, that’s according to what the critics have been saying over on Rotten Tomatoes, with the film’s current score on the website standing at a measly 52%. That puts it as the worst-reviewed Star Wars movie in the entire saga, with even The Phantom Menace managing to snag a 53% rating. Ouch!
To date, 469 reviews have been counted by Rotten Tomatoes for The Rise of Skywalker, and the official consensus reads as so: “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion.” And frankly, that’s a pretty accurate assessment of the Sequel Trilogy-closer.
To put things into further perspective, here’s how the rest of the entries in the saga have fared: The Empire Strikes Back (94%), The Force Awakens (93%), A New Hope (93%), The Last Jedi (91%), Rogue One (83%), Return of the Jedi (82%), Revenge of the Sith (80%), Solo (70%), and Attack of the Clones (65%). Of course, you could argue that The Clone Wars movie is technically the worst-reviewed film of the franchise, with a shockingly low 18%, but we’re only talking about the live-action efforts here. And when it comes to those, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is indeed at the bottom of the pile.
But as we all know, some movies just take time to find their fanbase and there’s every chance that in 5-10 years, people will look back on the pic and feel more fondly about it. Or maybe not. In any case, it currently stands as a wildly disappointing end to the Skywalker saga and will no doubt have Lucasfilm thinking very, very carefully about how to proceed with the franchise from here on out.
Tell us, though, do you think the pic deserves a score or 52%, or are the critics being too harsh? Sound off below with your thoughts.