Today saw Rotten Tomatoes reveal their score for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, based on the highly anticipated movie’s early critical reception. And, uh, it’s not good. The review aggregate site has decreed that just 58% of critics gave the film a positive review, which means it’s officially “Rotten.” That makes it easily the lowest-rated entry in the Sequel Trilogy and also very nearly the lowest-rated in the entire Skywalker saga.
TROS‘s RT score of 58% puts it above The Phantom Menace, with 53%, alone. All other films in the Star Wars franchise – live-action ones, that is, as Star Wars: The Clone Wars sports a measly 18% – fared better with critics. Even Attack of the Clones ranks higher with 65%. Solo: A Star Wars Story is the next highest at 70%.
From there on, the remaining films are all critical smashes. Revenge of the Sith won over 80% of critics, with Return of the Jedi just above it at 82%. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, meanwhile, comes in at 83% and The Last Jedi, that highly controversial movie that’s split fans, has an overwhelmingly positive rating of 91%. And the top three films remain The Force Awakens (93%), A New Hope (also 93%) and The Empire Strikes Back (94%).
This is obviously hugely disappointing, there’s no way around that. However, folks know all too well that RT scores don’t necessarily match up with how a film goes down within the fandom. The Last Jedi is a good example of that. What’s more, Rise of Skywalker‘s low score will almost certainly, well, rise as more reviews come in. It won’t ever trouble Empire Strikes Back for the top spot, mind you, but it should end up with something a bit more respectable in time.
We’ve also yet to see the audience rating released, which will give us an idea of how fans’ views differ from critics. And you can make your own mind up about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker by seeing it in theaters this weekend.