Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ultimately proved to be a mixed bag, but to the producers’ credit, they still managed to wrap everything up, even if it meant sacrificing the plot’s sensical flow.
In the end, Episode IX offered little else besides nostalgic callbacks and fan-service moments to please a crowd who were expecting an apology after coming to terms with the controversial decisions Rian Johnson made in The Last Jedi. But notwithstanding the obvious flaws of the last movie in the Skywalker Saga, some would argue that J.J. Abrams had to work around a limited runtime, which meant that most of the things they’d planned for the movie would be cut out. In fairness, we are talking about a film that had to conclude Disney’s Sequel Trilogy while also paying homage to the Star Wars story as a whole.
As one would expect then, and in compliance with the backlash that generally negates the Mouse House’s attempts to restore the galaxy far, far away back to its former glory of ruling box office numbers and merchandise sales, all hell broke loose when The Rise of Skywalker came out late last year, with the movie becoming just as divisive as Episode VIII, if not more. And according to Rey actress Daisy Ridley, the backlash was also difficult for the cast and crew.
“It’s changed film by film honestly, like 98% it’s so amazing, this last film it was really tricky. January was not that nice,” she claimed in a new chat with DragCast.
She expanded on these remarks by noting that the love for The Force Awakens wasn’t there anymore in the following two installments, saying:
“I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like ‘Where’s the love gone?’ I watched the documentary, the making-of, this week, and it’s so filled with love; and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that is so filled with love and then people…You know, everyone’s entitled to not like something but it feels like it’s changed slightly. I think in general that’s because social media and what have you.”
Of course, it’s true that social media plays a huge role in the kind of reception that movies get nowadays, but that doesn’t mean Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was bashed merely because of that.
What’s your opinion on the matter, though? Sound off in the comments section below.
