At long last, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is here, but maybe we should wish it wasn’t. After all the hype, reviews are finally out and, there’s no way around it, the consensus is mostly negative. Rotten Tomatoes has officially decreed it “Rotten,” with an opening rating of just 58%, making it the second lowest-scored Star Wars movie of the lot. Only The Phantom Menace ranks below it.
To give you a feel of just how harsh reviewers are being about Episode IX, here are some of the cruelest comments from critics across the web for you to grimly peruse. We had such high hopes!
Let’s start things off relatively soft with Jake Coyle of The Associated Press. Though he labelled Rise unsatisfying, he did say that was because the Disney Star Wars films that have come before it have been largely enjoyable.
“For a movie predicated on satisfying fans, “The Rise of Skywalker” is a distinctly unsatisfying conclusion to what had been an imperfect but mostly good few films.”
The Atlantic’s David Sims went much further, though, implying that the Sequel Trilogy should never have happened in the first place.
“The Rise of Skywalker is a fitting epitaph for the thrills and limits of repetition; may it be the last episode of a saga that should’ve ended long ago.”
The verdict of Forbes’ Scott Mendelson, meanwhile, is that it’s “miserable” and panders too much to Original Trilogy fans.
 “The Rise of Skywalker’ is a bad movie and a miserable finale that serves no purpose other than the reassure (at least some) adult fans of the original ‘Star Wars’ that they are still the “chosen ones” of the pop culture galaxy.”
Time Magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek says:
“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.”
/Film’s Chris Evangelista was definitely not a fan of what J.J. Abrams has brought to the table in TROS.Â
“There’s no spark; no joy; no life. If this truly is the end of the Skywalker Saga, what an ignoble end it is.”
Let’s give Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich the final word, as it’s probably the most damning summary of the film you’ll find.
“Rise of the Skywalker isn’t an ending, a sequel, a reboot, or a remix. It’s a zombie.”
Obviously, these indictments against the movie aren’t encouraging, but it’s long been obvious that there’s a huge divide between what the critics think and what the fans think when it comes to major blockbusters like this one. A lot of folks are no doubt going to dislike TROS just as much as they have the previous two, but on the other hand, many are surely going to love it like they love The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.Â
In any case, we’ll be able to make up our own minds once Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters in the next couple of days.
