Rise of Skywalker has fallen to the bottom of the Star Wars pack.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the ninth and final film in the Skywalker
Saga has officially become the worst-reviewed live-action Star Wars film of all time, edging
out Star Wars: The Phantom Menace to take over the bottom spot.
Rise now sits at 52% on the old Tomatometer, while Phantom Menace has a score of 53%.
While the development isn't exactly surprising given the extremely mixed reaction from audiences
and critics to Rise of Skywalker, it is rather shocking, considering that the highly-anticipated
film closed out one the most beloved cinematic sagas of all time not to mention the fact
that the preceding two films in the sequel trilogy, 2015's The Force Awakens and 2017's
The Last Jedi, are both among the top four most well-reviewed of all the Star Wars flicks
by professional critics, right alongside A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
Obviously fans feel differently about The Last Jedi, but we’re talking critics only
here.
Since initially posting a score in the high 50s, Rise of Skywalker's score has slowly
but surely sunk like a stone as reviews have continued to come in.
The movie, which saw the unexpected return of Emperor Palpatine, wrapped up the character
arcs of Rey, Finn, and Poe, and served as a final cinematic farewell to the late Carrie
Fisher, should have been a movie event for the ages; instead, it largely failed to satisfy,
due in large part to the seeming insistence of the filmmakers or, if certain online conspiracy
theories are to be believed, Disney on correcting course from The Last Jedi and shoehorning
in egregious amounts of fan service.
Rise can take solace in the fact that its lowly rating pales in comparison to the animated
film The Clone Wars, with its miserable RT score of 18%.
When it comes to the question of what went wrong with Rise, the only simple answer is,
"It wasn't just one thing."
While many fans weren't enthralled with some of the, uh… bolder narrative choices made
by writer/director Rian Johnson in The Last Jedi, Rise's seeming preoccupation with undoing
many of those choices largely wasn't seen as a great move, either.
Then, there's the return of Palpatine as the Big Bad, with virtually no explanation given
as to a) how he survived a tumble down a mile-long shaft on an exploding space station in Return
of the Jedi or b) where he's been all this time.
The about-face of Kylo Ren back to the side of light was widely considered to have been
poorly and confusingly handled, and the near-exclusion of Kelly Marie Tran's Rose Tico a major character
in The Last Jedi simply left a lot of critics peeved.
"May the Force be with you."
"Wow.
You too."
It's also been pointed out, most succinctly by the Washington Post's Gene Park, that the
movie's narrative resembles nothing so much as the plot of a video game, with its over-reliance
on "fetch quests" which ultimately proved to be of little to no actual importance.
Truly, in contrast to the unified if divisive vision of Star Wars creator George Lucas with
his much-reviled prequel trilogy, it took a committee which included Lucasfilm president
Kathleen Kennedy, director and co-writer J.J. Abrams, co-writer Chris Terrio, and formerly
attached director Colin Trevorrow, who retained a story credit to craft a conclusion to an
epic nine-film series as flat and uninspired as Rise of Skywalker.
Fortunately, though, the future of Star Wars looks pretty bright if only because Lucasfilm
and Disney have more than one blueprint to follow in order to get the franchise back
on track.
First and foremost: the Disney+ series The Mandalorian which has totally won over fans
and critics alike.
In contrast to Rise of Skywalker, the series has actually earned favorable comparisons
to well-crafted, well-plotted video game stories.
Not to mention, its exploration of some of the seedier portions of the galaxy far, far
away and its introduction of inspired new characters such as the suddenly ubiquitous
Baby Yoda have reminded fans how compelling Star Wars can be when storytellers like Mandalorian
creator Jon Favreau are given free rein to put their own stamp on the property.
Second: the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel Studios is, of course, also owned by Disney, and its decade-plus long existence
has been one long case study in how to craft stories based on beloved properties, build
and sustain interest while indulging the muses of an entire collective of unrelated creatives,
and wrap up extended narratives with event films that feel like events.
It's no coincidence that Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has been tapped to produce at
least one Star Wars film in the future, or that Taika Waititi who directed the final
episode of The Mandalorian's first season, and helmed Thor: Ragnarok and the upcoming
Thor: Love and Thunder for Marvel is in line to also direct a future Star Wars film, if
the rumors are to believed.
Hopefully, the Mouse House will learn the right lessons from Rise of Skywalker's lukewarm
reception from fans and critics and looking to its most successful subsidiary for inspiration
certainly doesn't seem like it could hurt.
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