Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is finally here and the majority of stars fans will have watched the movie over the weekend. Nothing is ever straight forward when it comes to Star Wars and so far going by the RT ratings, it seems like we have a reverse scenario when compared to previous entry The Last Jedi.

The Last Jedi finished with a critic score of 91% and an audience score of 43%, whereas so far The Rise of Skywalker has a critic score of 58% and an audience score of 86%. It may be too early to tell completely, but it seems like The Rise of Skywalker is better liked by the paying public than The Last Jedi was, and we know how divisive that became. So should Disney be pleased by this or worried by this? That’s a hard question to answer and current box office takings would (to me) seem on the low side so far when you consider the trends of previous Star Wars trilogies.

Vanity Fair caught up with The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams recently and he surprisingly said that both the critics and the fans were right, from a certain point of view.

“No, I would say that they’re right. The people who love it more than anything are also right. I was asked just seven hours ago in another country, ‘So how do you go about pleasing everyone?’ I was like’ What…?’ Not to say that that’s what anyone should try to do anyway, but how would one go about it? Especially with Star Wars. We knew starting this that any decision we made — a design decision, a musical decision, a narrative decision — would please someone and infuriate someone else. And they’re all right. There is an MO of either: ‘It’s exactly as I see it, or you’re my enemy,’ It’s a crazy thing that there’s such a norm that seems to be void of nuance and compassion — and this is not [a phenomenon] about Star Wars, this is about everything.”

And with some fans saying that The Rise of Skywalker comes across as a bit of a put down on Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, Abrams said,

“It would be a much more interesting answer if there were conflict. The truth is when I was getting [The Force Awakens] up and running, I was nothing but grateful that a director and writer I admire as much as Rian was coming in to do [the next one.] Not expecting to come back to this, it was just fun to watch what was happening and get to respond to it.”

However, once he was hired to make The Rise of Skywalker what did he then feel? There are many rumors that Abrams was not happy with The Last Jedi, and that neither was Bob Iger nor Alan Horn, but they are just rumors with little to no substance at this time. I personally felt like there were many moments in this latest movie which downright seemed like a finger up at the most vocal criticism of The Last Jedi, and that was a movie I did not enjoy, saying that, I wasn’t overly that keen on The Rise of Skywalker either. The movie felt very predictable to me from start to end, to the point where I just wasn’t feeling the emotional beats that I could see Abrams and co were trying to provide. Sometimes I feel like you can see the strings attempting to pull you emotionally in movies, and when you can, it takes me out of the moment, unfortunately, that’s how The Rise of Skywalker felt to me.

RELATED: The Rise Of Skywalker: Weekend Box Office Estimates Are In…

Saying all that, I still enjoyed it far more than I did The Last Jedi, but in terms of re-watchability, it was just too close once again for me to Return of the Jedi. As a sequel trilogy what I see is a copy of A New Hope, a subversion of The Empire Strikes Back and a copy of Return of the Jedi in so many ways. Really, I think in hindsight, Disney should not have pushed ahead so fats with this trilogy, it was too important for that, and I think the franchise of Star Wars has suffered under Disney because of their rush to recoup the money they paid for Lucasfilm back in 2012. Just a year or two more development time for Episode 7 and an overall rough plan for the ending for directors to movie towards would have made a big difference. Then again, they wanted the OT, so they hired the director that is the expert on delivering movies that feel just like copies of older movies. Things worked out financially with Episode 7, but will it prove as effective with Episode 9, it’s too early to tell, but signs currently point to no.

What did you think of The Rise of Skywalker, happy, sad, confused, or ambivalent, and what do you think of Abrams’ comments? Leave them below as always folks.

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook and Twitter using the buttons at the top! Or you can react to the post down below.

—–

Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcast feed yet The LRM Online Podcast Network, which includes our flagship podcast Los Fanboys, our premiere podcast Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, and our morning show LRMornings? Check it out by listening below. It’s also available on all your favorite podcast apps!

Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify  |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play

SOURCE: Vanity Fair

  FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoG, Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube! Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play