Home Entertainment Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker early reactions tease a rousing, conflicted sendoff to the saga

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker early reactions tease a rousing, conflicted sendoff to the saga

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Tomorrow is Thursday the 19th December which to Star Wars fans means only one thing. The release of the final chapter in the Skywalker saga, The Rise of Skywalker. Hype is already as galactic as possible for many fans so the film has a lot to live up to. Many fans found The Last Jedi a polarising film, despite its many strengths and so there is a lot of expectation for J.J. Abrams to close out the epic 9 film saga in a way that does the movies justice, answers the many questions still left unanswered and doesn’t leave fans struggling with the balances of the force this time.

They already held the premier for the movie in the US and an embargo on early reactions (not official reviews) lifted last night, meaning that we can finally see just what others thought of the film. Is the force strong with this one, or has it run out of midichlorians and unable to work the same magic the franchise is known for? Well, let’s take a look at the many reactions below:

Wow, that is a lot of different comments to digest. If one thing is certain, everyone has a strong emotional attachment to this movie, which is perhaps a good thing. There is mostly massive praise all round here at how J.J. Abrams has delivered a faithful and emotionally charged conclusion to the saga, but it will probably have its flaws too. One thing that stands out in a few of the reactions is how this movie does a disservice to The Last Jedi and puts the trilogy more in line with Abrams original plans for the trilogy that he started with The Force Awakens. Perhaps not a bad thing for certain fans, but a disconnect in the trilogy will likely annoy many people too.

If you’ve watched all the Star Wars movies before, there is no way you should miss out on this one. It’s a conclusion to some of the most iconic characters in cinema history and a story that spans over 40 years of pop culture. It is the cinematic event of the year and will give the Skywalkers we know and love, a rousing send-off.

Last Updated: December 18, 2019

28 Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    December 18, 2019 at 09:25

    I’m looking forward to this but Ster Kinekor is making me wait. 3D only at my local cinema.

    Reply

    • For the Emperor!

      December 18, 2019 at 10:13

      I too would prefer not to go 3D many times, but unfortunately then it is out of Prestige or IMAX, and I detest the smaller cinemas due to humans grrr

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      December 18, 2019 at 10:06

      Yeah, I’d rather watch a chinese torrent of someone taping the movie in the cinema than in 3D.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        December 18, 2019 at 10:06

        *fixed

        Reply

      • Yozzie

        December 18, 2019 at 10:06

        Indeed. I would even go so far as to say I’ll watch a chinese torrent cam cord of someone in the front row right up the screen filming what he can fit into the lens at a 45 degree angle hiding the camera in his armpit…than watch a fooking movie in 3D.

        Reply

        • Son of Banana Jim

          December 18, 2019 at 12:34

          The funniest one I’ve seen was a russian cam, and about half-way through a fight breaks out, and all you hear is russian swear words (one in particular that I learnt from Battlefield 4 of all places).

          Reply

      • Son of Banana Jim

        December 18, 2019 at 12:05

        It’s suppose to launch in China first, which means we’re definitely going to get some dodgy Chinese torrents soon – and I think that’s how I’m going to watch this movie. This is how I’m going to watch a once great franchise die.

        Reply

  2. For the Emperor!

    December 18, 2019 at 10:13

    I have my tickets for Saturday. Hope the ‘bad’ parts of the movie does not overshadow the good parts like in The Last Jedi…because while it had awesome parts, the WTF did spoil the occasion.

    Reply

  3. Gerhard

    December 18, 2019 at 10:32

    Absolutely excited for this. Imax tickets for Sunday. Star Wars movies are the only ones me and my kids share with equal passion.

    Reply

  4. Son of Banana Jim

    December 18, 2019 at 12:05

    And do you guys know what’s even funnier….? The leaks were right. They were 100% correct – Doomcock and his little youtube channel have been vindicated. If you read the leaks and you sat in your chair wondering did Disney lose their minds, and this couldn’t possibly be real. This can’t be how the movie ends.

    Yep, the worst of the leaks are 100% correct.

    One dude in a weird mask with a youtube channel did more journalism then every single one of the marketing and promotional guys you see tweeting about this movie.

    Let that sink in for a bit….

    Reply

  5. Son of Banana Jim

    December 18, 2019 at 12:20

    Anyone else surprised that freaking Forbes’ Scott Mendelson came out and hated this film. That’s the biggest shock for me. This is the guy that would shill everything Disney to the point where you were wondering if they were paying him with free Disneyland tickets, brown paper bags or Mickey Mouse-hat wearing prostitutes.

    He was THEIR man – I really want to know what happened. Did they promise him a seat at the table, and then at the last minute, Scott realised that he was just another cog in a global marketing push that destroys the credibility of those participating, and yet nets billions for one disgusting multi-national?

    I’m absolutely flabbergasted….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7d9a2a55108f8653b107821fd90dd470b2f0ca7d00efbf2577afb5f26c43bdb.png

    Reply

    • Jan.

      December 18, 2019 at 17:46

      Or maybe, he was a big fan of The Last Jedi and is disgusted how Disney bent over to please old fans that don’t give a shit about this franchise anymore.

      Reply

      • Son of Banana Jim

        December 18, 2019 at 17:46

        That’s certainly a possibility; there are people who legitimately think the Last Jedi was a good movie, but having seen him shill for so many years, and writing fluff pieces for the most despicable Disney junk, my money is on applying Occam’s Razor to this situation and just go with “the cheque didn’t clear” or they promised him his own show on Disney Plus or whatever junk they typically dangle in front of influencers.

        Reply

  6. Tbone187

    December 18, 2019 at 12:55

    Who the hell believes all these rubbish reactions? It’s cut n paste off IMDB user reviews for the last awful release which was well overhyped, like the one before it as well. How many times will people fall for this poor marketing ploy?

    Reply

    • Son of Banana Jim

      December 18, 2019 at 15:05

      It boils down to confirmation bias. People want to like (or hate) this movie, and when you get early positive “reactions”, those who were going to go see this movie, will feel happier about spending their money and maybe rope in a friend or two. It’s an extremely effective marketing ploy – but that’s just it. It’s a MARKETING ploy. These “critics” aren’t movie critics any more, they’re glorified influencers and paid-for-opinion shills. They were hand-picked to be at the first official screening because Disney knows that it has them in their bag.

      I usually take note of the names and then basically blacklist them. We now have three movies worth of “reactions”, with overlapping names, and it’s then pretty easy to see who you can trust, and who’s basically just collecting brown paper bags (one in particular that was always on my radar and one whose opinion means nothing to me is Scott Mendelson – which makes his about turn so… amazingly interesting.).

      By the way, did you see the shift leading up to this movie’s release, now everyone hates the last jedi (even those who were lauding it as the second coming not so long ago). I mean, that’s shilling. To get disenchanted and disgruntled former fans to see this movie, they’ll now come out and say “you know what guys, you were right.. lulz, the Last Jedi was trash! lulz, please go see our next movie“.

      Fortunately, I’m too old and grumpy to fall for that. My wallet is closed tight! 😛

      Reply

      • @Sargon_ZA

        December 18, 2019 at 17:03

        Prove it!

        Reply

        • Son of Banana Jim

          December 18, 2019 at 18:46

          His name is Scott Mendelson. #dropsMic And while he may have gone rogue recently, the proof is in his body of work and the unprecedented amount of access (to behind-the-scenes at Disney) this man got.

          I still can’t believe he went off-script. Seriously, that’s the biggest news for me, and it’ll take a while for me to process it.

          Reply

      • Tbone187

        December 18, 2019 at 16:02

        Hear, hear…too true guy!

        Reply

  7. Son of Banana Jim

    December 18, 2019 at 13:10

    Of course, most of you know, I don’t care for Rotten Tomato scores, and I’m sure some of you are looking at your screens and thinking “Damnit Jim… you’re the guy that thinks aggregate scores are utter crap, why are you posting this…”.

    And you’d be right, but I found this interesting.

    Star War Rotten Tomatoes Scores:
    • Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) 93%

    • Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 94%

    • Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) 82%

    • Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) 53%

    • Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) 65%

    • Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) 80%

    • Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) 93%

    • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) 83%

    • The Last Jedi (2017) 91%

    • Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) 70%

    • The Rise of Skywalker (2019) 53% (currently – I think it’ll settle at about 65 to 70) though.

    Reply

  8. LegionZA

    December 18, 2019 at 09:25

    Can’t wait for this

    Reply

  9. HairyEwok

    December 18, 2019 at 09:39

    Apparently with the earlier private screening people walked out on the film.

    Reply

  10. Jac7

    December 18, 2019 at 09:50

    I am ready

    Reply

  11. Son of Banana Jim

    December 18, 2019 at 13:48

    Incidentally (and slightly off-topic), all I could think of while reading the twitter reactions was:

    “All hail our glorious overlords on Twitter, may their blue checkmarks guide us into the future!”

    https://media3.giphy.com/media/jkWqwV60UIcjm/giphy.gif

    Reply

  12. Son of Banana Jim

    December 18, 2019 at 18:17

    Let’s hear it from one of my favourite youtube reviewers, Jeremy Jahns.

    It’s just BRUTAL!!!!! Yeah, I’m not paying for this lol.

    Reply

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