Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: December 20, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 61 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
37
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianJordan HoffmanDec 18, 2019
The movie snaps together like a jigsaw puzzle, a series of concluding beats that seem inevitable and perfect, and designed to please all parties, so long as you don’t dwell on the logic too much. Read full review
100
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenDec 18, 2019
The Rise of Skywalker rates right up there with the 1977 original, “A New Hope,” and 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back.” Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 20, 2019
As usual, Ridley is immensely appealing as a born warrior with an indestructible sense of right and wrong. Her expressive face lends the fantastical goings-on an emotional resonance. Read full review
83
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanDec 18, 2019
It’s a breakneck conclusion to what’s been a breakneck restart. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 20, 2019
However preposterous, The Rise of Skywalker is socked over with such energy, such euphoric certainty. And it’s such fun: full of the rackety exuberance of the now forgotten Saturday morning movie serials that were an influence on George Lucas. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanDec 18, 2019
The Rise of Skywalker is, to me, the most elegant, emotionally rounded, and gratifying “Star Wars” adventure since the glory days of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” (I mean that, but given the last eight films, the bar isn’t that high Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinDec 18, 2019
The Rise of Skywalker completes a saga no one sane screenwriter would have dreamt up from scratch, but does so with such pluck and showmanship that the result feels strangely precious: a busked epic whose every individual move comes straight from the heart. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamDec 18, 2019
Tries to fit in so much it threatens to tear apart at the seams, but ultimately rises to the impossible occasion. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiam LaceyDec 18, 2019
To quote Bill Murray’s song again, “Star Wars/ those near and far wars” checks the boxes of a lot of the audience’s base, while seeming unburdened by real gravity. Read full review
75
CNNBrian LowryDec 18, 2019
The Rise of Skywalker feels like a welcome course correction, featuring sequences and references that more cynical minds will dismiss as "fan service," but which derive emotion and power precisely from the bond and investment the audience has forged not just with this permutation on the story, but all of it going back to the original trilogy. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 18, 2019
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker does the job. It wraps up the trio of trilogies begun in 1977 in a confident, soothingly predictable way, doing all that cinematically possible to avoid poking the bear otherwise known as tradition-minded quadrants of the “Star Wars” fan base. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 18, 2019
The Rise of Skywalker rarely comes close to touching greatness, but it’s a solid, visually dazzling and warmhearted victory for the Force of quality filmmaking. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiDec 18, 2019
Although director J.J. Abrams tries his darndest to finish the job, conjuring up nostalgia like a TV medium, “Rise” doesn’t feel like the last chapter of the biggest American movie franchise. It’s just another well-made “Star Wars” flick. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 18, 2019
The result is often chaos, but it’s also a euphoric blast of pulse-quickening adventure, laced with humor and heart. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 18, 2019
How do you end the most iconic franchise of all time? (Don’t panic, there will be more movies, just not a part of this particular universe.) You end it by trying to please everyone. Which can make it hard to please anyone. But Abrams is a crowd-pleaser and a good one. He’s made a film that is unquestionably entertaining and wraps things up in a way that will make fans happy. Read full review
70
IGNJim VejvodaDec 18, 2019
For as much love, passion, and nostalgia is evident in this movie, it’s also a film very palpably made from a place driven by fear of disappointing the audience, and that anxiety fuels a lot of the story’s curious creative choices and unwieldy execution. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 18, 2019
The film shouldn’t be snidely dismissed, despite its faults. With Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars limps to a close, but there’s still good in it. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoDec 18, 2019
Whatever one thinks of “The Last Jedi,” if that film was trying to build a new house on familiar land, this one tears it down and goes back to an old blueprint. Some of the action is well-executed, there are strong performances throughout, and one almost has to admire the brazenness of the weaponized nostalgia for the original trilogy, but feelings like joy and wonder are smothered by a movie that so desperately wants to please a fractured fanbase that it doesn’t bother with an identity of its own. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 18, 2019
It's impressively ambitious, though great new personalities and fresh storytelling suffer for the sake of fan service. Read full review
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