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‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ reviews range from disappointing to satisfying

Zach Brendza
By Zach Brendza
2 Min Read Dec. 18, 2019 | 6 years Ago
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The latest installment of “Star Wars” films is almost here.

But if you can’t wait for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” here’s some reviews from around the web, ranging from disappointment to satisfaction.

Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier writes that “the film plays like a 150-minute checklist of cool stuff and surprises designed to please as many fans as possible.”

• A.O. Scott of The New York Times says it’s one of the best and also one of the worst “Star Wars” films, “perfect middling,” the review reads.

NPR’s Glen Weldon claims director J.J. Abrams nails the 42-year-old “Star Wars” recipe “dutifully,” “but the flavoring’s off.”

• Peters Travers of Rolling Stone writes that Abrams effort to make the film everything you want and need it to be results often in chaos, “but it’s also a euphoric blast of pulse-quickening adventure, laced with humor and heart.”

• Scott Mendelson of Forbes says it’s genuinely bad movie, one that repeats the fatal mistakes of the likes of “Spectre,” “Spider-Man 3” and “The Crimes of Grindelwald” to end the Skywalker Saga on an all-time low.

The A.V. Club’s A.A. Dowd offers that the movie “is a space opera animated not by joy but insecurity — the anxiety, evident in almost every moment.”

• “The Rise of Skywalker,” according to David Sims of The Atlantic, is “for want of a better word, completely manic: It leaps from plot point to plot point, from location to location, with little regard for logic or mood.”

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 57% Tomatometer from critics with about 160 ratings as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” set for release Dec. 19, features Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, among others.

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About the Writers

Zach Brendza is a Tribune-Review digital producer. You can contact Zach at 724-850-1288, zbrendza@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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