Posted by “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” opens in theaters tomorrow and the first reviews point to a film that changes a lot of the decisions that were made by Rian Johnson in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
J.J. Abrams got back into the driver seat for this installment which apparently pays homage to all of the previous Star Wars films while course correcting many of the moves made by Johnson that angered longtime fans.
The New York Times writer Kyle Buchanan took to Twitter after seeing the film to discuss how this new movie deals with the story laid out in “The Last Jedi.”
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsRISE OF SKYWALKER could only have been ruder to Rian Johnson if they had motion-smoothed it
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) December 17, 2019
IGN deputy entertainment manager Laura Prudom elaborated on Abram’s amount of retconning in the film.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI’m still processing #StarWars #TheRiseofSkywalker. The emotional highs are spectacular, and there are a lot of payoffs (some earned, some not). But some choices feel like an unnecessary course-correct from The Last Jedi and some just plain don’t make sense. Need to see it again pic.twitter.com/NcgBbAeCVx
— Laura Prudom (@LauInLA) December 17, 2019
Some of the creative decisions made in “TLJ” that were widely criticized by longtime Star Wars fans are laid out here.
Aside from just course correcting Johnson’s perceived blunders, those who have seen the movie claim that it packs a lot of plot into a short runtime. Being that “TROS” closes off the entire 9-movie-long Skywalker saga, it makes sense that the filmmakers tried to wrap-up a lot of stories here.
Critics seem to be less pleased with “TROS” overall than they were with “TLJ” back when it launched in 2017. The latter film was initially met with wide acclaim, but much of that was overshadowed once the fans began railing against it over how Luke was dealt with, and how Rey’s past was made to be meaningless after it was hyped up considerably in “The Force Awakens.”
The contrast in reactions might give hope to some, and will disappoint others.
Rant or Reason 