The Rise of Skywalker holds the distinction of being the lowest-rated Star Wars movie on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critic score of 51-52%. Released in December 2019, this film represents a historic low point for the franchise in terms of critical reception, earning the “Rotten” designation from reviewers. Despite this poor critical performance, the film demonstrates the ongoing divide between professional critics and general audiences—audiences gave it an 86% approval rating, showing that many viewers enjoyed what critics largely rejected.
The significance of this rating goes beyond a single film’s reception. The Rise of Skywalker’s position as the franchise’s most critically panned theatrical release marks a notable shift in how the Star Wars saga has been received over the decades. It surpassed even The Phantom Menace (which sits at 53-54%), a film that spent two decades as the franchise’s critical punching bag. This change reflects evolving standards in blockbuster filmmaking, shifting fan expectations, and the specific challenges this particular film faced in its narrative construction and execution.
Table of Contents
- How Does The Rise of Skywalker Compare to Other Star Wars Films on Rotten Tomatoes?
- Why Did The Rise of Skywalker Receive Such Harsh Critical Reception?
- How Does The Phantom Menace’s Ranking Reflect Changing Standards in Blockbuster Filmmaking?
- What Does the Critical-Audience Divide Tell Us About Star Wars Reception?
- How Does Rotten Tomatoes Scoring Impact Film Reception and Studio Decisions?
- What About Recent Star Wars Releases Like The Mandalorian and Grogu?
- What Specific Elements Did Critics Identify as Problematic in The Rise of Skywalker?
How Does The Rise of Skywalker Compare to Other Star Wars Films on Rotten Tomatoes?
The Rise of Skywalker’s 51-52% score places it not just below most other star Wars films, but at a point where it technically qualifies as “Rotten” rather than “Fresh”—a threshold that becomes meaningful when evaluating the franchise as a whole. The original trilogy films like A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi score in the 90s on Rotten Tomatoes. Even the widely criticized prequel films demonstrate better critical standing: The Phantom Menace earned 53-54%, and Attack of the Clones landed at 62%. The Force Awakens scored 93%, and The Last Jedi, despite generating intense fan debate, maintained a respectable 91% critical score.
This context shows that The Rise of Skywalker didn’t simply underperform—it fundamentally broke a barrier that had stood since the prequel era. For two decades, The Phantom Menace represented the floor for Star Wars critical reception. The newer film’s inability to reach even that previous low standard illustrates the specific challenges it encountered with reviewers. Critics specifically cited issues with pacing, narrative coherence, and the handling of character arcs that had built across the trilogy, making it clear this wasn’t simply a matter of different taste in storytelling style.
Why Did The Rise of Skywalker Receive Such Harsh Critical Reception?
Critics identified several specific problems with The Rise of Skywalker that contributed to its historically low score. The film’s narrative structure drew particular criticism for attempting to resolve the trilogy’s storylines in ways that felt rushed, contradictory, or dismissive of character development established in previous installments. Reviewers noted that the movie tried to course-correct previous films’ directions while simultaneously honoring them, creating a narrative identity problem that plagued the entire runtime. The pacing left insufficient room for character moments that audiences might have found emotionally resonant, instead favoring a sequence-driven approach that felt mechanical to many critics.
One significant limitation of relying on Rotten Tomatoes scores is that they represent an aggregate judgment at the time of release. The 51-52% score for The Rise of Skywalker captured professional critics’ initial reactions within the first weeks of the film’s theatrical run. Some critics’ assessments may have been influenced by exhaustion from the trilogy’s polarizing nature, while others focused on the film’s standalone technical and narrative qualities. The static nature of these scores means they don’t evolve as cultural perspectives shift—the score remains frozen at what critics thought in December 2019, not accounting for any reevaluation that might occur as the dust settles on the sequel trilogy debate.
How Does The Phantom Menace’s Ranking Reflect Changing Standards in Blockbuster Filmmaking?
The Phantom Menace’s ranking as the second-lowest rated Star Wars film is instructive in understanding what changed between 1999 and 2019. When The Phantom Menace premiered, critics had one primary basis for evaluation: the film itself and audience reaction to it. The Phantom Menace ultimately connected with audiences despite critical reservations—its Rotten Tomatoes audience score is significantly higher than its critic score. Two decades of fan culture, repeated viewings, and cultural positioning allowed audiences and even some critics to contextualize the film within the broader franchise narrative.
The Rise of Skywalker, by contrast, faced the additional burden of being the conclusion to a trilogy that had not only failed to establish a unified vision but had actively worked against its own narrative continuity. The comparison between these two films reveals how critical standards evolve. In 1999, critics evaluated The Phantom Menace primarily as a science fiction action film and sequel. By 2019, critics were evaluating The Rise of Skywalker within the context of three films’ worth of storytelling, the franchise’s entire legacy, the cultural moment’s expectations of inclusive blockbuster filmmaking, and the specific challenges of creating satisfying conclusions. The Rise of Skywalker couldn’t simply exist as a standalone film in critics’ assessment—it had to reckon with everything that came before it while somehow resolving narratives it hadn’t initiated.
What Does the Critical-Audience Divide Tell Us About Star Wars Reception?
The Rise of Skywalker’s 86% audience score alongside its 51-52% critic score represents one of the most significant gaps in the franchise’s Rotten Tomatoes history. This 34-point difference is substantially larger than what The Phantom Menace experienced, suggesting a fundamental disagreement about what makes a Star Wars film successful. Where critics emphasized narrative coherence, character consistency, and originality, audiences appeared to prioritize spectacle, fan service, and the satisfaction of seeing characters they’d invested in reach some form of conclusion. Neither perspective is inherently invalid—they reflect different priorities in evaluating complex blockbuster filmmaking.
This divide carries practical implications for how anyone evaluates Star Wars films. A low critic score shouldn’t necessarily deter a viewer who values spectacle and character moments over narrative tightness. Conversely, an audience score doesn’t necessarily indicate that the film successfully executed its narrative ambitions or introduced ideas that might sustain long-term interest. The Rise of Skywalker demonstrates that massive commercial success and critical acclaim don’t have to align. The film earned over $1 billion globally, indicating that audience members did find value in the experience, even as professional critics struggled to recommend it on critical grounds.
How Does Rotten Tomatoes Scoring Impact Film Reception and Studio Decisions?
Rotten Tomatoes scores have become increasingly influential in shaping initial perceptions of blockbuster films, even among viewers who may never read individual reviews. A 51-52% score for a $300+ million Star Wars film creates a narrative that shapes media coverage, social media discourse, and subsequent audience expectations. Studios have recognized this influence, which affects how they approach marketing, post-release messaging, and strategic planning for franchise continuations. The Rise of Skywalker’s low score influenced how Lucasfilm approached future Star Wars projects and contributed to the broader perception of trilogy fatigue within the franchise.
A critical limitation of treating Rotten Tomatoes scores as definitive measurements is that they flatten complex critical response into a simple percentage. A film might score 51% because critics found it mediocre across the board, or it might score 51% because half the critics thought it was excellent and half thought it was terrible. The Rise of Skywalker actually experienced varied critical response—some respected critics praised specific elements while criticizing the overall structure. The percentage itself obscures this nuance. Additionally, Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregation methodology means that a film needs only a slight majority of positive reviews to be labeled “Fresh,” and The Rise of Skywalker fell just below that threshold, making it technically “Rotten” despite having plenty of critics who found things to appreciate in it.
What About Recent Star Wars Releases Like The Mandalorian and Grogu?
The Mandalorian and Grogu, released in 2026, arrived with a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 60% based on 103 reviews, making it one of the franchise’s lowest-rated theatrical releases. This film’s score places it above The Rise of Skywalker but still well below the approval threshold that dominated earlier Star Wars films.
The trajectory visible across multiple recent Star Wars theatrical releases—The Rise of Skywalker at 51-52%, The Mandalorian and Grogu at 60%, compared to original trilogy films in the 90s—suggests a broader pattern rather than isolated critical disappointment. This trend indicates that contemporary Star Wars theatrical films are struggling to achieve the critical consensus that earlier entries in the franchise established, regardless of audience reception.
What Specific Elements Did Critics Identify as Problematic in The Rise of Skywalker?
Critics specifically highlighted the film’s treatment of character arcs as a central problem. The handling of Daisy Ridley’s Rey character, Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, and the legacy characters from the original trilogy all drew pointed criticism for resolution methods that felt unearned or contradictory to earlier established trajectories. The film’s plot mechanics—particularly the introduction of the Palpatine return and various exposition-heavy scenes—struck critics as prioritizing spectacle and surprise twists over coherent character development.
The pacing issues meant that major character moments arrived without sufficient buildup or emotional resonance, making them feel like plot requirements rather than organic story progressions. The critical consensus on The Rise of Skywalker also centered on the film’s apparent attempt to simultaneously satisfy contradictory directorial and fan demands from the previous two films. Critics perceived a film trying to reverse directions established in The Last Jedi while also honoring it, resurrect story elements from The Force Awakens while moving beyond them, and introduce new mythology while serving as a trilogy conclusion. This multiplicity of objectives, in critics’ assessment, resulted in a film that served none of them completely—it was too revisionist to satisfy those invested in the previous film’s vision and not revisionist enough to correct fundamental narrative issues those critics identified.
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