To put the Tomatometer score in perspective for the Star Wars franchise, this lands Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker somewhere in between Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which currently sports a "rotten" rating at 53% with 226 critic ratings, and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, which sits at a Tomatometer of 65% with 252 reviews. Several critic reviews completely savaged the movie, such as the one from Richard Brody's review for The New Yorker:
"The bulk of The Rise of Skywalker involves characters in closeup expelling greeting-card-like slogans with vehemence and dour conviction, punctuated by lumpishly unchoreographed biff-bash-and-blam fight scenes. Abrams doesn’t offer any original, significant, or memorable images, not a glimmer of action that’s staged with a sense even of mere physical connection, let alone balletic grace or athletic splendor."
Alonso Duralde's review for TheWrap was less colorful, but still negative:
"It's a somewhat soulless delivery system of catharsis, but Disney and Abrams are banking on the delivery itself to be enough."
It is undetermined as to what impact the reviews will have on ticket or merchandise sales, but it seems some of the goodwill brought back to the Star Wars franchise via The Child (aka "Baby Yoda") from The Mandalorian series may be in jeopardy (see "'Baby Yoda' Is The 'Star Wars' Gift That Keeps On Giving") as the movie franchise prepares to go on hiatus.
