The site gives “Skywalker” a 57% score – certified “rotten” – a cut above 53% of “The Phantom Menace” and a far cry from the 91% “fresh” score for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Of 2017.

The film fared much better with moviegoers, scoring 86% for Rotten Tomatoes.

“’The Rise of Skywalker’ suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with a fan-driven devotion,” summarizes Rotten Tomatoes.

Here’s what a few top reviewers had to say (don’t worry, no spoilers):

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: “A sparse, impatiently paced finale to serve the fans that reuses so much of what came before it feels like someone looking for the hyperspace button accidentally hit the spin cycle instead. . “

Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post: The film “walks wildly” and “it is perhaps not the closure that this epic, now in preparation for 42 years, deserves”.

Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com: “Feelings of joy and wonder are smothered by a film that so desperately wants to please a fractured fan base that it doesn’t care about an identity of its own.”

Yet they were not all bad:

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: “The result is often chaos, but it’s also a euphoric explosion of thrilling adventures, filled with humor and heart.

Does it really matter though? Ticket presales would have been strong, and even a poor performance by “Star Wars” standards would be considered a huge success for virtually any other movie. Regardless of the reviews, “The Rise of Skywalker” is likely to become Walt Disney Co.’s DIS,
+1.08%
seventh film released this year to earn $ 1 billion worldwide.

Box Office Pro projects an opening weekend total of between $ 160 million and $ 190 million – far less than the record $ 247.9 million that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” earned in 2015, and the $ 220 million dollars for “The Last Jedi,” and just above the 2016 spin-off, “Rogue One,” which grossed $ 155 million in its opening weekend.

But Box Office Pro pointed out that it would still be the third highest December opening of all time, behind the previous two installments of the final trilogy. The site also said the schedule was different from that of previous “Star Wars” films, as it opens on the weekends before most schools leave for winter break, which will likely result in disruptions. More ticket sales spread over the first week, as opposed to a mad rush the opening weekend.