Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Director J.J. Abrams Addresses Negative Reviews

Now that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is playing in theaters, fans are able to judge the movie for themselves and it looks like their reactions are skewing toward the positive end. This might come as a surprise to some, as the critics’ response to the new film were very mixed with a big chunk of negative reviews for the film. The film currently has a Metacritic rating of 54, while the Rotten Tomatoes score sits with 57% and a Rotten rating. But now that the movie is out for the general audience, how is the reaction sitting with filmmaker J.J. Abrams?

The director of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker recently participated in a panel where he was asked about negative reactions and if there’s a problem with a fandom.

“I’d say that they’re right,” Abrams responded. “The people who love it more than anything are also right. I was asked… ‘How did you go about pleasing everyone?’ I was like, what? Not to say that should be what anyone tries to do anyway, but how would one even go about it? Especially with Star Wars. I don’t need to tell anyone here, we live in a moment where everything immediately seems to default to outrage. And there’s a kind of M.O. of it’s either exactly as I see it or you’re my enemy.”

He went on to explain that they understood people would be angry by their choices but that the filmmakers were up for the challenge.

“It’s a crazy thing that there is such a norm that seems to be devoid of nuance — it’s not about Star Wars, it’s about everything — and compassion and acceptance… It’s a crazy moment, so we knew starting this any decision we made, a design decision, a musical decision, a narrative decision would please someone and infuriate someone else. And they’re all right.”

Co-writer Chris Terrio added, “Your only compass really, your only north star, is your heart and how you feel about this. We went into this movie knowing it was a love letter to Star Wars, it was a love letter to the old school kind of filmmaking that inspired George [Lucas], republic serials, Flash Gordon, samurai movies, all these other genre references that we love. And it’s the stuff about Hollywood movie making that we love. It’s the big mythic stuff that we love. We went into it deciding that is what we wanted the final episode to be.”

Fans can now make their own opinions about the film with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker now playing in theaters.