Nolte: Early ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Reactions Mixed to ‘Genuinely Bad’

The early reactions for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker have arrived and they are not what Disney was hoping for.

Although The Rise of Skywalker had its first official screening Monday, the embargo on publishing those reviews does not lift until later this week. This, though, did not stop some who were invited from publishing their reactions on social media.

Before we get started, a little context…

These early reactions, these early Twitter reactions, are almost always glowing because studios as big and powerful as Disney know what they are doing. They know first reactions matter, so they invite the easiest lays in town to these early screenings. Nothing against those who are invited. What I mean is that the studio chooses the media types who they believe will love the movie and will get caught up in the excitement of an early screening.

When I lived in Los Angeles, my name was pulled from this hat more than once. That’s how I know how it works. And again, I’m not knocking anyone involved. There’s nothing wrong with this. Whether it’s Star Wars fanboys, conservative Christians, or horror fans, or whatever, you are going to cater to your targeted audience and hope they react positively.

And this is why when you read these “early reactions” on Twitter — for any movie — these early reactions are almost always glowing, head over heels, gaga, in love… Even a dog like the new Charlie’s Angels movie was able to pull this off. So…

For the Rise of Skywalker to get so many mixed to negative reactions is… Well, it’s not a good sign.

We’ll start with the bad-to-mixed and then post some raves…

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Overall, though, if you take in the full scope of reactions, these are mixed reviews, not the 100 percent gushing Disney was aiming for.

The actual reviews will hit Wednesday, and no matter how bad it might be, the reviews will still be overwhelmingly positive because almost everyone in the entertainment media practices fealty to the studios, most especially The Empire itself, Disney.

My review should be up late Thursday or early Friday.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.