J.J. Abrams didn’t get mad at criticism of his new “Star Wars” film. He got diplomatic.
Asked Friday about fans’ gripes over “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the director replied: “I’d say that they’re right.” (See the video below.)
But he quickly added, “The people who love it more than anything are also right.”
Abrams was likely aware that the movie ― the last of nine in the series ― was headed for a massive haul at the weekend box office no matter what he said.
But several outlets noted the relatively low audience rating of B+ that the film received on CinemaScore. It also got a 57 percent “fresh score” from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and HuffPost’s Matthew Jacobs called it “overstuffed and uninspired.”
Noting that you can’t please everyone, Abrams told the crowd at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood: “We live in a moment where everything immediately seems to default to outrage. And there is a kind of an m.o. of ‘it’s either exactly as I see it’ or ‘you’re my enemy.’”
“We knew starting this that any decision we made — a design decision, a musical decision, a narrative decision — would please someone and infuriate someone else,” Abrams added. “And they’re all right.”