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Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is still a passive ride, but it’s something engrossing, immersive, and non-viscerally thrilling. From the Cast Members perfectly executing their flaws to the plotting and encounters, the tension, pacing, and suspense are also exceptional.
I would say being a Star Wars fan it’s completely worth it, and here’s the way I look at it. You don’t have to be in an actual line to get a boarding group you only have to be in the park (ticket scanned) in order to get a group for Rise of the Resistance.
- Overview
- What Is the Story for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance?
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance - Full Disney World Queue Photo Tour
- What Theme Park Rides Is Rise of the Resistance Similar To?
- Verdict
By Laura Prudom
Updated: Feb 26, 2022 12:18 am
Posted: Jan 17, 2020 4:25 pm
Editor's note: This is a spoiler-free review of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which opened at Disney World on December 5 and Disneyland on January 17. This review was originally published on December 4 after the ride's Orlando opening - which is why it retains last year's 9.5 score despite our recent review scale change - and we've since experienced the ride again at Disneyland for its Anaheim opening. Despite IGN being in the business of reviews for more than a decade, theme park ride reviews are still new for us - but we know that they're of interest to a portion of our audience, especially when they're based on franchises we care about. We want to offer an honest assessment of whether we believe a theme park attraction is worth your time, just as we do with games, movies, and TV shows, with the caveat that your own experience will undoubtedly be colored by what you enjoy most about theme park rides, so we encourage you to visit the park and experience it for yourself if you can, and share your thoughts on how we can make these reviews more useful to you in the comments!
For more, be sure to read our review of the Galaxy's Edge Disney ride Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run, and watch our full ridethrough video for the Rise of the Resistance and the Rise of the Resistance queue. The Star Wars hotel, Galactic Starcruiser, opens at Disney World in 2021.
When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Anaheim’s Disneyland and Orlando’s Disney World in 2019, the main selling point of the new land was the opportunity to “live your own Star Wars story” - offering guests a chance to fly the Millennium Falcon, build a lightsaber, or get rowdy in a cantina (at least for a not-very-villainous window of 45 minutes). But with only one ride fully operational at launch (the underwhelming Smugglers Run), Galaxy’s Edge felt a little like a starship with the hyperdrive disabled - a feat of engineering that was as frustrating as it was transporting, full of untapped potential. Thankfully, the land's new ride, Rise of the Resistance, helps Galaxy’s Edge make the jump to lightspeed.
For those of you hoping to avoid Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance spoilers, keep scrolling, but here are the story basics:
Rise of the Resistance is set during the sequel trilogy (after the events of The Last Jedi and before The Rise of Skywalker, so prepare to answer some tough questions about continuity from your kids) and features familiar characters from the Resistance -- including Rey, Poe, Finn, and BB-8 -- and the First Order -- most notably Kylo Ren and General Hux.
You are a member of the Resistance who Rey commissions to help in the fight against the First Order. You are being transported from Batuu (the setting of Galaxy's Edge) to a top-secret base held by General Organa. Of course, this is Star Wars, and so things go sideways; along the way your shuttle is intercepted by the First Order and pulled into a First Order Star Destroyer care of a tractor beam, and you and your fellow Resistance travelers are held captive. From there, with the help of some familiar faces, you must escape the Star Destroyer and fight your way to freedom.
While Rise of the Resistance is undoubtedly a thrill ride, with “rapid motion, sudden stops, and sharp turns,” it’s not going to give you the same adrenaline high as a roller coaster or even Forbidden Journey, which is a much more turbulent trip. (Motion-wise, different parts of the ride recall the simulator aspects of Star Tours or Smugglers Run and the roving movements of Disneyland Paris’ Ratatouille ride or Universal’s Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, although thankfully without any headache-inducing 3D.)
But Rise's real strength is in its ability to tell a compelling, cohesive story that ratchets up the tension and keeps you guessing as it unfolds, recreating a desperate chase through a First Order Star Destroyer in a way that evokes Luke, Han, and Leia’s attempt to escape the Death Star in A New Hope, complete with copious blaster fire and encounters with multiple Stormtroopers. Along the way, you’re assisted by Rey, Finn, and Poe, as well as other members of the Resistance, and you’ll come face to face with both Kylo Ren and General Hux, thanks to a combination of precise projections and lifelike animatronics. Like Hondo Ohnaka in Smugglers Run, the animatronics are the standouts here, especially a new Mon Calamari character called Beck who helps guide your breakout.
It all plays out like a believable sequence from one of the films, complete with a rousing, goosebump-inducing score and crisp visuals that use CGI backdrops and footage of the actors, in addition to the practical effects and character projections. You’re generally being jostled around too much to admire the gorgeous starfield vistas you can see outside the windows of your various transports, and when you’re caught in the midst of a dogfight between the First Order and the Resistance, it all feels very real, and manages to look a little less artificial than the scenery on Smugglers Run - probably because most of the action takes place in space rather than on a specific planet.
•Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Universal Studios)
•Justice League: Battle for Metropolis (Six Flags)
•The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Universal Studios)
•Transformers: The Ride 3D (Universal Studios)
If you’re a theme park fan, you’ve probably already read about the life-size replica AT-ATs and a TIE fighter that have pride of place inside the ride, but they’re even more impressive in person. Likewise, the Disney Parks cast members who have been enlisted as First Order officers throughout the ride do an especially convincing job, refusing to break character - especially if you make like Baby Yoda and start touching buttons you shouldn’t be playing with while you’re waiting to be taken for interrogation.
All told, the action of the ride takes about 18 minutes, with the portion in the ride car accounting for a solid four and a half minutes, giving you plenty of Star Wars action even if the wait time is long (which it inevitably will be). The only lingering query after the press preview is how efficient the queue system actually is in terms of shuttling guests through each holding area and getting them loaded onto the cars without much of a delay - not to mention whether there will be any technical glitches given the complex nature of the ride’s design. (Editor's note: the Disney World launch was reportedly plagued with breakdowns and issues with the virtual queue system, so it remains to be seen whether Disneyland will encounter similar issues - the media preview was, as far as we could tell, glitch free.)
Rise of the Resistance is a technical marvel that delivers on its promise to fully immerse riders in the Star Wars galaxy. With its combination of cutting-edge technology, focused storytelling, and sheer scale, Rise represents an ambitious step forward for Disney, although its emphasis on creating an immersive narrative over roller coaster-style th...
Aug 6, 2024 · Much to everyone's joy, Disney collaborated with the sequel trilogy's iconic actors to reprise their roles for Rise of the Resistance. The galaxy's beloved characters—Rey, Kylo Ren, Finn, Poe, and General Hux—were brought back to life by the very actors who made them household names.
There are so many phases to it, from the initial line leading you to the rebel base, to the transport, to the interactive element with the cast members in your capture, then the actual ride being both an advanced dark ride and a thrill ride, Rise of the Resistance is worth the admission to Hollywood Studios alone, if you're lucky enough to get ...
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Dec 5, 2019 · Resistance members hurried you into transports, while First Order officers yelled at me touching buttons or generally not “behaving”. The cast add so much to this attraction, and it’s a rare occasion where they can be a part of the story and make every experience a little different.
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Jan 17, 2020 · The only way to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is to join what Disney calls a “boarding group,” so that was our primary goal. Getting a lower boarding group number rather than a higher one was our secondary goal. Lower numbers mean not having to to wait all day. High numbers can mean not getting on at all.
