Star Wars Thread - Spoilers, yo.

[HarmonicGenerator]

That’s a completely fair way to look at it. I’m not sure it’s what The Acolyte is trying to be, but as long as you’re enjoying it that’s the main thing.

I liked this week’s a lot more - lots of Jedi, weird creatures, made me want to see what happens next.

Spoiler

Possibly prequel cameos too? Were those a young Ki-Adi Mundi and Plo Koon or just other Jedi of their species?

 

EDIT: Just seen an article - yes to the former (cool!) and no to the latter.

 

Also, the big bad is definitely Qimir, right? Or is that too obvious?

 

Edited June 20, 2024 by HarmonicGenerator

[LaGoosh]

8 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

See, I like my Star Wars daft, full of space wizards and absolutely, positively written for 10 year olds.

Kids stuff can still be well written/acted/produced! I think Star Wars for the most part absolutely should be breezy, fantastical and fun.  However I think their output is generally very poor. Kids deserve better than this! There's been absolutely loads of really fun, intelligent and great kids shows over the past decade plus.

Glad you're enjoying it though.

[SuperBacon]

I seem to be in a fairly small minority but I think every single one of the Star Wars TV shows are absolutely shit.

I'll admit I haven't watched full series of them (maybe first Mandalorian, dunno) but the fact I've given up so easily when I am a bit of a completist and will see things through to the very end, says they're not for me.

In fact if the majority of them weren't SW themed, they'd be shunned away on the Sci Fi channel as hokey bollocks.

If people enjoy them though yeah great and despite loving the original and new trilogy (don't be coming in at me with your Episode I podrace bollox, just don't!) I've never been a huge fan of the expanded stuff so maybe that's a factor.

 

[DavidB6937]

I used to very much be a completist. But these days there's just so fucking much of absolutely everything, and obviously having less time now with kids, I definitely have to be pickier and I'm far more willing to just drop stuff if it's not grabbing my attention. I might return back to a few things if I hear they're worth sticking with, but on the whole I'm more selective which is probably why I haven't even bothered with some of the Star Wars and Marvel shows.

[LaGoosh]

Did anyone stick with The Acolyte? Against my better judgement I did and finished the final episode this morning.

Overall, it was a dud. I think it has some interesting ideas and concepts in there but the writing, acting and production was so bad it was often painful to watch. From a story perspective it just didn't work. Fundamentally if you build your entire show around mysteries that are not actually interesting or exciting then it's hard to really care. They didn't put in the work to create characters you could invest in and there were logic and plot holes all over the place.

Really, if you took the core concept and bare bones of this and gave it to a talented production team to do you could have made a pretty decent 2 hour movie out of the same story. Instead it's 8 episode of very mediocre television. Though I won't be entirely negative, it had some genuinely very good lightsaber fights in it.

Separately, as a kid I always thought being a Jedi would be the coolest thing ever. It's kind of sad that every bit of live action Star Wars media since Return of the Jedi has been all about how lame, boring as shit, wrong and stupid they all are. Why don't they make something where the Jedi Order are actually the good guys you can admire or believe in instead of people you'd avoid at a dinner party.

[HarmonicGenerator]

40 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Did anyone stick with The Acolyte? Against my better judgement I did and finished the final episode this morning.

Overall, it was a dud. I think it has some interesting ideas and concepts in there but the writing, acting and production was so bad it was often painful to watch. From a story perspective it just didn't work. Fundamentally if you build your entire show around mysteries that are not actually interesting or exciting then it's hard to really care. They didn't put in the work to create characters you could invest in and there were logic and plot holes all over the place.

Really, if you took the core concept and bare bones of this and gave it to a talented production team to do you could have made a pretty decent 2 hour movie out of the same story. Instead it's 8 episode of very mediocre television. Though I won't be entirely negative, it had some genuinely very good lightsaber fights in it.

Separately, as a kid I always thought being a Jedi would be the coolest thing ever. It's kind of sad that every bit of live action Star Wars media since Return of the Jedi has been all about how lame, boring as shit, wrong and stupid they all are. Why don't they make something where the Jedi Order are actually the good guys you can admire or believe in instead of people you'd avoid at a dinner party.

This is the big thing I've bumped up against with Acolyte (and I did stick with it). I don't know why people still think deconstructing the Jedi is still innovative and interesting - they've been deconstructed way longer than they were actually constructed at this point. I really hoped this show would be a chance to see Jedi at their peak, actually being good and cool and other positive words. So we have a high bar, seeing them at their best, to make the tragedy of their downfall bigger. But by the end of this, even Sol as the de facto Best One wasn't that good. We were promised a Wookiee Jedi and the only time we actually saw him in action was when he got brainwashed and attacked his mates! Come on! It's a shame. Just give me good Jedi please!

There were some good lightsaber fights and I did like David Harewood popping up as a Senator this week. But overall I've been disappointed - I had high hopes when they showed that first trailer at Celebration last year, but it wasn't to be. I don't really want a season 2 either, I don't need more "the Jedi were actually not that great". 

[LaGoosh]

31 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

they've been deconstructed way longer than they were actually constructed at this point.

Yeah it's pretty miserable all round. To have years of "actually the Jedis were a bunch of cold, joyless religious fascists who were actually kind of dumb and crappy at their jobs" isn't really what I'm looking for. Would it hurt to show them as a bunch of likeable, cool guys who go on fun adventures and save the day?

[LaGoosh]

Ok, this looks incredibly fun. A Goonies, Star Wars, Amblin mash up might be the perfect antidote to the dull and depressing Acolyte, Ahsoka, Obi Wan trifecta of shit.

Star Wars suburbia in particular is very funny and I want to see more of that.

 

[johnnyboy]

Star Wars Goonies was our first thought too, which should be no bad thing.

Edited August 10, 2024 by johnnyboy

[stadhart]

I watched the new Deadpool film (was great) so thought I'd watch the old Fox X-Men films - Days of Futures Past is just boring. I've put on the 90# animated version and it's really good...it's a kids cartoon but has great action and just adult motivation for stuff - it's a genuinely great show 

Star wars is now written by fucktards - looks like marvel are going to go back to billion dollar grownups

[HarmonicGenerator]

Thought the first two Skeleton Crew episodes were really fun. Lots of piratey adventure, an intriguing mystery set up, and it felt like they really nailed their aim of ‘Amblin but Star Wars’.

And several bits of fan service I got a kick out of

Spoiler

Teek from the Endor movies!

The circus hologram that Lumpy watches in the Holiday Special!

Constable Zuvio!

And my absolute favourite, the little jingle that they use in Star Tours when the school trams stopped. The show’s a 10/10 just for this.

 

[cobra_gordo]

Thoroughly enjoyed the first two episodes. I'm a bit burnt out with Star Wars at the moment, I just can't keep on top of all the series plus the animated stuff to the point I didn't even know Skeleton Crew was coming out until I opened Disney Plus yesterday morning.

The first 5 minutes was so good it had me back on the prop forums wanting to source a Ree Yees mask to give it an eye patch, real Saturday afternoon film with your dad stuff. I found the Suburbs In Space planet jarring at first but it only took until Wim and Neel started play fighting for me to let my guard down. I was fully onboard from then on.

My wife isn't super in to Star Wars but she's loved the first two episodes too, mainly because of the Goonies/ Flight Of The Navigator/ Amblin vibes, there's a couple of musical cues where they first find the starship that are straight out of The Never-ending Story. Plus, like HarmGen says, all of little obscure nods for us nerds are nice to spot.

9 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

  Hide contents

Constable Zuvio!

 

I didn't even clock that one!

[johnnyboy]

I was not keen on the on the nose naming of L3-37 in Solo, but I'm all in on...

Spoiler

Mr Smee (SM-33)

The trailer Goonies in Space vibes seems to hold.

[LaGoosh]

I was surprised how much I loved this. The production values, direction, editing, effects, music, performances...literally everything is a whole different level than the terrible Favrea/Filoni shows and The Acolyte. I can't wait for the next episode.

It felt genuinely fresh and new but still Star Wars. That pirate space port is exactly where I imagine all the freaks at Jabba's Palace all come from. Some of the creature effects were incredible. It was funny and the characters all felt real and likeable. 

Between this and Andor season 2 next year we've got some great Star Wars on our hands again finally!

[LaGoosh]

Weird that Skeleton Crew seems to be getting zero buzz whatsoever. 5 episodes in and I'm loving it. It's great fun and far better than every other Star Wars show they've put out other than Andor.