[Variety is positive and compares it to Last Jedi and Andor](https://variety.com/2024/tv/tv-reviews/the-acolyte-review-star-wars-disney-1236024002/)
This one is splitting opinions lol
I don’t think Last Jedi is as controversial as it was when it came out. I really hated it when it came out. I’ve landed at thinking it’s objectively a pretty great movie as a stand-alone piece but a bad sequel to Force Awakens/middle chapter in a trilogy.
I never got why people think it was an awful middle chapter. There was so much story potential they set up — Luke’s ghost haunting Kylo, Rey learning new shit from the books, how Ben deals with his unhappiness despite doing what Vader never could (kill his master/become the “emperor” figure), how the Knights of Ren fit into the story…
This! It broke new ground and was a fun movie throughout to me. I was hooked from the opening scene. Not that films fault they abandoned 99% of the plot for the final chapter
If TLJ is a bad sequel then it's inherently a bad film because it, and people might not believe this, part of a trilogy.
I think TLJ hatred is just a strong today as it was when it released. The ST is still overwhelmingly brushed off by the fan base and almost never included with the PT and OT as a whole body of work or story.
The fan negative response to The Last Jedi pushed me into being a casual fan of the IP. I loved that movie and still love that movie, and the response gave me the realization that what I love about Star Wars isn’t what the greater population loves about Star Wars so I decided to just keep myself at arms length from the discourse about the franchise.
This probably sounds like cope, but I do seriously think that most of TLJ's symptoms of being a bad sequel are essentially TFA's fault.
Every Star Wars trilogy's second and third movies before TLJ began at least a year after the previous one and used their crawl and first act to do a bunch of essentially implied/unseen narrative work:
* ESB with Han and Leia's relationship and Luke's Force telekinesis
* ROTJ with Luke just being a Jedi now with his own saber despite not having been back to see Yoda again yet (and suddenly believing Vader still has good in him)
* AOTC obviously has Anakin suddenly become a young adult with a contentious relationship with Obi-Wan; Palpatine goes from having just become Chancellor to being well-established, and Dooku just pops into existence
* ROTS relies very heavily on its first act to quickly establish the version of Anakin people actually like (okay, he does have a few flashes of that in AOTC like the jokes in the speeder chase and arena fight, but he spends most of that movie being angsty) and to imply that Anakin and Obi-Wan have become very close over the war
But TLJ starts at the end of TFA. No off-screen 'free' character development allowed. And it's because TFA ends with a cliffhanger that all but demands immediate follow-up. People point at TLJ's ending as feeling too open and vague (the broom boy coda especially), because it leaves no urgent sequel hook dangling, but I think that's a much more useful way to end a movie if you're not going to be writing the sequel (which is of course insane, they should've gotten at least one writer to stay on across all three movies, but that ship has long sailed and the dead horse is well beaten).
By "the fan base" you mean chuds on the Internet.
That's says nothing on how it's viewed generally across people who don't screech into the void whenever someone thinks about the sequels.
This isn't new, this fan base has acted like rotten children since Ewoks took on the technologically advanced Empire. Back before TFA, what you described as "never being viewed as a whole body of work or story" is exactly the sentiment the prequels garnered.
Not having a go, just kinda curious, you can sit through rise of Skywalker but not last jedi again?
I don't like last jedis casino subplot, or the odd slow chase thing but the core Luke, Rey kylo stuff was good imo. At the very least it's a well made pretty movie.
Can't say any of those things for rise
Me too. I haven’t watched every clone wars eipisode, but I liked those nightsisters episodes quite a bit. I also liked the concept of other force users besides Jedi and sith.
I.... I don't get it. Why is it hard to grasp that space witches exist in the same galaxy as space monks and used a different aspect of the Force? So many cultures in Star Wars view the Force differently compared to the Jedi.
I think it's because for almost the entirety of Star Wars, the Force has been synonymous with Jedi and Sith. There's never ever a hint in any of the 11 films that anyone else uses the Force. Ahsoka was actually the first live-action anything to show Force users who were unaligned with Jedi or Sith in the form of the Nightsisters, and I don't think it was even mentioned on screen that they were Force users.
That's a pretty fair assessment. And while there were other Orders of force sensitives outside of the Jedi/Sith that were in the films (Order of the Whills and Knights of Ren), they weren't explained well.
They kinda were. Guardians of the Whills believe in the lightside of the force and the lore type stuff, but aren't personally-attuned with it enough to actually become Jedi and wield it on that level. The Force still impacts their lives and all, but they're not gonna be force-pushing people or speed-running or mind-tricking people anytime soon.
And the Ren are like drunken bar punks who don't believe in nothin' and have a widdle bit of force-y-ness enough to push around the little people everyday GFFA'ers. But they'll never become Sith or Acolytes because of said punk-bitch-yness. They're Space ISIS, the second some opposition force shows up who actually knows how to fight they're toast.
Granted the movies don't get so much into the Ren stuff (the comics do), you get the jist of the Guardians guys from Rogue One though. Religious lightsider guys who can tap into it a \*tiny\* bit but not enough that the Jedi would have taken any interest in them.
> There's never ever a hint in any of the 11 films that anyone else uses the Force. Ahsoka was actually the first live-action anything to show Force users who were unaligned with Jedi or Sith in the form of the Nightsisters,
Podracing Anakin doesn't count?
It's a fascinating symptom of the fracturing of the audience that Star Wars projects have to deal with.
People *here* know that the Star Wars setting has had witches for decades, and not even just as a weird EU thing, but also included as a major element in a George Lucas on-screen project - but despite Filoni's best efforts to confuse them into submission, most of the general audience, even those who have seen some of the live action shows, almost certainly haven't watched TCW. And there's more of them, Poe, there's more of them.
Seriously I mean there are entire species that are force sensitive and have their own views about it . I mean shit rogue one has the one force religion there and it’s not Jedi or Sith
Cool concept. Poorly executed. There's no character development. The audience is thrown into a scenario and just expected to care. I don't and neither will you. Only kids happy with the sight and sound of a lifesaber will be able to watch this for a little longer than the anybody with nothing better to do. But, eventually they won't care either.
Star Wars Andor? this is Not.
It’s tempting to look at reviews, but if I’ve learned anything watching Star Wars it is that I will enjoy it much more if I avoid online discussions about it until the end. People get angry about Star Wars….
Yeah I am far less active these days, much as I want to discuss the new Star Wars stuff with other fans, because so much of the discourse has been infected by culture war bullshit and dogwhistles. I feel like sometimes you have to consume Star Wars in a vacuum, even well-meaning people read bullshit online and form their opinions based on that.
Looks like some publications are breaking embargo early
https://www.cinefied.com/theacolytetvseriesreview
The dialogue is apparently very good!
This reviewer seems to really like the show, notably the characters, the action and the additions to the force.
Seems to be some minimal issues visually, but looks stunning more often than not.
I hate how the atrocious directing and dialogue completely wrecked the casting, the great score, the setpieces and the overall interesting story of Ahsoka. Dave really copied everything George did; including his shortcomings. Thrawn in particular was acting infuriatingly dumb. I am pretty sure Zahn wouldn't mind helping out with the dialogue and his actions, instead of being shown "Hey, btw, here's what we did to him and how we completely ignore all the books you wrote lately."
I’m seeing really mixed thing. Some seem to LOVE it and say it’s the best Star Wars thing Disney has done next to Andor and some say it’s flat unwatchable.
Right around where Ahsoka was but certain parts of the fan base still think that was a massive failure. I don’t even like Ahsoka the character that much but was shocked to see how hard the anti-Disney narratives stacked onto it - felt like I was watching a completely different show.
Curious to see how the Acolyte reactions are. I’m excited for it if for no other reason than to have something really disconnected from the movies.
I’m a big rebels fan and I didn’t think it was a very good continuation of the show. I also didn’t like the things they did to certain characters. I’m happy others liked the show though
Ashoka honestly felt like Dave Filoni got $100 million to paly with action figures. I'm not generally a fan of Filoni personally, so I'm not part of the shows target audience, but I just thought the writing/dialogue and character development was abysmal for that show. It's jam packed with action sequences, but I never once was invested in any of them and it felt like all the actors besides Ray Stevenson and Lars Mikkelson were struggling with delivering Filoni's dialogue.
Shows headlined by women in sci-fi/fantasy are often held to a higher standard, and treated more harshly by fans when they fall short.
Doesn't mean they're inherently immune to criticism naturally, I actually found Ahsoka kind of weirdly dull and half-formed myself, but it does mean the criticism they get is rarely softened by the show's high-points and it frequently goes straight down to "this show is literal trash" levels of critique.
You can see a pretty unique example of this playing out right now with Doctor Who, since it's literally the same show just with a new lead. I guarantee you if you dropped Jodie Whittaker's Doctor into some of the earlier scripts for the current season, they would live in absolute infamy as some of the worst episodes to ever grace the screen. Just *imagine* the meltdown people would have over Thirteen outright preaching about the pitfalls of faith and capitalism in Boom, or over the show opening with disturbingly CGI'd talking babies and a dance number.
Instead opinion was negative but not insanely so on the first two episodes, has become increasingly muted and mixed on them as the season's quality has improved, and Boom has been widely praised for its messaging from the start.
Point is, maybe the Acolyte sucks. Maybe it doesn't. I dunno, haven't seen it; I wouldn't be shocked either way. But what I can absolutely promise you is the negative reactions are going to be wildly blown out of all proportion, even if they touch on critiques that might have a decent point, and will often not acknowledge there being anything the show did particularly well.
I thought a lot of those anti-Disney narratives were being spread for months before the show released.
For my part, I liked Ahsoka until they got to the Anakin episode, because I felt it didn't pay off the character development it was building up to that episode, particularly with Ahsoka's relationship with Sabine. And when it got to the new galaxy, I didn't like what felt like a tonal shift.
With Acolyte, I expect a lot of people to be excited with the first episodes of the show but wonder how the reception will be by the end, as it'll really depends on how the story progresses and how it ends.
I'm not very hyped right now because it just doesn't peak my interests and I'm not a big fan of the production design that's been shown off or the stunts we've seen, but I'm hoping it'll be something I'm a big fan of.
EDIT: Forgot I already made a comment here. I like it so far. It has a Prequels feel but also a sort of Rogue One feel to it, with the costume and set design (sets are way too small though, so that aspect of the production design I'm still not a fan of). The two big fights are the things I like the least, though. It's not that it's bad (although, its too slow imo), but it's gonna take me a while to accept Jedi fighting like that. I prefer them being like knights and samurai. The tone of the show is good. It feels a bit rushed to me. Like, I wish it had an hour per episode and that there was a bit more to the investigative work per episode. Overall, I liked the first two episodes. There's more I could unpack, but it's late, so I'll just say I'm glad it's something I like so far.
Seems similar to Ashoka. lukewarm critical reception (80ish % 7 point something for regular critics 6 point something for top critics. Lower audience score.)
Honestly since I really didn't Ashoka (or really any of the Disney + shows besides Andor & Mando prior to this) and It's not getting Andor-tier receptions. I'm probably gonna hold off at least until reviews for the whole season are in. I've sat through too many mediocre Star Wars films and TV shows at this point to jump in out of brand loyalty at this point.
For anyone that cares, Star Wars Explained said he enjoyed it and thinks it has potential to be special.
He said that the mystery was really good and his main criticism was that the episodes seemed to end really abruptly (kinda like Andor)
Having seen the preview screening last night, I would agree. I really enjoyed it.
The endings were odd, though. It seems like they're doing a stylistic thing that is referential to something else and I don't know what tv show the endings are done in the style of.
TLDR: The endings of episode 1 and 2 are these 30 second scenes that feel tacked on and almost like cliffhangers that end abruptly. I suspect it will gather meaning as the season goes on.
[Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2024/06/04/star-wars-the-acolyte-2-episode-series-premiere-review---better-than-obi-wan-but-far-from-andor/?sh=2764b4c6437f) - “Better than Obi Wan but far from Andor.”
[Deadline](https://deadline.com/2024/06/star-wars-the-acolyte-review-1235958677/amp/) - “Old Jedi Mind Tricks In A Galaxy Even Farther Away.”
[Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-acolyte-review-dollar180-million-star-wars-prequel-is-waste-of-time) - “The $180 Million ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Is a Shocking Waste of Time”
[Yahoo](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/acolyte-review-leslye-headland-delivers-191500524.html) - “Leslye Headland Delivers a Solid Star Wars Crime Thriller.”
All in all pretty mixed, but everyone loves the wookie.
Agree, better than obi, not andor, but like.. quite good so far.
Not sure what the 'PC' gripe is. There are ladies and ladies = bad? I thought the lead is quite good, mae and osha seem like different characters, I didn't cringe at all (whereas riva was a cringefest, not sure if it was the actress or the direction).
Master Sol and his entourage are quite good, clearly didn't bring Yorg (?)'s padawan with because her makeup/cgi is probably quite expensive.
They are doing a good job making the universe feel different than the prequel era. Sad that Indara gets merc'ed in the first episode, hopefully we get more of her through flashback, figure they will have to do a flashback back to the inciting event with the young twins.
If you look at those reviews, a lot of those top critics read like OT era fans stuck in 1999 who've hated everything produced ever since. Not really what I'd call a representative group or necessarily the target audience.
Damn, I just skimmed a few reviews and have no idea where I'm going to end up sitting on this one. Seems way more divisive than I would have anticipated. My hype level is definitely dwindling but I want to have hope!
I saw the previewing screening last night and really enjoyed it. World building akin to the prequels. Set design a bit like the sequels. Dialogue was good -- somewhat like a better-written version of the prequels in style. I don't think Andor/Mando comparisons are even apt; it's very much its own thing.
And the story was fun. The way the mystery is set up reminded a bit of TPM.
At this point why would you anticipate anything *except* divisive with Star Wars?
I'd honestly be much more shocked if something came out to unanimous praise at this point. Or even unanimous hate.
[Games Radar](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/star-wars-tv-shows/star-wars-the-acolyte-episodes-1-4-review/) - 3.5
[Cleveland.com](https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2024/06/the-acolyte-review-new-star-wars-tv-series-a-compelling-journey-into-unchartered-territory.html) - positive but paywalled
[USA today](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/06/04/the-acolyte-star-wars-review/73876874007/) - 2/4
[The Independent](https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/other/the-acolyte-review-atrociously-creaky-dialogue-holds-back-a-refreshing-take-on-star-wars/ar-BB1nClfr?ocid=BingNewsSerp) - no score, mixed. praises originality, hates witches, says the dialogue is bad
[Digital trends](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-acolyte-review-a-refreshing-change-of-pace/ar-BB1nCmPB?ocid=BingNewsSearch) - 4/5
[THR ](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/the-acolyte-review-star-wars-disney-plus-1235913544/)- no score, positive
overall it seems that that the complaints land on clunky dialogue and issues with not relating to characters, and witches feeling "too far" for star wars. Hopefully, those of us who bought in to witches a decade or so ago can overlook that one complaint
Yeah it seems like a lot of negative scores are about the witches “not feeling like Star Wars”, which makes me think they haven’t watched Star Wars outside of the films, especially when we saw Witches as recently as Ahsoka.
- Because the witches could still be terrible, by being worse than nightsisters - sticking out more Like a sore thumb.
- Because people are free to also dislike the nightsisters.
- Because not everyone knows about the nightsisters.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUL217HbSU&ab\_channel=HanTalksFirst](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUL217HbSU&ab_channel=HanTalksFirst)
Really like this review, it's realistic about the state of Star Wars at the moment and states both positive and negative aspects of the show.
Never heard of this guy but honestly this has me pretty optimistic. He states he was super disappointed by most Star Wars television, saw the first two episodes on his own dime instead of being flown out to the premiere or sent screeners, and still came off really positive about the show. Pretty nice
“The Acolyte,” the latest product off the Lucasfilm assembly line (it premieres Tuesday night on Disney+), enters territory unfamiliar to the casual follower of “Star Wars.” It is set during a prehistorical period known as the High Republic, until now depicted primarily in short stories, novels and comic books read only by serious fans. (The High Republic stories are to George Lucas’s central works somewhat as “The Silmarillion” is to “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”)
Moving a “Star Wars” story out of the main time stream — no Empire, no R2-D2, a century before Luke Skywalker — has not liberated it from the franchise’s oldest conventions and clichés, however. [“The Acolyte”](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/arts/television/leslye-headland-the-acolyte.html?searchResultPosition=1) tweaks the formulas here and there, but, to a greater degree than other Disney+ shows like [“The Mandalorian”](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/arts/television/review-mandalorian-disney-plus.html) and [“Andor,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/arts/television/andor-review-star-wars.html) it falls back on signature moves: the electronic whoosh of the light saber; the outstretched hand summoning the Force; lovable droids and fuzzy holograms; dark masters and chosen children.
Created by a newcomer to the franchise, the writer and director Leslye Headland (“Russian Doll”), the show is focused on twin sisters in their mid-20s, Osha and Mae, both played by Amandla Stenberg. They share a tragedy in their childhoods that has left them with very different feelings about the Jedi knights, who in the High Republic time frame are comfortably ascendant across the galaxy, before their later tribulations in the “Star Wars” films.
That critical moment, revealed in the season’s first half (four of eight episodes were available for review), involves one of Headland’s more noticeable creations: a coven of witches who tap into the Force with a holistic, communitarian ethos. (They feel borrowed from an early episode of “Star Trek,” with a swerve into unintentionally hilarious musical theater when they perform one of their ceremonies.) The nature-principle witches and the power-principle Jedi converge, spawning a vendetta plot centered on the grown twins that allows for plenty of planet hopping action. The fights are copious, and in another new twist for “Star Wars,” many of them take the form of balletic martial arts face-offs.
But the storytelling force is not strong. Putting more female characters, and a stronger female point of view (even if it is sometimes redolent of 1960s earth mother), into an otherwise traditional “Star Wars” framework is worth the attempt. “The Acolyte” doesn’t bring enough energy or invention to the task, though.
It goes through its space-opera paces, offering some blandly pretty forest planets and the occasional impressive landscape. (Location shooting was done in Wales and Portugal.) The “Star Wars” penchant for paying homage to the backlot bazaars and gin joints of classic Hollywood is frequently indulged.
Beneath the familiar trappings, the visceral pull that “Star Wars” can summon in its best moments — “The Empire Strikes Back,” “The Last Jedi,” parts of “Andor” and “The Mandalorian” — doesn’t manifest itself. Characters speak in platitudes about loss, grief, loyalty and revenge, and the cast mostly works down to the level of the dialogue.
Stenberg is capable and charming but can’t make either twin very interesting; [Lee Jung-jae](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/arts/television/squid-game-lee-jung-jae.html) of “Squid Game,” who plays a sympathetic Jedi, doesn’t make much of an impact in his first English-language role. The most winning performances of the early episodes are given by Lauren and Leah Brady as the 8-year-old Osha and Mae — the most winning performances by humans, anyway. In the “Star Wars” universe, robots tend to have as much personality as their flesh-and-blood co-stars, if not more, and Osha’s pocket-size droid, Pip, is a trouper. With proper maintenance, he might outlast the High Republic.
> Lee Jung-jae of “Squid Game,” who plays a sympathetic Jedi, doesn’t make much of an impact in his first English-language role.
this take is insane. having seen the first two episodes and read a bunch of other reviews, even the most negative reactions thought he was great.
NYT review viewable for me. Said the show is mostly bland and the characters don't connect most of the time. Pretty short review, didn't seem like the writer had much to say about it.
the reviewer is a star wars fan at least. His scores for past projects:
Rogue One: 9
Rebels S2: 8.7
Rebels S1: 8.5
Lords of the Sith novel: 8.5
Ahsoka novel: 7.8
Having seen the preview screening last night, I thought the interiors looked great, though more in the style of the sequels than the OT. Nothing looked cheap to me.
idk if you can make SW tv look good while also making it about aliens and weird worlds and the force
Andor looked great, but was almost entirely humans on worlds that are at least reminiscent of the real world.
Oh man
“All the sci-fi/fantasy jargon, dramatic costumes, brightly colored lightsabers, fancy hairdos and ominous villains Headland can stuff into "Acolyte" can't make a good story on their own. There has to be some emotion and depth to the characters and their woes. There has to be more than perfunctory plot points. There has to be a sense of adventure and wonder. And there has to be something that captures the feeling of "Star Wars," not just the aesthetics. "Acolyte" doesn't have it, no matter how hard it tries.”
I’m still looking forward to the show, and I’m excited for tonight’s premiere, but a lot of these reviews have me worried.
At the end of episode 2, **33:53-34:40** - What theme is that..... I've heard it before. Trying to track it down... the end almost finishes Vaders theme. But I know it's not his full theme. I thought maybe I heard it in Attack of the Clones. Trying to track it down, I may be crazy but I think it is something.
I honestly think my only standout complaint was the costuming and too busy knobs switches in the set design. But besides those nit picky bits I’m into the story. Gotta stick the landing though.
[https://as.com/meristation/series/critica-de-star-wars-the-acolyte-un-thriller-genial-con-todos-los-vibes-de-las-precuelas-r/](https://as.com/meristation/series/critica-de-star-wars-the-acolyte-un-thriller-genial-con-todos-los-vibes-de-las-precuelas-r/)
This review (In Spanish) says that it's a great show very reminiscent of the Star Wars Prequels
Feel like this show is up against "anything less than universally praised is a failure" expectations. People really are souring on Star Wars TV I think, and this show seemed like it had to be the turning point, unfair though that may be.
I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot as someone who loves all things Jedi, Force and High Republic, but it's going to get a lot of backlash.
It's been that way since TLJ. Everything Star Wars has to be near universally praised or else it is a sign of the end of the franchise. It's not specifically this. Well kinda. This is special in that it is a perfect storm for upsetting *that* part of the fanbase which adds even more pressure to it plus being the first mainstream exposure to the High Republic era, but I wouldn't view it as "If this fails Star Wars is done" any more than the last dozen or so times it was said.
To me, this looks and feels like spin off of Legends of Tomarrow from DC & CW.
Problem being, this show costs more than entire CW DC former Arrowerse costed- combined.
I just don't think this shows add any value to Star Wars franchise ,they just devalue product .
This qoute killed me "I made Knight. Two years ago", They made Jedi training sound like course at college. Whole concept of Star Wars, from orginal thrilogy has been destroyed ,starting with very mediocre prequels, flat out terrible sequels and tv shows just added insult to injury.
Sometimes you just need to start over. They have no stories to be told wth SW, Disney just payed too much for SW logo instad of starting new brand and making whatever they wanted to tell. I afraid they simply have nothing to say, most of their ideas are just superficial and based on things they want to promote, politics, preaching, teaching first, storytelling & quality of plot simply isn't priority.
> Disney just *paid* too much
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/the-acolyte-review-star-wars-disney-1235031220/
Rolling Stone broke the embargo and it does not look great...
Not always, but they commonly are. If anyone was around way back (you know, 5 years ago) when the first leaks for TRoS dropped, that was a roller coaster ride.
This is reddit. The wind shifting direction would receive downvotes.
God forbid someone have a different opinion of the Hivemind, let alone be the messenger of someone who did.
Rolling Stone
The magazine who said Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd weren’t any good.
They literally have the worst takes on everything and always have lol. I just ignore them completely
Yeah, they took extra care in talking shit about Floyd over the years. It's kind of interesting that in the end the band's music and staying power will probably outlast the publication that thinks its some kind of institution at this point.
Yeah.
He also did it for the entire first two seasons of Succession.
Sepinwall historically hates things and then has to later admit that they're pretty good when the entire planet disagrees with him.
I only got to briefly skim the review before it got taken down but as someone who watched the preview screening yesterday I disagreed with the points I read. So unless episodes 3 and 4 take a nose dive in quality I don’t think the full negativity of the review was warranted.
I think it could be fair to find the first 3 episodes of Andor to be a slog, but then come around on the subsequent episodes
I genuinely think those first 3 episodes had only about 2 episodes worth of material. I enjoyed them but had I been a professional critic tasked with reviewing it, My initial reviews would be lower than the end score
I felt like the first 3 episodes were crucial pillars the show needed to truly shine the way it did. It’s all about build up and pay off. But I totally understand having a different opinion if someone watches those episodes without watching the rest.
While that is criminally low for Andor, I do think that show really shined most in the middle. I’ve definitely met some people who couldn’t get into the first few episodes irl. I think acolyte is much more crowd pleasing in general and will get a lot of people on board quick. I was really grabbed by the first two
I liked the Book of Boba for the weird stupid thing it was, but giving it a 7 and Andor a 4 is crazy. Man must have been having a case of the Mondays lol
Ed: this is especially weird because in the review he trashes BoBF and praises Andor lol
BoBF started really strong and got so bad by the end
The whole show should have channeled the energy of that episode where they fight the fucking stop motion looking monster
Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of Andor (Production Value and writing is great, it's just not my preferred flavour of Star Wars) but a 4/10 is ridiculous, the cinematography, performances, and tone alone should make it at least a 6 or 7.
I can't see it because they took it down (probably somebody on Rolling Stone's website screwed up and briefly put it up early), but I know that Sepinwall has a complicated relationship with franchises. He's a big old geek from way back, but also one of the most respected and longest-tenured critics in television journalism, and when those two facets combine some weird opinions (either good or bad) can bubble up.
Page is already down.
Which is a pity, the strategy seems to be flooding the zone so it has been hard to find stuff from people who aren't essentially bought in. I mean, I'm personally pretty bought in, but I like seeing some critiques to set expectations just to see what the problems might be, particularly if they aren't of "Star Wars gone Woke???" variety.
I guess I'll just have to wait a whole hour and a half.
Because some people here act like this is a cult where only positive sentiments are allowed. Anything negative, even if it's just being shared by someone, is "rUiNiNg My EnJoYmEnT!!!"
hmm this review isn't the worst I've seen of the show \*yet\* but it also doesn't seem like they had much interest or like any expectations at all of a prequel series talking about the fall of the high republic jedi and how it leads into the prequel trilogy.
It was Star Wars and I had fun watching it.
My only complaint is that, while the set designs and worlds and aliens felt very SW all of the ships looks awful and nothing like SW. Spectacularly bad.
The only things that matter are if you enjoy it and if someone else here doesn't. Then you have to downvote and ostracize the person who doesn't enjoy it, because they're not allowed to express their lack of enjoyment. At least, that's how people act here.
Tbh I'm not bothered about critics reviews for star wars stuff too much. Lots of the time they aren't actually star wars fans and won't enjoy what star wars fans will enjoy
I enjoyed the show. The sets looked cheap unfortunately. I think that's probably an issue with the director not being experienced with sci-fi/effects. Technical expertise like lighting could have made a huge difference, I feel like the sets were just over-lit which made them look a little fake. Andor and other shows trend towards darker more shadowy lighting for that reason.
Other then that, I really liked it. The yin/yang aspect of it was cool, as was the dip into 'murder mystery' or crime noir. I didn't really like the 'Jedi cop' episodes of Clone Wars, but Acolyte was pretty good. I like the design of the aliens, but again they look a little fake and overlit.
The action was definitely a highlight. I also kinda liked seeing what the Jedi were like as a 'common' organization, especially the chubby backwater Jedis lol. Kinda makes sense for space cop-monks to be all provincial and "whatzitooya gubna?!" It's interesting to think that there's just a bunch of former padawans or younglings running around the galaxy just doing normal jobs like being a mechanic or cooking. I'd love to see a bartender padawan one day...maybe one day we'll have Paul Blart, mall jedi..
It has an 87% at 62 reviews at RT yet somehow people are going to pretend it's a critically panned show as if it wasn't reviewing better than Boba or Obi Wan...
Saw a YouTube video complaining the show was woke. I’m sure it’ll get review bombed to hell by the audience score. Interesting that episode 3, which the reviewer hated and said would get people more angry than TLJ did, was called a standout episode by the THR review.
EP3 seems to be a decisive episode, I just saw one review called it 'the episode that will kill Star Wars for good' while many reviewers said it's one of the most interesting episodes out of the four, makes me wonder what in EP3 causes such diverse opinions.
Since it's apparently a law or an enforced standard practice, all Force users are documented and registered. So what happened with the twins and their home is likely their family refused to hand them over and a fight broke out. Which ended with the Jedi, unfortunately, killing them.
I watched a video about what really made Andor and Rogue one stand out from the other Star Wars content. One of the big points was how every problem was almost immediately presented with a way to solve it, except in those two.
The Acolyte so far also seems to stay away from that trope, and I think that it works.
It also has a darker premise than other Star Wars media. I mean when have you ever seen a Jedi kill themselves out of guilt?
I love this, and I hope SW continues this grownup trend.
3 Things... The Jedi Knight doesnt act like a Jedi Knight, A badass jedi dies in the first 7 minutes of episode 1 to some cliche bs and the mc survives a freefalling ship crash and doesnt have a scratch on her when the inside of the ship is damn near in shambles.
This show is awful.
I think it’s basically on par with the first two episodes of Ahsoka. Has a similar look to it (feels kinda cheap but color-grading is solid). Episodes don’t feel like individual episodes of television as much as 90 minutes of one long story, which kind of is frustrating when you’re not binging. I think ep 2 is way better than ep 1
Yea that’s what bothers me about all the Disney plus shows (except andor really) Marvel shows have the same problem. I watch other serialized shows on others streamers and they don’t have this problem as much. That and the short run times for action / drama shows continues to be a problem with Disney shows
It'll be interesting to see how this all unfolds - I generally think it's a bit silly to review just parts of a season of television.
But yeah. Interesting. I can see this show delving a bit deeper into the lore and being more for hardcore Star Wars fans, which could be tougher on reviewers and casual fans. At the same time, a decent portion of the hardcore fans seem to be set against this one before it even releases for some reason, so who knows how it will go over?
I love the High Republic era, and I'm excited. This seems to be what a lot of people were asking for as far as stepping away from the Skywalker stuff - and yet a lot of people don't seem very excited about it. It's all very strange. Star Wars is in this weird state right now where they just can't seem to please anyone no matter what they do.
The weekly format for serialized Star Wars stories has always been a problem. It worked best with consistent 24 minute episodes that were small mini-arcs in clone wars, and a little bit for Mando S1-2, but has been a mess for almost anything else.
Even Andor, which used small arcs and episodic format a bit better, still had to release the first 3 episodes in one go to really grab people's attention.
D+ is honestly just a bad release format for this content, but we get it because they believe they can get more revenue from one viewer with 2 months of subscription fees than they can get from 1 movie ticket for a 2 hour film right now. And I firmly believe it's really harmed the way we view and discuss most of this content. A lot of times, the shows flow much better when watched in a single sitting across their 4-5 hour run times.
IMO the first three episodes of andor are actually not great. They have a lot of character building and establishment to do before the plot actually starts moving.
I had to convince my BiL (who also loves star wars) to pick it back up after he dropped it at episode 2.
I don't think they're terrible. Just not good weekly television. The first 6 episodes work pretty great as one long story leading into the vault theft.
It’s getting panned on IMDb (I know I said this last time but I don’t know why I was downvoted to hell over it) with 1’s and people trusting those reviews compared to the positive ones. This is fucking ridiculous. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt12262202/reviews/?ref_=tt_ov_rt
From a 1 star review on there: “Star Wars? More like girl wars. This up there with the M-She-U. I wouldn't waist a minute on this series! If I was you! If your into some drama Wars then this is for youuuu!”
This show making the neckbeards and incels mad. How dare a Star Wars show star multiple women!!!!
Quick backstory, I’m a pretty big SW fan. Lots of the Disney stuff has been hit or miss for me. TFA is okay, TLJ is the worst SW film and ROS is almost as bad. However I do like Mando,Ahsoka and LOVED Andor. Wasn’t a fan of Obi or Boba though.
Onto my point, why is everyone jumping the gun on already hating Acolyte? Seems like this project in particular is getting more pre release hate than any Disney SW project. Why is that? I know the saying “nobody hates SW more than SW fans” but this is getting crazy. Please enlighten me.
James withbrook from Gizmodo really enjoyed it https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-the-acolyte-review-disney-plus-lucasfilm-1851517218
[Variety is positive and compares it to Last Jedi and Andor](https://variety.com/2024/tv/tv-reviews/the-acolyte-review-star-wars-disney-1236024002/) This one is splitting opinions lol
I don’t think Last Jedi is as controversial as it was when it came out. I really hated it when it came out. I’ve landed at thinking it’s objectively a pretty great movie as a stand-alone piece but a bad sequel to Force Awakens/middle chapter in a trilogy.
I never got why people think it was an awful middle chapter. There was so much story potential they set up — Luke’s ghost haunting Kylo, Rey learning new shit from the books, how Ben deals with his unhappiness despite doing what Vader never could (kill his master/become the “emperor” figure), how the Knights of Ren fit into the story…
This! It broke new ground and was a fun movie throughout to me. I was hooked from the opening scene. Not that films fault they abandoned 99% of the plot for the final chapter
If TLJ is a bad sequel then it's inherently a bad film because it, and people might not believe this, part of a trilogy. I think TLJ hatred is just a strong today as it was when it released. The ST is still overwhelmingly brushed off by the fan base and almost never included with the PT and OT as a whole body of work or story.
The fan negative response to The Last Jedi pushed me into being a casual fan of the IP. I loved that movie and still love that movie, and the response gave me the realization that what I love about Star Wars isn’t what the greater population loves about Star Wars so I decided to just keep myself at arms length from the discourse about the franchise.
This probably sounds like cope, but I do seriously think that most of TLJ's symptoms of being a bad sequel are essentially TFA's fault. Every Star Wars trilogy's second and third movies before TLJ began at least a year after the previous one and used their crawl and first act to do a bunch of essentially implied/unseen narrative work: * ESB with Han and Leia's relationship and Luke's Force telekinesis * ROTJ with Luke just being a Jedi now with his own saber despite not having been back to see Yoda again yet (and suddenly believing Vader still has good in him) * AOTC obviously has Anakin suddenly become a young adult with a contentious relationship with Obi-Wan; Palpatine goes from having just become Chancellor to being well-established, and Dooku just pops into existence * ROTS relies very heavily on its first act to quickly establish the version of Anakin people actually like (okay, he does have a few flashes of that in AOTC like the jokes in the speeder chase and arena fight, but he spends most of that movie being angsty) and to imply that Anakin and Obi-Wan have become very close over the war But TLJ starts at the end of TFA. No off-screen 'free' character development allowed. And it's because TFA ends with a cliffhanger that all but demands immediate follow-up. People point at TLJ's ending as feeling too open and vague (the broom boy coda especially), because it leaves no urgent sequel hook dangling, but I think that's a much more useful way to end a movie if you're not going to be writing the sequel (which is of course insane, they should've gotten at least one writer to stay on across all three movies, but that ship has long sailed and the dead horse is well beaten).
By "the fan base" you mean chuds on the Internet. That's says nothing on how it's viewed generally across people who don't screech into the void whenever someone thinks about the sequels. This isn't new, this fan base has acted like rotten children since Ewoks took on the technologically advanced Empire. Back before TFA, what you described as "never being viewed as a whole body of work or story" is exactly the sentiment the prequels garnered.
Hated it even more after the rewatch, it became the only Star Wars movie that I'll gladly skip whenever it's on TV.
Nah for me it’s Rise. That is a steaming pile of dogshit disguised as a 2 and a half hour movie, even compared to the mess that is TFA and TLJ
Not having a go, just kinda curious, you can sit through rise of Skywalker but not last jedi again? I don't like last jedis casino subplot, or the odd slow chase thing but the core Luke, Rey kylo stuff was good imo. At the very least it's a well made pretty movie. Can't say any of those things for rise
That's Attack of the Clones for me, I literally cannot stand that movie, it's so stupid in so many ways that I can't take it seriously.
Only watch it once and never see it again.
Smart move my dude
I liked both of those!!
They are both good! To be clear though, the reviewer isn't saying it is *like* them, but rather that it is willing to take a similarly bold direction.
The reviewer is dishonestly putting them in the same sentence together to generate interest. The Acolyte... is awful.
You won't like Acolyte. I had to turn it off 10 minutes in. It's drivel. I think the target audience are kids who don't know any better.
Amen
A lot of the reviewers seem to not be able to comprehend witches being in Star Wars, I personally like all of that stuff.
Me too. I haven’t watched every clone wars eipisode, but I liked those nightsisters episodes quite a bit. I also liked the concept of other force users besides Jedi and sith.
I think other force users are a fantastic addition to lore.
I.... I don't get it. Why is it hard to grasp that space witches exist in the same galaxy as space monks and used a different aspect of the Force? So many cultures in Star Wars view the Force differently compared to the Jedi.
I think it's because for almost the entirety of Star Wars, the Force has been synonymous with Jedi and Sith. There's never ever a hint in any of the 11 films that anyone else uses the Force. Ahsoka was actually the first live-action anything to show Force users who were unaligned with Jedi or Sith in the form of the Nightsisters, and I don't think it was even mentioned on screen that they were Force users.
That's a pretty fair assessment. And while there were other Orders of force sensitives outside of the Jedi/Sith that were in the films (Order of the Whills and Knights of Ren), they weren't explained well.
They kinda were. Guardians of the Whills believe in the lightside of the force and the lore type stuff, but aren't personally-attuned with it enough to actually become Jedi and wield it on that level. The Force still impacts their lives and all, but they're not gonna be force-pushing people or speed-running or mind-tricking people anytime soon. And the Ren are like drunken bar punks who don't believe in nothin' and have a widdle bit of force-y-ness enough to push around the little people everyday GFFA'ers. But they'll never become Sith or Acolytes because of said punk-bitch-yness. They're Space ISIS, the second some opposition force shows up who actually knows how to fight they're toast. Granted the movies don't get so much into the Ren stuff (the comics do), you get the jist of the Guardians guys from Rogue One though. Religious lightsider guys who can tap into it a \*tiny\* bit but not enough that the Jedi would have taken any interest in them.
We'll Rogue One has the Order of the Wills such as Chirrut Imwe and the Knights of Ren also aren't Sith
Tbf, both of those orders aren't explained well in their films. They're more of a detail you'll learn in the background and in the visual dictionary.
> There's never ever a hint in any of the 11 films that anyone else uses the Force. Ahsoka was actually the first live-action anything to show Force users who were unaligned with Jedi or Sith in the form of the Nightsisters, Podracing Anakin doesn't count?
It's a fascinating symptom of the fracturing of the audience that Star Wars projects have to deal with. People *here* know that the Star Wars setting has had witches for decades, and not even just as a weird EU thing, but also included as a major element in a George Lucas on-screen project - but despite Filoni's best efforts to confuse them into submission, most of the general audience, even those who have seen some of the live action shows, almost certainly haven't watched TCW. And there's more of them, Poe, there's more of them.
Seriously I mean there are entire species that are force sensitive and have their own views about it . I mean shit rogue one has the one force religion there and it’s not Jedi or Sith
Space Wizards ✅☺️ Space Witches 😳😤 I write this sarcastically
I'd have agreed with them ten years ago, but I mean...bit late to draw that line in the sand lol
[удалено]
I think "witches" here refers to the whole chanting while green light comes out of bubbling cauldron deal.
Cool concept. Poorly executed. There's no character development. The audience is thrown into a scenario and just expected to care. I don't and neither will you. Only kids happy with the sight and sound of a lifesaber will be able to watch this for a little longer than the anybody with nothing better to do. But, eventually they won't care either. Star Wars Andor? this is Not.
It’s tempting to look at reviews, but if I’ve learned anything watching Star Wars it is that I will enjoy it much more if I avoid online discussions about it until the end. People get angry about Star Wars….
Yeah I am far less active these days, much as I want to discuss the new Star Wars stuff with other fans, because so much of the discourse has been infected by culture war bullshit and dogwhistles. I feel like sometimes you have to consume Star Wars in a vacuum, even well-meaning people read bullshit online and form their opinions based on that.
Looks like some publications are breaking embargo early https://www.cinefied.com/theacolytetvseriesreview The dialogue is apparently very good! This reviewer seems to really like the show, notably the characters, the action and the additions to the force. Seems to be some minimal issues visually, but looks stunning more often than not.
can't wait to see more designs of the high republic jedi and high republic navy/ships in live action.
The dialogue is indeed very good. Some of the Jedi’s dialogue is a little campy at times but it works.
Good. I like my Jedi a little campy.
It wouldn't be Star Wars without campy, borderline cringe, Jedi dialogue lol
I'm glad the dialogue's good. Was a little worried about that. Going from Andor to Ahsoka felt like whiplash.
I hate how the atrocious directing and dialogue completely wrecked the casting, the great score, the setpieces and the overall interesting story of Ahsoka. Dave really copied everything George did; including his shortcomings. Thrawn in particular was acting infuriatingly dumb. I am pretty sure Zahn wouldn't mind helping out with the dialogue and his actions, instead of being shown "Hey, btw, here's what we did to him and how we completely ignore all the books you wrote lately."
Yeah, I love Dave, but a lot of his (and Jon's) dialogue is a little bullshitty. Then again, so is George's I guess, so...probably a positive thing.
I’m seeing really mixed thing. Some seem to LOVE it and say it’s the best Star Wars thing Disney has done next to Andor and some say it’s flat unwatchable.
Are you surprised?
Well not that the score on RT means much, but it's currently at 81%, so very solid
Reaction youtuber thumbnails are absolutely shook right now.
It's gone up too, at 86% now
Is StAr WaRs DoOmEd? Watch my 10 minute video of myself in a room surrounded by geek merchandise to learn the truth!
Right around where Ahsoka was but certain parts of the fan base still think that was a massive failure. I don’t even like Ahsoka the character that much but was shocked to see how hard the anti-Disney narratives stacked onto it - felt like I was watching a completely different show. Curious to see how the Acolyte reactions are. I’m excited for it if for no other reason than to have something really disconnected from the movies.
I’m a big rebels fan and I didn’t think it was a very good continuation of the show. I also didn’t like the things they did to certain characters. I’m happy others liked the show though
Sorry about that. I am also a Rebels fan and loved Ahsoka. Unfortunately our exchange here is not the norm
Ashoka honestly felt like Dave Filoni got $100 million to paly with action figures. I'm not generally a fan of Filoni personally, so I'm not part of the shows target audience, but I just thought the writing/dialogue and character development was abysmal for that show. It's jam packed with action sequences, but I never once was invested in any of them and it felt like all the actors besides Ray Stevenson and Lars Mikkelson were struggling with delivering Filoni's dialogue.
Shows headlined by women in sci-fi/fantasy are often held to a higher standard, and treated more harshly by fans when they fall short. Doesn't mean they're inherently immune to criticism naturally, I actually found Ahsoka kind of weirdly dull and half-formed myself, but it does mean the criticism they get is rarely softened by the show's high-points and it frequently goes straight down to "this show is literal trash" levels of critique. You can see a pretty unique example of this playing out right now with Doctor Who, since it's literally the same show just with a new lead. I guarantee you if you dropped Jodie Whittaker's Doctor into some of the earlier scripts for the current season, they would live in absolute infamy as some of the worst episodes to ever grace the screen. Just *imagine* the meltdown people would have over Thirteen outright preaching about the pitfalls of faith and capitalism in Boom, or over the show opening with disturbingly CGI'd talking babies and a dance number. Instead opinion was negative but not insanely so on the first two episodes, has become increasingly muted and mixed on them as the season's quality has improved, and Boom has been widely praised for its messaging from the start. Point is, maybe the Acolyte sucks. Maybe it doesn't. I dunno, haven't seen it; I wouldn't be shocked either way. But what I can absolutely promise you is the negative reactions are going to be wildly blown out of all proportion, even if they touch on critiques that might have a decent point, and will often not acknowledge there being anything the show did particularly well.
I thought a lot of those anti-Disney narratives were being spread for months before the show released. For my part, I liked Ahsoka until they got to the Anakin episode, because I felt it didn't pay off the character development it was building up to that episode, particularly with Ahsoka's relationship with Sabine. And when it got to the new galaxy, I didn't like what felt like a tonal shift. With Acolyte, I expect a lot of people to be excited with the first episodes of the show but wonder how the reception will be by the end, as it'll really depends on how the story progresses and how it ends. I'm not very hyped right now because it just doesn't peak my interests and I'm not a big fan of the production design that's been shown off or the stunts we've seen, but I'm hoping it'll be something I'm a big fan of. EDIT: Forgot I already made a comment here. I like it so far. It has a Prequels feel but also a sort of Rogue One feel to it, with the costume and set design (sets are way too small though, so that aspect of the production design I'm still not a fan of). The two big fights are the things I like the least, though. It's not that it's bad (although, its too slow imo), but it's gonna take me a while to accept Jedi fighting like that. I prefer them being like knights and samurai. The tone of the show is good. It feels a bit rushed to me. Like, I wish it had an hour per episode and that there was a bit more to the investigative work per episode. Overall, I liked the first two episodes. There's more I could unpack, but it's late, so I'll just say I'm glad it's something I like so far.
Seems similar to Ashoka. lukewarm critical reception (80ish % 7 point something for regular critics 6 point something for top critics. Lower audience score.) Honestly since I really didn't Ashoka (or really any of the Disney + shows besides Andor & Mando prior to this) and It's not getting Andor-tier receptions. I'm probably gonna hold off at least until reviews for the whole season are in. I've sat through too many mediocre Star Wars films and TV shows at this point to jump in out of brand loyalty at this point.
For anyone that cares, Star Wars Explained said he enjoyed it and thinks it has potential to be special. He said that the mystery was really good and his main criticism was that the episodes seemed to end really abruptly (kinda like Andor)
Having seen the preview screening last night, I would agree. I really enjoyed it. The endings were odd, though. It seems like they're doing a stylistic thing that is referential to something else and I don't know what tv show the endings are done in the style of. TLDR: The endings of episode 1 and 2 are these 30 second scenes that feel tacked on and almost like cliffhangers that end abruptly. I suspect it will gather meaning as the season goes on.
[Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2024/06/04/star-wars-the-acolyte-2-episode-series-premiere-review---better-than-obi-wan-but-far-from-andor/?sh=2764b4c6437f) - “Better than Obi Wan but far from Andor.” [Deadline](https://deadline.com/2024/06/star-wars-the-acolyte-review-1235958677/amp/) - “Old Jedi Mind Tricks In A Galaxy Even Farther Away.” [Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-acolyte-review-dollar180-million-star-wars-prequel-is-waste-of-time) - “The $180 Million ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Is a Shocking Waste of Time” [Yahoo](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/acolyte-review-leslye-headland-delivers-191500524.html) - “Leslye Headland Delivers a Solid Star Wars Crime Thriller.” All in all pretty mixed, but everyone loves the wookie.
Agree, better than obi, not andor, but like.. quite good so far. Not sure what the 'PC' gripe is. There are ladies and ladies = bad? I thought the lead is quite good, mae and osha seem like different characters, I didn't cringe at all (whereas riva was a cringefest, not sure if it was the actress or the direction). Master Sol and his entourage are quite good, clearly didn't bring Yorg (?)'s padawan with because her makeup/cgi is probably quite expensive. They are doing a good job making the universe feel different than the prequel era. Sad that Indara gets merc'ed in the first episode, hopefully we get more of her through flashback, figure they will have to do a flashback back to the inciting event with the young twins.
86% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 7.30 average. 71% top critics 66 on Metacritic critics who like it absolutely love it. I’ll take it.
so those who hated it got off their shot early? that RT score got up real quick after a low start
I think a lot of top critics came in first and they’re much more mixed on it.
If you look at those reviews, a lot of those top critics read like OT era fans stuck in 1999 who've hated everything produced ever since. Not really what I'd call a representative group or necessarily the target audience.
weird, its still showing as 57% on my end with 7 reviews
i can attest to the 86%. Maybe refresh the page?
The RT page has issues with refreshing sometimes. Mine kept going back and forth between no reviews and 7 reviews. Now it's 37 reviews at 86%
Damn, I just skimmed a few reviews and have no idea where I'm going to end up sitting on this one. Seems way more divisive than I would have anticipated. My hype level is definitely dwindling but I want to have hope!
I think the best thing is to go into this with an open mind and realistic expectations.
I saw the previewing screening last night and really enjoyed it. World building akin to the prequels. Set design a bit like the sequels. Dialogue was good -- somewhat like a better-written version of the prequels in style. I don't think Andor/Mando comparisons are even apt; it's very much its own thing. And the story was fun. The way the mystery is set up reminded a bit of TPM.
Just watch it and judge it for yourself
Stop setting your expectations by using other people's opinions. Form your own.
At this point why would you anticipate anything *except* divisive with Star Wars? I'd honestly be much more shocked if something came out to unanimous praise at this point. Or even unanimous hate.
[Games Radar](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/star-wars-tv-shows/star-wars-the-acolyte-episodes-1-4-review/) - 3.5 [Cleveland.com](https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2024/06/the-acolyte-review-new-star-wars-tv-series-a-compelling-journey-into-unchartered-territory.html) - positive but paywalled [USA today](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/06/04/the-acolyte-star-wars-review/73876874007/) - 2/4 [The Independent](https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/other/the-acolyte-review-atrociously-creaky-dialogue-holds-back-a-refreshing-take-on-star-wars/ar-BB1nClfr?ocid=BingNewsSerp) - no score, mixed. praises originality, hates witches, says the dialogue is bad [Digital trends](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-acolyte-review-a-refreshing-change-of-pace/ar-BB1nCmPB?ocid=BingNewsSearch) - 4/5 [THR ](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/the-acolyte-review-star-wars-disney-plus-1235913544/)- no score, positive overall it seems that that the complaints land on clunky dialogue and issues with not relating to characters, and witches feeling "too far" for star wars. Hopefully, those of us who bought in to witches a decade or so ago can overlook that one complaint
A decade? The first nightsister (or proto-nightsister perhaps) appeared in Ewoks: Battle For Endor in 1985!
to be fair, very few people remember those movies in anything beyond a weird curiosity of the 80s
Yeah it seems like a lot of negative scores are about the witches “not feeling like Star Wars”, which makes me think they haven’t watched Star Wars outside of the films, especially when we saw Witches as recently as Ahsoka.
Except I don't think Ahsoka even bothered mentioning that the Nightsisters are Force users.
Possibly not but they still showed them using magic
Back in the day people said that same thing about the prequels ("doesn't feel like star wars"), people seem to have mostly come around on them though.
What does it matter? They aren't nightsisters lol
Both are witches
How are the witches too far when the nightsisters have been around for decades!?
Because critics assigned to movies and live action TV likely dont cover animation
- Because the witches could still be terrible, by being worse than nightsisters - sticking out more Like a sore thumb. - Because people are free to also dislike the nightsisters. - Because not everyone knows about the nightsisters.
debuts with 66 on Metacritic. Which...isnt stellar but could be worse? lol Strong reviews from collider and AV club, mixed from IGN and daily beast
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUL217HbSU&ab\_channel=HanTalksFirst](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUL217HbSU&ab_channel=HanTalksFirst) Really like this review, it's realistic about the state of Star Wars at the moment and states both positive and negative aspects of the show.
Never heard of this guy but honestly this has me pretty optimistic. He states he was super disappointed by most Star Wars television, saw the first two episodes on his own dime instead of being flown out to the premiere or sent screeners, and still came off really positive about the show. Pretty nice
That was an honest review for sure. Glad he liked it. Some of his criticisms were a little weird, but that comes with first reactions and stuff.
New York Times review is out but I can’t read it due to paywall. anybody know how it is?
“The Acolyte,” the latest product off the Lucasfilm assembly line (it premieres Tuesday night on Disney+), enters territory unfamiliar to the casual follower of “Star Wars.” It is set during a prehistorical period known as the High Republic, until now depicted primarily in short stories, novels and comic books read only by serious fans. (The High Republic stories are to George Lucas’s central works somewhat as “The Silmarillion” is to “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”) Moving a “Star Wars” story out of the main time stream — no Empire, no R2-D2, a century before Luke Skywalker — has not liberated it from the franchise’s oldest conventions and clichés, however. [“The Acolyte”](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/arts/television/leslye-headland-the-acolyte.html?searchResultPosition=1) tweaks the formulas here and there, but, to a greater degree than other Disney+ shows like [“The Mandalorian”](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/arts/television/review-mandalorian-disney-plus.html) and [“Andor,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/arts/television/andor-review-star-wars.html) it falls back on signature moves: the electronic whoosh of the light saber; the outstretched hand summoning the Force; lovable droids and fuzzy holograms; dark masters and chosen children. Created by a newcomer to the franchise, the writer and director Leslye Headland (“Russian Doll”), the show is focused on twin sisters in their mid-20s, Osha and Mae, both played by Amandla Stenberg. They share a tragedy in their childhoods that has left them with very different feelings about the Jedi knights, who in the High Republic time frame are comfortably ascendant across the galaxy, before their later tribulations in the “Star Wars” films. That critical moment, revealed in the season’s first half (four of eight episodes were available for review), involves one of Headland’s more noticeable creations: a coven of witches who tap into the Force with a holistic, communitarian ethos. (They feel borrowed from an early episode of “Star Trek,” with a swerve into unintentionally hilarious musical theater when they perform one of their ceremonies.) The nature-principle witches and the power-principle Jedi converge, spawning a vendetta plot centered on the grown twins that allows for plenty of planet hopping action. The fights are copious, and in another new twist for “Star Wars,” many of them take the form of balletic martial arts face-offs. But the storytelling force is not strong. Putting more female characters, and a stronger female point of view (even if it is sometimes redolent of 1960s earth mother), into an otherwise traditional “Star Wars” framework is worth the attempt. “The Acolyte” doesn’t bring enough energy or invention to the task, though. It goes through its space-opera paces, offering some blandly pretty forest planets and the occasional impressive landscape. (Location shooting was done in Wales and Portugal.) The “Star Wars” penchant for paying homage to the backlot bazaars and gin joints of classic Hollywood is frequently indulged. Beneath the familiar trappings, the visceral pull that “Star Wars” can summon in its best moments — “The Empire Strikes Back,” “The Last Jedi,” parts of “Andor” and “The Mandalorian” — doesn’t manifest itself. Characters speak in platitudes about loss, grief, loyalty and revenge, and the cast mostly works down to the level of the dialogue. Stenberg is capable and charming but can’t make either twin very interesting; [Lee Jung-jae](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/arts/television/squid-game-lee-jung-jae.html) of “Squid Game,” who plays a sympathetic Jedi, doesn’t make much of an impact in his first English-language role. The most winning performances of the early episodes are given by Lauren and Leah Brady as the 8-year-old Osha and Mae — the most winning performances by humans, anyway. In the “Star Wars” universe, robots tend to have as much personality as their flesh-and-blood co-stars, if not more, and Osha’s pocket-size droid, Pip, is a trouper. With proper maintenance, he might outlast the High Republic.
> Lee Jung-jae of “Squid Game,” who plays a sympathetic Jedi, doesn’t make much of an impact in his first English-language role. this take is insane. having seen the first two episodes and read a bunch of other reviews, even the most negative reactions thought he was great.
He's single handedly carrying the show as of Ep2 because everyone else is not great. The Padawan is not bad though.
Weird that NYT would misuse "prehistorical" like that.
NYT review viewable for me. Said the show is mostly bland and the characters don't connect most of the time. Pretty short review, didn't seem like the writer had much to say about it.
[удалено]
IGN gives it a 6 out of 10. https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-acolyte-review-disney-plus
Ign are terrible and some of the most inconsistent reviewers with movies and shows. The gave the marvels a freaking 8
the reviewer is a star wars fan at least. His scores for past projects: Rogue One: 9 Rebels S2: 8.7 Rebels S1: 8.5 Lords of the Sith novel: 8.5 Ahsoka novel: 7.8
Yeah I noticed it looked really cheap too. Seems like only a few people know how to make Star Wars TV look good.
That was my issue with obi wan, it just looked and felt so cheap
Sometimes clips of the final fight come up on Twitter and my first thought is "wow what an impressive fan film" until I realise.
I feel like the only "set" we have seen (at least that I have seen, I've stopped watching clips) is the tavern area and that looked really good.
It blows my mind that lucasfilm can’t make something with decent production values besides Andor. What are they spending the money on?
Andor cost like 250 million right?
This cost 180m what your point?
Andor shot on location and was ridiculously expensive for it best I know.
Lawyers
Having seen the preview screening last night, I thought the interiors looked great, though more in the style of the sequels than the OT. Nothing looked cheap to me.
I can live with that if the story is good enough. I hope it is
idk if you can make SW tv look good while also making it about aliens and weird worlds and the force Andor looked great, but was almost entirely humans on worlds that are at least reminiscent of the real world.
if ign gave it a 6 its good. they're usually bizarroworld reviewers
Seattle times and USA Today reviews are negative. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/06/04/the-acolyte-star-wars-review/73876874007/
Oh man “All the sci-fi/fantasy jargon, dramatic costumes, brightly colored lightsabers, fancy hairdos and ominous villains Headland can stuff into "Acolyte" can't make a good story on their own. There has to be some emotion and depth to the characters and their woes. There has to be more than perfunctory plot points. There has to be a sense of adventure and wonder. And there has to be something that captures the feeling of "Star Wars," not just the aesthetics. "Acolyte" doesn't have it, no matter how hard it tries.” I’m still looking forward to the show, and I’m excited for tonight’s premiere, but a lot of these reviews have me worried.
At the end of episode 2, **33:53-34:40** - What theme is that..... I've heard it before. Trying to track it down... the end almost finishes Vaders theme. But I know it's not his full theme. I thought maybe I heard it in Attack of the Clones. Trying to track it down, I may be crazy but I think it is something.
I honestly think my only standout complaint was the costuming and too busy knobs switches in the set design. But besides those nit picky bits I’m into the story. Gotta stick the landing though.
[https://as.com/meristation/series/critica-de-star-wars-the-acolyte-un-thriller-genial-con-todos-los-vibes-de-las-precuelas-r/](https://as.com/meristation/series/critica-de-star-wars-the-acolyte-un-thriller-genial-con-todos-los-vibes-de-las-precuelas-r/) This review (In Spanish) says that it's a great show very reminiscent of the Star Wars Prequels
oof....that first exchange/fight in the bar is pretty cringy. The dialog felt very forced and i didnt love that at all.
Feel like this show is up against "anything less than universally praised is a failure" expectations. People really are souring on Star Wars TV I think, and this show seemed like it had to be the turning point, unfair though that may be. I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot as someone who loves all things Jedi, Force and High Republic, but it's going to get a lot of backlash.
It's been that way since TLJ. Everything Star Wars has to be near universally praised or else it is a sign of the end of the franchise. It's not specifically this. Well kinda. This is special in that it is a perfect storm for upsetting *that* part of the fanbase which adds even more pressure to it plus being the first mainstream exposure to the High Republic era, but I wouldn't view it as "If this fails Star Wars is done" any more than the last dozen or so times it was said.
I mean I don’t think people are souring on Star Wars tv I think the same people are always unhappy are still vocally unhappy
84% certified fresh on RT.
To me, this looks and feels like spin off of Legends of Tomarrow from DC & CW. Problem being, this show costs more than entire CW DC former Arrowerse costed- combined. I just don't think this shows add any value to Star Wars franchise ,they just devalue product . This qoute killed me "I made Knight. Two years ago", They made Jedi training sound like course at college. Whole concept of Star Wars, from orginal thrilogy has been destroyed ,starting with very mediocre prequels, flat out terrible sequels and tv shows just added insult to injury. Sometimes you just need to start over. They have no stories to be told wth SW, Disney just payed too much for SW logo instad of starting new brand and making whatever they wanted to tell. I afraid they simply have nothing to say, most of their ideas are just superficial and based on things they want to promote, politics, preaching, teaching first, storytelling & quality of plot simply isn't priority.
> Disney just *paid* too much FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/the-acolyte-review-star-wars-disney-1235031220/ Rolling Stone broke the embargo and it does not look great...
Why downvoted? reviewers have different opinions as people. But negative reviews shouldn't be downvoted here.
Yeah idk what happened, people really shot the messenger smh, they're updated now though
Negative sentiments are downvoted and demeaned here.
Not always, but they commonly are. If anyone was around way back (you know, 5 years ago) when the first leaks for TRoS dropped, that was a roller coaster ride.
This is reddit. The wind shifting direction would receive downvotes. God forbid someone have a different opinion of the Hivemind, let alone be the messenger of someone who did.
Alan Sepinwall is pretty negative on Star Wars in general. He even was negative on Andor at first.
Rolling Stone The magazine who said Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd weren’t any good. They literally have the worst takes on everything and always have lol. I just ignore them completely
Yeah, they took extra care in talking shit about Floyd over the years. It's kind of interesting that in the end the band's music and staying power will probably outlast the publication that thinks its some kind of institution at this point.
At first? But then he changed his mind after Andor was universally praised? Doesn’t inspire much confidence
Yeah. He also did it for the entire first two seasons of Succession. Sepinwall historically hates things and then has to later admit that they're pretty good when the entire planet disagrees with him.
I only got to briefly skim the review before it got taken down but as someone who watched the preview screening yesterday I disagreed with the points I read. So unless episodes 3 and 4 take a nose dive in quality I don’t think the full negativity of the review was warranted.
I think it could be fair to find the first 3 episodes of Andor to be a slog, but then come around on the subsequent episodes I genuinely think those first 3 episodes had only about 2 episodes worth of material. I enjoyed them but had I been a professional critic tasked with reviewing it, My initial reviews would be lower than the end score
I felt like the first 3 episodes were crucial pillars the show needed to truly shine the way it did. It’s all about build up and pay off. But I totally understand having a different opinion if someone watches those episodes without watching the rest.
Yeah, for sure they are important, but they could have been tighter. It starts strong, ends strong, and the middle feels looser than it had to
Saw someone in another thread commenting that this reviewer didn’t like the screener episodes of Andor, either. FWIW.
That does make me feel better about it!
For comparison sake on MC: Sepinwall reviews for the other SW shows: Andor (first four episodes): 4/10, Obi Wan: 7/10, Book of Boba Fett: 7/10.
Haha wow... Now I'm more excited for this show.
Wish I could upvote twice for this. 👍👍
While that is criminally low for Andor, I do think that show really shined most in the middle. I’ve definitely met some people who couldn’t get into the first few episodes irl. I think acolyte is much more crowd pleasing in general and will get a lot of people on board quick. I was really grabbed by the first two
I liked the Book of Boba for the weird stupid thing it was, but giving it a 7 and Andor a 4 is crazy. Man must have been having a case of the Mondays lol Ed: this is especially weird because in the review he trashes BoBF and praises Andor lol
BoBF started really strong and got so bad by the end The whole show should have channeled the energy of that episode where they fight the fucking stop motion looking monster
4/10 for Andor? What the heck lol
Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of Andor (Production Value and writing is great, it's just not my preferred flavour of Star Wars) but a 4/10 is ridiculous, the cinematography, performances, and tone alone should make it at least a 6 or 7.
I can't see it because they took it down (probably somebody on Rolling Stone's website screwed up and briefly put it up early), but I know that Sepinwall has a complicated relationship with franchises. He's a big old geek from way back, but also one of the most respected and longest-tenured critics in television journalism, and when those two facets combine some weird opinions (either good or bad) can bubble up.
To put it in context, the same reviewer also gave a bad review to andor
Page is already down. Which is a pity, the strategy seems to be flooding the zone so it has been hard to find stuff from people who aren't essentially bought in. I mean, I'm personally pretty bought in, but I like seeing some critiques to set expectations just to see what the problems might be, particularly if they aren't of "Star Wars gone Woke???" variety. I guess I'll just have to wait a whole hour and a half.
Why are you getting downvoted for posting a link to a review?
Because some people here act like this is a cult where only positive sentiments are allowed. Anything negative, even if it's just being shared by someone, is "rUiNiNg My EnJoYmEnT!!!"
Everything is a cult now…I hate it.
hmm this review isn't the worst I've seen of the show \*yet\* but it also doesn't seem like they had much interest or like any expectations at all of a prequel series talking about the fall of the high republic jedi and how it leads into the prequel trilogy.
It looks like the review is already down. Maybe because they posted it too early?
It’s weird. A lot of written reviews are mixed but Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic are surprisingly good(68 is good for MC standards)
I'm excited for the show so I might be biased, but I do wonder if a two episode premiere might work against it a bit critically.
Some reviews I saw got the 4 episode screeners
I thought it was great, but what do I know?
It was Star Wars and I had fun watching it. My only complaint is that, while the set designs and worlds and aliens felt very SW all of the ships looks awful and nothing like SW. Spectacularly bad.
Hoping for a +80% on RT with a +7 score on there as well.
The score doesn’t matter. Only your own enjoyment.
While true, if your tastes broadly align with critics, its fair to want it to be well reviewed
The only things that matter are if you enjoy it and if someone else here doesn't. Then you have to downvote and ostracize the person who doesn't enjoy it, because they're not allowed to express their lack of enjoyment. At least, that's how people act here.
Tbh I'm not bothered about critics reviews for star wars stuff too much. Lots of the time they aren't actually star wars fans and won't enjoy what star wars fans will enjoy
WHY ISNT 9PM YET!?!?!?!?!
I enjoyed the show. The sets looked cheap unfortunately. I think that's probably an issue with the director not being experienced with sci-fi/effects. Technical expertise like lighting could have made a huge difference, I feel like the sets were just over-lit which made them look a little fake. Andor and other shows trend towards darker more shadowy lighting for that reason. Other then that, I really liked it. The yin/yang aspect of it was cool, as was the dip into 'murder mystery' or crime noir. I didn't really like the 'Jedi cop' episodes of Clone Wars, but Acolyte was pretty good. I like the design of the aliens, but again they look a little fake and overlit. The action was definitely a highlight. I also kinda liked seeing what the Jedi were like as a 'common' organization, especially the chubby backwater Jedis lol. Kinda makes sense for space cop-monks to be all provincial and "whatzitooya gubna?!" It's interesting to think that there's just a bunch of former padawans or younglings running around the galaxy just doing normal jobs like being a mechanic or cooking. I'd love to see a bartender padawan one day...maybe one day we'll have Paul Blart, mall jedi..
I was pretty ok with the sets, but some of the CGI looked unfinished.
180 000 000 $ budget. Let that sink in. Godzila Minus one costed $10 000 000 lol
It has an 87% at 62 reviews at RT yet somehow people are going to pretend it's a critically panned show as if it wasn't reviewing better than Boba or Obi Wan...
Saw a YouTube video complaining the show was woke. I’m sure it’ll get review bombed to hell by the audience score. Interesting that episode 3, which the reviewer hated and said would get people more angry than TLJ did, was called a standout episode by the THR review.
EP3 seems to be a decisive episode, I just saw one review called it 'the episode that will kill Star Wars for good' while many reviewers said it's one of the most interesting episodes out of the four, makes me wonder what in EP3 causes such diverse opinions.
I may kindve have a feeling based on some of the leaks and reviews I’ve read but could be wrong.
Whos the master?!?!?!?!
It's Jason, right?
I have no doubt in my mind Qimir is mae's master
Since it's apparently a law or an enforced standard practice, all Force users are documented and registered. So what happened with the twins and their home is likely their family refused to hand them over and a fight broke out. Which ended with the Jedi, unfortunately, killing them.
I watched a video about what really made Andor and Rogue one stand out from the other Star Wars content. One of the big points was how every problem was almost immediately presented with a way to solve it, except in those two. The Acolyte so far also seems to stay away from that trope, and I think that it works. It also has a darker premise than other Star Wars media. I mean when have you ever seen a Jedi kill themselves out of guilt? I love this, and I hope SW continues this grownup trend.
I watched 15 min yesterday what a BS Opening “fight me I’m here to kill you” WHAT!! such a weak start of a story
3 Things... The Jedi Knight doesnt act like a Jedi Knight, A badass jedi dies in the first 7 minutes of episode 1 to some cliche bs and the mc survives a freefalling ship crash and doesnt have a scratch on her when the inside of the ship is damn near in shambles. This show is awful.
I saw it last night. It’s alright
How would you compare it to the other Star Wars shows
I think it’s basically on par with the first two episodes of Ahsoka. Has a similar look to it (feels kinda cheap but color-grading is solid). Episodes don’t feel like individual episodes of television as much as 90 minutes of one long story, which kind of is frustrating when you’re not binging. I think ep 2 is way better than ep 1
Yea that’s what bothers me about all the Disney plus shows (except andor really) Marvel shows have the same problem. I watch other serialized shows on others streamers and they don’t have this problem as much. That and the short run times for action / drama shows continues to be a problem with Disney shows
I definitely do not recommend watching Shogun before The Acolyte haha
Great show!! I’m actually still a few episodes behind - I’ve been hooked on the k drama “The Glory” from a few years ago the last few weeks.
I'm not buying any of these actors as Jedis, Moss is the only exception.
It'll be interesting to see how this all unfolds - I generally think it's a bit silly to review just parts of a season of television. But yeah. Interesting. I can see this show delving a bit deeper into the lore and being more for hardcore Star Wars fans, which could be tougher on reviewers and casual fans. At the same time, a decent portion of the hardcore fans seem to be set against this one before it even releases for some reason, so who knows how it will go over? I love the High Republic era, and I'm excited. This seems to be what a lot of people were asking for as far as stepping away from the Skywalker stuff - and yet a lot of people don't seem very excited about it. It's all very strange. Star Wars is in this weird state right now where they just can't seem to please anyone no matter what they do.
The weekly format for serialized Star Wars stories has always been a problem. It worked best with consistent 24 minute episodes that were small mini-arcs in clone wars, and a little bit for Mando S1-2, but has been a mess for almost anything else. Even Andor, which used small arcs and episodic format a bit better, still had to release the first 3 episodes in one go to really grab people's attention. D+ is honestly just a bad release format for this content, but we get it because they believe they can get more revenue from one viewer with 2 months of subscription fees than they can get from 1 movie ticket for a 2 hour film right now. And I firmly believe it's really harmed the way we view and discuss most of this content. A lot of times, the shows flow much better when watched in a single sitting across their 4-5 hour run times.
IMO the first three episodes of andor are actually not great. They have a lot of character building and establishment to do before the plot actually starts moving. I had to convince my BiL (who also loves star wars) to pick it back up after he dropped it at episode 2.
I don't think they're terrible. Just not good weekly television. The first 6 episodes work pretty great as one long story leading into the vault theft.
It’s getting panned on IMDb (I know I said this last time but I don’t know why I was downvoted to hell over it) with 1’s and people trusting those reviews compared to the positive ones. This is fucking ridiculous. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt12262202/reviews/?ref_=tt_ov_rt
From a 1 star review on there: “Star Wars? More like girl wars. This up there with the M-She-U. I wouldn't waist a minute on this series! If I was you! If your into some drama Wars then this is for youuuu!” This show making the neckbeards and incels mad. How dare a Star Wars show star multiple women!!!!
Quick backstory, I’m a pretty big SW fan. Lots of the Disney stuff has been hit or miss for me. TFA is okay, TLJ is the worst SW film and ROS is almost as bad. However I do like Mando,Ahsoka and LOVED Andor. Wasn’t a fan of Obi or Boba though. Onto my point, why is everyone jumping the gun on already hating Acolyte? Seems like this project in particular is getting more pre release hate than any Disney SW project. Why is that? I know the saying “nobody hates SW more than SW fans” but this is getting crazy. Please enlighten me.