star wars review – Trekking with Dennis

The Mandalorian and Grogu: Film Review

The first section of this review is free from major narrative spoilers for The Mandalorian and Grogu and The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3. The end of the spoiler-free section is clearly marked.

It doesn’t feel like too long ago that I sat down to watch The Rise of Skywalker for the first time – the last Star Wars film I had the displeasure of sitting through. Since then, the franchise has focused on streaming, with shows airing on Disney+ that have been – in my subjective opinion, of course – more miss than hit. The Mandalorian and Grogu is Star Wars’ first trip to the movies in almost seven years… and having not really vibed with the show it serves as the final chapter of, I didn’t exactly have sky-high expectations.

At about the ninety-minute mark, I paused The Mandalorian and Grogu to go to the bathroom. And that trip was probably the most fun I had while watching the film. After The Rise of Skywalker, I’d have said that the bar for the worst Star Wars movie was so low it had melted through the floor, Chernobyl-style, deep into the basement. The best and kindest thing I can say about The Mandalorian and Grogu is that it wasn’t quite *that* bad; for all the flaws this film has, it has not eclipsed The Rise of Skywalker for the title of “worst in the franchise.” But that is hardly an achievement.

Three promo posters for The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) — Three promotional posters.

The Rise of Skywalker failed for myriad reasons, but none more so than its writer and director had absolutely no idea where to take the story or how to end it. The result was two films’ worth of plot haphazardly crammed into a single picture – one of which was desperately trying to overwrite character backstories and whole chunks of plot from The Last Jedi. This isn’t the same failing that The Mandalorian and Grogu has.

At its core, The Mandalorian and Grogu is meaningless and uninspired, desperately trying to lean into the aesthetic of Star Wars, but without seeming to really understand what made any of it work in the first place. It’s a boring, trope-laden, aggressively bland film; the cinematic equivalent of jangling keys in front of a baby. Hardcore Star Wars fans might be interested in some of the minute details and additions to the franchise’s wider lore, but the main narrative of the film just feels like fluff. The Mandalorian (the character) still feels like one of those silent protagonists from a 1980s or 1990s video game; the kind of guy who runs through a bunch of samey levels, shooting whatever moves, for the very flimsiest of reasons (that you probably had to read about in the manual).

Promo still for The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) — The title characters in a promotional still.

This was the same criticism, by the way, that I had of The Mandalorian’s first few episodes; all the way back in 2019, I described Mandy as “an emotionless helmet-wearing slab of nothing” who seemed to act not because of any discernable character trait or motivation, but at the behest of a room full of TV writers who were desperate to move the plot along. And even the word “plot” is being generous – most of The Mandalorian, as well as practically the entirety of this new cinematic adventure, feels like a series of barely-connected individual action sequences. To continue our video game analogy: these are side-quests to keep the player character busy in a title that doesn’t have enough actual narrative content to stretch for even just a couple of hours.

I don’t sit down to watch a film *hoping* to have a bad time. I paid good money to watch The Mandalorian and Grogu, and I wouldn’t have done so if I was absolutely convinced that it was going to be another stinker. I genuinely hoped that Star Wars’ latest trip to the cinema would be an improvement; that the writers had been able to come up with an ending to these characters’ stories that might’ve even made the preceding three seasons of the show feel better in hindsight. And, to be honest… I kinda feel like Star Wars is overdue for a win! The divisiveness of The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, and several of the streaming shows has done perhaps irreparable harm to the fan community and the brand, but a new film had the potential, at least, to get everyone on the same page once again.

Behind-the-scenes photo from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing director Favreau — Director Jon Favreau during production.

The version of the film I watched was advertised as “IMAX” resolution. But… it wasn’t. The film uses a variable aspect ratio, where some sequences are basically in 16:9 widescreen and others are in 2.39:1 theatrical/anamorphic – i.e. the standard you’d get for most films. This was *incredibly* jarring, especially because some scenes are incredibly short, so the film jumps from one aspect ratio to another and then back again in quick succession. If you choose to watch The Mandalorian and Grogu, I think you have the choice to disable this, effectively “cropping” those non-IMAX “IMAX” scenes and putting the entire film in a standard theatrical letterbox. I highly recommend you do that, because the not-even-properly-IMAX ratio adds absolutely nothing of consequence to any single frame.

The Mandalorian and Grogu makes use of some pretty neat physical props and puppets – something I will continue to praise the modern Star Wars franchise for, especially when compared to the janky CGI of the prequel trilogy! But for a big-budget film coming from Disney, the first Star Wars cinematic adventure in almost a decade… there were some pretty poor CGI moments in The Mandalorian and Grogu, too. If you stick with me to the spoiler-y part of the review, I’ll point out a couple of my least-favourite CGI misfires.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is not a good film. But it isn’t a total failure of storytelling or filmmaking, either. It’s just forgettable, bland fluff. No characters are memorable, no events are interesting, it relies on contrivances and tropes to move its very bare-bones story along, and it’s a film that takes basically no risks with its narrative, its characters, or its world.

With that being said, I can absolutely see The Mandalorian and Grogu being the “best film of 2026” for a very specific subset of viewers. If you absolutely *adored* The Mandalorian, its spin-offs, and its characters, the film is basically more of the same. If this slice of Star Wars has been your jam since it debuted in 2019, there’s a reasonably high chance you’ll enjoy its cinematic adaptation, too. And, hey, I hope you do! Just because the film wasn’t my speed, that doesn’t mean it won’t find support from folks who were bigger fans of the series than I ever was.

Up next, we’re going to get into spoiler territory and talk about The Mandalorian and Grogu’s story in a bit more detail. If you haven’t seen the film yet, and still want to head into it un-spoiled, I hope you’ll consider bookmarking this review and coming back later! My official recommendation, such as it is, would be to wait a few weeks until the film inevitably hits Disney+ and you can watch it less expensively. At £16 here in the UK (at time of writing), it’s a pretty tough sell, at least in my opinion.

Spoiler Warning: This is the end of the spoiler-free section. There will be spoilers for The Mandalorian and Grogu – including the film’s ending – from here on out. Spoilers are also present for Jedi: Fallen Order, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Narratively, I felt that The Mandalorian and Grogu suffered a very similar problem to parts of the show it’s based on, as well as The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi – that being that the “main story,” such as it is, isn’t really a single cohesive thing. In The Mandalorian, Mandy would get sidetracked, starting a job, then having to go somewhere else to fix his spaceship or track down a contact who’s supposed to lead him to another contact… and so on. Obi-Wan Kenobi – probably the worst piece of Star Wars media to exist, eclipsing even The Rise of Skywalker – was likewise a series of lightly-connected action set-pieces, as “Young Old Ben” left Tatooine to track down the missing Leia.

The Mandalorian and Grogu sees Mandy working for the New Republic, helping them track down some of the Empire’s remaining leaders in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi. He’s given an assignment by his nameless handler (or maybe she had a name, but she was just so bland and forgettable that I’ve forgotten it already?) to track down a faceless Imperial commander. But first, before he can do that, he has to do a favour for the Hutts, because they’ve promised information! And we’re only a few minutes into the film and we’re already starting out with this side-quest story idea.

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing the New Republic colonel — Captain Whatshername.

I genuinely feel that The Mandalorian and its cinematic sequel would’ve worked better – and perhaps even worked *well* – as a video game. These kinds of storylines can feel a lot more engaging in interactive media, where you, as a player, are in control of the protagonist. Look at one of my favourite recent Star Wars stories as an example of this: Jedi: Fallen Order. That game unfolds similarly to The Mandalorian and Grogu – you go to a planet, meet a character, start a side-mission that takes you partway to your goal, then go somewhere else and do something else, and eventually make it to the end of the story.

But what works for a video game doesn’t always work for a film. Getting sidetracked or doing barely-connected, action-packed levels is fun… *when you’re in control of the character* and when you’re part of the action. But a film doesn’t have that interactivity, so you’re stuck watching a character go through this series of loosely-connected events that just… aren’t as much fun to watch as they might’ve been to play. Perhaps writer and director Jon Favreau missed his calling; the kinds of stories he seems able to tell would just work way better if they had that interactive element.

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing a flamethrower — Mandy the Mandalorian.

In order to advance its plot, The Mandalorian and Grogu relies heavily on cut-down sequences and contrived moments. After figuring out (thanks to Jabba the Hutt’s weirdly buff son) that the crime lord he came face-to-face with a few minutes earlier is the same Imperial officer he’s meant to be arresting, Mandy and his nameless pilot/sidekick (or maybe he had a name, but he’s so bland and uninteresting that I’ve already forgotten it?) decide to launch a full-frontal assault on the man’s heavily-guarded mansion.

Do we get to see this attack being planned? Nope. Do we see the attack itself? Barely. What we get is Mandy storming in, guns ablaze, in another action sequence that’s basically the same as the film’s opening act. It just felt so incredibly rushed; something this important to the story seemed to be planned and executed in a heartbeat. And why? So we could get a car chase scene that reminded me of the one in The Rise of Skywalker? Is… is that *really* the best we can do?

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing Stormtroopers in a speeder — Aww, they’re having a nice day out at the beach. Cute.

I’ve talked about this before, but Star Wars *desperately* needs to move on from the so-called “Skywalker Saga” and the characters that inhabited it. That was one of the things I really hoped for from The Mandalorian back in 2019, when the show premiered. But The Mandalorian very quickly brought the Jedi and the Force back into play, as well as Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett, and other major characters from the past. And this time, rather than finally leaving all of that behind to tell a *unique* story, The Mandalorian and Grogu introduces us to the son of Jabba the Hutt.

To be clear, I think that Rotta the Hutt was one of the film’s more interesting characters, and the one who came perilously close to having a point and a message that went beyond “look at the shiny shiny!” There’s something fascinating, in theory, about a character who feels trapped by the legacy of an infamous parent or illustrious forebear, and wanting to strike out on one’s own is something that can be relatable. When Rotta came to realise that the crowd at the fighting pit was just as happy to jeer and chant for him to be killed as they were to cheer for his wins, that was probably the closest that The Mandalorian and Grogu managed to get to a genuinely heartfelt or emotional moment.

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing Rotta — Ever wanted to see a weirdly buff Hutt?

I also liked the idea of showing a different side to the Hutts. In practically every piece of Star Wars media, we’ve seen Hutts as nothing more than corrupt gangsters; their grotesque slug-like appearance reflecting the depravity within. So to take a member of a reviled and deliberately ugly species and give them a completely different spin and a different kind of characterisation is a good idea. It’s probably the only genuinely good idea in the film’s conception. It wasn’t executed especially well, because The Mandalorian and Grogu prioritised other things – brain-dead action set-pieces, for the most part. But I can appreciate that there was a genuinely interesting idea there, and I might even be tempted to say that I’d have liked to have seen more of Rotta’s story.

But – and here’s where the film’s overreliance on Star Wars’ past trips things up again – did Rotta have to be the son of Jabba the Hutt for this story to work? Jabba’s not a character in the film; he’s long-dead by the time these events take place. We have two Hutt characters in The Mandalorian and Grogu – the twins, who I think were introduced in either The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett. Why not give Rotta a more direct connection to them and forget the name “Jabba?” Oh, that’s right: because modern Star Wars can’t escape the shadow of its original trilogy, even for a second.

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing the twins — The Hutt twins.

Capturing Commander Coin at his mansion was too quick and too easy. But so was Mandy and Rotta’s escape from the fighting pit. After realising they needed to team up, a lucky accident involving a weird electric monster of some kind short-circuited the digital fence penning in the monsters, and they all escaped into the crowd. This was… not great, let’s be honest. It’s a contrivance, but it’s such a basic one that it felt fundamentally weak and unsatisfying. This moment could have seen Mandy and Rotta realising they needed each other; that working together was going to be key to their survival and escape. Instead, the writers realised they’d got stuck in a narrative dead-end and magicked up a solution out of nowhere.

Even the lead-up to the fight was overladen with tired clichés. Mandy wants to track down Rotta, but because this is a video game story, he has to first track down “Lord Janu.” But Lord Janu, despite operating his crime syndicate out of a downtown bar, doesn’t take kindly to people… trying to do business with him? So everyone has to attack Mandy as soon as the name “Janu” is mentioned. It’s the kind of thing that, once again, you might overlook in a video game because it got you a fun boss fight, but it just doesn’t make much sense in-universe and it doesn’t work well for a film.

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing Janu — Lord Coin/Commander Janu/who even cares?

As The Mandalorian unfolded, I felt Grogu – a.k.a. Baby Yoda – was a bit of a contrivance in himself. Grogu seems to swing wildly from “helpless toddler” to “overpowered Force-wielder” depending on the needs of the individual scene or set-piece he’s currently part of, and it makes it really hard to get a read on what kind of character he’s even supposed to be. I like the idea, in theory, of someone like Mandy having a young apprentice that they have to train; that Grogu is new to all of this and still learning the ropes. But the way it’s been handled – both in the show and the film – leads to some just plain weird contradictions.

Grogu can, for instance, heal Mandy’s wounds with the Force, lift Rotta the Hutt with the Force, or use the Force to pacify a rabid dog-like animal. But he can’t handle *basic* instructions like, “no, don’t press the missile button twice.” I’m not a parent, so I don’t know exactly how young childhood development works. But to me, Grogu seems either too overpowered for his developmental stage, or too developmentally delayed given the impressive things he can do. I get that we’re dealing with an alien species that clearly ages at a different rate, but the contradictions are too extreme to make the character feel at all believable. When it was a seemingly instinctual thing – that Grogu was using the Force innately without really *intending* to do so, as in his first couple of appearances – that might’ve just about passed muster. But when he clearly has powerful abilities that he can control, his otherwise weak and helpless presentation, and his inability to do basic tasks or follow simple instructions, doesn’t make much sense.

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing Grogu — Grogu.

I will give credit to The Mandalorian and Grogu for – somehow – avoiding the worst fan theory on the internet: that Grogu is, in fact, a time-travelling Yoda. I genuinely feared that this was gonna be the way this character’s story would end; that somehow, some way, he’d *literally* turn out to be Baby Yoda. Thankfully, that was a bridge too far even for this iteration of Star Wars.

However, you could tell from the very on-the-nose, not-at-all-subtle imagery in Grogu’s sequences on the Hutt planet that the film was leaning into Yoda in a huge way. The mud hut Grogu constructs for Mandy is very similar to Yoda’s Dagobah hut, the stick he uses is reminiscent of Yoda’s own walking stick, and even the boggy, swampy setting reminded me a lot of those scenes in The Empire Strikes Back. Rather than coming across as respectful homage, though… it just felt like a blatant, shameless rip-off, done for no other reason than to say to fans, “hey! Remember how good Star Wars used to be?”

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing Grogu's hut — ‘Member how much fun Star Wars used to be?

I almost wrapped up this review without actually talking about Mandy the Mandalorian – y’know, the title character? Mandy is such a non-entity in both his own show and his own film that I literally do not know what to say about him. He wanders around, shooting and punching things for the barest of reasons, stumbling through the plot, reading all of his lines in a bland monotone, never emoting, never explaining, and just… doing nothing at all. When he got injured and poisoned and seemed on the verge of death, I didn’t think “oh no!” and I didn’t even think “good, finally we can get rid of this clown.” I just felt absolutely nothing at all; no reaction. Mandy could’ve died, and I guess the film might’ve been able to claim it had made a point about parents making sacrifices for their kids, or something – even though that isn’t really what Mandy did. But at least it would’ve been *something* – and a definitive ending for the character, given that the film is supposed to bring this chapter of Star Wars to a close.

But The Mandalorian and Grogu couldn’t even do that, of course. Gotta leave that door cracked open for a sequel for when Disney runs out of other characters to strip-mine, eh?

Mandy’s best moment arguably came when he was stripped of his helmet by the Hutt twins, robbing him of some of his honour or standing in the Mandalorian community. Except… we’ve already done this before in the series, where Mandy had a whole storyline of having to “atone” for removing his helmet. And, to cap it all off, the Hutts *gave him his fucking helmet back* all of three minutes later because… plot armour has to be literal, I guess?

Wait, that might be the wrong helmetless Mandalorian…

I mentioned earlier that some of the film’s visual effects weren’t spectacular, so let’s briefly touch on that. There were a few moments when Mandy and Grogu visited “the 90’s New York planet” (whose name I’ve already forgotten) where Disney’s fancy AR wall just wasn’t especially well-integrated into the sets around it. This is also a problem I noted in Obi-Wan Kenobi, though I would say things have slightly improved since then.

While I’ve praised The Mandalorian and Grogu for its use of physical props and puppets, CGI continues to be a weak spot for the Star Wars franchise. Several of the film’s alien monsters, especially in the fight sequence with Rotta and Mandy, didn’t look especially believable, and there were moments with Rotta himself and the other two Hutts that just weren’t at the level I’d have expected from a film with a budget well north of $150 million. There were also a few odd moments where Mandy’s alien pilot/sidekick’s mouth seemed not to move in sync with his voice lines; the same issue plagued the Hutts at several points, too.

Behind-the-scenes photo from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing a scene being shot — Behind-the-scenes during production.

The Mandalorian and Grogu was a boring, uninspired film that achieved next to nothing. Its world was populated by paper-thin, intensely forgettable characters, it arranged a series of action scenes into something barely resembling a plot, and the only time it even came *close* to having something meaningful to say, it quickly dumped all of that for the next brain-dead fight sequence or lingering shot of an unimpressive CGI creature.

Unlike The Rise of Skywalker or The Phantom Menace, which stick in my memory for all the wrong reasons, The Mandalorian and Grogu is already fading. It’s just pure fluff; the absolute definition of “content for content’s sake.” The film says nothing, delivers nothing, goes nowhere, and doesn’t even introduce anything genuinely new to this long-running fictional world. I would say that The Mandalorian and Grogu will be a contender for my “worst film” award when I hand out some imaginary statuettes in December (something I do every year, so I hope you’ll join me for that!) but honestly… I’m already forgetting about the film *now*, having seen it twice in the span of just a few days. I doubt I’ll even remember it exists in four-plus months from now.

Still frame from The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) showing X-Wings — It wouldn’t be Star Wars without X-Wings, right?

I continue to hope for better things from Star Wars, but the franchise has really been on a downward trajectory for close to a decade already. Disney spent a ton of cash to buy the rights to this IP, in the full expectation that it would be a license to print money. But The Mandalorian and Grogu has been a box office bomb; the worst-performing film in the franchise to date, eclipsing even Solo: A Star Wars Story from 2018. There are fewer and fewer bright spots in Star Wars, unfortunately, and relatively few things I can say I’m genuinely looking forward to any more.

Perhaps this’ll have to be the subject of a longer essay one day, but… do you think maybe Star Wars needs another break? Novels, comics, and video games could keep the franchise alive for its hardcore fans, but maybe it’s time to take the cinematic franchise and the streaming shows and just put them on the back burner for a while until someone has a genuinely good idea for what to do and where to take things. I know that there are new Star Wars projects in various stages of production… but can you honestly say you’re *excited* for any of them? At best, I’m mildly curious to see whether the next film, the next show, or the one after that might actually bring something new to the table. The Mandalorian didn’t, and nor did its cinematic adaptation.

So that’s all for today. I didn’t enjoy this film, as you can tell! If it’s the final chapter in The Mandalorian saga, as has been promised, well… all I can say is that I hope whatever Star Wars does next will be an improvement. Thanks for checking out my review. Click or tap here to read some of my other reviews and articles about the Star Wars franchise… and may the Force be with you, I guess.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is available to stream now (for a fee) on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and other video-on-demand platforms. The Mandalorian and Grogu will likely be available to stream on Disney+ later in 2026, and will also be available on DVD/Blu-ray later in 2026. The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Disney+. The Star Wars franchise – including The Mandalorian and Grogu and all other titles and properties discussed above – is the copyright of Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Wars – The Acolyte: TV Series Review

Thu 15.08.24Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Wars – The Acolyte. Minor spoilers are also present for other Star Wars productions.

I recently got around to watching The Acolyte – the latest made-for-streaming series in the Star Wars franchise – so it’s time for a review! Before The Acolyte premiered, I had the show on my radar as one of the more interesting-sounding Star Wars projects. For the first time on the big or small screen, here was a project that promised to step away from the familiar characters and time period that have anchored every other Star Wars project to date. With a focus on the Sith, too, I felt that The Acolyte had a lot of potential.

Because I came late to The Acolyte, I’m aware that the series has proven to be controversial in some quarters of the Star Wars fan community. I always like to review a film or show without having been exposed to other people’s thoughts and opinions, but the volume of criticism that has been flung in the direction of The Acolyte has proven to be inescapable over the last few weeks. To be honest, that’s part of why I decided to watch it and review it for myself; a sense of “surely it can’t be that bad” ended up combining with my earlier interest in the show’s setting and time period!

Cropped promo poster for episode 8 of Star Wars: The Acolyte. — Promo poster for *The Acolyte*.

As you might expect when the criticism and hatred reaches that kind of fever-pitch: no, The Acolyte was nowhere near as bad as some fans and “influencers” were trying to paint it as being. That’s not to say it was a perfect production by any stretch – there were a couple of pretty in-your-face narrative flaws, some underdeveloped secondary characters, and despite the show’s promise of accessibility to new viewers, a lot of the density of “lore” that can make a franchise like Star Wars offputting to folks who are unfamiliar with its galaxy, factions, and technologies.

I will let you know right off the bat that I am not a stickler for the minutiae of “canon,” nor someone who insists that stories within a franchise must be constrained by every little detail that came before. It’s fine if you feel that way, but this review isn’t going to pick on the very minor appearances of a couple of prequel-era characters and dive into their fictional backstories! Some of the nitpicking I’ve seen online about The Acolyte felt just plain silly to me, and I think the series did a good enough job of avoiding stepping on the toes of the mainline Star Wars films in a big way. The biggest secret to keep in that regard was the existence of the Sith in this time period – and when the series ended with every Jedi who’d seen the Sith assassin dead, and the only survivors believing him to be a “fallen Jedi,” I think we can say that that particular “plot hole” simply isn’t a thing. As the credits rolled on what I assume will be the only season that The Acolyte will get, its story’s loosest ends were tied up.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing a character wielding a lightsaber. — Master Sol confronts the Sith assassin.

At time of writing, Disney and Lucasfilm haven’t confirmed or denied that The Acolyte will be cancelled, but given the fan reaction and the show’s relatively low viewership – according to reports, The Acolyte was doing a lot worse than The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even the maligned Book of Boba Fett – it’s hard to see it being renewed as things stand. Although Disney is keen on this High Republic time period in some spin-off media, I’m not sure that alone will save The Acolyte. Disney’s biggest event of the year – the D23 expo – has just come and gone at time of writing, as has the year’s biggest Comic-Con event, and no announcement of a renewal was made. The first season’s story left things deliberately open, but also wrapped up the main events we’d been following – so it’s not like there’s a cliffhanger desperately waiting to be resolved. All things considered, I’d say cancellation feels likely.

So let’s talk about the series itself. On the whole, I had a pretty good time with The Acolyte – and even though that may be a minority position, I’ll do my best to explain what I enjoyed, as well as criticise what I didn’t.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing a group of Jedi in yellow robes. — A couple of main characters and some Jedi redshirts. Should that be “Jedshirts?”

Stepping away from the “Skywalker Saga” is something I’ve argued that the Star Wars franchise has needed to do for a long time, and while some recent productions have taken steps in that direction, The Acolyte is the first time we’ve seen Star Wars move so far away from that story on the small screen. There were a couple of crossover characters – but their appearances were so minor as to barely even count as cameos. Speaking for myself, I was pleased that The Acolyte went down this road, and that after relying on the crutch of nostalgia and familiar characters for such a long time, Disney and Lucasfilm have finally been bold enough to try something a little different.

That being said, there’s still a lot of familiarity in The Acolyte. For brand-new viewers, a group that The Acolyte’s producers claimed to be targeting, I think there was still quite a lot of fairly dense lore and background to wade through in order to fully understand what was going on, which faction was which, and so on. There was an admirable attempt to open up Star Wars to new fans – which is something the franchise was going to have to do sooner or later – but for me, at least some of that seemed not to stick the landing. My impression is that this was a series that new fans could approach a bit more easily than, say, Obi-Wan Kenobi or The Book of Boba Fett, but still not the softest of landings for someone totally unfamiliar with Star Wars. The first couple of episodes in particular throw a lot at the audience with the Jedi Order, droids, hyperspace, and other elements that weren’t really explained.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing the Jedi Temple. — The Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

And this is actually a trend that continued across all eight episodes – and extended to other plot points, too. The Acolyte didn’t always take the time to fully lay out what was going on in an easy-to-follow way, leaving some scenes and sequences feeling cut short. More time was needed in some of these moments to either add context or an explanation of what was going on. Occasionally the series would revisit events through a flashback that added to something we’d seen earlier – but not always.

This is a problem I’ve had with many made-for-streaming shows over the last few years: they’re too short. The Acolyte, for instance, across its eight episodes runs to a scant five hours, and when several plot-crucial scenes and sequences felt curtailed or in need of additional framing and context, I can’t help but feel that Disney and Lucasfilm have repeated a mistake they’ve already made with other Star Wars shows. Streaming isn’t like broadcast television – there’s no need to stick to rigid schedules. Episode runtimes can be expanded, and even whole new episodes can be added to a season if necessary. Sure, there are budgetary constraints – but when we’re talking about moments that can make the difference between a scene being easily understood and just plain confusing… it’s gotta be worth it, right?

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing Osha firing a blaster pistol. — Osha firing her blaster pistol.

To give one example from The Acolyte: at one moment in the second episode, Osha draws her blaster pistol to shoot at Mae – her twin – while she’s trying to make her escape. Osha misses, and the way the scene was framed left it totally unclear as to whether she missed on purpose or by accident. The difference that makes to the tone of the rest of the episode – and to how we are meant to perceive Osha as a character as she deals with Master Sol and other Jedi – is massive. Not knowing how to read that moment made subsequent scenes and sequences feel muddled and confused – and it’s all because The Acolyte’s director, editors, and producers failed to add the necessary context to make that moment easy to follow.

While we’re talking about confusing moments, I felt that it wasn’t always easy to tell which twin was Osha and which was Mae during some of the flashback scenes. Identical twins dressed in identical costumes made it difficult to keep track of who was who – something not helped by the editing and camera angles. Perhaps this was deliberate… but if that’s the case, I struggle to see why. Knowing that Mae was the one who wanted to stay with her coven and learn Force magic while Osha was the one who wanted to leave was essential to both of their character journeys.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing young Osha and Mae. — Young Mae and Osha (or Osha and Mae).

Since we’re talking about the twins, I find it odd that The Acolyte’s production team didn’t cast a real set of identical twins in the lead role. The younger versions of Osha and Mae were played by twins, but the adult characters were both played by the same actress. This isn’t to criticise Amandla Stenberg’s performance, by the way, as I felt she did a solid job with both Osha and Mae. But rather that it’s worth pointing out that there are relatively few high-profile roles for twins, and just like how casting an able-bodied person to play someone with a disability (or worse, having someone made up to appear to be from a different race) is something most mainstream productions now try to avoid, it’s a bit of an oddity – and one I haven’t really seen mentioned in the conversations surrounding the show.

The Acolyte’s story portrayed the Jedi Order in arguably the most negative way we’ve ever seen on screen – showing how the organisation and its members easily fell prey to internal politicking, arrogance, and self-righteousness. This is a narrative thread that links up with the prequel trilogy – though the prequels were arguably less extreme and still painted the Jedi as the “good guys” in a relatively black-and-white story. It also connects with something Luke Skywalker said in The Last Jedi about the hubris of the Jedi Order.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing Master Sol in a flashback. — Master Sol in a flashback sequence.

Moreover, there was a distinct creepiness to some of the Jedi – Master Sol in particular. Think about it: he spied on two eight-year-old girls from the bushes, followed them back to their home, formed an instant, one-sided “emotional connection” with one of them, and then insisted on taking her away from her family to be his apprentice. That has undertones that are genuinely uncomfortable, and contributes to the sense of the Jedi Order as being a strange, almost corrupt organisation. I mean, we’ve known for a long time that the Jedi would “recruit” children at a very young age – and we caught a glimpse of how this worked with Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace – but there was something about seeing Sol so… interested in Osha that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

That’s to say nothing of the Jedi’s attack on the Force-witches. Does that organisation/coven have a name in canon, by the way? Perhaps I missed it in The Acolyte, but either way, I felt it was really interesting to see how other Force-sensitive people and groups might behave and how they exist outside of the Jedi/Sith dynamic. These witches clearly used the Force, but they weren’t Jedi or Sith, and that gives us a look at a part of the Star Wars galaxy that we really hadn’t seen much of before. Other Force-sensitive groups have been glimpsed in spin-off media, of course, but this was a deeper dive into an unknown organisation and I appreciated the attempt to expand the Star Wars galaxy beyond what we’ve already seen on screen.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing the Force-witch coven. — The Force-witches are new to Star Wars (at least as far as I’m aware).

During the flashback depicting the Jedi’s attack on the Force-witches’ compound, The Acolyte gave us perhaps its weakest narrative moment. Torbin, the youngest Jedi padawan in the group, fell completely flat for me. His one-note “I hate it here and I wanna go home” was so unbelievable and childish that it seriously put a downer on the entire sequence, as this was such a pathetically weak way to set up his involvement. The concept of individual Jedi making bad decisions when confronted with the witches is a good one, and I think other elements worked as intended. But the series clearly didn’t have enough time to properly develop Torbin or give him a proper reason for his actions. When the actions he and Sol took are key to the entire rest of the plot… that’s an issue.

The idea of a “vergence” in the Force is something that Star Wars has delved into before. Most significantly, The Phantom Menace set up the idea of Anakin as being either a vergence himself or perhaps having been conceived by one. Mae and Osha seem to follow suit in The Acolyte, with the witches’ coven having somehow created them through the Force. While I’m not concerned about matters of “canon” all that much, and I don’t feel The Acolyte really overwrites or invalidates what we know of Anakin from the earlier films, I would’ve liked to see more explanation of both the vergence and the twins’ conception. Both were left pretty open-ended – which could be great if the show gets picked up for more episodes, but as already discussed, I doubt that’s gonna happen. It could be that this part of the story is never resolved, and that would be a bit of a shame because it seemed interesting.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing the Force-witches. — Will we learn more about the vergence and the “creation” of Osha and Mae?

The decision to include cameos from the prequel trilogy has been a source of some controversy. Speaking for myself, I think these cameos were handled quite well – and there’s more than enough wiggle-room for both the minor character of Ki-Adi-Mundi and the more significant character of Yoda to have been present at the Jedi Temple without being too involved in the events we saw unfolding on screen. For me, it doesn’t tread on the toes of what we knew about either character, and what they have to say in the prequel films and beyond doesn’t seem to be contradicted by their very brief appearances in The Acolyte. The same is true of a character many are assuming to be Darth Plageius – glimpsed toward the end of the series at the Sith base.

As fans, I think all of us can fall prey to nitpicking and to prioritising minor things – throwaway lines of dialogue, secondary characters, or non-canon resources like books or comics – over and above everything else. And from what I’ve seen based on my admittedly limited engagement with the discourse around The Acolyte, I think that’s what’s been happening in some cases. Having heard of the drama before watching the series, I seriously expected Ki-Adi-Mundi in particular to have a massive role – but he was on screen in one episode for a matter of seconds, had no noticeable impact on the plot, and as far as I can tell wasn’t necessarily aware of what transpired. The controversy that some fans have tried to stir up (perhaps because their social media income has become increasingly dependent on the “anti-Star Wars” crowd) feels overblown at best. A storm in a teacup!

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing Ki-Adi-Mundi and another Jedi character. — Ki-Adi-Mundi – a character first introduced in the prequel trilogy – made a small cameo appearance in *The Acolyte*.

In terms of production values, I thought that The Acolyte was decent – but there were a couple of missteps. On a couple of occasions the way real actors interacted with fully-CGI environments was sub-par and strayed into the dreaded uncanny valley. Musically, the series was fine – in line with other Star Wars projects, perhaps, but by no means exceptional. My rule of thumb for any film or TV show is that the music shouldn’t be a distraction, and in that sense The Acolyte did okay. But nothing from its soundtrack was particularly original or memorable, and if you played it for me right now, I’d struggle to remember what production it was from or even whether I’d heard it before.

Acting performances were generally pretty good. I particularly enjoyed Lee Jung-Jae’s take on the conflicted Master Sol, and Dafne Keen gave a solid performance as the young Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon. Amandla Stenberg had the challenge of playing two very different characters – but rose to the occasion. The only performance I felt didn’t reach the heights it should’ve was Harry Trevaldwyn’s – he played the role of Mog, a junior Jedi aide-de-camp to Master Vernestra. Playing Jedi roles can be tricky; they have deliberately stifled emotions, making it difficult for some performers to really know what to do. Mog was, thankfully, a minor character who wasn’t on screen all that much. Still, there are far better Jedi performances out there!

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing Master Vernestra and Mog. — Master Vernestra and Mog.

Speaking of performers, I felt that Carrie-Ann Moss was almost wasted in the role of Master Indara. Moss’ role in the series played a big part in The Acolyte’s early marketing material, yet she was only present in a big way in a couple of episodes, with her character having been killed off right at the beginning of the story. I could’ve happily spent more time with Master Indara; compared with the broken Torbin, emotional Sol, and politicking Vernestra, she was the closest the series got to having a Jedi Master in the more heroic style we’ve come to expect.

Stepping away from the rise and fall of the Empire to look at a different era in the Star Wars galaxy is something that the franchise has needed to do for a long time. I’m happy that we finally got to see some of this High Republic era on screen, and I liked some of the subtle changes made to things like Jedi robes. Setting the scene in a different – but still familiar enough – way helped The Acolyte stand out, even if its basic Jedi-versus-Sith idea didn’t feel all that fresh.

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing two characters engaged in a lightsaber duel. — A lightsabre battle.

There were standout moments in the series, and I feel the criticism it’s received in some quarters has been unnecessarily harsh. Personally, I’d like to see Disney and Lucasfilm greenlight more projects set in different locales and different time periods, and I hope that the backlash to parts of The Acolyte won’t dissuade them from doing so. There’s only so many times I can see Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, or their descendants saving the day – and if Star Wars is to survive long-term, we’ll need to see more projects like this one. That’s not to say The Acolyte was perfect – it wasn’t. But it was a step in the right direction for a franchise that has felt increasingly stale.

Despite claims made in the run-up to its broadcast, I didn’t feel that The Acolyte would be the easiest and smoothest way into Star Wars for someone brand-new to the franchise. It has the advantage of not relying on familiar characters, but it’s still got some deep cuts to parts of the Star Wars franchise that, I would argue, weren’t particularly well-explained within the series itself. That’s nothing new for Star Wars, of course!

Still frame from Star Wars: The Acolyte showing Mae. — Mae at the end of the story.

The Acolyte held my attention and got me invested in its main characters and storyline. Some of the secondary characters and sub-plots felt under-developed, and I think the series as a whole might’ve benefitted from being ten episodes long instead of eight. This would’ve allowed for scenes and sequences to be extended, for some additional character development, and for some of the show’s B-plots to be expanded upon. This isn’t an issue unique to The Acolyte by any means – but some producers and directors are clearly better at making the most out of eight episodes than others!

At the end of the day, though, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy The Acolyte. Its focus on a Sith assassin was intriguing, its portrayal of the Jedi Order as out-of-touch and arrogant lined up with both the prequels and sequels, and its core story of human characters making decidedly human mistakes was one that was, in a way, relatable. The Acolyte may have done more than any other Star Wars project to date to really humanise the Jedi Order and make some of its members feel like real people. Whether that’s something every fan wanted to see from Star Wars, or whether they prefer to think of Jedi Knights as flawless paragons of virtue… well, I think the backlash in some parts of the fan community answers that particular question!

Of the Disney+ Star Wars shows I’ve seen so far, I’d put The Acolyte in second place – behind The Book of Boba Fett but ahead of The Mandalorian. And light-years away from the awful Obi-Wan Kenobi series!

Star Wars: The Acolyte is available to stream now on Disney+. The series will also be released on DVD/Blu-ray at a later date. The Star Wars franchise – including The Acolyte and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.