Based on what I have seen on the internet, The Acolyte was a divisive show long before it ever came out. I had the chance to watch the show at an advance screening so I have actually seen it and can leave a fair review. The protagonist (or antagonist?) is Mae, a dark side acolyte hellbent on exacting revenge of four Jedi who ruined her life (as the audience we don't know the exact reason yet.) Her mysterious master has instructed her to kill these Jedi without assistance of a weapon mostly because the director wants to show what a Force-user fight without lightsabers would look like. I imagine this will involve throwing a lot of pocket midichlorians at each other or something like that. The premise is good enough and some of the characters are executed well. Jedi master Sol is acted exceptionally well and I kind of liked Daphne Keen's Theelin padawan character. There were plenty of unique alien designs (some new, some adapted from the animated shows, and some previously seen in live action). The sets also looked great.
Amandla Stenberg plays two roles - Mae (the dark side acolyte) and Osha (her good twin sister. She played the role of Osha just fine (and yes, the Jedi do commit one OSHA violation with her in episode 2), but unfortunately I didn't find her very convincing in the evil twin role. She wasn't intimidating in the slightest but hopefully this gives the character (and actor) a chance to grow.
My main complaint with this show is not the acting though, it is the pacing. We are introduced to 5 or 10 characters but don't really have any moments that show us who these characters are or what motivates them. The writers of these Star Wars shows need to learn to take some time to let the script breathe. We don't need an action scene every three minutes to stay entertained. I would love to see some more talking, character development, and actual world building. The writer of the acolyte didn't get the memo, so we get plenty of action scenes which are at least unique. Thank goodness we got Andor which was miles ahead of the rest of these shows and trusted the audience to pay attention.
Final nitpicky complaint, which won't bother most people reading this is that this show will almost certainly nullify the events of the excellent Darth Plagueis novel written before the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm. Disney had a perfect script for a prequel to the Phantom Menace and they have thrown that right in the garbage compactor. The jury is still out on this show for me (it could still go either way, I'm giving it a 7 for now) but I can almost guarantee it will not be as beloved to Star Wars fans as the Plagueis novel was.
So go watch the show and decide for yourself. It is neither as horrible as some people are claiming, nor is it as revolutionary as others are saying. But it is an interesting enough story told in a new time period of Star Wars (something we desperately need more of).
Amandla Stenberg plays two roles - Mae (the dark side acolyte) and Osha (her good twin sister. She played the role of Osha just fine (and yes, the Jedi do commit one OSHA violation with her in episode 2), but unfortunately I didn't find her very convincing in the evil twin role. She wasn't intimidating in the slightest but hopefully this gives the character (and actor) a chance to grow.
My main complaint with this show is not the acting though, it is the pacing. We are introduced to 5 or 10 characters but don't really have any moments that show us who these characters are or what motivates them. The writers of these Star Wars shows need to learn to take some time to let the script breathe. We don't need an action scene every three minutes to stay entertained. I would love to see some more talking, character development, and actual world building. The writer of the acolyte didn't get the memo, so we get plenty of action scenes which are at least unique. Thank goodness we got Andor which was miles ahead of the rest of these shows and trusted the audience to pay attention.
Final nitpicky complaint, which won't bother most people reading this is that this show will almost certainly nullify the events of the excellent Darth Plagueis novel written before the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm. Disney had a perfect script for a prequel to the Phantom Menace and they have thrown that right in the garbage compactor. The jury is still out on this show for me (it could still go either way, I'm giving it a 7 for now) but I can almost guarantee it will not be as beloved to Star Wars fans as the Plagueis novel was.
So go watch the show and decide for yourself. It is neither as horrible as some people are claiming, nor is it as revolutionary as others are saying. But it is an interesting enough story told in a new time period of Star Wars (something we desperately need more of).
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