The visuals are barely adequate. Unlike Andor, much of this was clearly shot in the volume, with some jarringly cheap looking effects breaking any immersion. The sets that are present are too clean and under-dressed, lacking the grime and greebles necessary to sell them in an era of 4K cinematography.
Score is, well, it's there, and it rarely becomes too overblown, is the best that I can say. None of it is memorable.
The casting is mostly decent. Dawson has the looks to play Ahoska, Winstead does a fair job as Hera, and the late Ray Stevenson is hugely compelling as Skoll - but won't be reprising this role.
However, looks are all that Dawson brings. She's a mid-40s character actress with a penchant for playing serious and downbeat roles that Disney are trying to turn into a high energy action star, and it just doesn't work. It's unfair to blame Dawson for lacking the physicality, but her fight scenes are comically bad.
Then there's the character of Ahsoka herself, which is a dour, muted, version of what had been built up from an obnoxious brat into a fully realised, rounded and fascinating person over years of hard work and care across many animated series. Most of that is thrown away here: Dawson just under-emotes a few lines with no real spark or personality to intent to them. If this is an Ahsoka show, where's Ahsoka?
And to top all that, Ahsoka is then pushed into the background in her own show in favour of Sabine, in a disastrously miscast and misdirected part that's just another example of the supercilious smirking Mary-Sue grrlboss that Disney seemingly can't stop serving up in the belief that there's an audience demanding to see it. Sure, Sabine is mildly inconvenienced at the end of the first episode, but not in any way that matters. Just rub some dirt in it, and get back to being The Girl Who's The Key To Everything.
The plot (if we can call it that) of the first two episode is just a series of fetch-quests and Rebels, Assemble! Scenes loosely stitched together, but without any clear narrative drive, goal, or stakes. We have to find Thrawn! Who? Why? Don't know, just accept it. Almost none of it is character driven, and events unfold simply because the plot requires them to do so.
After a commendably brisk and involving opening fifteen minutes, the pace drops right off. Far too many scenes are just expositional dialogue, delivered in a hushed fashion and with interminable pauses between each line that makes it seem like the characters aren't really interacting with each other on the same set - and perhaps they weren't.
The scenes that aren't dialogue consist of walking to, picking up, or staring at McGuffins, all of them excruciatingly drawn out - a decent editor would have lopped 10 minutes of filler out of each episode, but apparently watch-minutes is king. And even by Star Wars standards, the mystery box (or sphere) plot points are idiotic and incomprehensible beyond parody. How can the current location of a person be found in an artefact created thousands of years before he was born? Don't know, don't think about it, just consume content and buy toys.
Were these scenes even directed? There's no evidence of it. Every character has the same blank, stoic look on their face in every scene, and delivers every line with identically ponderous faux import. There's a scene where two characters are loudly killing each other, while the background extras don't react at all, because nobody thought to give them any direction beyond "Push buttons, do starship things".
Since Skroll is the only remotely interesting character - and sadly I have to include Ahsoka in that - it's hard to see why we're meant to care. I found myself skipping through to find where the pace picks up again, or a real plot beyond fetch-quest after fetch-quest starts during the first two hours, but to no avail.
Even when I'd set my expectations low, Disney has yet again come in squarely under them with another dragging, insipid, uncompelling bait-and-switch where I find myself squarely on Team Antagonist. Go Skroll!
Score is, well, it's there, and it rarely becomes too overblown, is the best that I can say. None of it is memorable.
The casting is mostly decent. Dawson has the looks to play Ahoska, Winstead does a fair job as Hera, and the late Ray Stevenson is hugely compelling as Skoll - but won't be reprising this role.
However, looks are all that Dawson brings. She's a mid-40s character actress with a penchant for playing serious and downbeat roles that Disney are trying to turn into a high energy action star, and it just doesn't work. It's unfair to blame Dawson for lacking the physicality, but her fight scenes are comically bad.
Then there's the character of Ahsoka herself, which is a dour, muted, version of what had been built up from an obnoxious brat into a fully realised, rounded and fascinating person over years of hard work and care across many animated series. Most of that is thrown away here: Dawson just under-emotes a few lines with no real spark or personality to intent to them. If this is an Ahsoka show, where's Ahsoka?
And to top all that, Ahsoka is then pushed into the background in her own show in favour of Sabine, in a disastrously miscast and misdirected part that's just another example of the supercilious smirking Mary-Sue grrlboss that Disney seemingly can't stop serving up in the belief that there's an audience demanding to see it. Sure, Sabine is mildly inconvenienced at the end of the first episode, but not in any way that matters. Just rub some dirt in it, and get back to being The Girl Who's The Key To Everything.
The plot (if we can call it that) of the first two episode is just a series of fetch-quests and Rebels, Assemble! Scenes loosely stitched together, but without any clear narrative drive, goal, or stakes. We have to find Thrawn! Who? Why? Don't know, just accept it. Almost none of it is character driven, and events unfold simply because the plot requires them to do so.
After a commendably brisk and involving opening fifteen minutes, the pace drops right off. Far too many scenes are just expositional dialogue, delivered in a hushed fashion and with interminable pauses between each line that makes it seem like the characters aren't really interacting with each other on the same set - and perhaps they weren't.
The scenes that aren't dialogue consist of walking to, picking up, or staring at McGuffins, all of them excruciatingly drawn out - a decent editor would have lopped 10 minutes of filler out of each episode, but apparently watch-minutes is king. And even by Star Wars standards, the mystery box (or sphere) plot points are idiotic and incomprehensible beyond parody. How can the current location of a person be found in an artefact created thousands of years before he was born? Don't know, don't think about it, just consume content and buy toys.
Were these scenes even directed? There's no evidence of it. Every character has the same blank, stoic look on their face in every scene, and delivers every line with identically ponderous faux import. There's a scene where two characters are loudly killing each other, while the background extras don't react at all, because nobody thought to give them any direction beyond "Push buttons, do starship things".
Since Skroll is the only remotely interesting character - and sadly I have to include Ahsoka in that - it's hard to see why we're meant to care. I found myself skipping through to find where the pace picks up again, or a real plot beyond fetch-quest after fetch-quest starts during the first two hours, but to no avail.
Even when I'd set my expectations low, Disney has yet again come in squarely under them with another dragging, insipid, uncompelling bait-and-switch where I find myself squarely on Team Antagonist. Go Skroll!