Samuel Clayton

This show appeals to my inner ten-year-old. Feels very "Starwarsy" in a way that a lot of the new stuff hasn't. Don't get me wrong, Andor is a masterpiece, but that has a completely different tone and style compared to the original trilogy. This comes closer to capturing the magic of the originals for me, and it was obviously crafted by somebody who is passionate about the franchise. I'm only giving this 4.5/5 stars because I can't speak for those who haven't watched Rebels. The endless exposition is by far the worst part of the first two episodes, but, hopefully, the painfully long dialogue scenes will be kept to a minimum going forward. Then again, the dialogue has always been rather campy in Star Wars media, even in the classic movies.

It's not as good as a New Hope or Empire, but I would say I enjoyed it as much as Return of the Jedi, which despite being placed on a pedestal today, received mixed reviews upon its release (The New Yorker called RoJ "an impersonal and rather junky piece of moviemaking."). I simply can't relate to all the reviews describing it as the "worst star wars ever". These people obviously haven't watched the prequels recently. Keep in mind that I thought the Last Jedi was a thoroughly mediocre movie with a completely illogical plot and a space-balls-like sense of humor. Rise of Skywalker, however, is overplotted and fast-paced, but still succeeds in communicating what's happening through effective editing. I hope there's an extended cut of the movie, because I would've liked to see more of the main characters interacting with each other--this is my one major criticism. You don't get much of that because they're constantly racing to save the Galaxy, but the actors are nonetheless able to sell that they've developed friendships off-screen. Like all Star Wars movies, there was some cheesy dialogue, but nothing as bad as prequel dialogue. The surprising revelations didn't impact the plot of this movie, so much as they added new layers to previous installments. Those who had serious problems with Luke as a character in TLJ will be given insight into why he behaved the way he did. This movie was made for Star Wars fans, not film critics. As a stand-alone film, it would be about as enjoyable as watching Avengers infinity war without seeing any other marvel movies first. But for me, it was delightful.

Funny, light-hearted western. It's not high art, but it's not trying to be.