J Church

Beautifully constructed locations, new characters, good acting, interesting cameos, flashbacks that don’t overwhelm the narrative flow (I’m looking at you, Boba), developing menace. I love this slightly darker new entry to the usually predicable and sometimes cheesy behemoth franchise. Star Wars’s newer offspring have their moments: The child had cuteness and some laughs, Kenobi had heaps of nostalgia - but this time the careful character building gave me more reason to care about the characters - and not just the good guys. The time taken taken to show the mini-fascists puffing themselves up pays off in spadefuls in the 3rd episode. This is where the action begins and the sense of a town under the boot but pulling together followed by the release of a tense gun battle (fighting back, at last!) is brilliant. Even the factory setting is made fresh being both appropriately metallic and cold but claustrophobic and intense. Excellent writing and characters with believable motivation. More!