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The Acolyte Series: A Fresh Start for Star Wars Fans and Newcomers

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

If you are already a Star Wars fan, you know what The Acolyte is all about. And odds are, if you are reading this you happen to be a Star Wars fan. But, on the off chance there are a few of you out there who have not yet gone to a galaxy far, far away, this review is for you. For those of you who are hardcore Star Wars fans, I’ll be doing spoiler heavy reviews for each episode once the series is complete.

There are too many entry points to Star Wars to name. You can obviously watch the movies. There are so many Star Wars books and comics it’s hard to keep track of them. And, of course, there are video games and role playing games galore that could give you a taste of Star Wars. If you happen to have Disney+, there are also a bunch of TV shows you can choose from. If you’ve never watched any of these, it can be really confusing to know where to start.

The Acolyte is a Disney+ Star Wars show that takes place about a hundred years before the events of the earliest Star Wars film, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. While the films center around the Skywalker Saga, The Acolyte has none of the baggage of those films.

You do not need to be a Star Wars expert to enjoy the show. There aren’t going to be characters you have generally heard of, or seen clips of, appearing here.

Instead, this show focuses on a group of galactic peacekeepers known as Jedi. They are what you might consider to be a space faring police force, combined with a diplomatic delegation, trying to keep peace in the galaxy. They also have access to the Force, a power that allows them to do things that seem magical, like move objects without touching them, or getting someone to do something they wouldn’t normally do.

The galaxy depends on these people to uphold justice and fairness. However, there are some folks who oppose the Jedi. I won’t go too deeply into who they are in this post because that may give too much away. Suffice it to say, there are people who may have been wronged, or who simply have hate at their core and seek revenge on the Jedi.

This series starts with a fight between a Jedi and someone trained in the Jedi arts who seems to have a grudge against the Jedi.

This event leads to a mystery which begins to unfold in the first episode. There are definitely some surprises here, even for longtime Star Wars fans and there is a lot of fast paced action. While Star Wars can sometimes get deeply emotional, so far this series seems like it does keep more of the focus on the action. This could change in further episodes but the first one decided to deliver on the promise of intense fighting and cool visuals. There are a plethora of creatures, spaceships, and special effects to keep up the stunning visuals.

This first episode basically gets our premise rolling, sets up a bit of a mystery, delivers some action, and establishes all of the important characters. It mostly centers on a former Jedi named Osha, played by Amandla Stenberg and her former teacher/current Jedi Master Sol played by Lee Jung-Jae.

The first scene showcases some of the promise of the incredible action to come. And the end of the episode leaves the audience wanting more.

The acting is solid here and so far hasn’t devolved into some of the most melodramatic moments the films suffer from. The cast and the director clearly know what they are doing and have a solid direction for the series but it remains to be seen how well it all comes together.

While there are some characters here that serious Star Wars fans will recognize from printed material, in this show it’s hard to speculate on what may happen. Unlike prequels, there aren’t any characters we know have to survive. This makes for a more interesting watch than some of the other shows.

As with any Star Wars show or movie, the most memorable part is the incredible soundtrack and this show fully delivers there.

The production quality is top notch and this feels more like watching a film than a television show.

If you’ve never dipped your toes in the water of Star Wars, this is a great series to begin with. It feels very much like some of the most iconic things in Star Wars. It has not yet reached the level of greatness some of the shows and movies do but it’s not off to a bad start. I do recommend the show to both longtime fans and newcomers, at least so far.

Have you watched the first episode? If so, let me know what you thought of it in the comments! Just remember to keep it spoiler free!

May the Force be with you!

Posted on by slickdungeon

Elemental – Movie Review

FIRE AND WATER – Set in a city where fire-, water-, land-, and air-residents live together, Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in. Featuring the voices of Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie as Ember and Wade, respectively. © 2022 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Hey there film fans, it’s Slick Dungeon! I’m back to review another Oscar nominated film. This time I’ll be reviewing the latest entry from powerhouse animation studio Disney/Pixar, Elemental. The film is about a hotheaded element who meets an element fluid enough to go with the flow. Be forewarned there will be spoilers below so if that sort of thing bothers you, watch the movie and then come on back here to read the review.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

What’s it about?

While on the surface this is basically a rom-com with most of the trappings you find in that genre, at its core, Elemental is about the immigrant experience. There is a big city where most elements live called Element City. This city has lots of air, earth, and water elements. More rare are fire elements.

Two such elements are Bernie and Cindie Ember. They immigrate to Element City with their daughter Ember and set up a shop called The Fireplace. With them, they also bring their blue flame which represents their traditions and culture.

Things seem to go relatively well at first. Bernie is successful at his business and he promises the store to his daughter once she is ready. Bernie does seem to have a serious dislike for all water elements. And while Ember is good at most things in the store, she does have a tendency to lose her temper at customers. Also, in general, the community is not entirely accepting of fire elements because, well, they can catch things on fire, and that would be bad.

We jump ahead a few years and Ember is grown up. She’s still helping her father with the store most days but he is near retirement. Ember has one last thing to do to prove herself. She has to get through the red dot sale day without losing her temper. The sale starts and things go okay at first but customers are customers and soon Ember heads down to the basement to let off some steam. She heats up and soon a pipe in the shop bursts. It looks like Ember has ruined the day.

But then, a city inspector comes out of the pipe. This is Wade Ripple who is a water element. He is horrified at the state of the shop but sympathizes with Ember. Still, he has to do his job and he writes up some citations that could get the shop closed down.

Ember does everything she can to convince Wade to ditch the citations but she’s too late and it’s out of his hands. But he is again sympathetic to her situation and allows her to meet some of the higher ups who could reverse the ruling.

In the process of all this, Ember ends up lying to her father about what happened to the shop. Wade and Ember also discover that the real problem has to do with the gate of the city.

As you can guess, in any rom-com, the lies pile up, the romance heats up, and it all comes to a head in a disastrous situation. But, in the end, things work out. Ember and her father are still on good terms even though she has decided not to run the family store and even though she is dating a water element.

The Animation

As with any Pixar film, the animation here is incredibly good. The design of the elements themselves is fun and enjoyable and the backgrounds make an entirely fictional setting look basically real.

This type of skill is what has won Pixar plenty of Oscars in the past but I would not say this film is breaking any new ground in animation here. While the style is good and it matches the story well, there isn’t anything we haven’t seen before visually. That’s not to say it is not an impressive feat. To still be this good at making an animated story work is saying something in and of itself. Pixar has nothing to be ashamed about in this film and I am not sure why it didn’t catch on with audiences so well. I think perhaps the marketing is to blame but if you have not seen it, this is worth a watch for the visual experience alone.

The Voice Acting

As far as the voice acting talent goes in this film, it is spot on and perfectly cast. All of the characters sound like you would expect them to and this, combined with the great animation makes for a very engaging viewing experience.

In conclusion

While the animation is great and the story is solid, in a lot of ways this film feels too conventional. It is nice to see the immigrant experience depicted in animation and I think that will resonate with a lot of audiences. The love story is fairly standard and ends the way you most likely guessed it would end. However, the film doesn’t quite push enough envelopes to make it stand out over other Pixar films. It is undoubtedly one of the best animated films of the year but I don’t think it is, in fact, the best one.

As far as whether this film will win an Oscar, my prediction is it is between Elemental and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Either one could win but my money is on Spider-Man. (Please don’t bet on anything based on my predictions because I am often wrong.)

Elementally yours,

Slick Dungeon