THE ACOLYTE (2024) – Pathetic and forgettable entry in the Star Wars universe
Rating: ⭐
Disney+ has once again come up with another series set in the Star Wars universe. The Acolyte sets itself apart from all other Star Wars movies and TV series with its timeline set BEFORE anything that we have seen in the Star Wars franchise. This is during the so-called High Republic era which is roughly 100 years before The Phantom Menace! Apparently, this was the time of peace and the golden age of the Jedi Order. What the series attempt to introduce here is the beginning of changes in the galaxy whereby the dark force is slowly emerging.
On paper this sounds like a great idea and the film makers would have the liberty to go all out with their creativity since we have technically nothing to make reference to from earlier films. Unfortunately, the film makers fall short of taking this advantage and instead opted for a pretty unremarkable, woke driven plot and casting, with very inferior writing. Once again, Disney is using the opportunity to promote its woke awareness agenda. We have the cast made up of a coloured girl, Mae (played unremarkably by Amandla Stenberg), the Jedi Master Sol played by Korean actor Lee Jung-Jae and other cast members with Asian, Canadiana and Spanish background. Mae is also child to a same sex parents. When we are introduced to Jedi Master Sol, he is in the midst of giving lessons to a class of young students. The class of students looks like they were recruited from a Galactic version of Disney’s It’s A Small World. Perhaps the only exciting entry in the cast is Carrie-Anne Moss and Jedi Master Indara. The opening act with Carrie executing some cool moves with a fight scene with Mae was probably the only invigorating scene in the entire series. It was nice to see Carrie-Anne Moss again taking on what is teased at this beginning, to be a pivotal character. But alas this was not to be as her character very quickly takes a back seat.
Unlike the very high standard set by ANDOR, these newer additions including the recent Ahsoka are not worthy to be included in the franchise and legacy which Disney is slowly but surely destroying. The characters in Acolyte are all very weakly written and developed with the whole thing has the feel of a juvenile animated TV series. I suspect that all true Star Wars fans would be up in arms and condemn this series as it fails miserably to have any coherent connection to the franchise. The scary thing is that this is just the beginning and looks set to be the start of yet another multiple seasons series. I for one will not be back to find out what happens next to the surviving members of the cast.