It's good to see someone loved it. I think a lot of diehard fans probably will for all the fanservice it provided. Me, I'm with
@Mon0Zer0 and
@The Crawling Chaos and
@Dave in struggling to get past, not just the plot holes / Episode 4 inconsistencies, but the poor workmanship involved all round.
Yes, this was probably my favourite epsiode of the lot, but still only a 6/10. It's funny how different things irk us. I can live with the way it undermines A New Hope in the ways
@Dave underlined, provided I get a decent show, with great set pieces and good dialogue. But the script has been appalling. A primary school English student could write those lines.
Running through it:
Reva - how is she alive still? And how was the Grand Inquisitor alive? I actually thought Reva was going to croak at the start of this, but no - just a flesh wound. Rebel / Empire chase: yep, dumb - as in Last Jedi / fuel levels of dumb. Obi-Wan taking 10 minutes to dawdle and THEN escape in a warp-capable ship, but at sublight speed to a planet that just happened to be there. Meh - I can get past that bit. The whole Reva / Owen / Luke bit? Totally forgettable and pointless because we KNOW exactly how it ends. I said to my son, you can live with knowing how something turns out if they actually give the irrelevant characters some emotional investment, decent drama, and a noble end (i.e. Tala). But Reva didn't have that. I didn't care what happened to her, only her motivations for doing / not doing what she was going to do... which she didn't really provide.
As for the
fight: decent. I'm in the middle. The choreography was average, with some ludicrous moments, like the OB1 leap. Vader burying OB1 and walking away: dumb - but then this is something he does now, after Reva. The mask cut and the half-face voice thing: very good, a very nice touch. Shame about the bland dialogue. The acting for that exchange was good too. The fact that OB1 walks away?!?!? Ridiculous. He should have seen the evil in Vader and finished him off. It would have been far more believable had OB1, tearful and tormented, not killed Vader because he fears that it will drive him to the dark side. This could have been a rolling theme about OB1 losing his religion and fearing that he could cross that line between good and evil, given that Annakin had done the same. So he essentially lets Vader go to save himself. Maybe he also sees some good in Annakin too, and that he might ultimately be the one that DOES bring balance to the force by killing Palpatine (I'm ignoring Rise of Skywalker's unprecedented retcon at this point). As it was, he just said 'goodbye, Darth' and wanders off. 'Goodbye Darth?' Really?
I'm a firm believer in taking the things you want to happen in a story and laying them out in front of you to try and actually work out if they should / could and whether the characters involved are acting true to themselves in going along. And I think if you
can't, then you have to change the plot. And if you
can't change the plot because it conflicts with something that has already been established, then you don't tell the story at all. A good creative team could ABSOLUTELY have written knock-out dialogue, and filmed compelling, emotional scenes to justify
Vader's reasons for not killing OB1 outright, and then OB1's reasons for not killing Anakin. The viewer could have come away with sympathy for everyone involved; OB1's torment at failing Anakin, his fear of crossing to the darkside, his true purpose for the rest of his life (maybe he has a vision that shows him sacrificing himself to Vader for the good of the rebellion, so realises he can't kill Vader now); and then Anakin, starting to remember who he was when his real face is exposed and he is vulnerble. Maybe begging for OB1 to kill him to put him out of his misery, but then also laughing disturbingly, knowing it will drag OB1 into his place as Palpatine's puppet, all the while fighting the chemicals and endorphins pumping his system and fueling his rage (no one has mentioned that, as far as I'm aware - he must be in agony without the pain killers). Good writers can write this stuff and have us crying in our seats. But, as we've established, streaming companies don't feel they have to work that hard anymore, and our ongoing subscriptions continue to prove them right.
Again, my biggest overall issue is the flatness of it all; the muted colours (Tatooine has never looked so bland); the bare, baren look of the showdown (Mustafa had action, colour, sound, light - excessive, yes, but cinematic). This was just flat, dull mountain spikes, far too dark. But not just the visual flatness. I just felt no ones hearts were really in it. That scene at the end, with
Vader sitting in his temple, speaking to Palpatine. I just sat there watching it thinking, 'Yep, okay.' Nothing either of them said was remotely interesting; no personal / coaching / psychologically-framed dialogue to perhaps coax Vader back from having doubts. No internal conflict from Vader. No hints that Vader might be beginning to suspect he actually has offspring. Just a flat, boring scene with no relevance to anything.
I'd give the series 5/10 overall, with my favourite characters being Owen Lars, Tala, and the mute robot (who, with silent action alone, displayed far more charisma, nobility, and stoicism than any other character in the show). But I have to say that I disagree with you,
@The Crawling Chaos: I found OB1 a notch BELOW Boba Fett. Boba Fett was far from compelling, with plenty of flaws, but it was relatively unknown territory, and there was definitely a lot more of the Star Wars look, sound and spirit in that than in OB1, in my opinion.
Oh, and in the actor they chose for young Luke, they have achieved what I consider to be the worst casting of all time, especially for a character than had 1 line. He looked NOTHING like Luke, remotely. Alden whatshisface from Solo was a masterclass in casting by comparison.
Hopefully Andor gives us something better to dig our teeth into.
