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Okay, this was my first time watching the Acolyte period, and I must say this was fantastic. I had seen the reviews on youtube and know most of the controversies but had not sat down and watched it in full yet, and honestly was ready for this to be terrible even after all the editing and was very pleasantly surprised.
First I will start with cons:
- The movie is very long, but shorter then LOTR extended or Oppenheimer and I’m not sure the story would work if it was not this long and the edit keeps the pace going at a very quick pace. Just a lot to tell.
- Spoiler: Didn’t love the after credit seen, Yoda not knowing about this (and who knows what the conversation was going to be with him, maybe he isn’t told anything and I fully understand why it needed to be there to help it stay in line with story being told in cannon)
Now for a TON of Pros:
- Made the power of one, the power of two, the power of many scene feel like star wars: the clone wars in live action. Didn’t think that was savable from what I had seen of it but it totally worked
- Implied nudity was heavily adjusted, and no longer there for the sake of being there. Qimir seemed to do what he did not to show off sexually but to show he was truly disarmed and show the audience his back.
- Qimir seemed like a surprise, my family who knew nothing about the show was shocked. Can’t say I felt that way even in watching the youtube reviews. His introduction was simple and his reveal worked very well as you don’t spend weeks and hours of watching where it becomes easy to put together.
- Jedi Deaths off screen brings a much higher level of mystery and make the deaths so much more meaningful. Having the one Jedi found being dead by poison and no lead up was amazing, and you felt like you where learning what was going on with Osha and Sol. It also made the Wookie Jedi death happening off screen make total sense.
- Making Sol the main character was perfect! It worked so well with the actors performance and gave character depth to both Sol and Osha. Everyone else was a little shallow but that is fine when they are supporting characters.
- Osha killing Sol made sense, her world was flipped and she reacted in rage and the cut makes it very clear that she was going in to be the hero and when confronted by part of the truth that was held from her she attacked the man that she blamed for that. It also made it very clear that Osha does not and will not have the full story making her easy to manipulate and make fall to the dark side. Seeing Qimir manipulate her paints him as the bad guy and Sol as the victim. Many criticized the show saying it made the Jedi look evil, and this did not feel that way, this made it look like good people made wrong choices with right intensions and that in any organization there will always be people using their power incorrectly. With the witches we see it with the 2nd mother, in the jedi we see it with the Green Jedi who is trying to cover up her own padawn failing all while Sol is truly trying to do what is right for Osha.
- Mae flip flopping made sense (I’m sure in the original most would be like “didn’t she just say in the last episode she was going to turn her self in? And now she is trying to kill Sol again?”) where as in this one she says I’m turning my self in, then realizes there is no way she can out run her master and watches him kill a full group of Jedi single handed, is told by the master he will kill her, meets up with her sister she thought was dead this whole time, and then sees the opportunity to kill the man she thinks caused all of this for happening in the first place. Its messy but life is messy and this feels a lot more logical and the way this was cut I didn’t feel it was much of stretch at all
- Sol figures out it is not Osha with him almost right away, yeah makes total sense he is a jedi, and from what we have been shown a pretty dang good one.
- Ki-Adi-Mundi involvement felt like a cameo and didn’t ruin anything in Episode 1. He is there, knows jedi are dying, and knows they need to keep things internal as they suspect a Jedi has gone rouge and nothing is mentioned of a sith. And as far as he is ever made aware that is exactly what happened. Sol messed up and didn’t want anyone to know, case closed.
- The way it ends it leaves me thinking that Qimir is the Acolyte not Mae or Osha with the dark Plagus cameo at the end which fits the rest of star wars very well. Darth Maul felt cast off so he gets his own apprentice and desires to become a rival to Sidus. Count Dukoo has Ventress and to test his loyalty is asked to kill her as she is growing to powerful. Darth Vader wanted Luke to be able to over throw the emperor. We also know in Legends that Plagus’s master had multiple apprentices that he would have fight each other this could be the same.
- Loved how Mae’s mind wipe was done! Made total sense for the story and has me hoping for a sequel where I will once again just watch your edit of instead of the whole series.
- Transitions felt very star wars and had 0 issues there
- Music felt spot on and at no point did it not feel that it was cut together.
Final Thoughts:
This felt like a tragedy, a very good person caught in a situation they didn’t understand and forced to make the choice he thought was best. It also shows how there really is no such thing as a personal choice, even when you are trying to be selfless it will effect others in ways you would never dream of. This all comes through loud and clear and feels very Star Wars! As one who grew up with the prequel movies this movie felt like it very much could be the same world and, in this case, universe as those movies. Very well done!
