If I had to defend Reeva, I’d say she fits the pathologically mediocre and robotic personality type of a bureaucrat/government worker. Especially one you’d expect working for an oppressive regime. Her style of smugness stands out as too modern, though, for the setting that’s based on a 1977 fairytale. And that’s where the problem is. I wish she’d just lean into it - just act, react, make a face, nibble on that scenery at least a little bit, ANYTHING. She could be a cool new villain that you love to hate. But every shot of her is the same expression. I’m just not feeling anything. Bad acting, they say, is the director’s fault, so I’m not sure how much the actress can be blamed. I mean, the prequels - I’ve seen all of those actors do good work in other movies, for example, but they were barely hanging in there under George.
Besides that, I’m embarrassed to admit I fanboy’d out a bit at the Vader scenes in the third episode. So much so I remembered I had an account here and wanted to inform any SW fans I could find about my feels. Yes, the fight looked like an improvised shindig at a cosplay convention and a bed wetting version of Obi Wan is hardly acceptable, and this indeed deflates both the ROTS and ANH duels, but still… they got me. This was the first time in the Disney SW era where I was grinning and not cause of cringe. And if I had to defend the poor quality of the fight - my biggest problem with Disney SW is that, cause of their preference for the OT era, they’re taking old designs, locations, props, puppets that worked with and were complimented by the technology of their time and humiliating them by trying to present them all flashy in the new movies. It just looks off. Morally outdated. So I’m kinda fine with them toning it down a bit for anything that’s closer to OT.
Ultimately, I don’t care if there’s a cheap cricket monster in the background in front of a cardboard wall - the story is what matters and… unfortunately, I’m skipping through most of it. Adventures of little Leia? Yeah, nah. Life’s too short for that. Most of this I’m gliding through and nope’ing out of.
I do sense a neat little fan edit out of all of this, though. Don’t watch Disney SW as part of my SW marathons and still consider most of the legacy storylines as canon (including Dark Forces), but this could result into an explosive 20-30 minutes of pure Obi Wan/Vader stuff. Maybe even jam those Roozh One scenes in there somewhere.
Anyway, whoever is enjoying this - power to you. Don’t wanna parade on your piss. While it’s not for me, I still got a nugget of joy out of this and that’s, frankly, more than I ever hoped for.