[5.3/10] Oof, well that was an inauspicious start. I’m just trying to remind myself that Star Wars: The Clone Wars started off with a rightfully reviled theatrical film, Rebels was reasonably shaky in its early going, and Ahsoka Tano (possibly my favorite character in all of Star Wars) started out annoying as hell.
So I’m going to try to give some leeway to Resistance, which currently features a contrived setup with an overexplain-y pilot episode riddled with emotional exposition and a painfully annoying main character. Kaz, the over-eager “ace” pilot who finds himself in over his head in a Tatooine Cantina-esque hive of scum and villainy, has the same pestersome theater kid delivery of a lot of Disney show, and the script does him no favors, having him outright declare his character motivations or emotional state. We get it -- he’s boastful and brave but naive and untested, and he has daddy issues that he’s trying to overcome by making his own choices for once, daaaaad. Again, I’m trying to tell myself that Ahsoka and Ezra started off pretty twerpy too.
The pilot episode does a lot of things that pilot episodes do -- it introduces all the main characters in clunky fashion. It gives you the gist of the environment Kaz and company will be operating in. And it gives some stakes to the series in the form of the embryonic Resistance vs. First Order conflict and Kaz’s mission. The whole misunderstanding that leads to Kaz entering a big race and having to scrounge parts and enlist teammates is contrived as hell, and most of the new characters are flat and/or generic. I’m pretty sure Yeeger repeats the same “don’t try to win, just survive” instruction that doubles as his own ethos at least three times, and his “I’m not a fighter anymore” routine is tired. I do like Neeku, who’s part Drax, part Data, and part Buddy the Elf, which makes for some enjoyable, overly literal comic relief. Everyone else barely has a personality in the early going.
The writing is also really rudimentary. I know folks had complaints about Rebels being written for a younger demographic than The Clone Wars, but there’s so much hand-holding and broad schtick in this one, that it can’t help but feel like a step down from Dave Filoni’s previous series. I’m also not a fan of the art style out of the date. The cel-shaded aesthetic gives everything a playmobil feel, and the actual movements come off overexaggerated and cartoony, with the weight of the characters not seeming to match their movements. The inclusion of Poe Dameron and BB-8 comes off as perfunctory, with Poe in particular doing just enough to give Kaz and the show the benediction of the sequel trilogy and then hitting the road.
Still, I keep trying to remind myself that the other great Star Wars animated shows had rocky roads and lots of complaints. So hopefully this is just an early (if uninspiring) hiccup from Resistance and the series finds its bearings soon.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-01-03T03:39:52Z
[5.3/10] Oof, well that was an inauspicious start. I’m just trying to remind myself that Star Wars: The Clone Wars started off with a rightfully reviled theatrical film, Rebels was reasonably shaky in its early going, and Ahsoka Tano (possibly my favorite character in all of Star Wars) started out annoying as hell.
So I’m going to try to give some leeway to Resistance, which currently features a contrived setup with an overexplain-y pilot episode riddled with emotional exposition and a painfully annoying main character. Kaz, the over-eager “ace” pilot who finds himself in over his head in a Tatooine Cantina-esque hive of scum and villainy, has the same pestersome theater kid delivery of a lot of Disney show, and the script does him no favors, having him outright declare his character motivations or emotional state. We get it -- he’s boastful and brave but naive and untested, and he has daddy issues that he’s trying to overcome by making his own choices for once, daaaaad. Again, I’m trying to tell myself that Ahsoka and Ezra started off pretty twerpy too.
The pilot episode does a lot of things that pilot episodes do -- it introduces all the main characters in clunky fashion. It gives you the gist of the environment Kaz and company will be operating in. And it gives some stakes to the series in the form of the embryonic Resistance vs. First Order conflict and Kaz’s mission. The whole misunderstanding that leads to Kaz entering a big race and having to scrounge parts and enlist teammates is contrived as hell, and most of the new characters are flat and/or generic. I’m pretty sure Yeeger repeats the same “don’t try to win, just survive” instruction that doubles as his own ethos at least three times, and his “I’m not a fighter anymore” routine is tired. I do like Neeku, who’s part Drax, part Data, and part Buddy the Elf, which makes for some enjoyable, overly literal comic relief. Everyone else barely has a personality in the early going.
The writing is also really rudimentary. I know folks had complaints about Rebels being written for a younger demographic than The Clone Wars, but there’s so much hand-holding and broad schtick in this one, that it can’t help but feel like a step down from Dave Filoni’s previous series. I’m also not a fan of the art style out of the date. The cel-shaded aesthetic gives everything a playmobil feel, and the actual movements come off overexaggerated and cartoony, with the weight of the characters not seeming to match their movements. The inclusion of Poe Dameron and BB-8 comes off as perfunctory, with Poe in particular doing just enough to give Kaz and the show the benediction of the sequel trilogy and then hitting the road.
Still, I keep trying to remind myself that the other great Star Wars animated shows had rocky roads and lots of complaints. So hopefully this is just an early (if uninspiring) hiccup from Resistance and the series finds its bearings soon.