Hacksaw Ridge is easily one of the best war movies we've gotten in recent years. Mel Gibson knows this genre as well as anyone and he delivers an emotional and incredible true story with great characters and amazing action. Andrew Garfield really anchors this film and gives the best performance of his career by a long shot. The same goes for Teresa Palmer. Then you get excellent supporting performances from Sam Worthington, Vince Vaughn, Hugo Weaving and Luke Bracey. I think this movie is a Best Picture competitor if the Academy can put Gibson's past comments behind him and its going to be one of the most significant and most memorable movies of 2016.
Easily the best Star Wars tv show, even after only 3 episodes. A Star Wars show that actually has nuance??!?
Having continued to watch weekly, here's just a bit of why it's so good: Dialogue that treats its audience as intelligent, writing and themes that actually address what Empire and Rebellion really mean, side characters who immediately make an impression even with limited screen time, incredible set design that feels real rather than CGI, spy thriller intensity bubbling underneath every scene, imbuing TIE fighters and stormtroopers with actual menace, new nuggets of interesting worldbuilding, emotional scenes between interesting characters, and some of the best set-pieces of Star Wars TV (episodes 3 & 6 in particular). It's Star Wars for adults, not in the sense of gore, violence, or sex, but in the sense of nuance, complexity, and weighty themes. It's astounding that Star Wars can be this good, especially since all their recent shows and films have been lackluster copies of past highs.
Art is subjective of course, you can like what you like, but these are just some of the reasons that this show is getting as much praise as it has been. I think Star Wars is a setting, a feeling, and it can sustain different types of genres and themes. It can be light-hearted action-adventure, and that's fine if that's what you want it to be, but this show proves that it can do other things. Star Wars can keep expanding into numerous different genres if it's done with the care and thought that this show has been given.