Without lots of action, without much of the popular Star Wars lore like the Force, Jedi, Lightsabers, this show delivers with every new episode.
It was very interesting to see that Mon Mothma was reluctant to delve fully into engaging the Empire in open Rebellion. We've never seen that side. I also like that they adressed that people are and will be dying like Luthen told her. It's not much of romantisizing. It's war. And the Empire responds the only way it knows how. By asserting even more power. By being predictable, thus playing into the Rebels hands.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
Which at least some inside the Empire seem to understand while others still think of their position.
We also see the glimmer of hope from the people that things are about to change for the better when they hear off the attack on Aldhani. And althought Star Wars is not known for portraying contemporary problems within the story telling, I wonder if the similarities are just random.
I really interested how characters like Syril and Dedra will develop moving forward. Could they actually (well maybe one of them) end up with the Rebels ?
Oh, and the world building in this show is also great: Bureau of Standards. It's the Empire put in a single building and again something that reminds me of our present.
Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.
Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.
(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).
This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).
8.5/10
The backstory of the movie is the eternal battle over the city of Jerusalem. That city is of course a tempting subject for makers of adventure movies given that it has been destroyed at least twice, been attacked 52 times, besieged 23 times and changed ownership 44 times.
Balian de Ibelin comes to Jerusalem (not really of his own will mind you) during a time when it was in Christian hands only to discover that most of the Christian noblemen are arrogant, warmongering assholes. Not only that but they are stupid beyond belief. The results are disastrous of course. The movie blurb is actually not very accurate. When Balian is at the point were he has to defend the people there is no peace, fragile or otherwise.
The movie is quite well done, no question about that. The scenery, the acting, all of it is on the level of a very good movie. It is not really an action movie though. More of a adventure/drama movie. Balian’s journey towards the final confrontation is a rather slow process and it is only towards then end, during the siege of Jerusalem, that the movie truly heats up on the action front. The siege of Jerusalem with its siege machines is quite impressive though. Not overdone with ridiculous CGI but well done.
It is also a depressing movie. The Christian noblemen, their disastrous behaviors and the equally disastrous end result makes me have a hard time to really like this movie. It is a good movie but I did not enjoy it as much as it deserves.
8.8/10. We are delving into Comic Book Guy territory here. When they started talking about a lost Jedi, I just knew it had to be Sifo Dyas. It's one of the biggest, most confusing loose ends from Attack of the Clones, and the uber-nerd in me appreciates the way that Clone Wars fills in the gap here. There's no grand surprise really -- we (or at least I) already assumed that Dooku had orchestrated it in Dyas's name somehow, but getting the details was great.
I'm also a sucker for a little Jedi mystery solving. Frankly, one of the best parts of Attack of the Clones was Obi Wan tracking down Jango and solving the mystery that led him to Kamino. I don't know why these warrior monks going all noir detective is so appealing to me, but it is. Having them slowly get the various pieces to the puzzle, until they get to the Pikes and end up running into Dooku himself was well-paced and set up.
And man, this show does crazy well. There was real pathos in Silas, like there was for Maul before he was magically cured of his insanity, and it helped create the unsettling atmosphere of the episode. On top of that, the ensuing lightsaber battle between Anakin, Obi Wan, and Dooku was pretty great, including an especially nice little oner and some good use of the environment in the fight to boot. A lot of character, a lot of mythos, and a lot of intrigue in this one.
The Star Wars Prequels had a problem, a problem that would have made George Lucas's job difficult even if he hadn't botched things like character-building and dialogue and overreliance on CGI-spectacle -- we already know how this story ends. The problem with any prequel is that it can be difficult to create stakes because you know certain people have to survive, many characters have to be in position for when you catch up to the familiar narrative, and as a result, any attempts at big twists can either feel like cheap retcons or unsatisfying foregone conclusions.
Staying within the Disney family, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a problem too, a problem that also makes it difficult for the show to feel real and important within its interconnected universe -- its characters and plot won't, and arguably can't, be acknowledged by the series of films that spawned it. That means AoS always seems like it's sitting at the kids table, where at best, it feels like it's playing in its own disconnected corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and at worst, it feels like nothing on the show really matters.
On paper, Star Wars: The Clone Wars should have these same problems. We know where Anakin and Obi Wan's stories will lead us. We know that however affected and connected the two of them are with Ahsoka, she's not only not around by the time Revenge of the SIth happens, but she isn't even mentioned. In the abstract, it seems like Clone Wars ought to suffer just as much at creating stakes for its characters and making it feels like the events of the show matter within the wider Star Wars Universe.
And yet, in an episode like "The Wrong Jedi," a semi-series finale for the show, the creators of Clone Wars find a way not only create a satisfying and heartbreaking end to Ahsoka's arc over the course of the series, but manage to tie it into the larger conflicts between the Jedi and the Republic, and between Anakin and the Council, which come to a head in Episode III, and throw in some interesting thematic exploration as well. While the Darth Maul arc that finished in Lawless felt like the culmination of the various new characters and settings that Clone Wars has introduced over the prior five seasons, The Wrong Jedi is the culmination of the show's larger project, to create meaningful stories and character journeys that stand on their own but which also feed into and expand the world George Lucas created.
The plot of the episode is fairly straightforward, but effective. With Ahsoka having been captured, the Republic (represented here by Admiral "Don't Call Me a Grand Moff Yet" Tarkin) requests that the Jedi expel Ahsoka from the order and turn her over for a civilian, republic trial for sedition. After deliberation and objection, the Council agrees, and Ahsoka is prosecuted by Tarkin, defended by Padme, in proceedings presided over by Chancellor Palpatine, where she pleads her innocence and tries to explain that she was framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple. In the mean time, Anakin plays detective, hunting down Ventress and gathering enough clues to figure out that it was another padewan, Barriss who orchestrated the attack on the temple and attempted to frame Ahsoka. After a thrilling ligthsaber battle, Anakin prevails and brings Barriss to the Senate to confess her crimes, and Ahsoka is acquitted.
But despite the well structured and well-executed nature of that story, it's what happens next that really sets this episode apart. The Council summons Ahsoka and apologizes, telling her that they were wrong, and implicitly offering to make her a Jedi Knight by saying that these were her Jedi trials and she has passed them. They want to welcome her back into the fold, and she seems inclined to accept, but instead chooses not to return.
It's a heartbreaking moment, because Ahsoka has been betrayed and we feel her disappointment. She has given her whole life to the order, been a good soldier and as the show has depicted for five years, followed orders, grown and matured, and become an incredibly faithful, talented, and devoted Jedi who represents the best that this collective has to offer to the world. And yet in her hour of need, the Council turned its back on her and turned her over to a tribunal where she faced death for a crime she didn't commit. Granted, the show does a good job of depicting the Council as conflicted in how they feel about Ahsoka but pulled by the admittedly convincing evidence against her and the larger political forces at play. But still, Ahsoka believed in this institution with her heart and soul, and it didn't believe in her. That fundamentally changes how she sees the Jedi Order, and however much she's become a better person because of it, changes whether she wants to be a part of an organization that would do such a thing to one of its own.
It solves an important problem for the show. For every Jedi we see short of Anakin, Obi Wan, and Yoda, there's the terrible knowledge that by Episode III, they all end up dead. So the seemingly implicit limitation of a character like Ahsoka is that either she dies off screen in ignominious fashion, or she miraculously survives Order 66 in a way that feels like a cheat. "The Wrong Jedi" manages to sidestep this problem in a way that is not only narratively satisfying, but which grounds the event in pathos and character. Ahsoka may avoid Order 66 because she's no longer a Jedi, and yet this isn't some plot convenience or quickly slapped-together escape hatch; it's a meaningful event in her life, that fits with the difficulties she's faced over the course of the show and makes this something painful and real, that would matter to her journey regardless of how it fits into the larger world of the franchise.
At the same time, the episode makes this a meaningful event for Anakin too. The Anakin Skywalker we meet in Revenge of the Sith is more capable, self-assured, and accomplished than the one we meet in Attack of the Clones, something bolstered by his trials and tribulations we've witnessed between Episodes II and III. But he is also increasingly mistrustful of the Council. The events here, though never spoken of, create a subtext to that mistrust. Anakin has a fraternal, maybe even parental love for Ahsoka. He has, in many ways, raised her over the course of the show. He stood by her and believed her and worked to prove her innocence even when all the world thought she was guilty. And yet because of the Council's decision, one that clearly frustrated Anakin even before its damage could not be undone, someone he loves feels rightfully betrayed, and is leaving. How could he not begin to doubt the Council's wisdom when they effectively turn away one of the few people in the galaxy Anakin truly cares for?
That subtext extends to the episode's villain as well. Too often in Star Wars, in both its cinematic and T.V.-centered outings, the bad guys align with the Dark Side due to a simple, frequently boring lust for power. (General Krell is the perfect example, a Jedi who basically became evil for evil's sake.) But Barriss is not simply a power hungry force-wielder, she is both an extremist and an idealist. She stands on the Senate floor and rails against the Jedi Order, not because they're weak when the Sith are strong, but because she feels that the Order has abandoned its principles, that they have become instruments of violence and war, that this once great calling has been corrupted by violence and darkness. It's a shocking rebuke, and one that offers a surprising deconstruction of the military adventures of these so-called peacekeepers that we've witnessed in Clone Wars up to this point. Barriss raises the idea that the Jedi have strayed from their guiding ideals, and that her bombing was not an attack on the Jedi, but an attack on what the Jedi have come.
Anakin is standing there when Barriss explains herself in these terms. Though he has been shown, in conversations with Tarkin no less, to understand that war may require more and different things from the Jedi than is typical, it's another seed that's planted, another event that shapes his view of the Council and the Jedi, as maybe not so monolithicly good. He too, has another reason to doubt.
Those recriminations by Barriss feed into another of the themes flitting around in the background of "The Wrong Jedi" -- a growing schism between the Jedi and the Republic government. We see people protesting in the streets. We see Tarkin putting forward the idea that the Jedi have become too insular. We see Palpatine floating the notion that the Separtists have infiltrated and betrayed the Jedi before. The story arc, and this episode in particular, helps lay the groundwork for why the government as a whole, not to mention the people, might begin to look suspiciously as these galactic guardians. Beyond Palpatine's machination, there's reason for Senators and commoners alike to doubt the Jedi. The Council, in turn, has reason to be suspicious of a government body that persuaded it to turn over, and very nearly railroaded, an innocent padewan. This too, helps to set the stage for the division and mutual mistrust on display in Revenge of the Sith.
It's an amazing feat, and it all helps to elevate Clone Wars into being more than a series of amusing series of side-adventures between the major fireworks of the films. "The Wrong Jedi" doesn't just tell a neat little standalone story. It rounds off Ahsoka's arc over the course of the series in devastating fashion. It gives a plausible, satisfying rationale for her absence from Episode III. It gives us deeper insight into Anakin and helps motivate his turn to the dark side. Unable to change the text of Revenge of the Sith, it adds meaningful, maybe even vital subtext to Anakin's mistrust of the Council, the divide between the Republic Government and the Jedi. It helps explain why the Senate writ large and the people would accept Palpatine's assertion that the Jedi had turned on him and were no longer trustworthy. It helps expand and deepen the world that so many people found so inviting and immersive when A New Hope burst onto the seen.
In short, Clone Wars in general, and "The Wrong Jedi* in particular, does the impossible. It finds a way to make the stories told meaningful within the limits of how the audience knows they have to end. It cannot affect the plot of the Star Wars films as constituted, so it adds illuminating subtext to the choices the characters make in those films and deepens our understanding of them. It centers its narrative on a new character who is close enough to the events of the films that her absence is conspicuous, but makes her journey worthwhile and her distance understandable. And, god help me, it even makes the Prequels, Revenge of the Sith especially, a little more comprehensible, a little more logically consistent, and a little more worthwhile. That alone is a miracle, and a testament to the greatness that Star Wars: Clone Wars managed to achieve by filling in the gaps of the Star Wars Universe, and creating its own, indelible characters and stories in the process.
Everyone keeps suggesting there is a paradox concerning the 5D future humans and their ability to save humanity in the past. It's really not a paradox at all. Everyone assumes humanity survived to ascend to the 5th dimension but how could humanity exist in the future if not for the actions of Cooper.. who was guided by future humans (begin endless loop).
Did anyone ever consider the other important character in the movie? Amelia Brand carried on with the rest of her mission (thanks to Cooper). I postulate that Brand used the human seeds as intended and set up a colony. A colony that would thrive and eventually evolve beyond human. Thus Earth is of little importance, and may have indeed died. These colonists, and the generations that followed, would have been told the story of a great man (Cooper) who saved them from extinction. With the ability to manipulate space-time, they would pay homage to their hero "God" by helping him in the past so he may fulfill the mission most important to him, to once again see his daughter. Plan B worked beautifully. But the 5d humans, having the power to bend space-time, decided there's no reason why Plan A had to fail.
