The Acolyte (2024) Review

Making new Star Wars content isn't easy, you have millions and millions of fans that have to be satisfied. Every time a new Star Wars movie comes out there's severe backlash and complaints to one degree or another. It happened several times throughout the franchise's history. Recently, the ineptitude of Episode 9 mixed with the divided crowd after Episode 8 made everyone very wary of every new Star Wars project after 2019. Andor had it easy because nobody expected it nor wanted it, Ashoka was a safe bet and The Mandalorian gained a strong fan base before Episode 9 came out, which was the last straw for many. 

The Acolyte, however, had a lot of expectations thrown upon it. It's a show that takes place on a curious point in the history of the Star Wars lore, a hundred years before The Phantom Menace and a hundred years after the Old Republic, the newly introduced “High Republic era.” Here the Jedi are at their prime and the Sith are scarce yet they are planning their revenge. The imagination of tons of fans ran wild once the lore was first set up. So it was almost as unimaginable to live up to fans expectations as it was with the prequels. 

Showrunner Leslye Headland became a notable figure after her success with the comedy mystery Netflix series Russian Doll (2019-2022) and was given the opportunity in 2019 by Kathleen Kennedy to create a series for Disney Plus. Leslye developed the show along with her group of writers soon after, envisioning it as a female centric story taking place in an unexplored era when it comes to live action Star Wars media. Perhaps among the major inspirations were the Hong Kong wuxia films, particularly milestones in the genre like Come Drink With Me (1966) and A Touch of Zen (1971) by King Hu. Some characters and plot beats seem heavily inspired from elements of those two films.  

Another way Headland described The Acolyte was “Frozen meets Kill Bill,” referencing the sisterly bond between two main characters, the fractured narrative chronology and the martial arts revenge angle the story takes.

A Jedi master, Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss), is murdered after a confrontation with an unknown woman in a small village, the responsible is supposedly identified as Osha (Amandla Stenberg, the little girl from the first Hunger Games film), a meknek (independent mechanic) and former padawan. She is arrested by the Jedi Order and meets her former master, Sol (Lee Jung-jae). Trouble begins for Osha as revelations unveil the hidden truths of her past, including the recent sighting of her twin sister, Mae (also Amandla Stenberg), who was presumably dead.   

The resulting show is a mixed bag of enjoyable new Star Wars moments and Young Adult Fiction type of tropes and storytelling that works only half the time. Our main protagonist, Osha, does denote a decent amount of personality but moments devoted to conveying her attitude and thoughts are scarce or not very well implemented. She is likable and her past is interesting but they don't flesh out the character to its fullest potential and the execution falls a bit flat. I would also add that Amandla does a very good job playing her dual role, both twins have their own demeanor and feel very different when she performs each one.

A lot of the series plays out like a generic YA sci-fi book from the local bookshop instead of a personal and potent story unfolding before your eyes like the creators probably intended. Although, Osha does have some great and well executed action choreographies and her inherent charisma makes you care enough for her to work as a leading lady. 

The wuxia influence can be felt from the first scene with the martial arts touch but it never truly lands in the same way as its influences did. It only picks up the entertaining battle sequences but not much else. One needs to realize that Lucas did more than just reference genres, he made something unique and truly creative with it, not just tools for utterly conventional storytelling. Having said that, the tone and form arent off here, it's one of the few shows in recent times that feel closer to Star Wars than other productions; looking at the visuals, textures, lighting, set design and musical arrangements, it all very much resembles something from the original six movies or it at least makes you feel that they run in the show's DNA in some form. Can't say the same for a lot of Star Wars media. 

While the plot and characters themselves are nothing spectacular the biggest flaws one might encounter are the typical modern day trappings like muddied cinematography (sometimes), gratuitous and mindless action sequences instead of ones that are important and imaginative like Lucas used to do them, overly heavy tone cut down by weak attempts at comedy and a lack of adventure. Someone described this as Star Wars via CW which isn't completely true but it does come dangerously close to such products when it's showing shirtless guys and generic space worlds and aliens seemingly taken from a SYFY original show instead of the real Star Wars universe.

The direction and the cinematography aren't bad, there's enough visual variety and well done shots that narrate the story and set up the mood to engage you for most of it. The fights might seem too conventional, they are Hollywood's idea of “martial arts action” but it gets the job done for the most part. 

Dafne Keen as Jecki Lon, a character that deserved more.

I do enjoy the more intimate angle they were going for, the show grows into something more dramatic, the beginning of a story is always tricky but this one survived well enough. Episode 3 is a solid flashback episode that further goes deeper into the twins backstory and establishes them a little bit better. I was wondering if a more chronological storytelling order would have been more engaging.

The ideas presented here are nothing new: matriarchal tribe at the margin of the republic (as seen in The Clone Wars show), a questioning of the methods the Jedi use to recruit children or even their overall actions (as seen in TCW and some movies), the use of twins (as seen in the OT), etc... But it's all done well enough and with enough effective dramatism that it ends up being above just functional.  

It's more materialistic than the original movies, focusing more on bodies and fights, when in the original movies the battles were more symbolic and heavy because of what they meant to the characters, but in these newer pictures and tv shows they become more action focused and physical, which is fine if you are going for the martial arts angle but it never really becomes an interesting spectacle as most of the fights are overdone. The only ones I can remember being truly outstanding were the ones in the first two episodes.  

Overall, The Acolyte is a decent outing when it comes to classic IP's being milked by companies but while it is one of the better genre series in recent years, it's not one that will amaze you, at least not right now, perhaps with time it will grow into something incredible when season two arrives, if it ever comes.   

Leslye Headland with her cast.

Needless to say, people with too much time on their hands review-bombed the ratings of the TV show on several platforms, not for a reasonable cause but simply because of some perceived notion of “wokeness” the show gave them. This happens all the time now, probably the first notable example was Ghostbusters (2016), I remember people downvoting that movie way before it even opened properly (I am ashamed to admit that I fell for the hate train back then, at least before actually seeing the movie). 

Several reviews for The Acolyte are by newly created accounts that post several plot outlines (possibly text that´s AI generated or perhaps copied and pasted) instead of a legit review and give it the lowest possible grade in order to mess with the rating system. Ironically enough, this always makes it hard to see the real faults of the show or movie these crazy users are hating on, most of them probably never even saw the show anyway and they are getting carried away with what some ignorant YouTuber or influencer tells them. It's quite sad that media criticism can't be trusted when put into the hands of internet users. However, it has been getting a decent reception by average spectators and critics, and it was one of the platform's more successful shows in recent times. Make of that what you will.