Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Review by Mark Woodring

This title has been kicking around for a while, and it’s somewhat telling that the embargo for this is at time of release.

Not normally a good sign.

**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

 

Created by Christopher Ford, John Watts

Synopsis:

“Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home – and meeting unlikely allies and enemies – will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.

So if you ARE, in fact, reading this before you watch the show, let me give you some quick impressions.

I was able to watch the first THREE episodes already, though the premiere will only be the first TWO episodes. It was impossible, once the trailer dropped, to avoid people saying this is “Goonies in space.”

It’s not quite that. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a completely off-base analogy to make. You’ve got a group of mismatched, kind of weird, kind of smart, kind of rebellious pre-teens off on an adventure they don’t really understand.

We learn that the planet they call home is known abroad as a mythical planet of endless riches, and there’re pirates (of the space variety), there is a distinctly Treasure Island vibe, especially with a droid (with a peg-legged walk) called SM-33, which is more evocative of Peter Pan, than Treasure Island, and you can see quite the mish-mash influences the show seems to be drawing from.

Throw in a maybe-Jedi in Jude Law’s character, Jod Na Nawood, with secrets (aside from the maybe-Jedi thing, sans lightsaber) of his own, and things get complicated… fast.

It looks like there are going to be 8 episodes (averaging around 30-ish minutes or less), so this looks to be another go-go-go type of show, hopefully not saving everything for the last 1.5 episodes.

The back-loading of material needs to stop, and we’ve talked about that before.
I don’t hate this show, but I don’t really feel it’s particularly STAR WARS, if you get my meaning… at least not yet. It feels pretty generic at its core, which is problematic for fans already drifting away from the franchise.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the fact you’re going to be hearing about some “box-checking” choices from some of the usual suspects out there in the online universe, but I’m only mentioning it to help you prepare yourself for the inevitable.

I’m willing to see what happens in a couple weeks when episode 4 drops. That will put us at the halfway point and things should be (big SHOULD) coalescing by then.

If not… the aforementioned back-loading will likely take its toll on week-over-week viewing numbers as it has in the past.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew flies onto Disney+ on December 2 and stars Jude Law, Nick Frost, Kerry Condon, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Tunde Adebimpe, Robert Timothy Smith, Kyriana Kratter, and Ravi Cabot-Conyers.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

Please don’t forget to LIKE, SHARE, and FOLLOW us on:

And please, if you like what we do, consider helping us keep on entertaining you. You can use this handy link:




Or, you could check out the merch in Our Store:

VSMP Merch Store

Not only will you be helping us out if you pick up some merch, you get cool stuff to wear around (including the coveted WTFWT? logo!)


 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,