Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review: Perfect Series to Introduce Star Wars to Today’s Children
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review: Perfect Series to Introduce Star Wars to Today's Children - Filmyhype
Director: Jon Watts, Daniel Kwan, David Lowery, Daniel Scheinert, Jake Schreier
Date Created: 2024-12-03 12:36
3.5
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review: Perfect Series to Introduce Star Wars to Today's Children - Filmyhype
Director: Jon Watts, Daniel Kwan, David Lowery, Daniel Scheinert, Jake Schreier
Date Created: 2024-12-03 12:36
3.5
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review: Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is the new series set in the iconic narrative universe created by George Lucas. It will be available streaming on Disney+ starting from December 3 (after the release of the first two episodes, the rest will follow a weekly release). Following the fall of the evil Empire, and therefore after the events narrated in The Return of the Jedi, this new trip to the distant galaxy promises to give us an adventure close to the tones of certain cinema for children of the year ’80. As already done by the popular Stranger Things before her, Skeleton Crew tries to recapture the magic of films like The Goonies, taking as its main model the journey into the unknown made by the small protagonists of Explorers, a film directed by Joe Dante. A group of young friends who find themselves catapulted into the depths of space, without knowing what to do. The Mandalorian, the production supervised by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book) and Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars), inaugurated the dances of the Star Wars TV series on Disney+, the saga created in 1977 by George Lucas was decidedly more prosperous in streaming than in the cinema.
At the helm of this operation, we find Jon Watts, director of the trilogy of Spider-Man starring Tom Holland, who returns here to collaborate with the screenwriter of his early works, Christopher Ford, credited as co-creator of the series. It is a return for the author to atmospheres similar to that small gem of Cop Car, where he reread the hard and pure detective through the boyish innocence of the Amblin films (if you have not seen him, we recommend him. It is worth even just seeing Kevin Bacon as an unusual villain). In the first three episodes, which we saw for you in preview, Watts himself and another exceptional director alternate behind the camera: David Lowery (Sir Gawain and Green Knight, Peter Pan & Wendy). But the famous names don’t stop there, as some of the future episodes will bear the signature of directors such as I Daniels (Oscar couple for Everything Everywhere All at Once) is Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron’s daughter had already directed some episodes of The Mandalorian).
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review: The Story Plot
Skeleton Crew is set in that period which, in the Star Wars saga, is baptized as New Republic. A window where the events of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka also take place, ranging from the moment when, in the Return of the Jedi (1983), the Rebel Alliance defeats the Galactic Empire in the battle of Endor and which ends when, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), we see the First Order attacking the New Republic with the Starkiller Base. The little protagonists of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Wim, Neel, Fern, and KB, live on a planet where nothing happens and boredom reigns supreme. Everything revolves around heavy school commitments whose outcome will determine the role that, when grown up, they will play in the fulfillment of a great mysterious work. The same to which their parents work with professions with somewhat anonymous and sterile titles.
All incredibly monotonous and soporific for Wim, who dreams of experiencing space adventures like the mythical Jedi trying to involve even the most diligent Neel in his reveries. But the same can also be said for the couple of friends Fern and KB, much more interested in the roaring performance of their speeder bike than in school performances. Their lives change when a random discovery made by Wim first gives life to the quartet and then makes it lose in space, on a journey in search of the way home full of adventures and dangers. Vicissitudes that will be addressed together with the grumpy and dilapidated SM 33 droid and the mysterious Jod Na Nawood in which they will run into fearsome space pirates. The home planet of the group of involuntary young adventurers could be much less boring than it seems at first glance by hiding a secret about a mysterious and legendary treasure.
Skeleton Crew takes us to At Attin, a planet on the edge of the galaxy. A world that leads to a placid existence isolated from the rest of the universe, where everyone must carry out his pre-established task to contribute to the functioning of society. A reality that is close to the young Wim (Cabot-Conyers Ravi), who dreams in his bedroom of being able to become a Jedi knight and embark on daring adventures around space. A wish that, unexpectedly, will soon be fulfilled. The boy finds together with his friend Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) a mysterious spacecraft, which crashed, it is not known when on the periphery of the planet. Accepting Fern’s challenge (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and KB (Kyriana Kratter), two of their peers with a rebellious spirit, the boys board the vessel, and inadvertently the jump into hyperspace is activated. Lost in the middle of the galaxy, the four children will have to rely on the ambiguous Jod Nawood (Jude Law) to try to find the route home.
A spatial boarding by some pirates recalls the prologue of the original Star Wars (for the younger ones, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), where imperial troops, led by the evil Darth Vader, attacked Princess Leia’s shuttle in search of the plans of the Death Star. It is only the first of the many references with which Skeleton Crew has fun playing (we know how well these new productions like to create parallels with the classic films of Star Wars, as was also the case in the recent The Acolyte: The Follower), under which we can also include part of the characterization of its protagonist. Wim, in fact, shares with the mythical Luke Skywalker the desire to escape from his small peripheral planet. The very young protagonist represents the classic character who absolutely cannot resist the seductive call of adventure.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review and Analysis
The Star Wars saga is a myth that is cyclically renewed – sometimes well other evil – from 1977 to today and each generation has its own Star Wars of reference which is different depending on the date of birth of each person. For a boy or girl from 2024, knowing this saga with the Classical Trilogy films released between 1977 and 1983 could be an almost repelling experience. We are talking about legendary films that still have a narrative rhythm that could be difficult to manage by the smallest spectators today. Skeleton Crew can be the perfect series to make Star Wars love to those who will become fans and fans of tomorrow of George Lucas’ fantasy/sci-fi epic with a story that will not fail to amuse even the greatest for his ability to recall the classics of 80s cinematography born from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin without sterile apes.
The former can be introduced to a world of mystery, risky, and exciting adventures thanks to the group of small and small protagonists, two boys and two girls who – thank goodness! – behave as such and not as miniature versions of 4 adults. The beauty of Skeleton Crew is that it releases a lot of references to the great fresco in the history of Star Wars, but it does so in the same way that the 1977 film cited a phantom “Clone Wars”, or the war of clones, of which the public all over the world was, at the time, totally in the dark. An obvious question like “was generated but what are they talking about?” whose response was not essential for the history of that film. But that, years later, would have given rise to very interesting branches that have widened the Star Wars folklore to never end. And the questions that a boy or girl could ask themselves by seeing Skeleton Crew have 47 years of answers behind them between films and TV series, all conveniently available in streaming on Disney +.
The older ones will observe with fun and a pinch of nostalgia the streets of the residential suburb where Wim and the other children live, narrow streets that look like the alien “version of those in the San Fernando Valley where Elliott lived in E.T. Steven Spielberg’s extra-terrestrial. Villas are all the same as each other, a neighborhood where nothing happens and there are children left to themselves, such as Wim who lives alone with his dad, and others, such as Neel, Fern, and KB, who have decidedly more present families. Yet, as the Goonies teach, the adventure is there, hidden somewhere, ready to start most unexpectedly. Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, perhaps also thanks to the experience gained with Spider-Man films that had the difficult task of refreshing for the third time the strange cinematic myth of Spider-Man, similarly approached Star Wars. Skeleton Crew seems to be the resolution to a question that could sound roughly like this: how to tell a story of Star Wars that can satisfy longtime fans and who is approaching it for the first time?
The incisiveness of this daring pirate series is strengthened by the perfect casting of the 4 young protagonists and by Jude Law who manages to perfectly grasp the charm of a character who, as per the tradition of Star Wars, is made of chiaroscuro magnetic chiaroscuro. Also noteworthy is the list of directors behind the eight-episode camera. In addition to Jon Watts, who directed the first and last episode, there are acclaimed filmmakers such as David Lowery (A Ghost Story, Sir Gawain, and the Green Knight), the Daniels duo (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts* by Marvel), but also the director of Leeac Chungters already the architect of an episode of the third season of The Mandalorian and Bryce Dallas Howard who is now a “veteran” of the saga, having directed three episodes of The Mandalorian and one of The Book of Boba Fett.
We reiterate once again to avoid misunderstandings that the optimism shown so far in our judgment must be taken, for the moment, with pliers because we have not been able to taste the series in its entirety: we are only “in advance” of an episode compared to those who have a Disney subscription+. But the assumptions bode well. And with its overshadowing the sacred mythology of the Jedi, the Skywalker family, or the machinations of the rebels against the Empire or the nascent First Order against the New Republic, bypassing the maximum systems, so to speak, Skeleton Crew is a real wind of fresh air for a saga that, sometimes, is too enveloped and on its almost fifty-year canon. The heart of the series is its young protagonists. The four boys offer performances genuinely, capturing the amazement and terror of being in a much bigger and more dangerous world than they had ever imagined. Jude Law, in the role of their mentor (or maybe something more ambiguous?), manages to keep high dramatic tension without stealing too much space from the storytelling of the boys, keeping in balance the mystery of his character with an irresistible sly smile.
The supporting cast, which includes Kerry Condon in Nick Frost, adds depth and shades varied to the series. One of the strengths of Skeleton Crew is its diversified direction. Each episode has its own visual and tonal identity while maintaining narrative consistency. Daniels brings their characteristic eccentric style, while David Lowery adds more melancholy and poetic sensitivity. This approach makes each episode a unique experience, even if it could confuse those who prefer a more uniform style. On the front of the writing, Jon Watts is Christopher Ford, they manage to balance moments of lightness with themes deeper, like the fear of the unknown and the desire to belong. However, some dialogues risk falling into clichés, especially when they try to convey moral lessons explicitly.
The fact that Skeleton Crew is a fresh and interesting series brings out a fundamental question: this it still Star Wars? The purists of the saga may turn up their noses. There are no iconic Jedi or cosmic conflicts of epic proportions. There are no Sith plotting or battles breathtaking stellar. Rather, the series explores a more intimate side and staff of the distant galaxy. It’s as if Lucasfilm was experimenting with the format: what if we put by does mythology start and leave room for smaller stories? This shift may seem alienating to those who associate Star Wars with a well-defined imagination. However, it is also a signal of maturation of the franchise, which tries to adapt to a younger audience without giving up the opportunity to tell something new. The spirit of Skeleton Crew is not that of A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back, but maybe that’s the point: the Star Wars of the past is dead, long life to the new Star Wars.
Skeleton Crew also offers one new perspective for the Star Wars universe: that of children. The protagonists are not Jedi warriors, rebel soldiers, or bounty hunters, but simple boys who are catapulted into a much larger reality than they are. Their point of view is that of discovery, of wonder, but also of fear. This aspect makes the series suitable for an audience of all ages, both for historical fans of the saga and for the younger ones. The story takes place during the same period as The Mandalorian, shortly after the events of the film The Return of the Jedi. This means that the galaxy is still in full ferment, with the New Republic which seeks to restore order, while old and new threats emerge in every corner. The setting is one of the most fascinating elements of the series, thanks to the variety of planets, creatures, and situations. Each episode manages to convey the feeling of really being in a “distant, distant galaxy”, with its wonders and dangers. Attin (introduced in the series) is the name of the birthplace of the four protagonists of Skeleton Crew. It is a place that, at least apparently, seems to be safe and is quiet, far from the galactic conflicts we often see in the Star Wars universe. However, it is precisely on Attin that the boys make a discovery that will lead them to have an unexpected and dangerous adventure. The planet is characterized by relatively normal daily life, which contributes to creating an interesting contrast with the vastness and danger of the galaxy.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review: The Last Words
Skeleton Crew takes us back to the Star Wars universe, this time right after the events of The Return of the Jedi. The TV series created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford tries to recapture the magic of certain cinema for children of the 80s, as Stranger Things had previously done. The result is a story modeled in part on Explorers, a film directed by Joe Dante, where a group of kids catapulted into the depths of space. A show where nostalgia for those productions is accompanied by references to classic characters and moments of the franchise. Unfortunately, the few innovations introduced in the first three episodes, which we previewed, were not enough to sufficiently tickle our curiosity. The feeling is that of a product aimed mainly at a very young and still-fasting audience of certain adventure productions. With a genuine sense of adventure and a light-hearted tone, without losing the charm of the spatial setting, the series is one breath of fresh air for a franchise that struggles to find a new direction.
Cast: Kerry Condon, Jude Law, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Tunde Adebimpe, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, Michael C. Bradford, Dale Soules
Director: Jon Watts, Daniel Kwan, David Lowery, Daniel Scheinert, Jake Schreier
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
