Star Wars Rebels: Spark of the Rebellion
Concerns
Back in October of 2012, Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas for the very affordable and nominal fee of four billion dollars. Ever since then, Star Wars fans who arguably make up one of the most religious fandoms of all, have been on the edge of their seats waiting to see just what Disney would do with their beloved franchise. Would there be: Jedi marginalizing “medichloriates?” “Rodger Rodger” robots whose collective IQ scores are comparable to that of a Rancor’s? Or the ultimate worst of all, the tongue entangling Jar Jar Binks? On Friday, October 3rd, almost two years after the Disney buyout, fans would see their first taste of Disney owned Star Wars in the made for T.V. film, “Star Wars Rebels, Spark of the Rebellion.” The film is made to set up the stage for the T.V. series “Star Wars Rebels.”
Canon. Since Disney purchased the franchise, there has been some real arguments about what is and is not classified as canon (based on the real story, fitting into a proper time and good enough for the big screen) in other words, true versus false. It can be reasonably presumed that since Disney owns the franchise and made this show, its canon. This means that fans can use the dialog and plot of the film to sort out truth from fiction. Taking place between Revenge of the Sith and five years prior to A New Hope, the film begins to answer one of the biggest questions essential to the saga coming together; “how did the rebel alliance come to be?”
The Movie’s Trailer can be seen here
Spoilers!
WARNING! Spoilers below. If you don’t wish to know more don’t read! Bah. Who are we kidding? Diehard fans would have already seen the film. And if you didn’t you need to, so you can inexplicably transform into a diehard fan with the rest of us.
Reflections on the past
There is a real hope for the future of Star Wars. The rhythm of the original trilogy is echoed once again with the theme of young upstarts that resemble more anti-heroes than heroes. The crew aboard the spaceship Ghost is a bunch of Robin Hoods who just so happen to have their day and mission to steal from the rich and give to the poor interrupted by a young self-reliant thief, Ezra Bridger portrayed by Taylor Gray. Ezra quickly begins to shine with force abilities and leaves a haunting impression that he might turn to the dark side with his impulsiveness, emotional reactivity, not to mention his is a street-smart orphaned thief. The whole idea of Ezra takes viewers right back to the fall of Anakin Skywalker. Lucky for Ezra, he is not the only rule breaking force user.
The Team
All of the Jedi that remain after order 66 have gone into hiding (remember Obi Wan Kenobi on Tattooine?). Among those knights now forced to live double lives is Kannan Jarrus played by Freddie Prinze Jr. Kannan heads up the Ghost’s crew. One scene in the film is a table turner when he reveals his identity to the main antagonist. Awesome sauce! Jarrus has an unusual bond with the Ghost’s pilot, Twi’lek Hera Syndulla, voiced by Vanessa Marshall. Jarrus has no problem sharing with her knowledge about his secret identity and she, too, seems to have a working understanding of the Jedi ways. Albeit nothing indicates she is a force user, a clear relational subplot and back story appears to be waiting for a reveal as the TV series drives forward. Speaking of speculation and subplots, Ezra gets a bit flirty with Tiya Sircar’s character the Mandalorian bomber Sebine. Sebine is a mixture of Boba Fet, Pablo Picasso and Jubilation Lee of the X-Men. Weird combo? You bet. But who freaking cares? Those are all cool people and characters! And, cool, is the only word that can be used to discuss strong arm character Zeb Orellios, where Steve Blum puts an “Australian Outback” twist on the storm-trooper helmet smashing anti-hero. Zeb is a first in, “usually last out” brave combatant that serves well to replace fan favorite Chewbacca in the roll of the team’s muscle.
The Plot
This is an era wear the Empire is at full force and rules everyone with an iron fist. The crew aboard the Ghost sets out to steal some guns from a secret imperial shipment. That is when they met Ezra who just so happens to acquire one of the crates after some cleaver eavesdropping and quick thinking. This doesn’t sit well with Kannan, who along with Zeb, take pursuit of the intrusive teen. In a last second no-other-choice-escape, the entire team manages to escape with Ezra now on board. This don’t sit well with Zeb whose personality clearly does not do well with reckless teenagers. A dodgy jump to light speed while being pursued by four tie fighters takes us right back to the Millennium Falcon “blasting its’ way out of Mos Eisley.”
The team delivers the shipment of weapons to the black market where they learn about a group of Wookies who are enslaved and on their way to the spice mines of Kessel. Here, Ezra gains his first look at fighting for something bigger than himself and with that experience, hope arises that he may steer clear of a turn to the dark side. Hera and Kannan detect this glint of hope in the fledgling force user and decide to covertly put him to the test by letting the little thief make off with a Jedi Holocron Cube.
The crew decides to try and help the Wookies but only walks headlong into a trap. Various events that take place lead Zeb feeling a sense of debt to young Ezra, who along with Kannan’s Holocron Cube are trapped on the Star Destroyer of the main antagonist, Agent Kallus who is voiced by David Oyelowo. Kallus, is a rebel hunter who ferrets out any threats from non-imperial law conforming citizens and shuts them down however he may have to. In the need to get back the Holocron and rescue Ezra, an against-all-odds escape must take place so the crew can then find the real location of the enslaved wookies and rescue them.
Will they pull it off?
Go see the film.
The Good
Disney is striking a balance between what made the original trilogy work and keeping away from what made the prequels so loathed by many. Comic relief is properly balanced as it was in the original films, without being so overly done, as it was in the prequels, that it alienates older audiences. The crew’s character development is terrific and leaves lots of room for promise that more discoveries will be made as the series continues.
The Bad
Agent Kallus’ voice was a bit too “Prince Charming from Shrek” in the sense that you have a cocky pretty boy which does not work for an antagonist character. Thank goodness the end of the film introduces another antagonist, but I will leave that for readers to discover on their own.
The Ugly
I want to make sure I touch on the character Chopper. This bad attitude R5 series astromech droid plays a pretty significant role in the films comic relief. I am not sure about this character just yet. I watch with an open mind. At times I appreciate his moodiness. However, with R2-D2 you could easily tell what the droid was thinking or trying to communicate by the tone of his beeps, chips and whistles. This is not really the case thus far with Chopper. His “language” is impossible to pick up emotion from and I have fears about this as the series moves forward. The sound effects team has a long way to go.
Writers Directors and Producers
Dave Filoni did a pretty good job in the director’s seat translating writer Simon Kinberg’s vision to the small screen. The dialog and moments of heroic elation written by Kinberg came across beautifully. Some moments you wanted to cheer, while others had you worried for the film’s young hero Ezra’s life path. The production team of Kinberg, Filoni and Greg Weisman can chalk up their efforts as an over-all success.
Review
Star Wars Rebels was a good film. It provided an action packed 42 minutes of small screen fun, seasoned with “A New Hope” for the future of the Star Wars franchise. While the translation of a threat struggled at times with the antagonist Agent Kallus, the crew of the Ghost was a smash hit.
I happily give Spark of the Rebellion seven-eighths of a bag of Gummy Bears for keeping the fan favorite franchise alive, while we await Star Wars Episode VII.
garybullock73 