"Fighter Flight" - Star Wars: Rebels Season 1 Episode 2 review

Despite seeming to have smoothed over their tumultuous relationship last week, Ezra and Zeb are portrayed constantly bickering, to the point that they almost cause damage to the Ghost. Hera orders the pair to go to the nearest town on Lothal and pick up some much needed supplies. Hera emphasises that they shouldn't bother returning without picking up a meiloorun fruit, which she knows full well is not indigenous to Lothal. One of the major problems I had with this episode was the degradation of the close-knit crew into a transparent symbolism for the average family- Ezra and Zeb are the bickering brothers, Sabine is the annoying sister, Hera is the mother and Kanan the father. The previous episodes have done a fantastic job of highlighting the close relationship of the crew members and the well-oiled machine they operate as during heists, con-jobs and battles with the Empire. This episode did the opposite.

Ezra and Zeb quickly find all of the supplies they were ordered to collect, apart from the meiloorun fruit. Eventually, Ezra is told by an old friend, Mr Sumar, that an off-world importer might have some of the fruit. Although the pair do find an off-worlder selling the merchandise, they learn that it has already been sold to the Empire.

The pair are of course caught in their attempt to steal some of the fruit for Hera, causing Ezra to flee for his life and Zeb to make his getaway in a stolen TIE fighter. Zeb eventually rescues Ezra, but only after forcing him to agree that they are now even for having both saved each others lives. This was another part of the episode that irritated me. Zeb is a grown Lasat, but has been mentally downgraded to the level of a child for the purposes of this episode. What adult would allow their friend's life to hang in the balance until they agreed to their demands? In fact, what child would?

After escaping in the TIE, the pair notice Mr Sumar and his family have been taken prisoner by a convoy of Imperials. Ezra takes out the stormtroopers and frees the prisoners whilst Zeb provides cover in the TIE fighter. This sequence was probably the best part of the episode; it was animated well, the suspense was there, and the characters finally began acting like the characters we have started to get to know over the previous episodes.

Kanan and Hera begin to worry because the pair have been gone so long, Hera having expected the pair to give up after not being able to pick up any meiloorun fruit. When they learn what has transpired they order the pair to get rid of the TIE and return to the Ghost immediately.

Overall rating: ★★½

"Fighter Flight" was by far the weakest episode produced by Rebels so far. I understand the idea was to teach the younger members of the audience the importance of harmony and working together in a family, however, I felt that the writers laid it on a bit thick. Let's hope this is simply a rare slip in an otherwise strong show!

"Droids in Distress" - Star Wars: Rebels Season 1 Episode 1 review

SPOILER WARNING!! Do not read ahead if you have not seen the first episode of the first season of Star Wars: Rebels.

This episode opens with the crew of the Ghost being pursued by an Imperial Star Destroyer and several TIE fighters. Hera quickly makes the jump to hyper-space and Kanan cockily reminds the crew that he had assured them that they would escape. Sabine reminds him that he had also assured them that they would escape with the shipment they had planned to steal from the Imperials, whilst Ezra loudly and frequently complains about the lack of Jedi training he has recieved from Kanan. Hera worried out loud that the crew is nearly out of supplies and fuel, and out of desperation, Kanan decides to take on a mission from crime lord Cikatro Virago to steal an arms shipment from an Imperial minister on Garel. 

The crew make their way to Garel and manage to find themselves on the same transport as Minister Tua and her contact Amda Wabo. Because of the language barrier between the minister and Wabo, they are forced to use a translator droid in order to communicate. This droid happens to be none other than movie favourite C-3PO himself, accompanied as always by his counterpart R2-D2!

The crew manage to convince the pilot to order all droids to the back of the transport, forcing Minister Tua to take Sabine up on her offer to translate for Wabo. Sabine of course mistranslates where the arms shipment is being held, causing the Minister to look for it in Bay 17 instead of Bay 7! Minister Tua eventually realises what has happened and attacks the rebels in Bay 7 with a squad of stormtroopers. The rebels overpower the storm troopers and manage to escape with the shipment- as well as Artoo and Threepio!

After realising that the arms they have stolen are illegal disrupters that were used in the Empire's conquering of his home world, Zeb pleads with Kanan not to sell them to Virago. Kanan goes ahead with his original plan, much to Zeb's chagrin, and meets Virago on Lothal for the exchange. Unfortunately, C-3PO makes contact with Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau revealing the crews coordinates. Kallus attacks the two groups during the exchange. Leaving the crew to fight their own battles, Virago escapes with half of the shipment, and without paying the crew.

During the battle Kallus goads Zeb into a duel, and reveals that he was the one who ordered the use of the disrupter rifles during the attack on his home world. Kallus defeats Zeb and is about to deliver the killing blow when Ezra instinctively uses the Force to blast Kallus against a wall, knocking him unconscious.

The crew escapes and returns C-3PO and R2-D2 to their rightful owner, who pays them handsomely as a reward. Unbeknownst to the crew the droids rightful owner happens to be Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, the future founder of the Rebel Alliance, who seems to be very interested in finding out everything R2 knows about the crew of rebels!

Overall rating: ★★★★

"Droids in Distress" was a strong follow up to Rebels' TV movie premiere. I felt that the use of familiar characters (Threepio, Artoo and Senator Organa) was pulled off well- their introduction to the series was subtle, with none stealing the show from the new cast of characters  the audience is getting to know.

Additionally, one of the great things about this series is the suspense that comes with every battle scene. Because none of the main cast are established characters, it is impossible to know if they will survive episode to episode, something that was always a downfall of the otherwise fantastic Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.

"Spark of Rebellion" - Star Wars: Rebels series premiere review

SPOILER WARNING!! Do not read ahead if you have not watched the series premiere of Star Wars: Rebels "Spark of Rebellion".

Star Wars: Rebels premiered recently with a one hour television movie entitled "Spark of Rebellion". Rebels is Disney's first foray into the Star Wars universe since acquiring its production company, Lucasfilm, from creator George Lucas in 2012.

Unlike the previous Star Wars animated series, The Clone Wars, Rebels takes place after the destruction of the Jedi Order and fall of the Galactic Republic. To be precise, the series is set approximately five years before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

This mini-movie mostly served to introduce the viewer to an entirely new cast of characters set in the galaxy far, far away. 

First up, the audience meets Ezra, a young orphan living on the planet Lothal who quickly demonstrates some of the characteristics common to someone who is strong in the Force. Ezra is shown using trickery to save a local merchant from being arrested by an Imperial officer, and then swindling the merchant out of some of his merchandise.

Shortly afterwards, Ezra notices a group of beings stealing several crates from the Imperials and realising that they must be valuable steals a crate from them in turn!

Ezra is chased by the leader of the thieves, Kanan, as well as storm troopers and even an iconic Imperial TIE-fighter! Along the way, Kanan saves Ezra from being killed by the Imperials and everyone escapes aboard the groups ship, Ghost.

Whilst Kanan serves as the leader of the Ghost's crew, the ship actually belongs to the pilot, Hera, a warm and maternal Twi'lek. We are also introduced to Sabine, a young Mandalorian girl who appears to be an explosives expert, Zeb, a giant Lasat warrior and Chopper, an astromech droid with almost as much attitude as R2-D2.

Ezra realises the group are not so much thieves as freedom fighters when the group takes the supplies stolen from the Imperials to an impoverished village, Tarkintown (named for Governor Tarkin from the movies himself)! Whilst there, Era discovers a lightsaber and a Jedi holocron amongst Kanan's possessions.

The crew learns that the Empire is in the process of transferring Wookie prisoners to be used as slaves and take off to rescue them- as they had been great warriors for the Republic before its fall. Unfortunately, the crew's information turns out to be bait planted by Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau, who is keen to extinguish the spark of rebellion the crew is set to become. Although the crew escapes and Hera manages to avoid the Imperial's tractor beam, Zeb allows Ezra to be captured by Kallus rather than risk being captured himself.

Kanan and Hera decide to mount a rescue mission, as Ezra had been captured whilst trying to warn them of the Imperial trap. The crew easily rescues Ezra, who learnt during his brief imprisonment that the Imperials really are transporting Wookie slaves to the spice mines of Kessel.

The crew engages Imperials in order to free the Wookies on Kessel, however, they are heavily outnumbered. In order to defeat the Imperial's, Kanan is forced to reveal himself as a former Jedi by using his lightsaber and Force powers to even the odds.

The group escapes and manages to rescue the Wookies. Later, back on Lothal, Kanan offers to train Ezra in the ways of the Force, who agrees and formally becomes a member of the Ghost's crew.

Unfortunately, it is revealed that Agent Kallus survived his encounter with the rebels and is able to report to his superior, the Jedi-hunting Inquisitor, that he encountered a living Jedi.

Overall rating: ★★★★½

From the beginning to the end of this episode I was struck by how much I was reminded of the original trilogy of films. It is quite clear that Disney are hoping to distance themselves from the poorly recieved prequel trilogy in favour of the much loved older films. Everything from the musical cues used throughout the episode, the Ghost's similarity to the Millennium Falcon and even the British accents of the Imperials is pleasantly reminiscent of the first three Star Wars films that I so enjoyed as a child.

Similarly to The Clone Wars, the animation used for this series is simply stunning! I have rarely seen a television series able to pull off something so realistic. However, I must confess that I did find the animation of the Wookie prisoners highly jarring, as the quality was simply not at the level of every other aspect of the episode.