Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (2024)

I tend to stay well away from anything with the words "Star Wars" and "Disney" these days. So having said that said, it came as no small surprise, to have to admit that "Skeleton Crew" is not only not dreadful, its actually reasonably accessible to adults, too. Lets start with the obvious. Yes, its new Disney so I'm not surprised to find its a little woke. Thankfully, its only a "little woke" and whilst I find that really, really irritating at times and I wish they'd knock it off, its delivered in small doses. On the positive side this series actually tells a not unfamiliar but entirely engaging story. It feels like a mix of the 1985 film "The Goonies" and a pirate adventure, Robert Louis Stevenson ("Treasure Island") style, in space. More specifically, the Star Wars universe. Its focus is a group of kids, human and alien who find themselves castaways on a pirate space ship, having an adventure far away from the planet, they call home.To make matters more complicated, space pirates want to capture them to find the location of their home-world, as its considered a mythological treasure planet. Oh and there's an alleged Jedi, just to round things out. This series works because its inherently familiar, dipping into tropes of adventure, family and friendship. Plus its special effects are unsurprisingly excellent. The cast too, have great chemistry, so there's a win on that front, as well. In summary, I never thought I'd ever again find myself promoting a Star Wars franchise production but "Skeleton Crew" is actually really good. Sure it might be because, in my estimation so much that's gone before hasn't been especially inspiring, shall we say but irrespective, looking at this series in isolation from everything else, its thus far, still decent. We are only on episode two so if they screw it up, I'll revise this review and rating. In any case, as it stands, definitely worth a look.