Kaka

The creators are dramatically running out of ideas and it starts to become a template piece with generic action and a loop of repetitive fights and wannabe cool scenes. A little bit like The Witcher, a little bit The Mandalorian, the fatalism is gone, plus we've got Jar Jar Binks-like critters. And mentioning that the in-universe scenes largely replicate the fantastic seismic charge sequence from Episode 2 is actually redundant.

Looks like a mix of The Mandalorian and Dune, but without the soul of either. It just copies and replicates some moments, visual ideas, or story construction verbatim.

Anakin rules. His return is well beyond expectations. Not only does he look great, but he hasn't forgotten how to swing a lightsaber. More than any other episode in the series, this is reminiscent of the fantastic Episode 3 in its unique charge.

The best episode so far, full of great shootouts, lightsaber duels and cut trees. Ray Stevenson is a charismatic bad guy.

A narrative episode cut from the older Star Wars. Imaginative space battles and whales in the sky at the end. Probably not the best episode, but perfect for SW geeks.

The dark toning continues and works well. A solidly shot fight on the docks and the overall short running time makes the whole fresh and dynamic. Similar to The Mandalorian for example.

A quite dark and atmospheric opening in the style of Rogue One and other modern Star Wars stories of recent times, which is a bit scented with the smell of Indiana Jones adventures with specific trademarks and artifacts. I appreciate the fact that they pull out almost all of the core characters right away, and even without knowing Rebels, it's been pretty fun so far.

An admirable feat by Alex Honnold, shot in a very bold way, conveying the "sweaty hands" effect even when you know everything is actually going to turn out well. Not that this is meant to diminish the feat of this introverted nerd and intellectual in any way, quite the opposite. In terms of sport, it's literally revolutionary. But in terms of content and filmmaking, aside from the aforementioned camera flourishes, it's a mostly mediocre film that offers nothing more and doesn't get under your skin other than its explicit depiction of man's battle with the overwhelming power of nature.

A one woman show in the form of Jennifer Lawrence. She is the main, and in fact overwhelmingly the only reason to watch this post-pubescent romp. The allusions to problematic adult life, the rich Hamptons, social networking and gender issues are fine, there's a reasonable amount of jokes and most of it is passable, but were there another actress in the role of Maddie, I'm afraid it wouldn't be nearly the same.

Finally, a properly filmed legend. Although not so heavyweight in terms of the actors' names, it can't compare with the 90s version, but actually in everything else it does and in many parameters it even surpasses it. This new remake is much less of a likeable pulp flick and much more of a gritty, dark film of intrigue with excellent sets and fantastically shot action, but there's very little of that so far and that's a shame. Only a fraction of films in French production have this kind of bold handheld camerawork and editing. It's expected that the sequel will be suitably epic and live up to expectations, as many fans are duly hyped after the first installment, and quite rightly so. PS: Captain Rochefort is missing!