This shot nicked from The Empire Strikes Back is from last week's episode of Star Wars: Rebels which I finally got around to watching yesterday. I enjoyed it for the celebrity cameos but unfortunately the writing sucked.
In addition to Anthony Daniels as C-3PO (accompanied by R2-D2), the episode also features Paul Reubens reprising his role as RX-24, the droid pilot from Disneyland's Star Tours ride.
No surprise Disney wanted to make him canon--in case you haven't heard, Disney has proclaimed that Clone Wars and Rebels take place in the same universe as the movies instead of being part of an "Expanded Universe". Anyway, Reubens is the best part of the episode, just for a brief snooty exchange with Imperial brass over regulations.
The episode's plot concerns the protagonists trying to intercept a shipment of illegal rifles called Disrupters. They're banned by the Empire because they can take out whole AT-STs with one shot. Which doesn't seem like something the Empire would avoid using themselves but maybe this was the senate exerting some last shred of influence over policy.
The episode also features Phil LaMarr as Bail Organa, Leia's adoptive father who was played by Jimmy Smitts in the prequel trilogy. I never thought he was an especially interesting character but I'd like to see the show shift focus from the second string original trilogy type crew to the architects of the Rebel Alliance. I'd like to see Mon Mothma in action, for example. Though not as much as I'd like to see Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character die like a sucker.
Prince--sorry . . . Prinze (fucking hell) cannot act. He's flatter than flat bread. And Disney's been trying to push him on us for so long, in one failed project after another. Meanwhile there's probably a more talented actor out there waiting tables, just hoping for the opportunity to help make a show like Rebels shine. But there's a quite conscious avoidance of imagination on Disney's part here.
I can see their thinking; people complained about the prequels, so they're trying to make something more like the original trilogy. It's going to bite them two ways; the kids who grew up on the prequels won't like it, and this generic version of the original trilogy crew is going to be fatally boring unless something changes.
In spite of all this, I am excited about James Earl Jones' upcoming cameo as Darth Vader. Partly because I do want this show to be good.
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