Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - For Kids, But Take a Break From Adulting and It May Be For You
By John Kirk
Rating: B+
The fickle nature of fandom is that fans have opinions. And in a marketing-driven world, those opinions – based on what they liked in the past – often circumscribe the direction a franchise is supposed to go in the future.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew will predictably divide that same fandom again, mainly because this show is pointedly not for them. It’s for kids. And it totally works for that audience.
When Episode IV of Star Wars first came out, I was one such kid, mesmerized by the sprawling nature of the epic fantasy that allowed George Lucas to either travel to planets in different solar systems or destroy them in the blink of an eye. He created a mystical force that represented the essence of life and gave us a story of legendary proportions. If anything could capture a child’s imagination, it was a story of such massive proportions. It was literally stunning.
Jod (Jude Law), with the alien Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) and kids (Kyriana Kratter and Ryan Kiera Armstrong)
That feeling may be forgotten by some fans, who now see their favourite franchise with older eyes.
Here’s the official tagline:
“Star Wars: Skeleton Crew follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.”
Let me fill in some of the ambiguity here. These four kids are from decent homes on a planet that seems unlike many of the planets that we have seen in the other Star Wars stories. They have schools, public transportation systems, and decent homes that quite frankly, could pass for modern upper-middle class homes in any neighbourhoods here on the good old Earth.
Quite frankly, the level of social stability and infrastructure is pretty damn good, compared to the sands of Tatooine, the lava pools of Mustaphar or the swamps of Dagobah.
We meet four youngsters – Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), his pal Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and KB (Kyriana Kratter). They come together after Wim discovers an unusual structure in a forest outside his remarkably upscale home. Think ravine property. His pal Neel comes along for the investigation. When the School “Head Girl” Fern gets wind of this, she and her bestie, KB, a character who has cybernetical similarities to the character Lobot in The Empire Strikes Back, also show up the same time that Wim and Neel are investigating the object.
Wim, who has heroic fantasies of growing up to be a Jedi Knight, essentially arranges for them to investigate the structure, thinking it’s a lost Jedi temple. When they discover it’s actually a space ship capable of hyper-speed, then the adventure begins.
As a side note: though Jude Law is in this production, we don’t really see him until later. For fear of giving anything away, it’s best to minimalize his performance in this initial review.
This isn’t the Star Wars that adults will expect. After all, the Star Wars franchise has successfully existed for 47 years. The children and even grandchildren of the original fans may have been introduced to the fantasy of Star Wars. Why shouldn’t those kids have a Star Wars that is aimed primarily at them?
That’s the nature of the appeal of this series. It’s not just a fantasy – it’s a kid’s fantasy. This series is primarily aimed at kids and the fact that the opening sequence contains hallmark call-backs to Episode IV screams the need for its acceptance into the Star Wars canon.
The die-hard fan in me wanted to reject this story because it wasn’t “like” the Star Wars I was used to. But this Star Wars is aimed at a younger audience for good reason. It’s a way of easing them into the established fan base. Essentially, this is a fan-creating series, a great entry point for those young fans.
If there were any criticisms that could be leveled against this series, it would be the child actors. Kids are kids and it’s always a potential impediment when kid actors are involved. For the most part, the acting is mostly effective. But kids can’t help themselves, and occasionally there is the moment when the performances fail to live up to the scene.
KB (Kratter) stands out, as her cybernetics give her a higher standard of performance to live up to. The others simply have to be kids; KB has to be more analytical and calculating. To her credit, she pulls it off, admirably.
Star Wars is an epic property – one that spans an entire galaxy and there is plenty of room for all sorts of audiences to enjoy whatever they like about it. Skeleton Crew achieves its objective and gets better as the story progresses. If Star Wars fans can remember what it was like to be a kid and see this world for the first time, they’ll enjoy it more.
My advice? Take a break from adulting. Be young again.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Stars Jude Law, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Nick Frost, Jaleel White debuts and streams on Disney+ on Tuesday, December 3.